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It's a split decision.
Choose Auth0 if you need to manage logins, access control, enterprise SSO, or machine identities. Its free plan includes up to 25,000 monthly active users, while the listed Essentials plan is $35/month. Choose Cognito Forms to collect submissions, take payments, and automate approvals: its free plan allows 100 entries monthly, and Pro starts at $19/month billed annually ($24 monthly). These products solve different problems, so neither is a direct replacement for the other.
01Side by side
| Auth0 | Cognito Forms | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Essentials: $35/month; Free plan available. | Pro: $19/month annual or $24 monthly. |
| Free plan | Up to 25,000 monthly active users. | 100 entries/month, one user, Cognito branding. |
| Best for | Authentication, access control, and identity management. | Online forms, payments, and approval workflows. |
| Core strength | Logins, enterprise SSO, and fine-grained authorization. | Calculations, signatures, and form-to-workflow automation. |
| Learning curve | Ease-of-use score: 7. | Ease-of-use score: 6. |
| Integrations/data | M2M authentication; add-on prices not published. | Business includes 50,000 API requests/month. |
| Team/seat costs | MAU caps apply; add-on prices not published. | Extra users cost $5/month; guest tiers cost extra. |
| Support | Support score: 5. | Support score: 7. |
Auth0 Choose Auth0 if
- Choose Auth0 if you need customer or enterprise authentication.
- Choose Auth0 if you need SSO, SCIM, or adaptive MFA.
- Choose Auth0 if you need machine or AI agent identity controls.
Cognito Forms Choose Cognito Forms if
- Choose Cognito Forms if you need calculations and online payments.
- Choose Cognito Forms if you need signatures or document generation.
- Choose Cognito Forms if you need approvals and a client portal.
02Pricing compared
Auth0 has a free plan with up to 25,000 monthly active users, one custom domain, five organizations, one enterprise connection, and one tenant. Its listed Essentials plan is $35/month, but caps usage at 500 monthly active users. Professional is $240/month, also with a 500-user cap. Enterprise pricing is custom, and prices for add-ons such as Adaptive MFA and Bot Detection are not published.
Cognito Forms’ free Individual plan allows 100 entries a month for one user. Pro costs $19/month billed annually or $24 month to month, with 2,000 entries and one user included. Team starts at $49/month annually or $62 monthly. Extra users cost $5 per user monthly on paid plans; guest tiers can add $25 to $250/month or more. Compare the relevant usage limits, not just the starting prices.
03Features and depth
Auth0 handles identity: customer sign-up and login, passwordless and social login, adaptive MFA, bot detection, enterprise SSO, and machine authentication for services and APIs. Its feature set also includes permissions for users and AI agents, plus controls for access to data sources and MCP tools. The pricing page lists different MAU, tenant, organization, and log-retention limits by plan, so check those against your expected use. Some security features and integrations are paid add-ons with prices not published.
Cognito Forms handles data collection and what happens after someone submits a form. It supports calculations, payments, electronic signatures, document generation, and approval workflows. Higher-tier features include a client portal, data lookups, audit logs, API request allowances, HIPAA compliance, and SSO. Entry limits range from 100 a month on Individual to unlimited on Enterprise. These products are not substitutes: Auth0 manages identity and access; Cognito Forms manages forms and submissions.
04Ease of use and learning curve
The learning curve depends on the job. Auth0 is for configuring login, access policies, identity connections, and authentication flows across apps, APIs, or services. Its plan limits and add-ons also mean you’ll need to map expected users and security requirements to the right tier before estimating cost.
Cognito Forms is organized around building forms and setting up calculations, payments, signatures, and approval workflows. Its paid plans add limits and fees to track, including entry allowances, included users, and guest tiers. If you need both identity management and form workflows, switching from one to the other will not cover the same work. The review scores list ease of use at 7 for Auth0 and 6 for Cognito Forms.
Questions people ask
Is it Auth0 or 0auth?
The product in this comparison is Auth0, with the letter O followed by the number zero. “0auth” is not the product name given in the published product information. Auth0 is an identity platform for logins, access control, enterprise SSO, and machine authentication.
How do you use Cognito Forms for authentication?
Cognito Forms is a form builder, not the identity platform described here. Its feature list includes SSO and security controls, and its Enterprise plan lists SSO, but the product is built around collecting submissions, payments, signatures, and approvals. For managing app logins and access, Auth0 is the closer fit.
Is AWS Cognito free?
This comparison covers Cognito Forms, not AWS Cognito, so its pricing information cannot answer whether AWS Cognito has a free tier. Cognito Forms does have a free Individual plan, with one user, 100 entries per month, payments, branding, and 100 MB of storage.
What are alternatives to Auth0?
The published information does not compare Auth0 with other identity providers, so we can’t name or price alternatives from these sources. Start by comparing monthly active user caps, enterprise SSO, machine authentication, security add-on costs, and any required tenant or log-retention limits.