SAML vs OIDC — The Two Enterprise Auth Protocols

The moment your product lands its first enterprise customer, you'll get a question that stops many developers in their tracks: "Do you support SAML?" If you've only ever worked with OAuth and JWTs, this feels like being asked if you speak a language you've never heard of.

SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language) and OIDC (OpenID Connect) are the two protocols that power enterprise single sign-on. They solve the same fundamental problem — letting users log in to your app using their company's identity system — but they solve it in very different ways. Understanding both is essential if you're building software that enterprises will use.

Why Enterprise Customers Demand SAML

To understand SAML, you need to understand the enterprise IT perspective. Large companies have thousands of emp