AWS Cognito
Secure user authentication and authorization for your apps
★ 4.5
Amazon's managed user identity service. Three pricing tiers (Lite, Essentials, Plus) with different feature sets.
Features
✓ Lite: Volume-based ($0.0055-0.0025/MAU)
✓ Essentials: Flat $0.015/MAU (default for new pools)
✓ Plus: $0.02/MAU (threat protection, log exports)
✓ SAML/OIDC: $0.015/MAU after 50 free
✓ User pools for sign-up/sign-in
✓ Identity pools for AWS access
✓ Multi-factor authentication
Pros
- + Deep AWS ecosystem integration
- + Lite tier 70% cheaper than Essentials for high volume
- + Uniform pricing across all 34 regions
- + Legacy pools keep 50K free tier until Nov 2025
Cons
- − New pools only get 10K free (was 50K)
- − Essentials is default but expensive for scale
- − Complex tier selection (Lite vs Essentials vs Plus)
- − AWS-specific implementation, lock-in