SingleSign vs Okta
In short
| SingleSign | Okta | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary audience | Consumers signing into apps | Employees and contractors |
| Product categoryOkta sells customer identity separately, as Customer Identity Cloud — the Auth0 platform it acquired. | Consumer identity provider | Workforce identity |
| Directory of your users | Not applicable | Central, administered by IT |
| Lifecycle management and provisioningJoiner-mover-leaver, SCIM provisioning, access reviews. | No | Yes |
| SAML and enterprise federation | No | Yes |
| OAuth 2.0 / OpenID Connect | Yes | Yes |
| Conditional / policy-based access | Basic | Yes |
| Per-user subscription | No | Yes |
| Set-up measured in | Minutes | Weeks, with IT involvement |
SingleSign is an identity provider: the account belongs to the person and they bring it to your application, the way "Sign in with Google" works. Auth0, Okta and Firebase Authentication are customer identity platforms: your application owns its own user directory and you run sign-up, storage and recovery inside it. Neither model is better in the abstract — but they are different products, and most comparisons skip past that.
Choose SingleSign when
- Your users are consumers, not staff.
- You are paying workforce-identity prices for what is really customer sign-in.
- You want sign-in live this week without an IT project.
Choose Okta when
- You are securing employee access to internal systems.
- You need SCIM provisioning, access reviews or joiner-mover-leaver automation.
- Compliance requires centrally administered accounts with audited policy.
- Your customers are enterprises federating their own identity provider to you.
Cost
Okta prices workforce identity per user per month, with separate SKUs per product, and quotes customer identity separately through Customer Identity Cloud. SingleSign sign-in is free.
Pricing checked 2026-09-21. Providers change plans — verify before you commit: Okta pricing, SingleSign pricing.
Free to try, and there is no user directory to set up.
Create a free accountAlso worth reading
- identity provider comparisonHow SingleSign differs from Auth0, Okta, Firebase Authentication and Google Sign-In on model, consent, portability and price.
- alternative to OktaOkta alternatives for teams that need customer sign-in rather than workforce identity. The table first, then what changes when you move consumer auth off Okta.
- Auth0 comparisonSingleSign vs Auth0 compared on the difference that matters: who owns the account. A side-by-side table, then the three cases where each one is the right call.