The best SAML providers for B2B SaaS in 2025

In the world of B2B SaaS platforms, enterprise customers expect seamless integration with their identity infrastructure. The protocol of choice in many corporate environments remains the Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) 2.0 standard, which enables federated authentication and authorization across domains, often from the service provider (your app) to the identity provider (the customer’s IT system).

However, implementing SAML on your own can be quite a challenge. It requires significant development work and specialized knowledge of the SAML specification. You’ll need to know how to read and parse XML assertions, respond to SAML requests, and most importantly, secure your integration against threats like XML injections, replay attacks, and XML signature wrapping. You’ll need to build certificate management, support for multiple identity providers, and auditing, and make all of this scale.

For SaaS vendors looking to win and onboard enterprise customers, choosing the right SAML SSO provider is crucial. This article will help you decide whether you need such a provider, what to look out for, and then evaluate five leading platforms: WorkOS, Auth0, Okta, Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD), and WSO2 Identity Server.

Do you need a SAML provider?

If your user base is mostly consumers using email/password or OAuth social logins, you might not need SAML.

If your B2B platform must support enterprise customers who already use identity systems (AD FS, Okta, Azure AD, etc) and expect SAML-based single sign-on (SSO), then yes, you’ll need to support SAML.

Building SAML SSO in-house means spending weeks (or months) on initial implementation, then redoing the work for each new enterprise customer, because every client’s Identity Provider (IdP) is different. And that’s just the start, you’ll also need to maintain these integrations, keep them secure, and update them as standards evolve.

For most SaaS using a dedicated SSO provider is the smarter choice for several reasons:

• Avoid the complexity: A good SSO provider handles the messy parts for you: auth servers, signing keys, token formats, and yes, even the dreaded SAML XML assertions. You focus on your core product instead of wrestling with authentication internals.
• Stronger security by default: Rolling your own means you also own the responsibility of keeping security measures up to date. Providers invest heavily in best practices like leaked password detection, adaptive authentication, and other modern safeguards, so you benefit from cutting-edge protection without building it yourself.
• Support for every IdP your customers use: Enterprise buyers are all over the map when it comes to IdPs. You might start with Okta and Microsoft Entra ID, but sooner or later, you’ll meet customers on PingFederate, CyberArk, Shibboleth, and others you’ve never heard of. A mature SSO provider already supports dozens (or hundreds) of IdPs out of the box.
• Lower total cost of ownership: It’s easy to look at per-user pricing and think, “We could just build this ourselves.” But when you factor in engineering salaries, ongoing maintenance, and the inevitable rush projects to integrate new IdPs, a dedicated provider almost always costs less in the long run.
• Higher reliability: Authentication is the front door to your app. If it’s down, your users are locked out. In-house systems are more prone to downtime during updates or incidents. Reputable SSO providers deliver high uptime SLAs and handle maintenance without locking out your customers.

If you build SAML support yourself, you will have higher dev/maintenance costs, increased security risk, and longer onboarding cycles for enterprise customers. And you will be spending all this effort not on building your product, but on building SSO.

If you’re serious about moving upmarket, a SAML SSO provider gives you peace of mind, enterprise-grade reliability, and broad IdP coverage, all without slowing your team down.

For more on this topic, see Build vs. Buy.

What to look for in a SAML provider

When comparing SAML integration tools, these are the features and characteristics to evaluate:

1. Ease of integration: Opt for providers with well-documented SDKs, APIs, and user-friendly dashboards. These tools make it easier to integrate the service into your existing setup.
2. Certificate management: Ensure the provider makes it easy to handle SAML X.509 certificates, including rotation and expiry, since outdated certificates can cause unexpected SSO failures. A good provider should support automatic metadata updates whenever possible.
3. Support for multiple identity providers: Your SAML provider should make it easy to connect with many different IdPs (like Okta, Entra ID, or others) so each customer can use their existing system. Look for quick setup, consistent workflows, and broad compatibility across enterprise IdPs.
4. Enterprise-ready features: Multi-tenant support (for B2B SaaS where each organization might have its own IdP), SCIM provisioning (user/group sync), auditing/logging, lifecycle management.
5. Scalability and flexibility: Support large enterprise workloads, high availability, global footprint, support for custom attribute mappings, multiple ACS URLs, complex flows.
6. Industry compliance: Verify that the provider adheres to compliance standards relevant to your industry.
7. Customer onboarding: A good SAML provider should streamline how you onboard enterprise customers, ideally offering a clear interface where they can configure their own SAML settings with minimal back-and-forth. This kind of guided setup significantly reduces integration friction and helps customers get SSO live much faster.
8. Pricing and licensing model: Some providers charge per connection, per user, or via tiers; you’ll need to ensure cost scales appropriately for your business model.

The best SSO providers

1. WorkOS

WorkOS is designed from the ground up to make adding enterprise SSO and user provisioning to your SaaS app fast, developer-friendly, and scalable. With simple APIs, robust documentation, and native support for SAML, OIDC, SCIM, and more, WorkOS bridges the gap between enterprise IT requirements and modern SaaS development.

Pros

• Support for dozens of IdPs with one integration: Integrate once and instantly support all major enterprise identity providers your customers rely on.
• Self-serve Admin Portal: Gives enterprise customers a guided, self-configuration flow that dramatically reduces onboarding friction and support cycles.
• Thoughtful certificate management: Encourages metadata URLs for automatic, zero-downtime certificate rotation, with Dashboard alerts, expiry filters, and proactive notifications for manually uploaded certificates.
• Robust documentation & SDKs: Provides consistent APIs, clear security guidance, and strong developer tooling to help teams ship SAML reliably.
• Multi-tenant friendly: Easily supports many customer organizations, each with their own IdP, configuration, and lifecycle.
• Transparent pricing: Free for up to 1 million monthly active users, making it cost-effective for early-stage and scaling SaaS teams.
• Enterprise-grade reliability: Delivers 99.99% uptime and offers guaranteed SLAs for customers with strict reliability requirements.
• Strong developer experience: Built with predictable integration patterns and fast implementation workflows that reduce complexity and shorten onboarding time.

Cons

• Not a full IAM suite: WorkOS focuses on enterprise features like SSO, automated user provisioning, access control, and audit logs, not the entire enterprise IT stack. Full IAM suites (like Okta Workforce Identity or Microsoft Entra ID) include extra features for managing internal employees, devices, and compliance, but for most SaaS teams, that added complexity isn’t necessary.

2. Auth0

Auth0 is a flexible identity platform widely used by teams that need support for many authentication protocols. While powerful and highly customizable, it can be complex to implement and scale, and its pricing model often becomes challenging for growing B2B SaaS companies.

‍Pros‍

• Flexible identity roles: Can function as both a SAML SP and IdP, allowing varied enterprise integration patterns.
• Customizable authentication flows: Rules, actions, and hooks enable advanced logic and extensibility.
• Large integration marketplace: Includes many prebuilt connectors for common enterprise tools.

Cons‍

• Complex implementation: Configuration and customization can require significant engineering time.
• High pricing at scale: Costs often rise sharply as MAUs or tenants increase.
• Steeper learning curve: The platform’s flexibility comes with more complexity for developers.
• Limited multi-tenant simplicity: Organizations often need custom logic to manage tenant-by-tenant setups.
• Less streamlined enterprise onboarding: Customers may need more support to configure their side of SAML compared to more guided experiences.

3. Okta

Okta is a leading enterprise IdP trusted by IT teams worldwide. While strong on the workforce identity side, its developer experience for SaaS vendors is less streamlined, and deploying customer-facing SSO often requires additional products or more complex configuration.

‍Pros‍

• Comprehensive IAM features: Extremely robust feature set for enterprise governance. Okta covers the full IAM spectrum, from SSO and MFA to lifecycle management, identity governance, and privileged access, making it a strong fit for complex enterprise IT needs.‍
• Thousands of integrations: A mature catalog of enterprise app connectors.
• Strong compliance track record.
• Established enterprise reputation.

‍Cons‍

• Primarily a workforce IdP: Not originally built for SaaS vendors implementing customer SSO.
• Complex configuration: Can require deep familiarity with the Okta dashboard to set up SAML correctly.
• Higher cost for advanced features: Many enterprise capabilities require upgraded plans.
• Fragmented product story: Customer Identity (CIAM) and Workforce Identity are separate, adding to complexity.
• Less developer-focused: Documentation and workflows aren’t as streamlined for app builders integrating SSO.

4. Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD)

Microsoft Entra ID is deeply embedded in the enterprise ecosystem, making it essential for SaaS apps selling into Microsoft-heavy organizations. However, it’s less developer-friendly, can be rigid, and often requires navigating Microsoft’s complex admin interfaces and licensing requirements.

Pros

• Massive enterprise footprint: A large percentage of enterprise customers already rely on it.
• Deep Microsoft ecosystem integration: Works seamlessly with Office 365, Azure, and related services.
• Robust access controls: Includes conditional access, MFA, device policies, and compliance tooling.
• Enterprise credibility: Trusted by Fortune 500 companies and often already in place within customer IT environments, reducing procurement friction.

Cons

• Complex admin experience: Setup often requires navigating multiple Microsoft portals.
• Enterprise-centric design: Primarily built for workforce identity, not SaaS multi-tenancy.
• Licensing can be confusing: Some features require P1/P2 licenses or additional subscriptions.
• Limited developer focus: Documentation and workflows are geared toward IT admins more than SaaS builders.
• Inconsistent onboarding experience: Your customers’ IT teams may vary widely in expertise, slowing down go-live.

5. WSO2 Identity Server

WSO2 Identity Server is an open-source, self-hosted IAM platform offering extensive configurability and full control. While powerful, it demands significant operational overhead, infrastructure management, and in-house expertise, making it better suited to organizations with heavy identity requirements and engineering capacity.

‍Pros‍

• Fully open-source: Complete control over customization, deployment, and data.
• Flexible SAML support: Offers configurable SAML SSO, IdP federation, and advanced signing options.
• Highly customizable: Supports deep modification of auth flows, claims, policies, and UI.

‍Cons‍

• High operational overhead: Requires teams to manage hosting, scaling, upgrades, and security.
• Steep learning curve: Configuration is complex and documentation isn’t always straightforward.
• Not turnkey: Longer setup times compared to managed SaaS identity platforms.
• Resource-intensive: Requires engineering capacity for maintenance and troubleshooting.
• Slower enterprise onboarding: Customers must rely on your custom configuration rather than a guided portal.

Final thoughts

Selecting the right SAML integration provider is a strategic decision for any B2B SaaS vendor serious about enterprise adoption. If your product roadmap includes enterprise customers with federated identity needs, investing in SAML support is no longer optional.

When choosing your partner: prioritise ease of integration, onboarding speed, enterprise capabilities, and cost scalability. For many SaaS companies that simply need to support “our customer uses their IdP, we must accept SAML”, a platform like WorkOS will give the fastest path to value. If your scenario is very complex (self-hosting, full custom identity stacks, heavy federation), then a solution like WSO2 (or building in-house) may make sense.

Ultimately, your goal is to reduce friction for your enterprise customers, shorten onboarding time, and deliver a secure, scalable, maintainable SAML stack, so you can focus on your core product rather than wrestling with identity plumbing.