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Amazon Cognito vs WSO2 Identity Server comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Amazon Cognito
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Access Management (9th)
WSO2 Identity Server
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) (13th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Identity and Access Management solutions, they serve different purposes. Amazon Cognito is designed for Access Management and holds a mindshare of 7.0%, up 6.5% compared to last year.
WSO2 Identity Server, on the other hand, focuses on Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM), holds 1.9% mindshare, down 3.1% since last year.
Access Management
Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM)
 

Featured Reviews

Wojciech Doganowski - PeerSpot reviewer
International setup localization challenges drive custom development while outsourcing credential management enhances security
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.
Ritesh_Shah - PeerSpot reviewer
Utilizing key management and seamless single sign-on integration for enhanced user profile management
WSO2 Identity Server's key management feature stands out as a particularly impactful feature for enhancing security. Additionally, from a user perspective, the self-user portal and user profile management capabilities are highly valuable. It allows users to manage their profiles, change passwords, and offers a self-care portal type of functionality. The single sign-on capability integrates seamlessly with various platforms, including Google, Facebook, LDAP, and Active Directory, which supports rapid product launches.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"What I find most valuable about Amazon Cognito is the single sign-on feature that provides a token for accessing protected APIs."
"This is a scalable solution. If our app or general usage increases, this solution can support it."
"The most valuable features of Amazon Cognito are the pre and post-token generation, and the different Cognito triggers. It has lots of functionality and flexibility."
"Cognito speeds up our development and saves us time."
"What is quite valuable is that we can outsource storage of the credentials to AWS, and they manage it quite securely."
"One of the key benefits of this software is its ease of integration with a wide range of applications, including mobile apps and web applications. This simplifies the process of integration, and it can be seamlessly incorporated with Azure, Kubernetes, and other software systems."
"The solution is proto connective and integrates well with other AWS services."
"I appreciate Amazon Cognito's ability to scale with demand and its seamless user verification features."
"The keystore feature has been most valuable for us."
"Some of the valuable features of the solution are the easy integration with processes, such as Single Sign-On. Overall WSO2 is straightforward and does not need customization."
"Comprehensive ecosystem."
"The single sign-on procedure itself, as well as the ability to connect to external user sources such as Microsoft Active Directory and LDAP servers, are the solution's most valuable features."
"The product provides easy integration between API manager and IT server components."
"I am completely satisfied with WSO2 Identity Server and would definitely recommend it to other companies."
"It's very easy to implement everything."
"The solution gets the job done, and we don't have to do the main configuration."
 

Cons

"In a future release, we would like to have different methods to validate the characteristic of a user. For example, we would like to use biometric data to analyze the behavior of users."
"Amazon Cognito could improve by simplifying the configuration."
"The secure authentication of Amazon Cognito has benefited our company. We were previously using legacy signup systems."
"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."
"I believe this product could improve by enriching user profiles."
"Amazon Cognito’s UI needs improvement while onboarding new users."
"You need to evaluate the export users. The multifactor authentication, much less this room for improving the configuration setup of that."
"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."
"The solution's licensing model could be more flexible, and pricing could be improved."
"This solution does not have BPM workflows already integrated, we had to integrate the BPM module externally. They do not provide full-featured auditing and certification modules out of the box."
"I found the initial setup to be very complex."
"There needs to be a good support model and easy-to-understand documentation."
"The price of the product is an area of concern where improvements are required."
"The solution seems to be pretty outdated."
"The high availability architecture has to be improved."
"The solution could improve its development from a user perspective."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is bad so I rate it a two out of ten."
"We pay $600 monthly per user for licences and there are no other additional costs."
"The price of Amazon Cognito is expensive. We are on an annual subscription."
"The price of the solution depends on the number of users using it."
"The pricing of this solution is good compared to other solutions on the market."
"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 Amazon Cognito is low. The pricing model is based on the users."
"WSO2 Identity Server is not an expensive solution."
"I rate the product price an eight out of ten. There is a need to pay more for the extra features provided by the solution."
"At this time we are working with the open-source version."
"We have to take their support, but that is a minimal charge if I'm comparing it to other identity managers."
"I have found the solutions license is priced competitively compared to others."
"They should bring in some good pricing models to host the marketplace."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
19%
Computer Software Company
11%
University
7%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon Cognito?
The most valuable feature of the solution is its swift authentication.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon Cognito?
The basic functionality is reasonably priced, but the extended functionalities, especially the extended security, are quite expensive. There is a significant jump from the basic to the extended fun...
What needs improvement with Amazon Cognito?
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. Cog...
What do you like most about WSO2 Identity Server?
The product provides easy integration between API manager and IT server components.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for WSO2 Identity Server?
The pricing is currently the same as the API Manager, so it's not surprising. Since we used it primarily for SSO and the self portal, there were no additional pricing concerns.
What needs improvement with WSO2 Identity Server?
Currently, all required features are supported. If new use cases for artificial intelligence arise, it could be beneficial to incorporate those. However, for our current projects, WSO2 Identity Ser...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers
Nutanix, ELM, AlmavivA, BDigital, StubHub, M-creations, MedVision360
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Auth0, Ping Identity and others in Access Management. Updated: June 2025.
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