Head to head
Amazon Cognito vs FusionAuth
Both platforms are scored with the same methodology and the same category rubric. Nothing on this page is influenced by advertising.
45/100 | 49/100Higher score | |
|---|---|---|
| Category rank | #9 | #6 |
| Confidence | High confidence | High confidence |
| External Reputation | 79 | 74 |
| AI Authority | 0 | 30 |
| Web Authority | 35 | 23 |
| Expert Assessment | 67 | 62 |
| TOP10 User Score | — | — |
| Pricing | Lite: $0.0055 per MAU above the free tier (first band), $0.0046 per MAU next band — AWS example 950,000 MAUs = $4,405/month · free tier: 10,000 MAU/month per account or AWS Organization on Lite and Essentials (does not expire); 50 MAU/month for SAML 2.0/OIDC federated users on any tier; identity pools free of charge; no free tier on Plus, none for M2M token requests, and none in AWS GovCloud (US) Regions | Starter from $162/mo (billed annually, at the page default of 1,000 MAUs), community-forum support only, basic hosting included · free tier: Community — free, unlimited, self-hosted with core authentication features and community support (forums, Slack, GitHub); passkeys/WebAuthn and biometrics reportedly require registering a free Community licence |
| Pricing model | Usage-based (pay-as-you-go per monthly active user, plus per-token and per-RPS add-ons) | Subscription (MAU-based tiers; free self-hosted Community edition) |
| Best for | Engineering teams already running on AWS that are building consumer or B2C applications with social/direct sign-in, either below 10,000 MAU (free) or above roughly 500,000 MAU on Lite, and with in-house capacity to wire up Lambda triggers, IAM, KMS and SNS/SES. | Engineering-led B2C or mid-market B2B SaaS teams that need data sovereignty or on-prem CIAM, are comfortable with OAuth2/OIDC concepts, and want an API-first platform they can start free and later move to managed hosting without switching vendors. |
| Avoid if | You sell B2B SaaS where every user arrives via a corporate SAML/OIDC IdP, need adaptive authentication on a small user base, provision an app client per tenant beyond 2,500, operate in GovCloud, have no AWS footprint or platform engineering capacity, or require a fixed predictable monthly invoice. | You lack dedicated engineering capacity for identity work, require a truly open-source core, need 24x7 support or an SLA on a small budget, need cheap SCIM provisioning, or require FedRAMP or Zanzibar-style fine-grained authorization. |
| Markets | SMB, Enterprise, Startups, Consumer/B2C applications, Public sector (with GovCloud limitations) | SMB, Mid-Market, Enterprise, Developers, Startups |
| Founded | — | — |
| Headquarters | — | — |
A higher TOP SCORE means more of the evidence favours that platform on this methodology — it is not a recommendation, and it does not account for your specific requirements. Advertisers are never declared the winner of a comparison.