4 ms·

$6,500,000,000.00 for a company providing authentication APIs? Am I the only person left on earth that hasn't lost his mind?

omni 6y ago
Check out Auth0's pricing page and it might start to make sense to you, they're outrageously expensive
- mooreds 6y ago
  Or the numbers in this comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26334736 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26334736
- TruthWillHurt 6y ago
  Not more expensive than Looker at ~$6000pcm. Also Looker is category leader whereas Auth0 is struggling to compete against cloud-provider supplied solutions (Cognito/Google Auth).
  - sk5t 6y ago
    If I recall okta’s monthly minimum is about 3k.
hyperpl 6y ago
I'm in the same boat and I use okta for work and have no clue what the hell it does or why this just can't be accomplished using open source.
- jpgvm 6y ago
  Whilst there certainly are great OSS solutions most big-ish corps already have Active Directory. You can setup ADFS to do SAML for SSO or you can use Azure AD which already has all that out of the box. If you aren't a big-ish corp then yeah, there are tons of OSS ways of doing IdP that fit your specific tastes etc.
- softveda 6y ago
  Identity is a very sensitive area with strict cryptography and compliance requirement regarding password hashing, token signing etc. Then they have to keep updated with ever changing OAUTH/SAML standards and integration with providers like Facebook/Google etc. They have to get audited and certified like ISO 27001, HiTRUST etc. These are very expensive to manage and high risk for non-tech companies (think banks, insurance, utilities etc.) and hence are outsourced.
tyingq 6y ago
Enterprise customers with Enterprisey wallets. Edit: Ping Identity might be a good place to invest, they look a bit low right now, and they support cloud and on-prem.
- spydum 6y ago
  And own huge chunks of the enterprise market (and customers are generally happy at least in my circles).
e_y_ 6y ago
That sounds crazy to me too. By comparison, Microsoft paid $7.5B for Github and Google paid $2.6B for Looker. Idaptive, another IdP (I don't know how it compares in terms of features or client base) was bought by Cyberark for a mere $70M.
- randomsearch 6y ago
  Makes GitHub look like the buy of the century. Which it may well turn out to be.
whalesalad 6y ago
I’m completely shocked by this as well. This is the most insane valuation I’ve seen in a while.
- ggregoire 6y ago
  Salesforce acquired Slack for $27.7 billion 2 months ago.
  - notsureaboutpg 6y ago
    Slack is, imo, a way more complicated, way more valuable service targeted at a larger market than Auth0.
- dilyevsky 6y ago
  Have you ever heard of Snowflake?
PragmaticPulp 6y ago
It's for the business and the users, obviously. Not just an API. If it was easy to amass this many paying customers, surely other competitors would have rushed in to compete, right?
notsureaboutpg 6y ago
I'm using a service (Hasura) to build out a backend and all their docs recommend Auth0 as a JWT/authentication service but the pricing is outrageous. I spent 3 days and built a version myself which is just fine and can be changed whenever / however we want. Google / Facebook / Apple authentication are not hard to implement at all, maybe I'm missing the actual value they add...
ThankYouBernard 6y ago
Yes, you're the only one who can see the truth in the whole world. We all know that Slack = just IRC Dropbox = just rsync Twitter = just a weekend project etc

omni 6y ago

Check out Auth0's pricing page and it might start to make sense to you, they're outrageously expensive

mooreds 6y ago
Or the numbers in this comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26334736 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26334736
TruthWillHurt 6y ago
Not more expensive than Looker at ~$6000pcm. Also Looker is category leader whereas Auth0 is struggling to compete against cloud-provider supplied solutions (Cognito/Google Auth).
- sk5t 6y ago
  If I recall okta’s monthly minimum is about 3k.

hyperpl 6y ago

I'm in the same boat and I use okta for work and have no clue what the hell it does or why this just can't be accomplished using open source.

jpgvm 6y ago
Whilst there certainly are great OSS solutions most big-ish corps already have Active Directory. You can setup ADFS to do SAML for SSO or you can use Azure AD which already has all that out of the box. If you aren't a big-ish corp then yeah, there are tons of OSS ways of doing IdP that fit your specific tastes etc.
softveda 6y ago
Identity is a very sensitive area with strict cryptography and compliance requirement regarding password hashing, token signing etc. Then they have to keep updated with ever changing OAUTH/SAML standards and integration with providers like Facebook/Google etc. They have to get audited and certified like ISO 27001, HiTRUST etc. These are very expensive to manage and high risk for non-tech companies (think banks, insurance, utilities etc.) and hence are outsourced.

tyingq 6y ago

Enterprise customers with Enterprisey wallets. Edit: Ping Identity might be a good place to invest, they look a bit low right now, and they support cloud and on-prem.

spydum 6y ago
And own huge chunks of the enterprise market (and customers are generally happy at least in my circles).

e_y_ 6y ago

That sounds crazy to me too. By comparison, Microsoft paid $7.5B for Github and Google paid $2.6B for Looker. Idaptive, another IdP (I don't know how it compares in terms of features or client base) was bought by Cyberark for a mere $70M.

randomsearch 6y ago
Makes GitHub look like the buy of the century. Which it may well turn out to be.

whalesalad 6y ago

I’m completely shocked by this as well. This is the most insane valuation I’ve seen in a while.

ggregoire 6y ago
Salesforce acquired Slack for $27.7 billion 2 months ago.
- notsureaboutpg 6y ago
  Slack is, imo, a way more complicated, way more valuable service targeted at a larger market than Auth0.
dilyevsky 6y ago
Have you ever heard of Snowflake?

PragmaticPulp 6y ago

It's for the business and the users, obviously. Not just an API. If it was easy to amass this many paying customers, surely other competitors would have rushed in to compete, right?

notsureaboutpg 6y ago

I'm using a service (Hasura) to build out a backend and all their docs recommend Auth0 as a JWT/authentication service but the pricing is outrageous. I spent 3 days and built a version myself which is just fine and can be changed whenever / however we want. Google / Facebook / Apple authentication are not hard to implement at all, maybe I'm missing the actual value they add...

ThankYouBernard 6y ago

Yes, you're the only one who can see the truth in the whole world. We all know that Slack = just IRC Dropbox = just rsync Twitter = just a weekend project etc