SSO for customer and B2B apps (OIDC and SAML)

Single sign-on lets a user authenticate once and access multiple applications. In CIAM it shows up two ways: unifying login across your own brands, and letting your B2B customers log in with their own identity provider.

OIDC vs SAML

Two protocols dominate:

• OpenID Connect (OIDC): modern, JSON and OAuth 2.0 based, built for web and mobile apps and APIs. Default choice for new consumer and developer-first apps.
• SAML 2.0: older, XML based, entrenched in the enterprise. If you sell to large companies, their IT will hand you SAML metadata and expect it to work.

You do not pick one philosophically. Consumer-facing apps lean OIDC; enterprise B2B deals force you to support SAML too. A serious CIAM platform speaks both.

Enterprise SSO is a sales gate

In B2B SaaS, “do you support SSO with our identity provider” is a deal-blocker on enterprise contracts. The buyer wants to log in with their Okta, Entra, or Google Workspace. This is enterprise SSO, and it pairs with SCIM provisioning so accounts are created and removed automatically.

Watch the pricing. Several platforms put enterprise SSO behind the top tier (the “SSO tax”). If SSO closes deals, model that cost against deal size, not list price.

What to verify with a vendor

• Both OIDC and SAML as identity provider and service provider?
• Multi-tenant SSO so each B2B customer connects their own provider?
• Self-serve SSO setup, or does every connection need your engineers?
• Is enterprise SSO tier-gated? See the pricing guide.

For B2B specifically, read best CIAM for B2B SaaS.