AWS Cognito vs Identity Platform (Is it even worth migrating??)

[dheerajpanyam]

We have a customer interested in AWS Cognito to GCP Identity Platform. The authentication method supported is just one mechanism which  is username / password based authentication (no SSO support, Gmail integration etc, so very simple). There is also a admin interface for user management + RBAC support meaning roles for admin, customer etc (Cognito custom fields used to setup roles) . With Identity Platform the whole migration effort we gave to the client was around 40 - 50 hours. Client was totally dissatisfied with the effort. With AWS Cognito the whole user flow setup took not more than 2-3 days to setup.  Identity Platform does NOT have a custom field so I need to use Firestore to implement roles / RBAC . Plus client does not want the OOB login UI that comes with Identity Platform , rather they want to bring their own UI for signup, sign in etc. 

My question is if there is a better solution in GCP than Identity Platform . It seems too immature and overly complicated to work with compared with the very seamless integration that can be achieved with AWS Cognito.

[coleen · Accepted solution]

Hi @dheerajpanyam, 

I understand that you are looking for a more streamlined solution in GCP other than Identity Platform. Given your client’s requirements, Firebase Authentication might be a suitable alternative. Although it’s part of the Firebase ecosystem, it’s worth considering for the following reasons:

• Custom UI: Firebase Authentication allows you to build your own user interfaces either by using FirebaseUI or by Firebase Authentication SDK.
• Custom Authentication: It supports a variety of authentication methods, including email and password.
• Integration with Firestore: You can use Firestore to store additional user attributes and implement custom roles and role-based access control, similar to how you would with Identity Platform.
• Ease of Use: Firebase Authentication generally has a simpler setup compared to Identity Platform. For a detailed comparison of features, you can refer to Identity Platform and Firebase Authentication comparison. 

I hope the above information is helpful.