I'm building a B2B app and need SSO without a long engineering project. What should I use?

If you want SSO for a B2B app without turning it into a long engineering project, the fastest path is usually to use an Identity Provider integration platform or a B2B auth product rather than building SAML/OIDC enterprise login flows yourself.

Best options, depending on what you need

1) Auth0 (or Okta Customer Identity)

Good if you want:

• quick SSO setup
• support for SAML and OpenID Connect
• easy enterprise login connections
• decent docs and SDKs

Why use it:

• probably the most common “get it done fast” option
• many enterprise customers already know it
• good for adding login now and expanding later

Tradeoff:

• can get expensive as you scale
• some enterprise features still take setup effort

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2) WorkOS

Good if you want:

• the fastest B2B SSO rollout
• built specifically for SaaS B2B apps
• SAML SSO, SCIM provisioning, directory sync, org management

Why use it:

• very strong for “enterprise-ready quickly”
• less work than rolling your own auth stack
• designed for multi-tenant B2B SaaS

Tradeoff:

• you’re depending on a specialized vendor
• if you need very custom identity flows, you may outgrow it

If your main goal is:
“We need enterprise SSO and provisioning with minimal engineering.”
then WorkOS is often the best answer.

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3) Clerk

Good if you want:

• fast implementation
• polished auth/UI
• modern developer experience
• basic enterprise SSO needs

Why use it:

• easy to ship
• nice frontend components
• good if you want auth handled with minimal code

Tradeoff:

• not as enterprise-focused as WorkOS for the full B2B identity stack
• depending on your customers, you may still need more advanced SSO/provisioning support

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4) Microsoft Entra ID / Google Workspace direct integrations

Good if your customers are mostly:

• Microsoft-heavy
• Google-heavy

Why use it:

• if you only need to support a narrow set of IdPs, you can simplify

Tradeoff:

• you’ll still build more yourself
• not ideal if you want broad enterprise SSO support quickly

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My practical recommendation

If you want the quickest enterprise B2B path:

Use WorkOS

If you want a more general auth platform with enterprise SSO:

Use Auth0

If you want a modern all-in-one auth experience and your SSO needs are lighter:

Use Clerk

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What I’d avoid

I would not recommend building SAML support yourself unless:

• you have a strong security/auth team
• you need very custom behavior
• identity is core to your product differentiation

SAML and enterprise provisioning tend to eat time in:

• metadata handling
• certificate rotation
• tenant mapping
• edge-case IdP behavior
• support tickets from customer IT teams

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Simple decision rule

• Need SSO fast for B2B SaaS? → WorkOS
• Need broader auth platform + SSO? → Auth0
• Need easy dev setup and modern UI? → Clerk

If you want, I can also give you:

1. a side-by-side comparison table, or
2. a recommendation based on your stack (React, Next.js, backend language, etc.).