Seamless Auth vs Auth0
Auth0, owned by Okta, is a hosted identity platform with a broad feature set. Seamless Auth is an open source, passwordless-only auth server that you self-host or run on the managed service. It does much less than Auth0, on purpose.
Read the full comparisonChoose Auth0 if
- You need SAML enterprise SSO or SCIM provisioning for your customers.
- You need an OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect provider for other applications, or machine-to-machine tokens.
- You need password sign-in.
- You want to run custom code inside the login flow with Actions.
- You need a wide choice of MFA factors, or a vendor’s compliance reports and SLA.
- You want nothing to run yourself and a large, established product.
Choose Seamless Auth if
- Users and sessions must stay inside your own boundary. Auth0 documents no self-hosted deployment.
- You want passwordless as the only option, enforced, with passkey-only sign-in available.
- You want the auth server, adapters, SDKs, dashboard and CLI under Apache-2.0.
- You prefer not to pay per active user or per enterprise connection.
- You want your users and auth events in a Postgres database you can query.
- You want organizations, memberships and per-organization roles built in.
At a glance
| Feature | Seamless Auth | Auth0 |
|---|---|---|
| License | Apache-2.0 for the server, SDKs, dashboard and CLI | Commercial hosted service, sold by plan |
| Hosting | Self-host (Docker, Postgres) or Seamless Auth managed hosting | Public cloud or private cloud, all managed by Auth0 |
| Where user data lives | Your Postgres when self-hosted | Auth0’s infrastructure |
| Passwords | No, by design | Yes |
| SAML enterprise SSO | No | Yes |
| Custom code in the login flow | No, the logic goes in your own backend | Yes, Actions in Node.js |
Okta prices Okta Customer Identity separately from Auth0, on its own tab of Okta’s pricing page. This summary covers Auth0. The docs cost calculator lists published list prices for both.
Sources and the full table
The docs page has the full feature table, the architecture difference, when not to use Seamless Auth, and a source for every Auth0 detail with the date it was checked.
Seamless Auth vs Auth0 in the docs →What it costs
Prices change, so this site does not repeat them. Any published prices are in the docs comparison with their sources and dates, and the cost calculator puts Auth0 and Okta Customer Identity list prices next to the cost of running Seamless Auth yourself.
Open the cost calculator →