Okta

Okta is the identity platform that wants to be the universal front door to all your apps — the one login screen to rule them all. It provides single sign-on, multi-factor authentication, lifecycle management, and API access management as a cloud-native service. Unlike identity solutions bolted onto an existing ecosystem (looking at you, Entra ID), Okta is vendor-neutral by design and works across AWS, Azure, GCP, and pretty much everything else with a login page. It acquired Auth0 in 2021 to cover customer identity (CIAM) use cases, because managing your employees’ logins and your customers’ logins are apparently two very different problems that each need their own product.

Okta connects to your apps via OIDC, SAML, and SCIM, acting as the universal translator of “who are you?” across your entire stack. Its directory integrates with Active Directory, LDAP, and HR systems to automate the user lifecycle — provisioning accounts when people join, adjusting access when they change roles, and deprovisioning everything when they leave. The platform also offers an extensive app integration network with thousands of pre-built connectors, which means you spend less time writing XML metadata and more time doing literally anything else.

Why it matters: Okta proved that identity could be a standalone cloud service rather than something bolted onto your directory server. For organizations juggling dozens of SaaS apps across multiple cloud providers, a neutral identity layer isn’t just convenient — it’s the only sane way to manage who has access to what.