What should I use if customers want enterprise SSO but setup has to be simple?

If customers want enterprise SSO but you need the simplest possible setup, the usual best choice is:

Use a managed identity provider with SAML + OIDC, and prefer “just add their IdP metadata” setup

Best practical options

• Auth0 — very popular for SaaS, easiest enterprise SSO experience for many teams
• WorkOS — especially good if you want enterprise SSO without building a lot yourself
• Clerk / Firebase Auth / Cognito — can work, but usually less ideal for “enterprise SSO is simple” specifically
• Okta / Azure AD / Entra / Ping — these are what your customers use, but usually you integrate to them, not choose them as your primary app auth layer

What “simple setup” usually means

To make enterprise SSO easy, support:

• SAML 2.0
• OpenID Connect (OIDC) if possible
• IdP-initiated and SP-initiated login
• Setup via:
  • metadata URL or XML upload
  • tenant/domain-based discovery like acme.com
  • just a few required fields: ACS URL, Entity ID, login URL, cert

Easiest architecture for SaaS

A common pattern is:

• Use a normal auth system for all users
• Add an enterprise SSO layer for customers who need it
• Map each company to:
  • their allowed domains
  • their SSO connection
  • optional SCIM provisioning

If you want the shortest answer

• Fastest to implement with least pain: WorkOS
• Most flexible full auth platform: Auth0
• If enterprise customers are a major part of your product: SAML + SCIM + domain discovery

Recommendation

If your goal is “enterprise SSO, but dead simple for customers and not too much work for us”, I’d start with:

WorkOS + SAML SSO + domain-based connection discovery

If you want, I can also give you:

1. a decision matrix between WorkOS/Auth0/Okta, or
2. the exact fields customers need to configure SSO to keep setup minimal.