The 5 best ABAC solutions for your SaaS in 2024

Ensuring secure and flexible access control becomes increasingly important as your SaaS grows and evolves. 

Attribute-based access control (ABAC) offers a sophisticated method for managing access permissions through dynamic, context-aware policies. By leveraging user, resource, and environmental attributes, ABAC solutions provide greater flexibility and granularity than traditional models like Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) and Discretionary Access Control (DAC). 

In this article, we’ll explore five of the best ABAC solutions for SaaS in 2024 — WorkOS, Axiomatics, NextLabs, Okta, and Microsoft Azure ABAC — detailing their standout features to help you make an informed choice.

What is ABAC?

Attribute-based access control (ABAC) is an access control model that determines user permissions based on attributes. These attributes can include:

• User characteristics (e.g., job title, department)
• Resource properties (e.g., data classification, file type)
• Environmental factors (e.g., time of day, location)

By considering multiple factors, ABAC provides a nuanced and context-aware security framework.

Top ABAC solutions for 2024

Here are the top ABAC solutions you should consider:

1. WorkOS
2. Axiomatics
3. NextLabs
4. Okta
5. Microsoft Azure ABAC

1. WorkOS

WorkOS is an all-in-one platform that provides enterprise-grade identity management features, including authorization via ABAC.

Key features:

• Policy as code: WorkOS lets you write policies with a "policy-as-code" approach using an easy-to-understand, type-safe policy language. This setup simplifies version controlling and testing access policies alongside your application code.
• Easy integration: It offers APIs and SDKs that can quickly add authorization to web, mobile, or server applications.
• Centralized authorization: This allows you to define your authorization model once and enforce it anywhere — microservices, front-end apps, cloud environments, edge runtimes, and more.
• Low/no-code self-service workflows: It offers prebuilt hosted pages for access management with minimal code.
• Audit trails: It tracks and audits permission changes, authorization checks, and their resulting decisions, enabling administrators to gain valuable insights into access patterns and potential security risks.

WorkOS is ideal for organizations needing ABAC, RBAC, user management, Single Sign-On (SSO), and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA).

2. Axiomatics

Axiomatics has an ABAC solution to meet modern enterprises' complex security needs.\

Key features:

• Policy as code: The platform's Policy Administration Point (PAP) lets you create or update policies using the Abbreviated Language for Authorization (ALFA) or a web-based policy editor. 
• Integration with DevOps tools: You can review, automatically test, and deploy policies alongside application updates using common DevOps automation tools, such as Jenkins, CircleCI, or GitLab CI.
• Integration with identity systems: The platform integrates seamlessly with existing identity management systems. This integration allows you to use attributes from other vendors in your identity ecosystem or custom attributes from your internal database.
• Externalized authorization: Axiomatics supports externalized authorization, which separates the access control mechanism from application logic and centralizes access decisions in a secure location.

Axiomatics is perfect for organizations handling sensitive data, facing complex regulatory requirements, or transitioning from traditional role-based access control (RBAC) frameworks to a zero-trust strategy.

3. NextLabs

NextLabs offers an ABAC solution that stands out for its comprehensive approach to data-centric security.

Key features:

• Central policy management: It offers centralized policy management, allowing administrators to create and maintain access policies from a single point of control. 
• Policies in plain English: Using contextual 4GL policy language, you can create domain-specific policies in plain English.
• Fine-grained entitlements: It supports fine-grained entitlements, which enable precise control over access to resources at a granular level.
• Audit logs: The system automatically logs all access events and policy changes.
• Integration with enterprise apps: NextLabs can enforce ABAC policies across various enterprise apps, including SAP, Sharepoint, or other business apps.
• Cross-domain policy enforcement: NextLabs can enforce policies across domains and even companies in a supply chain.
• Sync attributes from other sources: You can enroll and manage attributes, periodically sync them from various internal and external sources, and dynamically retrieve attribute values in real time using built-in connectors and APIs.

NextLabs is ideal for large organizations with complex data environments. Its cross-domain policy enforcement is particularly useful for enterprises operating in multiple regulatory environments or needing to enforce unified access policies across diverse operational areas.

4. Okta

Okta is a customer and employee identity and access management company that offers ABAC solutions for managing resource access.Okta’s ABAC capabilities are best leveraged when integrated with its existing IAM services.

Key features:

• Integration with Universal Directory: Okta's ABAC capabilities are part of the broader Okta Identity Cloud, which stores a wide range of user attributes.
• Flexible access policies: Users can define access policies based on any attribute or combination of attributes available in the Universal Directory.
• Conditional access: Okta’s conditional access policies allow for the enforcement of decisions based on risk assessment at the point of access, such as user behavior, network conditions, and device compliance.
• API access management: Okta supports enforcing attribute-based access controls on API endpoints.
• Admin console for policy management: Okta policies can be managed through an admin console that simplifies the creation, testing, and deployment of Okta policies.

Okta is ideal for organizations already using Okta's IAM services and needing an ABAC solution.

5. Microsoft Azure ABAC

Microsoft Azure's ABAC uses Azure AD's rich user and resource attributes to create fine-grained, context-aware access policies. 

Key features:

• Tag-based access control: Azure implements ABAC using tags. Resources can be tagged with multiple key-value pairs, and access policies can be defined based on these tags. 
• Integration with Azure role-based access control (RBAC): Azure ABAC extends its existing RBAC system by allowing you to add conditions based on resource or user attributes to role assignments.
• Conditional access policies: Azure supports creating conditional access policies that can evaluate context, such as the user's location, device state, or sign-in risk, combined with user and resource attributes. 
• Policy management through Azure policy: Azure policy helps enforce organizational standards and assess compliance at scale.
• Audit logs: Azure provides logging and reporting features that track access and authorization decisions based on ABAC policies.

Azure ABAC is perfect for organizations already using Azure services and looking to implement ABAC across their cloud infrastructure.

Frequently asked questions

What’s the difference between RBAC and ABAC?

RBAC (Role-Based Access Control) and ABAC (Attribute-Based Access Control) are both models used to manage access permissions in a system, but they operate differently:

• RBAC: Access is granted based on predefined roles assigned to users. Each role has specific permissions. For example, an "admin" role might have full access to a system, while a "user" role has limited access. This model is straightforward to implement but can become inflexible as the number of roles increases.
• ABAC: Access is granted based on attributes, which can include user characteristics (e.g., job title, department), resource properties (e.g., data classification), and environmental factors (e.g., time of day, location). ABAC offers more granular and dynamic control compared to RBAC. This flexibility makes it ideal for complex environments and more challenging to implement.

What challenges might I face when implementing ABAC?

One of the biggest challenges is complexity. ABAC systems are designed to be highly granular, allowing you to define incredibly specific access controls. While this flexibility is advantageous, it can also lead to intricate policy sets that are difficult to manage and understand.  

Another challenge is data management. ABAC relies on accurate and up-to-date attributes to make access decisions. Ensuring this data is consistently maintained and synchronized can be time-consuming and resource-intensive.

Finally, performance can be a concern. Evaluating complex policies against numerous attributes in real time can impact system performance.

Can ABAC be used in conjunction with other access control models?

Absolutely! ABAC can be combined with other access control models to create a layered security framework. For example, you can use ABAC to define granular permissions based on attributes, while RBAC handles role-based assignments. You can also enhance DAC by using ABAC to add context-aware access decisions. 

How do ABAC solutions integrate with existing identity management systems?

ABAC solutions integrate with identity management systems by synchronizing user attributes (like roles and departments) from systems like Active Directory. These attributes are used to define and enforce access policies. ABAC solutions query the identity system in real time for attributes to make access decisions, ensuring seamless integration and compliance.

Next steps

Consider WorkOS Fine-Grained Authorization (FGA) for a developer-focused, enterprise-ready, and scalable fine-grained authorization solution. Its easy-to-use APIs and SDKs across major programming languages enable the effortless creation of an ABAC solution model or other models like RBAC and ReBAC.

Plus, you can view and manage your models through its fully managed admin dashboard.

Start building with WorkOS.