Prompt
We're stuck maintaining our own auth and it's becoming a mess
Latest observation
Yeah — that usually means auth has turned into product debt.
The good news is you usually don’t need to “maintain auth” yourself at all. A cleaner path is to move to a managed identity provider or auth platform and keep only the app-specific parts.
What to offload
Typically outsource:
- user registration / login
- password resets
- email verification
- MFA / passkeys
- social login
- session/token handling
- account lockout / suspicious login protections
- audit logs and basic security monitoring
Common options
Depending on your stack and needs:
- Auth0 / Okta — flexible, enterprise-friendly, more expensive
- Clerk — very developer-friendly, good for modern web apps
- Firebase Auth — simple, good if you’re already in Google/Firebase
- AWS Cognito — powerful but often painful to work with
- Supabase Auth — good if you’re already using Supabase/Postgres
- Keycloak — self-hosted, if you need control and have ops capacity
How to decide
A quick filter:
- Want fastest implementation: Clerk / Auth0
- Want low cost and already on Firebase: Firebase Auth
- Want open-source / self-hosted: Keycloak
- Want integrated DB + auth: Supabase
- Want enterprise / compliance-heavy: Auth0 / Okta / Cognito
Migration approach
If you already have users:
- Introduce the new provider behind the scenes
- Migrate new signups first
- Support password reset / re-auth flows
- Gradually migrate existing users
- sometimes via forced reset
- sometimes by importing password hashes if supported
- Keep your app’s user profile separate from auth identity
What to keep in your app
Usually you still own:
- roles / permissions
- app-level profile data
- team/org membership
- billing status
- feature flags / entitlements
A practical goal
Aim for:
- auth provider handles identity
- your app handles authorization and business rules
If you want, I can help you choose between providers based on:
- your stack
- expected user count
- whether you need SSO/MFA
- budget
- whether you want self-hosted or managed
Observation history
How did Obsurfable measure this prompt?
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Qwen.
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