Descope vs Amazon Cognito

The no / low code Amazon Cognito alternative

Design auth flows visually, not with Lambda code.
One unified platform for B2C and B2B, no separate user pools.
Predictable pricing, without sudden spikes for security or scale.
Developer-focused support and clear docs.

Why Descope is a strong AWS Cognito alternative

Faster implementation, less AWS glue

Implement CIAM quickly using visual workflows and SDKs instead of stitching together Cognito, Lambda, IAM, and custom front-end logic. Update auth flows without redeployments or deep AWS expertise.

Predictable pricing and responsive support

Avoid sudden price spikes tied to advanced security features or scale. Get clear pricing, better documentation, and identity-focused support instead of navigating generic AWS tickets.

Complete user journeys, not just login

Design complete journeys across authentication, MFA, passkeys, SSO, and step-up flows in one place. Avoid AWS Cognito’s trigger-based approach that fragments journey logic across services.

One platform for B2C and B2B

Support consumer and business use cases on a single, unified identity platform. Eliminate separate user pools, per-tenant workarounds, and duplicated configuration required with Amazon Cognito.

Powering auth for over 1000 organizations in production

Hear from some happy customers

“Visualizing the user journey as a workflow enables us to audit and modify the registration and authentication journey without making significant code changes.”

Arkadiy Goykhberg, CISO

“Descope has been a great partner to our IAM team. We appreciate the simplicity of their product, the speed of innovation, and their active and responsive support. Whenever we launch a new application or user portal for external stakeholders, Descope is now the default auth provider in our minds.”

Naveen Zutshi, CIO

“Whether it’s easily adopting passwordless methods like One Tap, adding risk-based MFA, or unifying identity flows across web and mobile apps, Descope provides workflow-based building blocks to help us achieve these goals much faster than before.”

Nitin Shingate, CTO

“Partnering with Descope has helped Navan enhance both our user onboarding experience and security posture. The flexible nature of Descope Flows enables us to adapt better to changing business or security needs without burdening our developers.”

Ofer Ben-David, EVP Engineering

"We love Descope SSO flows from a CX standpoint. A customer we onboarded just told us it was the fastest implementation ever. It usually takes weeks but we were done in 15 minutes - small talk included!"

David Li, Senior Software Engineer

Descope also works alongside Amazon Cognito

MFA / SSO augmentation

Use Descope as an OIDC Provider to add modern, flexible authentication flows while still keeping Amazon Cognito as your user store.

Learn more

SaaS apps with auth built-in

Use the Descope module with AWS SaaS Builder Toolkit (SBT) to easily add passwordless auth, MFA, SSO, M2M auth, and more.

Learn more

A detailed Descope vs Amazon Cognito comparison


User experience
User experience	Descope user journey screens are embedded in your app to provide a native experience without redirects. Native mobile flows offer an embedded web-view experience that help customers easily create native-like authentication flows in mobile applications	Amazon Cognito prioritizes infrastructure flexibility over UX polish, making it harder to deliver modern, branded consumer login experiences without significant engineering effort.
User journeys
User journeys	No-code workflows to create and customize screens, auth flows, MFA flows, and any other user journey interaction. A/B testing to experiment with different auth / MFA methods, onboarding paths, and geo-based auth without writing custom code.	Provides basic hosted login and signup flows. Advanced journeys require Lambda triggers and custom code. No visual or centralized journey builder.
Passkeys
Passkeys	Passkey support from Day 1 including autofill and fallback conditions. Passkeys can be added as first or second auth factor with any other method. Create different onboarding paths to A / B test passkey implementation. Show any backup auth method if user’s device is not passkey compatible.	Amazon Cognito supports passkeys for passwordless authentication, but implementation is relatively new and limited in customization and recovery options.
One Tap
One Tap	Native Google One Tap support through Descope SDKs. Add “post-authentication” flows to collect user info, verify additional factors like phone number, etc.	No native One Tap authentication support. Requires custom session and token handling.
MFA
MFA	MFA available on all Descope plans. Choose from any MFA factor, including phishing-resistant ones like magic links and passkeys. Risk-based MFA with connectors (reCAPTCHA, AbuseIPDB, Forter, Fingerprint). Workflow-based approach makes adding and modifying MFA logic straightforward.	Cognito offers SMS and TOTP MFA, but advanced adaptive or context-aware MFA behavior requires additional configuration and custom logic.
Bot protection
Bot protection	Bot protection available on all Descope plans. Add flows to ingest and act on bot scores from third-party connectors (reCAPTCHA, Arkose Labs).	Protecting consumer signups and logins from bots requires integrating Cognito with services like CloudWatch, WAF, or custom logic.
Future-proofing
Future-proofing	Workflow-based approach that makes it easier to modify user journeys without redeploying the app. Descope has one unified platform for B2C and B2B authentication.	As consumer apps grow, reliance on custom logic and AWS-specific services can increase technical debt and migration complexity.