Do I need to let customers choose their identity provider?

Usually yes, if you sell B2B or to organizations with existing IT/security setups. But it depends on your product and customer profile.

When you should let customers choose their IdP

Offer SSO/SAML/OIDC with customer-selected identity providers if:

• Your customers are enterprises, schools, hospitals, or government
• They already use tools like Okta, Azure AD / Entra ID, Ping, Google Workspace, ADFS
• They require centralized user management, MFA, SCIM provisioning, or offboarding control
• Security/compliance is a big part of the sale
• Your competitors already support it

When you may not need it

You can often start without IdP choice if:

• You’re B2C or serving small businesses
• Your product is early-stage and login is just email/password or magic link
• You don’t yet have enterprise demand
• The integration cost would delay product launch too much

Practical recommendation

If enterprise is even a medium-term target:

• Support at least one standards-based option like SAML 2.0 or OpenID Connect
• Build it so customers can connect their own IdP
• You don’t necessarily need to support every IdP individually; often standards cover most of them

Good default

For most SaaS products, the safest path is:

1. Start with your own auth
2. Add Google/Microsoft social login if it helps
3. Add enterprise SSO with customer-chosen IdP when you see demand

If you want, I can give you a decision checklist or a “minimum enterprise auth” feature set.