Best Identity Providers With Enterprise SSO Support (2026)
Closing your first enterprise deal usually comes down to one line in the security questionnaire: "Do you support SAML SSO with our identity provider?" If the answer is no, the deal stalls. If the answer is a hand-rolled SAML toolkit, your engineers spend the next quarter debugging XML signatures with the customer's IT team at 9 PM on a Tuesday. Enterprise SSO is the price of admission for selling to companies that run Okta, Azure AD (Entra ID), Ping, or Google Workspace — and choosing the right identity and access management platform up front saves you from rebuilding auth six months later.
The market splits into three camps. Open-source self-hosted options like Keycloak and Ory give you full protocol control and zero per-MAU pricing, but you own the ops burden — runtime, scaling, patching, and that 3 AM page when the JWKS endpoint goes down. Hosted B2C-flavored providers like Auth0 wrap the same protocols in a polished console and SDKs, but enterprise SSO is usually paywalled behind their B2B SKU. Enterprise-native platforms like Okta and the newer SaaS-friendly options like ZITADEL treat SAML, OIDC, and SCIM as first-class features rather than upsells.
This guide is written for engineering and product leaders at SaaS companies who need to authenticate customers logging in from someone else's IdP. We focused on real enterprise checklist items: SAML 2.0 with signed assertions, OIDC with proper discovery, SCIM 2.0 for user provisioning, LDAP/AD federation, multi-tenant isolation, audit logs, and IdP-initiated login flows. We weighed pricing transparency too — several vendors hide enterprise pricing behind sales calls, which we flag honestly. The common mistake we see: teams pick a developer-friendly auth tool, ship it, then discover at the first enterprise pilot that SSO is locked behind a 10x price tier or simply not supported in their plan.
Full Comparison
Identity infrastructure, simplified for you
💰 Free up to 100 DAU, Pro at $100/month for 25,000 DAU, Enterprise with custom pricing
ZITADEL is the most balanced choice for SaaS companies adding enterprise SSO for the first time. It's open-source under Apache 2.0 with a managed cloud option, and crucially, SAML 2.0 and OIDC are first-class features on every plan rather than being gated behind a sales call. The multi-tenant model is built around "organizations," which maps cleanly to the way B2B SaaS sells — each enterprise customer gets their own isolated org with its own IdP connections, branding, and admin policies.
The pricing is what makes ZITADEL stand out for this use case. Unlike Auth0 or Okta, you don't hit a paywall the moment a customer asks for SAML — the cloud's free tier supports SSO connections, and paid plans are priced per active user rather than per organization, which keeps costs predictable as you sign more enterprise accounts. For teams that want zero per-MAU cost, the self-hosted version offers the same feature set including SCIM 2.0, audit logs, and IdP-initiated login flows.
The trade-off is maturity: ZITADEL is younger than Okta or Auth0, the community is smaller, and you'll find fewer Stack Overflow answers when debugging tricky IdP configurations. The admin console is functional but not as polished as the established players. For teams comfortable with reading source code when needed, it's a strong fit.
Pros
- SAML 2.0 and OIDC included on all plans — no enterprise-tier paywall for SSO
- Native multi-tenant "organization" model maps directly to B2B SaaS customers
- Transparent per-user pricing scales predictably as you sign enterprise accounts
- Open-source Apache 2.0 — self-host or use the managed cloud with the same feature set
- Built-in SCIM 2.0 for automated user provisioning and deprovisioning
Cons
- Smaller ecosystem and community vs. Okta or Auth0 — fewer guides and integrations
- Admin console UX is less polished than the established enterprise players
- Self-hosting still requires meaningful DevOps investment for HA and backups
Our Verdict: Best for B2B SaaS startups adding their first enterprise SSO support without per-organization pricing surprises.
Open source identity and access management for modern applications
💰 Free and open source (self-hosted). Managed hosting available via Cloud-IAM and other providers.
Keycloak is the heavyweight open-source IAM platform, maintained by Red Hat and battle-tested at enterprises that authenticate hundreds of thousands of users. For SSO specifically, it's hard to beat: it speaks SAML 2.0, OIDC, and OAuth 2.0 fluently, brokers identity to upstream IdPs like Okta, Azure AD, and Google Workspace, and federates users from LDAP and Active Directory with minimal configuration. The realm-based multi-tenancy is well-suited to giving each enterprise customer their own isolated identity boundary.
Where Keycloak shines is total cost at scale. Once you're authenticating tens of thousands of users, hosted IdPs become eye-watering — Keycloak's $0 license keeps cost flat and predictable as MAUs grow. Identity brokering is particularly strong: you can sit Keycloak in front of your app and let it broker to any number of customer IdPs without your application needing to know SAML exists.
The honest downside is operational. Keycloak is a substantial Java application that wants real attention — upgrades have historically broken things, HA setup requires Infinispan tuning, and the documentation, while thorough, can feel like reading a spec rather than a guide. If your team doesn't have at least one engineer who enjoys running Java services in production, the TCO calculation tilts toward a hosted alternative.
Pros
- Full SAML 2.0, OIDC, and OAuth 2.0 support with mature identity brokering to any upstream IdP
- Native LDAP and Active Directory federation handles legacy enterprise customer requirements
- Zero per-MAU licensing — cost stays flat even at hundreds of thousands of users
- Realm-based multi-tenancy isolates customer identity stacks cleanly
- Backed by Red Hat with optional commercial support via Red Hat build of Keycloak
Cons
- Steep operational learning curve — Java tuning, HA clustering, and upgrade testing required
- Documentation reads like a reference spec rather than a usable guide
- Default UI/UX is dated and themeing requires meaningful frontend work
Our Verdict: Best for teams with DevOps capacity who want unlimited-scale enterprise SSO at zero licensing cost.
The World's Identity Company
💰 Free developer tier, SSO from $2/user/mo
Okta is the de facto enterprise identity standard — it's the IdP your customers most likely already run, which is exactly why so many SaaS teams also use Okta on the other side as their customer-facing identity provider (via Okta Customer Identity, formerly Auth0 by Okta). For SSO support specifically, Okta's strength is brand trust: when a Fortune 500 buyer sees "Okta" in your security documentation, they move past the SSO question instantly.
The platform supports every protocol that matters — SAML 2.0 with all the encrypted-assertion and IdP-initiated edge cases, OIDC with full discovery, SCIM 2.0 for provisioning, and rich audit logging that satisfies most SOC 2 and ISO 27001 auditors. The Universal Directory makes federating from upstream IdPs straightforward, and the policy engine handles complex enterprise requirements like step-up MFA for sensitive actions and IP-based access policies.
The catch is cost and complexity. Okta's pricing is opaque and very much enterprise-tier — you'll likely sign a six-figure annual contract once you have any real volume, and the per-feature pricing means SCIM, advanced MFA, and lifecycle management often cost extra. For a small SaaS landing its first three enterprise customers, Okta is overkill; for one serving Fortune 500 buyers who demand a known-brand IdP, it's the safest choice on the market.
Pros
- Industry-standard brand that satisfies enterprise procurement teams without questions
- Comprehensive SAML, OIDC, and SCIM 2.0 support with the deepest IdP integration catalog
- Mature policy engine for adaptive MFA, IP restrictions, and risk-based authentication
- Strong audit logging and compliance posture (SOC 2, ISO 27001, FedRAMP)
- Universal Directory and Lifecycle Management handle complex enterprise provisioning
Cons
- Opaque, enterprise-only pricing — expect a sales conversation and a six-figure annual contract
- Many essential features (advanced MFA, SCIM, lifecycle) are priced as separate SKUs
- Overkill for self-serve SaaS or early-stage products with mostly SMB customers
Our Verdict: Best for SaaS companies whose buyers are Fortune 500 IT departments demanding a name-brand IdP.
Developer-friendly authentication and authorization platform for any application
💰 Free up to 25K MAU, Essential from $23/mo
Auth0 (now part of Okta) is the developer-friendly identity platform that built its reputation on excellent SDKs, a polished dashboard, and rules/actions that make extending auth logic feel like writing normal code. For enterprise SSO, Auth0 supports the full protocol stack — SAML 2.0, OIDC, and WS-Fed — plus SCIM, MFA, and a deep catalog of pre-built enterprise IdP connections including Okta, Azure AD, Google Workspace, Ping, and ADFS.
The big appeal for B2B SaaS is the Organizations feature, which models each enterprise customer as a separate tenant with its own SSO connections, branding, and member roles. Combined with the Universal Login experience and a real React/Next.js/Node SDK story, Auth0 is the fastest path to shipping enterprise SSO if you're already used to a developer-first auth flow.
The critical caveat: enterprise SSO and Organizations live on the B2B Essentials and Professional plans, which price per organization (per enterprise customer connection) rather than per MAU. The economics work well at a handful of enterprise customers but get expensive fast once you have 20+ orgs, and the published pricing has changed multiple times in recent years. Read the current pricing carefully before you commit — what looked affordable at the pilot stage can become a serious line item at 50 customers.
Pros
- Best-in-class developer experience — SDKs for every major framework with clear docs
- Organizations feature models B2B customers natively, with per-tenant SSO and branding
- Wide catalog of pre-built enterprise IdP connections (Okta, Entra ID, Google, Ping, ADFS)
- Mature Actions/Rules system for customizing auth flows without leaving the dashboard
- Strong compliance posture and now backed by Okta's enterprise muscle
Cons
- Per-organization pricing on B2B plans scales steeply as you add enterprise customers
- Pricing has changed several times — buyers report surprise renewals and tier reshuffles
- Free and starter tiers exclude enterprise SSO entirely, blocking small-team pilots
Our Verdict: Best for developer-led B2B SaaS that want polished SDKs and don't mind per-organization pricing growth.
Open-source identity and access management platform
💰 Free open-source. Essentials from $29/month. Scale at $690/month. Enterprise custom.
Ory takes a different architectural approach — instead of one monolithic IAM product, it ships a suite of composable open-source services: Kratos for identity and login, Hydra for OIDC/OAuth 2.0 provider, Keto for fine-grained authorization, and Oathkeeper for identity-aware proxying. For enterprise SSO, you typically combine Kratos (for the user-facing identity) with Hydra (to act as an OIDC provider) and brokering to upstream SAML/OIDC IdPs.
This composability is a real advantage if your engineering team likes Go-style microservices and wants each layer of auth to be replaceable. It's particularly compelling for product teams that need both customer identity and rich authorization (RBAC, ReBAC) because Ory Keto is one of the few mature open-source answers to Google Zanzibar-style permission systems. The Ory Network managed cloud lets you adopt the stack without running everything yourself.
The trade-off is that enterprise SSO with Ory is more assembly than out-of-the-box. SAML support specifically has historically lived in Ory's commercial Network/Enterprise offerings rather than the OSS components, so check the current SKU breakdown before committing if SAML is a hard requirement. The docs are good, but you're integrating several services rather than configuring one — expect a longer initial setup compared to ZITADEL or Auth0.
Pros
- Composable microservices architecture — replace any layer (identity, OAuth, authz) independently
- Ory Keto offers one of the few production-ready Zanzibar-style authorization engines
- Cloud-native and Kubernetes-friendly by design, with strong Go SDK support
- Open-source Apache 2.0 core with a managed Ory Network for teams that don't want to self-host
- Active development and strong technical documentation
Cons
- SAML enterprise SSO support has historically been a paid Network/Enterprise feature, not OSS
- More assembly required — you wire several services together vs. one product
- Smaller ecosystem of pre-built customer IdP connectors compared to Okta or Auth0
Our Verdict: Best for engineering teams that want composable, Go-native, microservice auth and need rich authorization alongside SSO.
Open-source authentication for modern apps
💰 Free self-hosted open-source tier with unlimited users. Managed cloud free up to 5K MAUs, then $0.02/MAU
SuperTokens is the developer-first open-source authentication platform that's gained traction as a self-hostable alternative to Auth0. The core is Apache 2.0 licensed and includes session management, social login, passwordless, MFA, and a clean recipes-based SDK model that makes adding auth to a React/Next.js or Node app remarkably fast.
For enterprise SSO specifically, SuperTokens supports SAML 2.0 and OIDC via its multi-tenancy feature, which lets you configure per-tenant IdP connections for each enterprise customer. The self-hosted core is free, and the managed SuperTokens Cloud handles the operational side if you don't want to run the database and core service yourself. Per-MAU pricing on the cloud is significantly cheaper than Auth0 at comparable scale, which is the main reason teams pick it for B2B use cases.
The honest caveats: some enterprise features (SAML, multi-tenancy, SCIM-style provisioning) are part of the paid feature set rather than the fully free OSS core, so read the current pricing page carefully. The ecosystem of pre-built enterprise IdP guides is smaller than Auth0's — if you need turn-key Okta and Entra ID integrations with quick-start docs, you may end up writing more configuration yourself. Still, for cost-conscious teams that want a modern, developer-friendly auth platform with open-source escape hatches, it's a strong fit.
Pros
- Self-hostable Apache 2.0 core — no vendor lock-in and zero licensing cost
- Cleaner, more modern SDK and recipes model than older platforms
- Per-MAU pricing on managed cloud significantly undercuts Auth0 at comparable scale
- Active development with strong React/Next.js/Node ecosystem support
- Multi-tenancy feature supports per-customer IdP configurations
Cons
- SAML and multi-tenancy are paid features rather than part of the free OSS core
- Smaller library of pre-built enterprise IdP integration guides
- Younger and less battle-tested at very large enterprise scale than Keycloak or Okta
Our Verdict: Best for cost-conscious developer teams who want a modern auth SDK plus a self-host escape hatch.
Our Conclusion
If you're a small SaaS just unlocking your first enterprise tier, ZITADEL hits the sweet spot — open-source core, transparent per-user pricing, SAML and OIDC included from day one, and a managed cloud if you don't want to operate it. If you have a strong DevOps team and want zero per-MAU costs, self-hosted Keycloak remains unbeatable; just budget engineering hours for upgrades and tuning. If your buyers are Fortune 500 IT departments that will only trust a brand name in their procurement docs, Okta is the safe pick — expensive, but no one ever got fired for choosing it.
For developer-led products where the React SDK matters as much as the SAML support, Auth0 is still the most polished experience — just budget carefully, because the B2B Enterprise plan is where SSO actually lives and the per-organization pricing escalates fast. SuperTokens and Ory are the picks for teams that want open-source control with a modern API surface, with the caveat that some enterprise features (SAML, SCIM) are paid add-ons or require self-assembly.
Your next step: before you commit, run a real SAML pilot with a friendly enterprise prospect using a free Okta or Entra ID developer tenant. Test the things that actually break — IdP-initiated login, encrypted assertions, attribute mapping, SCIM deprovisioning, and just-in-time user creation. The tool that handles all five without custom code is the right one. Also worth reading: our guides on cybersecurity tools and developer security software for the broader stack you'll wire this into.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need SAML, OIDC, or both for enterprise SSO?
Both. SAML 2.0 is still the dominant protocol at large enterprises running Okta, Ping, and ADFS, while OIDC is increasingly used by Azure AD (Entra ID), Google Workspace, and modern IdPs. A capable identity provider should support both protocols and let you configure either per customer connection.
Why is enterprise SSO almost always on a higher-priced tier?
Vendors price SSO this way because it's the feature that unblocks 5- and 6-figure enterprise contracts — buyers can absorb the cost, while self-serve users on free or starter tiers usually use social login. It's frustrating, but it's the industry norm. The exception is open-source platforms like Keycloak, Ory, and ZITADEL where SSO is included by default.
What's the difference between SSO and SCIM, and do I need both?
SSO (SAML or OIDC) handles authentication — letting users log in with their corporate IdP. SCIM 2.0 handles provisioning — automatically creating, updating, and deactivating users when IT changes them in Okta or Azure AD. Enterprise buyers almost always require both, especially for offboarding compliance. Don't ship SSO without a plan for SCIM.
Can I build SAML myself instead of using an identity provider?
Technically yes, but it's almost never worth it. SAML 2.0 is a 30+ page spec full of XML signatures, encryption, and edge cases like IdP-initiated login and assertion replay attacks. Open-source libraries help, but you still own the integration testing for every customer IdP variant. Use a platform unless authentication itself is your product.
How do open-source identity providers compare on total cost?
Open-source options like Keycloak, ZITADEL, Ory, and SuperTokens have $0 licensing but real ops costs — engineering time for setup, ongoing patching, scaling, and on-call. For most teams under 50,000 monthly active users, hosted offerings (including their own managed clouds) end up cheaper than self-hosting once you factor in DevOps hours. Above that scale, self-hosting usually wins.




