How one SaaS cut their auth bill by 80%

How one SaaS cut their auth bill by 80%: A real-world migration from Auth0 to Bastionary

Imagine you're running a successful business, and you've been using a popular SaaS platform for authentication. You pay a hefty annual fee, but as your company grows, you start to wonder if there's a better way to manage your authentication needs. This is a story about a company that successfully migrated from Auth0 to Bastionary, a self-hosted platform, saving $18,000 per year and streamlining their authentication process. Let's dive into their journey and see what they did differently.

Understanding the Problem

Our protagonist, a mid-sized tech company, had been using Auth0 for their authentication needs. Auth0 was reliable and offered a range of features, but as their user base grew, the costs started to add up. The annual subscription fee was $18,000, which was becoming a significant expense. The company decided it was time to explore alternatives that could offer better cost efficiency and more control over their authentication infrastructure.

Choosing Bastionary

After researching various options, the company chose Bastionary. Bastionary is a self-hosted platform that provides authentication, billing, licensing, and feature flags management. It offers a flexible and cost-effective solution for businesses looking to reduce their authentication costs. The decision to switch was driven by the desire to cut down on unnecessary expenses and gain more control over their authentication infrastructure.

The Migration Plan

The migration plan was executed over a 4-week timeline. The first step was to set up Bastionary on their own servers. This involved configuring the servers, installing Bastionary, and ensuring that everything was running smoothly. The team also had to ensure that all existing users were migrated to the new system without any disruptions.

Key Insights and Warnings

Implementation Details

The team started by setting up Bastionary on their servers. They followed the official documentation and used the following code snippet to install Bastionary:

curl -s https://bastionary.io/install.sh | bash

Once Bastionary was installed, they configured the servers and set up the necessary security measures. They also had to migrate existing users to the new system. This involved transferring user data and ensuring that all authentication processes were functioning correctly.

Results and Savings

The migration to Bastionary was a success. The company managed to cut their authentication bill by 80%, saving $18,000 per year. The savings were significant, and the company was able to reinvest those funds into other areas of their business.

What We Would Do Differently

While the migration was successful, there are a few things we would do differently. First, we would have conducted a more thorough cost analysis before making the decision to switch. This would have helped us understand the potential savings and the costs involved in the migration process.

Second, we would have allocated more time for the migration process. A 4-week timeline was challenging, and a longer timeline would have allowed for a smoother transition.

Finally, we would have conducted a more comprehensive risk assessment before migrating. This would have helped us identify potential security risks and take necessary precautions to mitigate them.

Conclusion

In conclusion, migrating from Auth0 to Bastionary was a successful endeavor for our protagonist company. They managed to cut their authentication bill by 80% and gain more control over their authentication infrastructure. The savings were significant, and the company was able to reinvest those funds into other areas of their business. While there are a few things we would do differently, the overall experience was positive and the benefits of switching to Bastionary were clear.