What Is AWS Cognito: How Amazon Cognito Works + Benefits

Do you know What Is AWS Cognito? And why is it one of Amazon Web Services’ most sought-after features? If you don’t then read this to learn about it.

Even imagining that you will be able to control hundreds of thousands of clients’ data through your application was a wild thought 15-20 years ago. Yet, in 2022 this is a reality thanks to services like AWS Cognito.

The rise of the internet brought access to businesses of their consumers, which was unthinkable before.

Two decades ago, door-to-door sales/data collectors were the sources of gathering intel for your business. Nowadays, you can do this with a push of a button.

Your applications now can provide you with all the information you need regarding your client through your sign-up process.

This allows you to devise your strategy in a manner through which you can cater to their requirements better than ever, thanks to services like AWS Cognito.

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What is AWS Cognito?

To those uninitiated, AWS Cognito is one of the services offered by Amazon Web Services.

This service can help your application with its data collection, storage, and management. This service automates the entire process, and you do not have to worry about manually handling it.

Data is primarily considered the most critical piece of the puzzle you require to create and deploy a successful strategy.

AWS Cognito collects, manages, and stores this for you so you can work towards making your application the best it can be.

Core Functions AWS Cognito Can Perform?

The following are the core functions AWS Cognito can help achieve for your application:

1. Perform Identity Authentication

Every business needs to know that real humans, not bots, are trying to sign up for their services. So they can spend time working on the demographic that is attractive to them to serve them better.

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However, authenticating if the account is a real person or a bot can be time-consuming if done manually.

Plus, with access to millions, no business wants to spend so much time on this; hence, the first function AWS Cognito can perform is to provide you with accurate authentication of users.

2. Use Social Media & Email for Quick Authentication

The second core function AWS Cognito can perform for your application is to utilize various social media and eCommerce sites like Facebook, Amazon, Google, and Apple to authenticate your sign-up process quickly.

3. Securely Store Your Client’s Data

The final core function AWS Cognito serves your application is that it can store its data for you post-providing authentication.

You can utilize this data to know the audience segment attracted to your business and reverse engineer your business plan to suit their needs.

Use Cases of AWS Cognito?

Every mobile or web application in 2023, if they wish to be successful, requires the services of AWS Cognito. It can perform invaluable tasks for them.

Tasks like user authentication, data storage, and management are performed by this service for your application.

Your application can have the resources to analyze, plan, target, and serve the audience that is attracted to your business the most.

Is AWS Cognito Worth it?

In our opinion, AWS Cognito is definitely worth it. It is a cheap service that provides you with invaluable results.

Data is everything in 2022 for a brand if they want to be successful, and it helps you customize it to the way you want.

According to us, serving your needs that on a budget alone makes AWS Cognito worth it.

Benefits of Using AWS Cognito

Now you know what the AWS Cognito service is, its functions, and its use cases.

The next topic we want to highlight is the benefits you can gain if you employ this service for your applications. The following benefits are:

1. Allows You to Gather Information about Your App Users Conveniently

The first and paramount benefit of utilizing AWS Cognito service for your application is that it helps it collect, store and manage data conveniently.

This service automates the entire process, so you don’t have to worry about collecting it, but it is accessible whenever you are required to use it.

2. Completely Scaled and Managed By AWS

The second benefit of Using AWS Cognito is that whether your application attracts ten users’ data or millions of queries, it is completely scaled and managed by Amazon Web Services for optimal performance.

 AWS automatically scales the requirements required to serve your application and delivers excellent results. Regardless of your business size AWS Cognito can serve it to perfection every time.

3. Free of Cost for Less Than 50,000 Monthly Active Users

The third benefit of employing AWS Cognito for your application is that if your business is small-scale and your application needs to handle less than 50,000 monthly active users, this service is absolutely free for you.

For less than 50,000 sign-ups, you get to use and benefit from this service without paying a single penny. If you ask us for a start-up, this service is quite hard to ignore.

4. Unrivaled Data & Privacy Protection

Another benefit of AWS Cognito is that it is covered under the umbrella of Amazon Web Services. Therefore, you can avail of unrivaled data and privacy protection for your application data.

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Amazon takes immense pride in offering state-of-the-art data encryption and protection. Using this service, your application can gain de facto benefits from having its data stored and managed by the most secure network.

5. Integrated With Other AWS Services

Amazon Web Services offer over 175+ services. So, if you are using AWS Cognito, then chances are you might need some of their other services as well to ensure your application performs at its peak capabilities.

Luckily for you, AWS Cognito is compatible and can easily be integrated with other AWS services. Making using this service a win-win decision for your application.

6. Seamless Integration with Your Application

Regardless of your customer pool being in hundreds of millions, AWS Cognito’s best benefit is that it can seamlessly integrate with your application and provide unparalleled service in the industry.

7. Best Budget Option Even For Large Scale Business

The final benefit, in our opinion, AWS Cognito can serve you is that it is a budget-friendly option for you, even if you are a large-scale enterprise.

It is already free for less than 50,000 monthly active users on your application. Still, even if you are a growing business or a mega-corporation, they should be your choice because even at the 10 million monthly active users mark.

It costs you $0.0025 per monthly active user. This is ridiculously cheap!

Limitations of AWS Cognito

We consider AWS Cognito to be a market-leading service in their niche. However, they still aren’t perfect. Thus, we have mentioned the following limitations of using AWS Cognito:

1. Lack of Integration with Third-Party Services

AWS services are amazing, but sometimes for a better solution, developers use other third-party services.

Although AWS Cognito can be integrated with them, their integration flow is nowhere as smooth as it is with other AWS services. Hence, it is a significant drawback for us.

2. Poor Disaster Recovery System

Amazon prides itself on providing world-class security, so much so that its disaster recovery system is extremely poor.

Although it is unlikely that Amazon Web Services will ever experience an outage/hack, if it does, then recovering your data will be an unpleasant and challenging task.

3. Struggles in Handling Custom Requests

Some AWS Cognito users have expressed their frustrations on various social media channels that the ability to customize and handle custom requests is an area where AWS Cognito struggles.

Pricing of AWS Cognito service?

AWS Cognito is free of cost service if your application has less than 50,000 monthly active users. Plus, it is a highly light-on-your-pocket service even overall.

Even if your application has over 10 million active users, it will store, manage, and sort their data for your application. All you need to pay is $0.0025 per monthly active user.

Check out this link for more info on AWS Cognito Pricing.

amazon cognito vs auth0

CognitoAuth0
Cognito is a little messy as well as its documentationAuth0 on the other hand is authentication and authorization platform and has clear documentation as well
Cognito is used to authorize users from Cognito pools for API calls. Used for mobile and web apps.Auth0 on the other hand is an authentication and authorization platform and has clear documentation as well
Free for the first 50,000 calls per month, after that it is very cheap and the prices increase graduallyWe have a free plan in Auth0, then it gives different price options depending on the situation.

AWS cognito user pool vs identity pool

Cognito Identity PoolCognito User Pool
Identity pool helps users to use AWS servicesThe user pool helps users to use mobile and web apps.
The identity pool uses the JWT token from the User pool to get AWS Credentials from Cognito and use that to log in and use the application in AWSIt authenticates the credentials given by the user verifies that and gives back a JWT token to the user to access the mobile and web app

Why is AWS Cognito rated so highly?

The primary reasons why AWS Cognito is rated so highly are the following reasons.

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Effective Service
Affordable for Everyone
Makes Difficult Tasks Convenient

Jobs AWS Cognito can perform for you?

The following are the jobs AWS Cognito can perform for you:

Jobs AWS Cognito Can Perform
Authenticate Your Application Users
Manage Your Application User’s Data
Securely Store Your Application User’s Data

How to create a cognito user pool?

Have we created a Cognito user pool, no right? So, why wait let us do it now.

Step 1. Login to the console and navigate to the cognito page.

Cognito User Pool
Cognito User Pool

Step 2. Fill up the details as you would like to configure your user pool.

Cognito MFA and Security
Cognito MFA and Security
Cognito Account Recovery
Cognito Account Recovery

Step 3. Fill in the sign-up experience you want the user to have.

Cognito Sigh-Up Setting
Cognito Sigh-Up Setting
Cognito Pool Required Attributes
Cognito Pool Required Attributes

Step 4. Configure your message delivery setting.

Step 5. Integrate the app that you would like to use with the Cognito User Pool.

Step 6. Review and Create. That’s it we are done now the pool is ready to be used by the users.

What Is AWS Cognito FAQs

The following are the most FAQs of AWS Cognito.

Q: What is AWS Cognito?

AWS Cognito is a service from Amazon Web Services that help you save, store, manage, and sort your customer’s data for your application sign-up process.

Q: How Many Accounts Data Can AWS Cognito Manage?

AWS Cognito is scalable to unparallel heights; it can scale to whatever your application requires.

Meaning that it can effectively manage however many accounts are signed up on your application without any worry.

Q: How Is AWS Cognito User Friendly?

AWS Cognito is a user-friendly service because it can integrate with your application in a few clicks.

Q: Is AWS Cognito A Paid Service Or Free?

AWS Cognito offers you various tiers of service. If your application has less than 50,000 monthly active users, it is free.

However, if it has more than 50,000 monthly active users, you have to pay a flat and affordable fee per user.

Q: Will my data remain protected if I use AWS Cognito?

Yes! AWS Cognito security is covered by Amazon Web Services security encryption, so you can rest assured your data is safe and protected at all times.

Q: Is AWS Cognito Affordable

AWS Cognito is the most affordable service in its niche without a shadow of a doubt.

Q: Should I Invest In AWS Cognito Services?

If you are a start-up, then for you, this service is free; once you start using it, you will automatically realize the benefits this service can serve you.

Hence, we highly recommend you use this service to benefit your application and your business.

Q: amazon cognito user pools?

This is used for authenticating users for mobile and web applications.

Q: AWS Cognito SSO?

Cognito does not provide SSO service, but it can be integrated with application services like Sphere, Azure AD, and many more.

Q: What is the app client in AWS cognito?

We can create App Clients using the Cognito user pool to create signup and help users sign in to the webpage in aws.

Final Word

AWS Cognito is a service from Amazon Web Services that aid your application to gain the benefits of operating in 2022.

We have defined What Is AWS Cognito in detail in this AWS Cognito Tutorial. What do you think about them? Let us know in the comments section.

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