Customer Identity Platforms
Also known as:
- Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM)
What problem does it target?
Companies that develop SaaS applications need a secure and scalable way to authenticate their users.
Authentication is:
- A common target for attackers
- Expensive to build in-house with proper security, UX, and compliance
- Critical to get right for user trust, onboarding, and retention
External CIAM providers offer battle-tested solutions that are more secure and cost-effective than custom-building.
What does this solution do?
CIAM solutions provide:
- Secure authentication as a service
- Support for multiple factors (MFA, passwordless, social logins like Facebook, LinkedIn, Google)
- B2B support through tenant-based configuration and federated identity (e.g., SAML, OIDC)
- Customizable authentication flows to match the product experience
They often include:
- User management APIs
- Session/token handling
- Built-in compliance with regulations (e.g., GDPR, SOC 2)
Who is this for?
- Applications that need fast time-to-market with high-quality authentication
- SaaS or customer-facing apps requiring secure, scalable, and flexible auth
- High-risk applications where outsourcing authentication is a safer bet
Who might not benefit from this?
- Low-risk or internal apps where basic, built-in authentication is sufficient
- Apps with complex or edge-case auth needs beyond what CIAM platforms support out-of-the-box
Pitfalls and remedies
| Pitfall | Remedy |
|---|---|
| Lack of deep customization for niche UX or security requirements | Choose a CIAM provider with extensible flows and APIs. Build custom layers around the CIAM platform if needed. |
| Over-reliance on vendor lock-in | Use standards-based protocols (OIDC, SAML) to retain migration flexibility. Abstract auth logic to avoid hard vendor coupling. |
| Poor handling of B2B or multi-tenant identity federation | Ensure the CIAM vendor supports enterprise federation, tenant isolation, and SSO onboarding flows. |
Sample products
- Descope
- Auth0
- AWS Cognito
- Frontegg