Free · per monthly active user (MAU) · per month · Direct or social sign-in: first 10,000 MAUs per account or organization; excludes GovCloud · billed monthly · no commitment · Direct or social sign-in: first 10,000 MAUs per account or organization; excludes GovCloud
Free · per monthly active user (MAU) · per month · Grandfathered Lite pools created on/before November 22, 2024, 10:00am Pacific: first 50,000 MAUs · billed monthly · no commitment · Grandfathered Lite pools created on/before November 22, 2024, 10:00am Pacific: first 50,000 MAUs
$0.0055 USD · per monthly active user (MAU) · per month · Direct or social sign-in: 10,001–100,000 · usage based · billed monthly · no commitment · Direct or social sign-in: 10,001–100,000
$0.0046 USD · per monthly active user (MAU) · per month · Direct or social sign-in: 100,001–1,000,000 · usage based · billed monthly · no commitment · Direct or social sign-in: 100,001–1,000,000
$0.00325 USD · per monthly active user (MAU) · per month · Direct or social sign-in: 1,000,001–10,000,000 · usage based · billed monthly · no commitment · Direct or social sign-in: 1,000,001–10,000,000
$0.0025 USD · per monthly active user (MAU) · per month · Direct or social sign-in: Above 10,000,000 · usage based · billed monthly · no commitment · Direct or social sign-in: Above 10,000,000
Free · per monthly active user (MAU) · per month · SAML/OIDC federation: first 50 MAUs per month per account or organization; excludes GovCloud · billed monthly · no commitment · SAML/OIDC federation: first 50 MAUs per month per account or organization; excludes GovCloud
$0.015 USD · per monthly active user (MAU) · per month · SAML/OIDC federation: above 50 MAUs · usage based · billed monthly · no commitment · SAML/OIDC federation: above 50 MAUs
Essentials
Free · per monthly active user (MAU) · per month · Direct or social sign-in: first 10,000 MAUs per account or organization; excludes GovCloud · billed monthly · no commitment · Direct or social sign-in: first 10,000 MAUs per account or organization; excludes GovCloud
$0.015 USD · per monthly active user (MAU) · per month · Direct or social sign-in: Above 10,000 · usage based · billed monthly · no commitment · Direct or social sign-in: Above 10,000
Free · per monthly active user (MAU) · per month · SAML/OIDC federation: first 50 MAUs per month per account or organization; excludes GovCloud · billed monthly · no commitment · SAML/OIDC federation: first 50 MAUs per month per account or organization; excludes GovCloud
$0.015 USD · per monthly active user (MAU) · per month · SAML/OIDC federation: above 50 MAUs · usage based · billed monthly · no commitment · SAML/OIDC federation: above 50 MAUs
Plus
$0.02 USD · per monthly active user (MAU) · per month · Direct or social sign-in: All direct or social MAUs · usage based · billed monthly · no commitment · Direct or social sign-in: All direct or social MAUs
Free · per monthly active user (MAU) · per month · SAML/OIDC federation: first 50 MAUs per month per account or organization; excludes GovCloud · billed monthly · no commitment · SAML/OIDC federation: first 50 MAUs per month per account or organization; excludes GovCloud
$0.015 USD · per monthly active user (MAU) · per month · SAML/OIDC federation: above 50 MAUs · usage based · billed monthly · no commitment · SAML/OIDC federation: above 50 MAUs
Pay for usage without minimum fees or upfront commitments. Ordinary AWS fees are billed monthly. Lite direct/social users have volume bands, Essentials costs USD 0.015 per MAU above its allowance, and Plus direct/social users cost USD 0.02 per MAU. Enterprise SAML/OIDC federation is USD 0.015 per MAU above 50. SMS, email and supporting AWS services incur separate charges. M2M requests, higher API quotas, Lite ASF and multi-Region replication add charges. Within a month, each user is assigned to the highest tier used during their activity.
Essential covers customer authentication, SSO, profiles and orchestration. Plus adds adaptive MFA and API access management. Passwordless combines Protect, SSO, Directory and MFA through DaVinci, with a transaction-based license and sales quote. Specify licensed identities or transactions, currency, implementation and support in the order form. Direct-purchase template terms provide advance invoicing with net-30 payment, equal-term automatic renewal and 90-day non-renewal notice unless overridden.
Lite deployments requiring built-in passwordless sign-in
Using identity pools as customer profile directories
Passwordless bundle components must run outside DaVinci
Unlimited user creation must continue beyond the licensed hard cap
Source check
94/100
93/100
Key features
Managed user directories and customizable sign-up/sign-in
Social, SAML and OIDC federation
Authenticator and SMS MFA across tiers
email MFA in higher tiers
Passwordless and managed login in Essentials and Plus
Customer SSO, registration and identity profiles
Visual orchestration of Ping identity services
Customer self-service preference management
REST and SCIM interfaces and LDAP gateway connectivity
Plus adaptive MFA, mobile verification and API access management
Cons
Free allowances vary by sign-in type, tier and legacy eligibility.
Supporting AWS messaging and execution services incur additional charges.
Security, replication, M2M and higher-capacity options add usage charges.
Confirm the actual currency and contracted capacity: Annual starting prices are lower bounds
the order form determines currency and licensing quantities.
Budget for usage beyond licensed entitlements: Overage rates depend on the order form. Flow-based and identity-based licenses have different fair-use rules.
Category buying score
85Joint highest score
85Joint highest score
Rank
#1
#2
Context
Security & Privacy / Customer Identity and Access Management Software
Security & Privacy / Customer Identity and Access Management Software
Customer authentication experience
88User pools support managed sign-up, sign-in, and federation; Essentials and Plus add managed login and passwordless options, while Lite remains password-based. Buyers should select the tier that matches their required sign-in and recovery flows.
87Essential combines customer registration and SSO with profile management and visual orchestration, while Plus and Passwordless provide distinct authentication paths that buyers should match to their intended journeys.
Customer auth policy security
86Authenticator and SMS MFA are described across tiers, with email MFA in higher tiers; Plus adds risk-based adaptive authentication, compromised-credential detection, and event logs, so buyers should confirm whether those Plus controls justify its per-MAU pricing for their sign-in mix.
86Plus includes adaptive MFA, mobile verification, trusted-device authentication and transaction approval, while Passwordless use is confined to DaVinci flows; buyers should align controls and licensed workflow to their access design.
Customer profile and identity control
84User pools store customer profiles, while identity pools broker temporary AWS credentials and do not store profiles; this clear component boundary helps teams choose the right directory for each application workflow.
88REST and SCIM profile interfaces, directory synchronization and an on-premises LDAP gateway provide defined identity connection paths for teams integrating customer profiles with existing directories.
Consent and privacy readiness
78AWS's supplied Cognito security documentation states that user-pool and identity-pool data is encrypted at rest and describes security as a shared responsibility; AWS's agreement allows customers to specify storage Regions, so teams should confirm their own content controls and consent or privacy-choice requirements.
79Product-level consent capture and enforcement supports preference-aware identity workflows, with procurement needing to validate the selected package against its consent obligations.
Scale and developer fit
84AWS describes its managed directory as scaling to millions of users, and Cognito provides SDK/API and Lambda extension points with optional regional replication; higher API quotas require approval and add-on usage can cost extra, so buyers should validate capacity and regional needs against their deployment.
80REST and SCIM interfaces, directory synchronization, LDAP connectivity and a mobile SDK provide defined integration paths for customer apps; teams should validate deployment capacity against their traffic and region needs.
These are the stored dimension rationales returned with each score. They explain the buyer conditions behind the gap without speculating about hidden model reasoning.
Customer profile and identity control
4 pts
Amazon Cognito · 84/100
User pools store customer profiles, while identity pools broker temporary AWS credentials and do not store profiles; this clear component boundary helps teams choose the right directory for each application workflow.
PingOne for Customers · 88/100
REST and SCIM profile interfaces, directory synchronization and an on-premises LDAP gateway provide defined identity connection paths for teams integrating customer profiles with existing directories.
Scale and developer fit
4 pts
Amazon Cognito · 84/100
AWS describes its managed directory as scaling to millions of users, and Cognito provides SDK/API and Lambda extension points with optional regional replication; higher API quotas require approval and add-on usage can cost extra, so buyers should validate capacity and regional needs against their deployment.
PingOne for Customers · 80/100
REST and SCIM interfaces, directory synchronization, LDAP connectivity and a mobile SDK provide defined integration paths for customer apps; teams should validate deployment capacity against their traffic and region needs.
Customer authentication experience
1 pts
Amazon Cognito · 88/100
User pools support managed sign-up, sign-in, and federation; Essentials and Plus add managed login and passwordless options, while Lite remains password-based. Buyers should select the tier that matches their required sign-in and recovery flows.
PingOne for Customers · 87/100
Essential combines customer registration and SSO with profile management and visual orchestration, while Plus and Passwordless provide distinct authentication paths that buyers should match to their intended journeys.
Research basis
Research basis
This page uses stored product facts, official evidence, and category scoring rationales. It is not an account-based hands-on test, and third-party user ratings are not folded into the category buying score.
Amazon Cognito
Fact confidence: 94% · Fact checked: 2026-10-06
PingOne for Customers
Fact confidence: 93% · Fact checked: 2026-10-06
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Customer Identity and Access Management Software
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78
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