Amazon's recent announcement of AWS Cognito pricing changes has ignited a broader discussion within the tech community about authentication service options and cloud vendor lock-in strategies. The changes, effective December 1, 2024, represent a significant shift in both pricing structure and service tiers, prompting developers and organizations to reevaluate their authentication solutions.
Price Impact and Legacy Support
The community's analysis reveals that while existing customers with active MAUs before November 22, 2024, will retain their current pricing until November 30, 2025, new customers face substantially higher costs. For instance, what previously cost nothing for 50,000 MAUs will now cost $600 under the new pricing model. However, AWS has included grandfather clauses for existing customers, allowing them to maintain their free tier of 50,000 MAUs if they had at least one MAU in the previous 12 months.
Old vs New Pricing Comparison:
- Old Free Tier: Up to 50,000 MAU free, then $0.0055 per MAU
- New Essentials Tier: Up to 10,000 MAU free, then $0.015 per MAU
Cost Examples:
- 50,000 MAU: Old: $0 → New: $600
- 100,000 MAU: Old: $275 → New: $1,350
Feature Improvements vs. Cost Concerns
While the price increase has raised eyebrows, community members point out that AWS has introduced meaningful improvements to the service. The new tier structure (Essentials, Lite, and Pro) includes enhanced features such as passwordless login options and fully customizable logins. Notably, the Plus tier, which includes previously separate Advanced Security Features, has actually become more cost-effective, showing AWS's strategic pricing adjustments across different service levels.
The auth service space is so strange. Almost every vendor is ridiculously expensive for any B2C use-case. Cognito, with its free tier of 50k MAU, was one of the few relatively cheap options.
Alternative Solutions and Market Competition
The discussion has sparked significant interest in alternative authentication solutions. Community members highlight several options, from other major providers like Auth0, Okta, and Azure AD to open-source alternatives. However, a key criticism of Cognito that emerges is its lack of multi-region active-active support, a feature offered by most competing services. This limitation has become a crucial consideration for organizations requiring high availability.
AWS Strategy and Market Position
The pricing changes reflect AWS's broader market strategy. Community experts suggest that AWS typically offers core services like EC2 and S3 at competitive rates to encourage adoption, then monetizes additional services more aggressively. This approach has led to ongoing debates about the true cost-effectiveness of AWS services, particularly when considering factors like data egress fees and vendor lock-in.
In conclusion, while AWS Cognito's pricing changes represent a significant increase for new customers, the service improvements and grandfather provisions for existing users suggest a strategic balance between revenue growth and customer retention. Organizations now face important decisions about their authentication service choices, weighing factors such as cost, features, vendor lock-in, and high availability requirements.
Reference: Amazon Changed The Prices For AWS Cognito