I'm building an enterprise SaaS and need a stack that supports SSO and audit logs

For an enterprise SaaS, the key is to separate authn/authz from your core app and choose tools that make SSO, SCIM, RBAC, and auditability straightforward.

Recommended stack

1) Identity / SSO

Use one of these:

• Auth0 / Okta Customer Identity
• Clerk
• WorkOS for enterprise SSO + SCIM on top of your existing auth
• AWS Cognito if you want lower cost and more infra ownership

If enterprise SSO is a priority, WorkOS + your existing auth provider is often the cleanest path:

• SAML / OIDC SSO
• SCIM provisioning
• Directory sync
• Org-level connection management

2) Application auth

Use:

• Next.js or Node.js backend
• JWT or session cookies
• RBAC/ABAC in your app layer
• Multi-tenant org model from day one

Good options:

• Auth0 for built-in enterprise features
• Clerk for faster product development
• Custom auth + WorkOS if you want flexibility

3) Audit logs

Store audit logs in an append-only system:

• Postgres as source of truth for app data
• Immutable audit log table with:
  • actor_id
  • org_id
  • action
  • target_type
  • target_id
  • before/after JSON
  • timestamp
  • request_id
  • IP / user agent
• Optional stream to:
  • AWS CloudWatch
  • Datadog
  • Splunk
  • OpenSearch / ELK

For stronger compliance:

• Write audit events asynchronously to a queue
• Store copies in object storage like S3 with retention policies
• Sign events or use hash chaining if tamper evidence matters

4) Database

• PostgreSQL for core app + audit logs
• Add:
  • Redis for sessions, rate limiting, jobs
  • Kafka / SNS+SQS / RabbitMQ for eventing if needed

5) Authorization

For enterprise SaaS, don’t rely only on frontend checks. Use:

• RBAC for most cases
• ABAC if permissions depend on resource attributes
• Optionally a policy engine:
  • Casbin
  • Oso
  • Open Policy Agent (OPA)

6) Admin / enterprise features

You’ll likely need:

• Organization management
• Role assignment
• SCIM provisioning
• SSO connection settings
• Audit log viewer
• 2FA enforcement
• Session management
• IP allowlisting (if required)

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A solid default stack

If you want a practical, enterprise-ready setup:

• Frontend: Next.js
• Backend: Node.js / NestJS
• Auth: Auth0 or Clerk
• Enterprise SSO/SCIM: WorkOS
• DB: PostgreSQL
• Cache/queue: Redis + SQS or BullMQ
• Audit logs: Postgres + S3 export + Datadog/Splunk
• AuthZ: RBAC with optional OPA/Oso
• Infra: AWS
• Observability: Datadog

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If you want the simplest path

A very pragmatic combo is:

• Next.js
• Clerk or Auth0
• WorkOS for SSO/SCIM
• Postgres
• Audit log table + Datadog

That gets you to enterprise readiness quickly without building identity plumbing yourself.

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Important design advice

1. Model organizations separately from users
2. Make every audit record include org_id
3. Never delete audit logs
4. Log both successful and failed privileged actions
5. Treat SSO as org-level configuration, not user-level
6. Plan for SCIM early if selling to mid-market/enterprise

If you want, I can also give you:

• a recommended architecture diagram
• a database schema for orgs, users, roles, and audit logs
• or a comparison of Auth0 vs Clerk vs WorkOS for enterprise SaaS