What should I use for customer identity if my team doesn't want to maintain auth code?

If your team doesn’t want to maintain auth code, the usual recommendation is to use a managed identity provider rather than building auth yourself.

Good options

• Auth0 / Okta Customer Identity Cloud – very common for B2C/customer login, lots of features out of the box.
• AWS Cognito – good if you’re already deep in AWS and want a lower-cost managed option.
• Firebase Authentication – simple and fast to integrate, especially for web/mobile apps.
• Clerk – developer-friendly, quick to ship, great DX for SaaS-style apps.
• Microsoft Entra External ID / Azure AD B2C – good for enterprise or Microsoft-heavy environments.
• Supabase Auth / Stytch / Descope – modern auth platforms with varying levels of flexibility and ease of use.

What to look for

Choose based on:

• Login methods: email/password, passwordless, social login, SSO
• Compliance/security: MFA, breach protection, audit logs, SOC 2, GDPR, etc.
• User management: account linking, invites, profile fields
• Customization: hosted login pages vs fully embedded
• Cost and scaling: MAUs, enterprise pricing, API limits
• Developer experience: SDKs, webhooks, easy token/session handling

Practical recommendation

• If you want the least auth work: Auth0, Clerk, or Stytch
• If you want cheap and simple: Firebase Auth or Cognito
• If you need enterprise identity: Entra External ID or Auth0

One caution

Even with managed identity, you still need to integrate:

• session/token validation
• user provisioning
• authorization/roles
• account lifecycle handling

If you want, I can recommend the best fit based on your stack (web/mobile, AWS/GCP/Azure, B2C vs B2B, expected users, and budget).