One of the major differences between Stytch and Cognito is product coverage and the flexibility of authentication methods available. Fundamentally, Cognito only offers passwords and social OAuth logins as primary factors, so a truly passwordless experience is not possible. Cognito may work well for those already using AWS services and looking for basic login features, but those looking for more advanced authentication features such as biometrics, email magic links, or additional social OAuth providers like Slack, Discord, or Twitter will find that Stytch offers a wider breadth of solutions.

Moreover, Stytch’s API-first approach allows for maximum flexibility, enabling you to build more nuanced, custom authentication logic like just-in-time step-up challenges. On the other hand, Cognito’s “Advanced Security'' features only support MFA via SMS and TOTP (with some limited ability to build more custom flows with Challenge Lambda triggers). Furthermore, whereas one needs to add on Cognito’s “Advanced Security” features to check for compromised credentials, Stytch’s Passwords product has breach detection and strength assessment built-in.

In addition to authentication, Stytch also offers highly flexible fraud tools like Device Fingerprinting, which leverages a broad set of nuanced parameters that allow you to build more fine-grained logic around how to treat traffic by risk level. Moreover, these anti-bot and fraud prevention capabilities are embedded natively on Stytch’s platform, reducing the need to rely on additional security vendors.

Lastly, many of Stytch’s products are built with edge cases in mind. For example, Stytch partners with multiple SMS/email providers, so one-time passcodes and email magic links have automatic failover protection to offer you maximum uptime and redundancy. Similarly, Stytch automatically deduplicates users who attempt to authenticate via multiple login methods.

The standard way to implement Cognito is using their “Hosted UI,” a Cognito-owned modal that handles password and OAuth-based logins with some customization available. Because the UI is Cognito-hosted, it requires redirecting users away from your page/app, authenticating them on Cognito or a custom domain, then returning them to your page/app, which may hurt conversion.

The easiest way to implement Stytch is using a frontend SDK (JavaScript, React Native, iOS) and either using a pre-built UI flow or custom-building your own with headless SDK methods (not available with Cognito). Unlike Cognito’s Hosted UI, there is no redirect involved, and since you fully own the login page, there is a broader range of customization available. Fully owning the UI/UX is also possible using Stytch’s API directly.

Cognito’s Hosted UI may work well for those looking for a simple login page offering passwords and social OAuth with basic customization options. Some additional (though limited) custom logic can be implemented via Lambda triggers. Because the UI is Cognito-hosted, you have limited control over the performance, look-and-feel, and potential (breaking) changes to the login experience.

Stytch’s approach may be a better fit for those seeking more flexibility and full control, both over the look-and-feel of the UI/UX and any nuanced authentication logic you’re looking to layer on, enabling tighter integration with your stack. The lack of a redirect also typically offers a more seamless, higher-converting user experience (Lighthouse improved conversion by 60% after switching to Stytch).

Cognito is a relatively small part of the broader AWS platform. In contrast, Stytch as a whole is focused on authentication, identity, and access management, meaning the company’s attention and resources are directed towards building and maintaining this core functionality. Whereas one may find it hard to access the latest authentication innovations or receive timely support with Cognito, Stytch’s sole focus on authentication means product resources are devoted to continued expansion of Stytch’s solution suite to keep up with the latest technologies, and support resources are similarly devoted to customers’ authentication issues and use cases.

In general, you’ll find that Cognito comes out to a lower cost on a per-unit basis. There is a generous free tier with low pay-as-you-go rates for additional usage. However, fast-growing companies may also find that they quickly outgrow Cognito’s more limited product offerings and technical support.