If you are building or part of an existing SaaS platform, you probably have already setup a login module where your users can enter an ID and password.
Your login module already manages the following:
- Capture email and password
- Store in encrypted modules
- Account linking
- Subscription linking
- Feature access
- Role definition
… essentially, everything you need to manage your users.
But, you would like to add a convenient button that would allow your users to use their login from an existing provider, to access your platform.
This is where Single Sign On comes in.
What is Single Sign On?
Single Sign On (SSO) is an online identification methodology that lets websites use other, trusted services to verify users.
Simply put, you offer your users the ability for them to login to your platform, using other websites login credentials. All this without creating or sharing passwords.
SSO leverages OAuth based authentication. The identity provider offers the requesting platform the ability to use their identity scope to allow their verified users to login to platforms. User verification is done completely by the service provider.
Why SSO?
There are multiple benefits of adding SSO to your platform. Let’s look at both sides –
- User Benefits
- Business Benefit.
User Benefits
Convenience: Your user gets to login to your platform using their existing login credentials. There are hundreds of platforms with hundreds of login credentials to remember and save. By adding an SSO option, you make it convenient for your user to login to your platform without the need for any additional login credentials to remember.
Faster login: Users get quicker access to your platform with an SSO button with no long sign up forms to fill.
Permission transparency: The entire authentication is completely transparent. Users get to see the data the platform is requesting for and allow access that is being requested by the app.
Secure: With oauth, there are no credentials shared between applications
Business Benefits
Less code to manage: an SSO based login approach allows businesses to extend their login module without adding any additional code to manage and maintain.
More users: Faster onboarding equals more signups. Businesses that add SSO have seen a significant increase in their signups since there are no forms to fill up adding to the signup funnel. User click to login and access your platform instantly, resulting in more signups.
Verified signups: User profiles are verified by the identity provider, this takes away the entire email verification process.
Added trust: Adding the ability to login with a trusted and existing provider add a sense of trust with the user since they are not sharing any sensitive data with you and your app has been verified by the service provider.
Secure login: Since there are no passwords to maintain, there is reduced chances of being hacked or stolen passwords
Popular Identity Providers
Here are some of the most popular identity providers
How to add SSO to an existing login module?
Pathfix’s SSO extension allows you to enable SSO in your existing login module in just a few minutes.
There are over 7 different identity providers you can choose from including Azure Active Directory, GitHub and Google; and quickly add them to your existing login module.
Here’s how you can achieve this:
- Login to your Pathfix account here
- Click on Extensions and select SSO (Single Sign On)
- Select your Application from the drop-down
- Pick the identity providers you would like to offer
- Enter the Client ID and Client Secret received from the selected service provider . (Note: some providers also require a Tenant Id, you will see the option to enter it here if required)
- Once you have completed the above step for each service provider you wish to add (selected providers will be marked with a Green Check-mark)
- Click on Generate Code
- Edit the text for Button prefix
- Enter the Callback function where you would like Pathfix to send the login information
- Enter a Hello text (e.g. Welcome) (This is how the user will be welcomed on your page. The text is followed by the First Name, Last Name of the user)
- Enter the code received into your existing login module (in the <div> where you want the social login buttons to show)
- The social login buttons will immediately show on your login section
Conclusion
Adding an SSO login button to your existing login module is a great approach to build users and quicker on-boarding processes. The process of adding some of the most popular identity providers is quick using Pathfix’s SSO Extension.
Sign up for free account with Pathfix.
Need further clarifications? Reach out to our team.
