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Amazon Cognito vs WorkOS

Live comparisonView as JSON
Amazon Cognito
cloudFree up to 50k MAU
WorkOS
cloudFree up to 1M MAU
Agent Sdk
Token Delegation
Human In The Loop
Fga
Mcp Support
Async Authorization
Pricing
Free up to 50k MAU$0.0055/MAU afterSAML federation extra
Free up to 1M MAUPay-as-you-go afterCustom Enterprise
Open Source
Self-Hosted
SDK Languages
javascripttypescriptpythonjavaswiftkotlingoruby
javascripttypescriptpythongorubyjava
Frameworks
langchain
langchainvercel-ai
Compliance
soc2hipaagdprpci-dssfedramp
soc2gdprhipaa
Best For
AWS-native agent stacks; teams already using API Gateway, Lambda, and IAM; compliance-heavy environments on AWS
Enterprise SSO, M2M authentication, and fine-grained authorization for B2B agent products
Limitations
Poor developer experience; documentation is dense; no agent SDK, no FGA, no human-in-the-loop; locked to AWS
No dedicated agent SDK; FGA is strong but relatively new; async authz patterns require custom integration

Supported Not supported Unverified

Amazon Cognito and WorkOS both offer identity infrastructure for modern applications, but Amazon Cognito is a low-cost B2C utility tightly coupled to the AWS ecosystem while WorkOS is a B2B SaaS identity platform with enterprise SSO, SCIM Directory Sync, a self-serve Admin Portal, and Fine-Grained Authorization. Cognito wins on cost-sensitive B2C and AWS ecosystem integration; WorkOS wins on enterprise B2B onboarding, self-serve IT administration, and agentic MCP support.

Where WorkOS wins

  • Enterprise B2B Readiness and SCIM. WorkOS offers enterprise Single Sign-On via SAML and OIDC alongside SCIM Directory Sync supporting providers like Okta, Azure AD, Google Workspace, and Workday. Amazon Cognito has no B2B enterprise constructs, so developers must build SAML integrations from scratch and manage manual provisioning workflows.

  • Self-Serve Admin Portal. WorkOS provides an Admin Portal that lets enterprise IT teams self-serve their own SSO and SCIM Directory Sync configurations, reducing developer involvement. Cognito has no equivalent self-serve IT administration layer.

  • Fine-Grained Authorization. WorkOS offers a Fine-Grained Authorization service that lets developers enforce complex, document-level and relationship-based access controls. Amazon Cognito provides only basic group-based access control with a hard cap of 10,000 groups per user pool.

Where Amazon Cognito wins

  • Ultra-Low Cost for Basic B2C. Cognito is cost-effective for simple consumer applications, offering a free tier for the first 10,000 monthly active users and charging roughly $0.015 per MAU thereafter without add-ons.

  • Native AWS Ecosystem Integration. Cognito integrates directly into the AWS stack, connecting with Amazon Pinpoint for marketing analytics, AWS WAF for web application firewall protection, and AWS Amplify for front-end development.

The agentic difference

WorkOS aligns with the Model Context Protocol and offers MCP server authentication via AuthKit, OAuth 2.1 support, and Fine-Grained Authorization to enforce resource-level rules for AI agents accessing RAG pipelines. However, WorkOS treats its Vault mainly as an encrypted key store without automated token refresh abstractions for outbound third-party API credentials.

Amazon's agent identity scenarios require static AWS IAM provisioning rather than supporting Dynamic Client Registration. AWS's authorization approach is resource-centric — relying on AWS IAM tags and S3 Access Grants — rather than agent-centric, locking data scoping entirely within AWS. Neither platform supports CIBA for asynchronous human-in-the-loop authorization workflows.

When to pick which

  • Pick WorkOS when building a B2B SaaS application targeting enterprise customers, because its Admin Portal, out-of-the-box SAML SSO, and native SCIM Directory Sync drastically simplify the IT onboarding process without requiring custom developer intervention.

  • Pick WorkOS when building Model Context Protocol servers that require resource-level permission enforcement, because its native OAuth 2.1 and Fine-Grained Authorization provide the necessary security architecture for agentic workflows.

  • Pick Amazon Cognito when building a highly cost-sensitive, basic B2C application hosted entirely on AWS, because its minimal $0.015 MAU pricing and direct hooks into AWS WAF keep baseline infrastructure billing exceptionally low.

Last verified: 2026-05-09