🔐🔴 Top 3 Authentication Strategies For 2025 📖🔑

In web development, authentication is one of the most complex aspects to implement yourself. Many web applications delegate authentication to third-party authentication services like Auth0 or rely on authentication built into the frameworks or tools they are built with.

Authentication strategies are methods or techniques used to verify the identity of a user or system in order to grant access to a protected resource. There are several different authentication strategies that can be used, including:

1. SSO (Single Sign-On) 💻

Single sign-on (SSO) is an authentication tool that enables users to securely access multiple applications and services using one set of credentials, eliminating the need to remember different passwords for each service.

SSO puts an end to the days of remembering and entering multiple passwords and eliminates the frustration of having to reset forgotten passwords. Users can also access a range of platforms and apps without having to log in each time.

Single sign-on simplifies user authentication, improves the user experience and, when properly implemented, improves security. It’s used often to manage authentication and secure access to company intranets or extranets, student portals, public cloud service, and other environments where users need to move between different applications to get their work done.

2. JWT Authentication 🍪

JSON Web Token (JWT) is an open standard (RFC 7519) that defines a compact and self-contained way for securely transmitting information between parties as a JSON object. This information can be verified and trusted because it is digitally signed.

JWT stands for JSON Web Token, and it is a commonly used stateless user authentication standard used to securely transmit information between client and server in a JSON format.

This is the structure of a token:

(Header).(Payload).(Signature)

3. OAuth 🍚

Open authorization (OAuth) is an open-standard authorization framework that grants applications access to an end user’s protected resources—such as their photos, calendars or social media posts—without requiring the login or password to the user’s account.

OAuth is a technological standard that allows you to authorize one app or service to sign in to another without divulging private information, such as passwords. If you’ve ever received a message such as, “Sign in with Facebook?” or “Allow this application to access your account?” you’ve seen OAuth in action.

Websites and third-party applications that ask users to “Sign in with Google?” or “Allow access to your account information?” are common use cases for OAuth. The OAuth protocol enables users to easily grant these applications access to their account data without sharing their user credentials.

Final Words 🗣️

You don’t necessarily need to learn all of these, how to implement and the ins and outs from the get go. But it’s important to know what they are and how they work. This will help you make better decisions when choosing an authentication strategy for your application.