Amazon Cognito Reviews

Name: Amazon Cognito
Brand: Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Rating: 3.7 (15 reviews)

3.7 out of 5

15 reviews
80% willing to recommend

What is Amazon Cognito?

Amazon Cognito is a simple user identity and data synchronization service that helps you securely manage and synchronize app data for your users across their mobile devices. You can create unique identities for your users through a number of public login providers (Amazon, Facebook, and Google) and also support unauthenticated guests. You can save app data locally on users’ devices allowing your applications to work even when the devices are offline. With Amazon Cognito, you can save any kind of data in the AWS Cloud, such as app preferences or game state, without writing any backend code or managing any infrastructure. This means you can focus on creating great app experiences instead of having to worry about building and managing a backend solution to handle identity management, network state, storage, and sync.

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Amazon Cognito is the #6 ranked solution in top Access Management solutions. PeerSpot users give Amazon Cognito an average rating of 7.4 out of 10. Amazon Cognito is most commonly compared to Microsoft Entra ID: Amazon Cognito vs Microsoft Entra ID. Amazon Cognito is popular among the large enterprise segment, accounting for 57% of users researching this solution on PeerSpot. The top industry researching this solution are professionals from a computer software company, accounting for 17% of all views.

Helped 842,194 peers since 2012

Featured Amazon Cognito reviews

Wojciech Doganowski

Solutions Architect & PMO at AS TV Play Baltics/TV3 Group

We are using it in an international setup where we have multiple services running in multiple countries. Cognito localizes only regarding language, but the service is localized in each country. Cognito has the possibility to render the login screen and all the customer flows related to managing the account. Still, it's useless in an international setup. They are unable to localize these screens, so we had to write our own screens and just use the Cognito API. I hope they will fix this soon because it's useful to rely on already prepared flows for all the account management. As it doesn't work with different languages, rewriting it is quite complicated. Additionally, maybe they could find another step in the price so there is not such a significant jump from the basic to extended functionality. Some flexibility would be helpful.

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Erik Aceiro

Solutions Architect III at Raizen

The developer experience for mobile apps is terrible. Documentation is very poor and it is difficult to read the documents available to put things into practice. Our team has issues finding information related to using the solution. SDK and libraries available for mobile apps are terrible. For example, if you use MFA to migrate one user from your database to the pool, you need to use Lambda functions or other methods in AWS to get the solution enabled. It is extremely difficult to put a very, very scalable project into practice. Our team doesn't think you can use the solution for B2C on a large scale. We thought the solution would provide an agile experience but it does not. The solution needs to keep a history of passwords. For example, you should be able to check if customers used the same password in the past when connecting to a company by username and password. This type of feature is a must for our project. The MFA related to the solution's side is nonexistent. MFA should occur on the Facebook or Google side and also on the solution's side. This is a big problem because we have wallets, credit cards, and sensitive data stored for each customer. One layer of security is totally missing.

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Subrata Mukherjee

Senior Technical Architect; Head of Platform at Blenheim Chalcot IT Services India

With Cognito, user authentication is more secure, and we no longer have to build and scale our own authentication model. It has benefited us by eliminating the need to incorporate security pointers manually. Furthermore, with Cognito's advanced features, we now achieve improved integration capability with other federated IDPs, enhancing our security and user management.

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Amazon Cognito mindshare

As of March 2025, the mindshare of Amazon Cognito in the Access Management category stands at 6.4%, up from 6.3% compared to the previous year, according to calculations based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Access Management

PeerAnalyst reports based on Amazon Cognito reviews

Type	Title	Date
Category	Access Management	Mar 25, 2025	Download
Product	Reviews, tips, and advice from real users	Mar 25, 2025	Download
Comparison	Amazon Cognito vs Microsoft Entra ID	Mar 25, 2025	Download
Comparison	Amazon Cognito vs Auth0	Mar 25, 2025	Download
Comparison	Amazon Cognito vs Okta Workforce Identity	Mar 25, 2025	Download

Title	Rating	Mindshare	Recommending
Microsoft Entra ID	4.3	27.8%	94%	219 interviews Add to research
Cloudflare One	4.4	3.2%	100%	20 interviews Add to research

Valuable Features

Amazon Cognito offers valuable features like integration with AWS services, seamless application integration, user management, and authentication efficiency. Federation, pre and post-token generation, triggers, OTP and email validation, and user management modules are highlighted. It supports scaling, multi-factor authentication, and secure credential storage. The software's ability to sync with various IDPs and provide single sign-on for API access is beneficial, streamlining user access management and enhancing security.

"I rate Amazon Cognito nine out of ten."
"What is quite valuable is that we can outsource storage of the credentials to AWS, and they manage it quite securely."
"What I find most valuable about Amazon Cognito is the single sign-on feature that provides a token for accessing protected APIs."

Room for Improvement

Amazon Cognito's integration ease and mobile developer experience could be enhanced. Documentation is often unclear, making implementation challenging. It lacks advanced security features such as proper MFA and password history tracking. Configuration complexity and high costs are concerns, especially for smaller organizations. User interface and token customization require improvement. The platform requires better localization for international setups and enriched user tracking and management capabilities. Documentation and intuitive UI need attention for a smoother experience.

"I would rate its scalability as five out of ten. Moving users between different pools or accounts creates new identities, which means IDs stored in our database must also be changed."
"Cognito has the possibility to render the login screen and all the customer flows related to managing the account. Still, it's useless in an international setup. They are unable to localize these screens, so we had to write our own screens and just use the Cognito API."
"Amazon Cognito could be improved by making it easier for us to add more data to the token, allowing customization of JWT. It requires a complex program to customize the token currently, however, the UI could support this configuration better."

ROI

Users consistently noted high ROI from Amazon Cognito, citing its cost-effectiveness and ease of integration. They experienced significant reductions in development time due to pre-built authentication features. Enhanced security protocols also provided peace of mind, reducing potential liabilities. Scalability allowed businesses to grow without additional costs, further maximizing returns. User feedback emphasized Amazon Cognito’s ability to handle large user bases efficiently, enhancing overall satisfaction and perceived value.

Pricing

Enterprise users have varied experiences with Amazon Cognito pricing. Many find it relatively inexpensive and appreciate the pay-as-you-go model. Some rate it as affordable compared to other solutions, particularly for scalability and usage. However, others perceive it as expensive, especially smaller organizations or when opting for extended functionalities. Monthly licensing costs and user-based pricing are common, with annual subscriptions also mentioned. Overall, user ratings on a scale of ten ranged between two and seven.

"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a five out of ten."
"The product is relatively inexpensive compared to other tools."
"The price of the solution depends on the number of users using it."

Popular Use Cases

Organizations primarily use Amazon Cognito for user authentication and authorization, integrating it with platforms like Okta and Azure. It facilitates single sign-on, managing user access, creating and assigning policies, and customizing onboarding processes. Cognito handles OTP and email verification, stores user details, and supports social sign-in. Its plug-and-play functionality makes it ideal for web and mobile applications, allowing companies to focus less on user management and security coding efforts.

Service and Support

Premium customers of AWS find support efficient. Technical support receives varied ratings, with some stating it is satisfactory, while others rate it lower. Amazon's customer service is generally effective, using multiple communication methods. Many users rely on extensive documentation but find it insufficient for certain issues. Queries to Amazon’s tech support are rare; experiences suggest issues with response promptness for specific technical problems. Billing inquiries have free support, while technical assistance often necessitates paid services.

Deployment

Many users find Amazon Cognito's initial setup straightforward or easy. The documentation aids in simplifying the process. Some highlight that integrating additional services adds complexity, while others mention a learning curve initially, but it becomes easier once understood. Configuration time can vary, with simpler setups taking 15 to 30 minutes and complex environments exceeding an hour. Users suggest standard templates might ease initial implementation challenges. Generally, setup experiences range from five to nine out of ten.

Scalability

Amazon Cognito exhibits mixed scalability perceptions. Some find it highly scalable, supporting thousands of users effectively with ratings often exceeding seven out of ten. Others face challenges with backend scalability and potential identity complications when scaling between different user pools, making them rate it as low as five. While it can accommodate significant user growth, this can lead to increased costs, showing both strengths and areas needing improvement in scalability.

Stability

Amazon Cognito displays varying levels of dependability. Many users consider it stable, with ratings often ranging from seven to ten out of ten. Some users highlight differences in performance between native and iOS apps, suggesting potential integration challenges. Other users report consistently strong performance, no data loss, or downtime, emphasizing reliability and security. Despite mixed experiences, most indicate satisfactory stability with excellent performance in protecting user data.

These insights are based on the in-depth reviews provided by peers to help you make a better buying decision.

Download our Amazon Cognito Buyer's Guide for additional reliable information.