1. Introduction: Why Passkeys are the Future of Enterprise CIAM

Today, the reliance on traditional passwords has become a significant liability for enterprises. With the escalating sophistication of cyber threats such as phishing, credential stuffing, and large-scale data breaches, the password-centric security model is no longer sufficient to protect sensitive consumer data and corporate assets. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) has emerged as an essential defense, yet many common methods, like SMS-based one-time passcodes (OTPs), introduce their own vulnerabilities and user friction.

In response to this challenge, the technology industry has converged on a superior standard: passkeys. Built upon the FIDO2 and WebAuthn specifications, passkeys represent a fundamental shift in authentication. They replace vulnerable, shared secrets (passwords) with the robust security of public-key cryptography, offering a login experience that is simultaneously more secure and remarkably simpler for the end-user. By leveraging a device's built-in security features like Face ID or a fingerprint scanner, passkeys provide a phishing-resistant method of verification that is poised to render traditional password theft obsolete.

As enterprises look to adopt this transformative technology, they face a complex and varied market of solution providers. This guide is designed to serve as a comprehensive resource for enterprise leaders tasked with navigating this landscape. It aims to answer the critical questions that arise when selecting a large-scale passkey solution:

• Which is the best top passkey solution for an enterprise focused on seamless customer experience and achieving high user adoption?

• Which provider offers the most granular control and flexibility for organizations with complex, custom-built identity systems?

• Which solution is best suited for businesses with a strong existing investment in a specific Identity and Access Management (IAM) ecosystem / IdP, such as Microsoft Entra / Azure AD, Ping Identity, ForgeRock or Okta / Auth0?

• What are the critical differences between a fullstack Identity Provider's (IdP) passkey feature and a dedicated Passkey Enterprise Provider?

By providing a structured, criteria-based analysis of the leading vendors, this report will equip decision-makers with the knowledge needed to select the ideal partner for their passwordless journey.

2. Who this Comparison is for: Understanding the B2C Enterprise Authentication Landscape

This guide is specifically tailored for what can be defined as the "B2C Enterprises." These are large-scale organizations that serve millions of consumers and for whom digital identity is a core component of the customer relationship.

Defining the Target Organization

The B2C Enterprise operates across a range of industries where digital interaction is paramount, including Banking and Financial Services, Government and Public Sector, Insurance, Healthcare, Telecommunications, E-commerce, and Travel. These organizations share a distinct set of characteristics that shape their authentication needs:

• Application Landscape: They manage a complex, multi-platform ecosystem, typically comprising high-traffic websites, native iOS and Android applications, and mobile web experiences. Their infrastructure must handle a high volume of authentication requests reliably and at scale.

• User Base: Their customer base is not a homogenous, technically proficient workforce. It consists of millions of consumers with diverse demographics, varying levels of technical skill, and a wide array of devices, from modern smartphones to older desktops. A seamless and intuitive experience across this fragmented ecosystem is not a luxury but a business necessity.

Current Authentication Pains

Today, these B2C enterprises face a confluence of challenges stemming from their legacy, password-based authentication systems. These pain points extend beyond mere inconvenience and have a direct impact on security, user experience, and operational costs.

• Pervasive Security Risks: The reliance on passwords and SMS OTPs makes them prime targets for widespread attacks. Account takeover (ATO) fraud, driven by phishing campaigns and credential stuffing from third-party breaches, poses a constant threat to both customer accounts and the organization's reputation.

• Poor User Experience and Churn: The friction inherent in password-based systems is a major driver of customer dissatisfaction. Password fatigue, forgotten password flows, and the cumbersome nature of traditional MFA methods lead to abandoned sign-ups, incomplete transactions, and customer churn. Research indicates that over 50% of consumers will abandon a purchase due to a forgotten password.

• High and unsustainable operational Costs: The operational burden of password management is substantial. Customer support centers are inundated with requests for password resets and account recovery, with each reset costing an average of \$70 in labor. Furthermore, the direct cost of sending millions of SMS OTPs for MFA can amount to hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars annually for a large user base.

• Mounting regulatory and compliance Pressure: Global regulatory bodies are increasingly mandating stronger, phishing-resistant authentication. Frameworks like the Payment Services Directive (PSD2) in Europe, and recommendations from agencies like NIST in the United States, are pushing enterprises to move beyond vulnerable methods like SMS OTPs towards more robust standards like FIDO2, the foundation of passkeys.

The strategic Value of Passkeys for B2C Enterprises

Passkeys are not merely an incremental improvement; they offer a strategic solution that directly addresses these core pain points. For the B2C enterprise, the business case for a large-scale passkey solution is compelling:

• Phishing-resistant Security: By design, passkeys are bound to the specific website or application they were created for. This cryptographic link makes them immune to traditional phishing attacks, as a user cannot be tricked into using their passkey on a fraudulent site. This fundamentally mitigates the primary vector for account takeovers.

• Frictionless User Experience: Passkeys transform the login process into a simple, near-instantaneous action using biometrics or a device PIN. This dramatic reduction in friction can lead to higher sign-up conversion rates, increased user engagement, and greater customer loyalty.

• Demonstrable ROI: The widespread adoption of passkeys creates a clear path to significant cost savings. It drastically reduces the volume of password-related support tickets and can virtually eliminate the high costs associated with sending SMS OTPs, delivering a tangible return on investment.

4. The Complexity of large-scale B2C CIAM Passkey Authentication

While the technical principles of passkeys are elegant, deploying a Passkey Enterprise Solution for a customer base of millions is far more complex than a simple "Hello World" implementation. B2C Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) presents a unique set of strategic challenges that enterprises must address to ensure a successful rollout. Ignoring these complexities can lead to low adoption, user frustration, and a failure to achieve the promised return on investment.

Beyond the "Hello World" Implementation

A basic passkey demonstration is straightforward. However, scaling this to a diverse, non-technical consumer audience across a fragmented digital ecosystem introduces significant hurdles.

• Achieving high User Adoption: This is the single most critical challenge and is primarily a user experience (UX) and product strategy problem, not just a technical one. A generic implementation that simply adds a "Sign in with a passkey" button often results in adoption rates below 10%. To achieve the high adoption rates (upwards of 80%) required to realize significant cost savings and security benefits, the entire user journey must be re-imagined. This involves educating users, designing intuitive enrollment flows, and making passkey login the easiest and most obvious path.

• Cross-Platform and Cross-Browser Hell: Consumers use a vast array of devices, operating systems, and browsers. The passkey experience, from the UI prompts to the underlying technical behavior, can vary significantly between Safari on iOS, Chrome on Android, and Edge on Windows. Building, testing, and maintaining a consistent, reliable, and bug-free experience across this matrix is a massive and ongoing engineering burden.

• Designing robust fallback and Account Recovery: A passkey-first strategy cannot be a passkey-only strategy, especially during the transition period. What happens when a user loses all their devices, or is using a public computer where they cannot access their passkey? Designing secure, user-friendly fallback mechanisms (such as magic links or recovery codes) and account recovery flows is a non-trivial security and UX challenge. A poorly designed recovery process can either create security holes or permanently lock legitimate users out of their accounts, leading to immense frustration and support costs.

• Demonstrating ROI to Stakeholders: The business case for passkeys rests on measurable outcomes: reduced support calls, lower SMS OTP costs, and increased conversion rates. Without a solution that provides sophisticated, funnel-based analytics, it is nearly impossible to quantify these benefits. Basic logs are insufficient. Organizations need actionable insights into where users are succeeding or failing in the passkey journey to optimize the flow and prove the project's value to the business.

• Navigating Security and Compliance Nuances: Not all passkeys are created equal. The distinction between synced passkeys and device-bound passkeys is critical, especially for regulated industries. Synced passkeys, which are backed up to a user's cloud account (e.g., iCloud Keychain), offer tremendous convenience but may not meet strict regulatory requirements for device binding, such as those found in PSD2 for Strong Customer Authentication (SCA). Device-bound passkeys offer higher assurance by ensuring the private key never leaves a single, specific device, but this comes at the cost of user convenience and easier recovery. A comprehensive CIAM Passkeys solution must be able to navigate these nuances and provide the right level of assurance for different transactions.

5. Enterprise Passkey Integration Strategies: One Size does not fit all

As enterprises evaluate the market, they will find that passkey solutions are not monolithic. They can be broadly categorized into three distinct integration strategies, each with its own set of benefits, challenges, and ideal use cases. Understanding these approaches provides a crucial framework for assessing the providers in this guide.

The All-in-One (Fullstack IdP) Approach

• Description: This strategy involves using a comprehensive identity platform where passkeys are offered as an integrated feature among a wide array of other authentication and identity management capabilities. These Identity Providers (IdPs) handle the full stack, from the pre-built frontend login UI to the backend user directory and policy engine.

• Characteristics: Passkey functionality is often enabled via a simple toggle or basic configuration within an administrative console. The user experience is typically standardized, following the IdP's pre-defined templates, which may offer limited customization. In this model, passkey support is treated as one of many features, not the core focus of the platform.

• Best For: Organizations that are already deeply embedded in a fullstack IdP's ecosystem. This approach is suitable when the primary goal is the rapid enablement of passkeys as an option, rather than optimizing the user experience for maximum adoption.

The Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Approach

• Description: This strategy entails building a custom passkey solution from the ground up. This is often done on top of a backend IdP that provides the basic user store and APIs (like Amazon Cognito) or by using open-source identity frameworks (like Keycloak). The enterprise is responsible for building the entire frontend experience and the integration logic.

• Characteristics: This approach requires deep, in-house expertise in WebAuthn, cross-platform development, and identity security. It offers maximum control and flexibility to create a completely bespoke user journey. However, it comes with the highest cost, the longest time-to-market, and a significant ongoing maintenance burden to keep up with evolving standards and browser changes.

• Best For: Security-focused organizations that require maximum control, have specific compliance needs, maintain substantial IAM expertise, and possess in-house technical resources to avoid introducing additional solutions into their enterprise stack.

The Specialist Layer Approach

• Description: This strategy involves deploying a dedicated Passkey Enterprise Provider that functions as a specialized layer on top of an organization's existing IAM or CIAM system. This solution focuses exclusively on perfecting the passkey authentication experience.

• Characteristics: These providers deliver pre-built, highly optimized UI components and SDKs designed to drive the highest possible user adoption rates. They offer advanced features like identifier-first flows, detailed analytics, and intelligent fallback handling. A key advantage is that they integrate with existing IdPs without requiring a disruptive and costly user data migration.

• Best For: Large B2C enterprises for whom a fast time-to-market, maximizing user adoption, and achieving a clear, demonstrable ROI on their passkey investment are the primary business objectives. This approach is ideal for organizations that want best-in-class passkey functionality without having to replace their entire identity infrastructure.

6. Methodology: How we evaluated the top Passkey Solution Providers

To provide a clear, consistent, and objective analysis, this report evaluates each passkey solution provider against a standardized set of criteria. This methodological approach ensures that enterprises can make a fair, like-for-like comparison based on the factors most critical to their success.

Provider Selection

The providers included in this analysis were selected based on their established market presence, demonstrated relevance to enterprise use cases (spanning both CIAM and Workforce Identity), and frequent inclusion in industry reports and customer deployments. The final list represents a cross-section of the most prominent and influential players in the passkey solution landscape.

Evaluation Criteria

Each provider has been assessed according to the following six key criteria:

1. Solution Architecture & Type: This classifies the provider's offering into one of the three primary integration strategies outlined in the previous section: Fullstack IdP, DIY (or Backend IdP), or Specialist Layer. This criterion provides immediate context on how the solution is designed to be deployed.

2. Primary Use Case & Target Audience: This determines whether the solution is fundamentally architected for Workforce Identity (securing employees and contractors) or Customer Identity (CIAM). While some platforms serve both, their core strengths and feature sets are often optimized for one over the other. This is a critical distinction for B2C enterprises.

3. Implementation & Integration Effort: This assesses the complexity, time, and resources required to deploy the passkey solution. The evaluation considers whether the implementation is a low-effort configuration, a medium-effort integration of SDKs, or a high-effort custom development project.

4. User Experience & Adoption Focus: This evaluates the solution's approach to the end-user journey. It examines whether the provider offers a "passkey-first" experience designed to maximize adoption or treats passkeys as a secondary authentication option. The availability of features like identifier-first flows and adoption analytics is a key consideration here.

5. Ecosystem & Flexibility: This assesses the provider's developer ecosystem, including the quality and breadth of their SDKs and APIs. It also considers the level of customization available, such as the ability to tailor the UI or orchestrate complex authentication flows using visual editors or code.

7. Comparative Analysis of top Passkey Solution Providers

This section provides an in-depth analysis of the leading passkey solution providers. It begins with a summary table for a high-level overview, followed by detailed profiles for each vendor, evaluated against the established criteria.

Top Passkey Solution Provider Overview

This table offers an at-a-glance comparison, allowing decision-makers to quickly identify providers that align with their primary needs and constraints.

Microsoft Entra ID

• Overview: Microsoft's comprehensive identity and access management solution, formerly known as Azure Active Directory. Its passkey capabilities are deeply integrated into the broader Microsoft ecosystem.

• Analysis:

  • Solution Architecture & Type: Microsoft Entra ID is a Fullstack IdP. It provides a complete identity platform that manages users, devices, and access policies for a wide range of applications.
  • Primary Use Case & Target Audience: While increasingly used for CIAM, Entra ID's historical strength and feature depth are in Workforce Identity. Its passkey implementation reflects this, with strong ties to Windows Hello for Business and the Microsoft Authenticator app for securing employee access.
  • Implementation & Integration Effort: The effort is Medium. For administrators, enabling passkeys involves configuring authentication method policies within the Entra admin center. This includes settings for self-service setup, attestation enforcement, and key restrictions. While not a single click, it is a guided configuration process.
  • User Experience & Adoption Focus: The focus is Low. The user experience is heavily centered on the Microsoft Authenticator app, which users must download and configure to create and use a passkey. The flow is designed for security and ecosystem consistency rather than being optimized to proactively drive adoption among a diverse consumer base. There is no "identifier-first" flow that automatically prompts for a passkey.
  • Ecosystem & Flexibility: The solution's primary strength is its deep integration with the Microsoft ecosystem (Windows, Office 365, Azure). For applications outside this ecosystem, integration is possible but may be less seamless. Flexibility is provided through Conditional Access policies, which can require phishing-resistant MFA (like passkeys) for accessing sensitive resources.

• Summary:

  • Pros: Excellent integration for organizations standardized on Microsoft technologies, strong and granular security controls for administrators, unified experience for employees using Windows Hello and Microsoft Authenticator.
  • Cons: The user experience is not optimized for B2C CIAM adoption, as it requires users to adopt the Microsoft Authenticator app. The focus is more on securing the workforce than on providing a frictionless consumer login.

• Verdict: The best choice for enterprises deeply invested in the Microsoft ecosystem, particularly for securing employee (workforce) access. It can be used for CIAM, but organizations must be prepared for a user journey that funnels consumers through the Microsoft Authenticator app (not an option at large-scale).

Okta

• Overview: A market leader in the IAM space, Okta offers passkey support across two distinct platforms, which creates a critical point of differentiation for buyers to understand.

• Analysis:

  • Solution Architecture & Type: Okta operates as a Fullstack IdP as well as a Backend IdP across two distinct platforms.

  • Primary Use Case & Target Audience: Okta's offerings are split into two main products that target different use cases:

    • Okta Identity Engine (OIE): This is Okta's traditional platform, primarily focused on Workforce Identity (it can be used for CIAM as well but is definitely not optimized for it). It provides deep, policy-based controls for enterprises to manage employee access. In this review, we consider Okta Identity Engine and Okta Identity Classic to have the same features.
    • Okta Customer Identity Cloud (CIC): This platform is purpose-built for CIAM Passkeys and is designed for developers building applications for consumers. As the Customer Identity Cloud is powered by the acquisition of Auth0, its specific features and capabilities are covered in detail in the subsequent section on Auth0.

  • Implementation & Integration Effort: The effort is Medium. On OIE, administrators can configure the FIDO2 (WebAuthn) authenticator and set policies, including the ability to explicitly block synced passkeys to enforce the use of more secure device-bound hardware keys—a typical workforce security posture. The implementation for the customer-focused platform is detailed under Auth0.

  • User Experience & Adoption Focus: The focus is Medium. The user experience differs significantly between the two platforms. OIE is geared towards enterprise security controls, while the customer-facing solution (detailed under Auth0) offers a more consumer-friendly login flow.

  • Ecosystem & Flexibility: The Okta Integration Network is vast. OIE provides workforce-centric integrations, while the CIAM platform (Auth0) is known for its developer-centric flexibility and extensibility.

• Summary:

  • Pros: Market leader with a strong reputation, extensive integration catalog, and distinct platforms for both workforce and customer identity needs.
  • Cons: The two-platform strategy can be confusing and costly; the workforce-focused OIE is not optimized for CIAM use cases.

• Verdict: A strong contender for enterprises already invested in the Okta ecosystem. The choice between OIE and CIC is critical. For workforce identity, OIE is the clear choice. For customer identity (CIAM), refer to the following section on Auth0 (Okta Customer Identity Cloud).

Auth0 (by Okta)

• Overview: Now positioned as Okta's Customer Identity Cloud (CIC), Auth0 is a developer-first identity platform known for its flexibility and ease of integration.

• Analysis:

  • Solution Architecture & Type: Auth0 is a Fullstack IdP specifically designed for CIAM.
  • Primary Use Case & Target Audience: The platform is built from the ground up for developers creating CIAM solutions. Its target audience is product and engineering teams that need a flexible and powerful identity layer for their consumer-facing applications. Passkeys were added later but it’s not a passkey-first product.
  • Implementation & Integration Effort: The effort is Low. Auth0 is renowned for its excellent developer experience. Enabling passkeys can be as simple as toggling a switch in the database connection settings within the Auth0 dashboard. This change is then reflected in the Universal Login page.
  • User Experience & Adoption Focus: The passkey focus is Medium. Auth0's Universal Login provides a clean, modern interface where passkeys are presented as a login option. The flow requires the user to first provide their identifier (email), after which they can choose to use a passkey. While user-friendly, it does not employ the more aggressive adoption-driving techniques of a "passkey-first" system and lacks the deep analytics to optimize the funnel.
  • Ecosystem & Flexibility: This is Auth0's greatest strength. The platform is highly extensible through its robust APIs, SDKs, and particularly Auth0 Actions. Actions allow developers to write custom Node.js code that executes at various points in the identity lifecycle, enabling a high degree of customization without hosting separate infrastructure.

• Summary:

  • Pros: Exceptional developer experience, highly flexible and extensible platform, fast implementation for standard use cases.
  • Cons: Native UX is not optimized for maximizing passkey adoption, achieving a truly passkey-first journey requires custom development, and it can become expensive at scale.

• Verdict: A great choice for development teams that need a flexible, CIAM platform and many login methods. These teams should have the resources to customize the authentication flow to meet their specific UX and adoption goals (however, some restrictions apply and certain passkey features might not be available).

Corbado

• Overview: Corbado positions itself as a "Passkey Adoption Platform," functioning as a specialist solution designed to maximize the business impact of a passkey rollout for large-scale B2C enterprises.

• Analysis:

  • Solution Architecture & Type: Corbado is a clear example of the Specialist Layer approach. Its platform is designed to integrate seamlessly on top of existing IdPs and CIAM systems (such as Okta, Auth0, or ForgeRock) without requiring any user data migration. This allows enterprises to add best-in-class passkey functionality without replacing their core identity infrastructure.
  • Primary Use Case & Target Audience: The solution is laser-focused on CIAM Passkeys. Its entire feature set, from the user experience to the analytics, is built to solve the unique challenges of deploying passkeys to millions of diverse consumers in industries like banking, e-commerce, and government services.
  • Implementation & Integration Effort: The effort is rated as Low. Corbado provides pre-built, optimized UI components and a suite of SDKs that are designed to reduce implementation time from a typical 12-36 month cycle for a custom build to just a few weeks. This dramatically accelerates time-to-market.
  • User Experience & Adoption Focus: This is Corbado's primary differentiator, with a High focus on adoption. The platform employs a "passkey-first" and "identifier-first" login flow, which intelligently detects passkey availability and presents it as the primary, easiest option for the user. This approach is proven to drive user activation rates to 80% (https://fidoalliance.org/case-study-vicroads/). The platform also includes advanced, funnel-based analytics to track key metrics and demonstrate a clear ROI.
  • Ecosystem & Flexibility: Corbado offers a range of SDKs for web and native mobile platforms. While the user experience is opinionated to maximize adoption, the frontend components are customizable to match an organization's brand. Importantly, it maintains support for existing login methods as fallbacks, ensuring a smooth transition for all users.

• Summary:

  • Pros: Unmatched focus on driving user adoption, fastest time-to-market, clear path to ROI through cost savings and improved UX, seamless integration with existing CIAM systems.
  • Cons: Less control over the backend authentication logic compared to a pure DIY approach.

• Verdict: The optimal choice for B2C enterprises where the primary business objectives are to achieve the highest possible passkey adoption rate, deliver a superior customer experience, and realize a fast and demonstrable return on investment.

ForgeRock (by Ping Identity)

• Overview: ForgeRock is a comprehensive identity platform that provides powerful, fine-grained control over authentication processes through its "Intelligent Authentication" journeys.

• Analysis:

  • Solution Architecture & Type: ForgeRock operates as a Backend IdP (DIY), that can be deployed on-premises or in the cloud. It is fundamentally an orchestration platform. This review refers to the product ForgeRock AM. ForgeRock’s previous product, ForgeRock Identity Cloud, was rebranded as PingOne Advanced Identity Cloud following the acquisition by Ping Identity and is now operated under Ping Identity.
  • Primary Use Case & Target Audience: The platform is powerful enough for both CIAM and Workforce use cases, particularly in large enterprises with complex and legacy integration needs. This review
  • Implementation & Integration Effort: The effort is High. While powerful, implementing passkeys in ForgeRock is not a simple toggle. It requires an administrator to design and build an authentication journey using a visual, node-based editor. This involves dragging and configuring nodes like "Platform Username," "WebAuthn Authentication Node," and "Data Store Decision" to create the desired logic. This process, while flexible, puts the onus of correct implementation and UX design entirely on the customer.
  • User Experience & Adoption Focus: The focus is Low. ForgeRock provides the building blocks (nodes) but does not offer a pre-optimized, passkey-first user experience out of the box. The quality of the user journey and the resulting adoption rate are entirely dependent on the skill and effort of the team implementing the solution. Generic implementations often lead to clunky flows and low adoption rates of 5-10%.
  • Ecosystem & Flexibility: Flexibility is ForgeRock's core value proposition. The journey editor provides near-limitless control over the authentication flow, allowing enterprises to build highly bespoke and complex logic to meet unique business requirements.

• Summary:

  • Pros: Extremely flexible and powerful orchestration engine, provides complete control over the authentication journey, suitable for complex enterprise environments.
  • Cons: High implementation complexity and cost, requires specialized ForgeRock expertise, no out-of-the-box solution for high-adoption passkey UX, long time-to-market.

• Verdict: Best suited for large enterprises with a dedicated IAM team and complex, non-standard authentication requirements. It is a powerful toolkit for building a passkey solution, but it is not a pre-built solution itself. Organizations using ForgeRock are prime candidates to use a specialist layer to accelerate their passkey rollout and ensure high adoption.

Ping Identity

• Overview: A long-standing leader in enterprise identity, Ping Identity (which now owns ForgeRock) offers its own powerful orchestration capabilities through its DaVinci platform, providing a similar value proposition of flexibility and control.

• Analysis:

  • Solution Architecture & Type: Ping Identity operates as a Backend IdP (DIY), with its DaVinci no-code orchestration engine being a key component for designing user journeys. Ping Identity lists the products PingFederate, PingOne for Customers, PingDirectory, and PingOne Advanced Identity Cloud, which are considered collectively in this review.
  • Primary Use Case & Target Audience: Like ForgeRock, Ping serves both the CIAM and Workforce markets, with a strong presence in large, complex enterprises.
  • Implementation & Integration Effort: The effort is High. Similar to ForgeRock, implementing passkeys requires using the DaVinci orchestration canvas to build a flow. Developers must configure FIDO2 policies and use APIs and SDKs to integrate the passkey experience into their applications. The process involves significant server-side configuration and client-side development to handle the necessary callbacks.
  • User Experience & Adoption Focus: The focus is Low. Ping provides the tools to build a passwordless flow but does not deliver a pre-packaged, adoption-optimized UX. The responsibility for designing an intuitive and effective user journey that encourages passkey creation and usage falls entirely on the customer.
  • Ecosystem & Flexibility: DaVinci is a highly flexible orchestration engine that allows for the integration of many third-party services via a drag-and-drop interface. Ping also provides a suite of SDKs for iOS, Android, and web platforms to facilitate client-side integration.

• Summary:

  • Pros: Highly flexible and powerful orchestration with DaVinci, strong enterprise-grade security features, extensive integration capabilities.
  • Cons: High implementation complexity, requires specialized knowledge, no out-of-the-box solution for a high-adoption passkey UX, significant development effort required.

• Verdict: A strong choice for large enterprises that require a highly customizable identity orchestration platform. Like ForgeRock, it provides the "engine" but not the "car": the enterprise must build the user-facing passkey experience themselves, making it a candidate for augmentation with a specialist layer.

HYPR

• Overview: HYPR is a dedicated passwordless security company that positions itself as a provider of "True Passwordless MFA," with a strong focus on enterprise-grade security and device-bound passkeys.

• Analysis:

  • Solution Architecture & Type: HYPR is a Specialist Provider. Its solution can integrate with existing IdPs like ForgeRock, acting as the passwordless authentication engine within a broader identity ecosystem.
  • Primary Use Case & Target Audience: HYPR's primary focus is on Workforce Identity and High-Security CIAM. They emphasize "HYPR Enterprise Passkeys," which are device-bound, in contrast to the synced passkeys common in consumer-focused solutions. This targets organizations with stringent security requirements that need to prevent credential sharing or syncing to unmanaged devices.
  • Implementation & Integration Effort: The effort is Medium to High. Integrating HYPR involves deploying its components and connecting them to the existing IdP, often as a configurable node or module within an authentication journey (e.g., in ForgeRock). While they offer pre-built integrations, the setup is more involved than a simple toggle.
  • User Experience & Adoption Focus: The focus is Low. HYPR aims to provide a "delightful" and fast user experience by replacing passwords with a single action on the user's phone. However, their primary design principle is security assurance, which can sometimes be at odds with the frictionless adoption needed for a broad consumer base. The emphasis on device-bound keys means a user typically needs to enroll each device separately, which is another burden on adoption.
  • Ecosystem & Flexibility: HYPR is designed to be interoperable, with partnerships with major IdPs and hardware token vendors like Yubico. This allows enterprises to mix and match authentication methods (e.g., HYPR's mobile app and YubiKeys) managed from a single console.

• Summary:

  • Pros: Very high security assurance through device-bound passkeys, strong focus on phishing resistance, interoperable with major IdPs and hardware tokens.
  • Cons: The focus on device-bound keys can create more friction for consumer use cases compared to synced passkeys. The primary target is securing the workforce rather than mass consumer adoption.

• Verdict: An excellent choice for security-first organizations, particularly for securing workforce access applications where preventing credential syncing is a critical requirement. It is a direct competitor to Beyond Identity in the high-assurance passwordless space.

Beyond Identity

• Overview: Beyond Identity is another leading passwordless provider focused on eliminating passwords by binding user identity to their device using strong cryptography.

• Analysis:

  • Solution Architecture & Type: Beyond Identity is a Specialist Provider that offers a "Universal Passkey Architecture." This architecture is delivered via SDKs for web and mobile platforms and is designed to be integrated into an enterprise's applications and identity flows.
  • Primary Use Case & Target Audience: The company targets both Workforce and CIAM use cases, with a strong emphasis on providing phishing-resistant MFA that continuously validates device security and user trust. Similar to HYPR, they champion single-device (device-bound) passkeys for maximum security.
  • Implementation & Integration Effort: The effort is Medium. Implementation requires developers to integrate Beyond Identity's SDKs into their web, mobile, or React Native applications. While this offers more control than a simple IdP toggle, it is a more involved development process.
  • User Experience & Adoption Focus: The focus is Medium. Beyond Identity aims for a frictionless user experience by eliminating passwords. However, their architecture is built on device-bound passkeys, which means a user must enroll each new device, typically by scanning a QR code from an already-enrolled device. While secure, this "key extension" process introduces a step that is absent with automatically synced passkeys, potentially impacting adoption in a broad consumer context.
  • Ecosystem & Flexibility: Beyond Identity provides a comprehensive set of SDKs for major platforms, including Android, iOS (Swift), JavaScript, React Native, and Flutter. This gives developers the tools to build a consistent passwordless experience across their entire application portfolio.

• Summary:

  • Pros: High-security, device-bound passkey architecture; comprehensive SDKs for cross-platform development; strong focus on Zero Trust principles.
  • Cons: The device-bound model requires a manual device enrollment/extension step, which can add friction for consumers. The focus is more on security assurance than on maximizing adoption through convenience.

• Verdict: A strong choice for organizations that prioritize the highest level of security assurance by ensuring passkeys are never synced to the cloud. It is well-suited for securing workforce access and for CIAM applications where security outweighs the need for the absolute lowest-friction user experience.

Thales

• Overview: Thales is a global technology and security leader that provides a wide range of identity solutions, including FIDO-certified authenticators and a cloud-based identity platform. Their focus is often on large enterprises and regulated industries.

• Analysis:

  • Solution Architecture & Type: Thales operates as a Specialist Provider, offering both hardware authenticators (security keys, smart cards) and a software-based platform called IdCloud.
  • Primary Use Case & Target Audience: Thales serves a broad market but has a particular strength in High-Security and Regulated Industries like financial services. Their IdCloud platform is designed to help organizations meet stringent compliance requirements like PSD2 SCA.
  • Implementation & Integration Effort: The effort is Medium. Integrating with IdCloud involves using their cloud-based authentication service, which can be connected to a relying party's mobile app via a FIDO2 mobile SDK. This is an integration project, not a simple configuration change.
  • User Experience & Adoption Focus: The focus is Medium. Thales acknowledges the UX benefits of passkeys but places a strong emphasis on striking the right balance between security and convenience. Their platform's ability to support both synced and device-bound passkeys allows organizations to choose the appropriate UX for the level of risk.
  • Ecosystem & Flexibility: Thales's ecosystem is extensive, spanning hardware and software. The IdCloud platform is FIDO2 certified and designed to be a scalable "authentication as a service" offering, supporting both modern (FIDO) and legacy (OTP) methods to help organizations transition smoothly.

• Summary:

  • Pros: Deep expertise in regulated industries, strong support for compliance standards like PSD2, offers both synced and device-bound passkey options to balance UX and security.
  • Cons: The solution is complex and may be overkill for organizations without strict regulatory requirements. The focus is more on compliance and high assurance than on consumer adoption.

• Verdict: A great choice for highly regulated enterprises that need a passkey solution capable of meeting strict Strong Customer Authentication and device-binding requirements without focus on high passkey adoption.

Amazon Cognito

• Overview: Amazon Web Services' (AWS) identity service for web and mobile applications. While Cognito offers a managed hosted UI for authentication, most large enterprises opt for the more flexible API/SDK-driven approach to build a custom user experience. This analysis focuses on that DIY approach, which uses Cognito as the backend infrastructure for user authentication, authorization, and management.

• Analysis:

  • Solution Architecture & Type: Amazon Cognito is a Backend IdP, which falls into the DIY category for passkey implementation. It provides the user directory and authentication APIs, but the entire frontend experience and much of the custom logic must be built by the developer.
  • Primary Use Case & Target Audience: Cognito is primarily used for CIAM (DIY). Its target audience is developers building applications on the AWS cloud who need a scalable, managed user directory.
  • Implementation & Integration Effort: The effort is High. Native passkey support in Cognito is not a straightforward feature. To implement a truly passwordless flow, developers must create a series of custom authentication flow triggers using AWS Lambda functions (Define Auth Challenge, Create Auth Challenge, Verify Auth Challenge Response). This process is complex, requires deep AWS expertise, and involves significant custom code to orchestrate the passkey ceremony and create a user session.
  • User Experience & Adoption Focus: The focus is Low. Cognito itself provides no pre-built UI or UX flows for passkeys. The user experience is entirely the responsibility of the developer. The platform's native state is password-centric, and achieving a seamless, passkey-first flow requires extensive workarounds, such as creating "dummy" passwords for users in the backend. This approach does not inherently encourage high adoption.
  • Ecosystem & Flexibility: As part of the vast AWS ecosystem, Cognito is highly scalable and integrates well with other AWS services. Its flexibility comes from its programmable nature via Lambda, which allows for custom authentication flows. However, this flexibility comes at the cost of extreme complexity.

• Summary:

  • Pros: Highly scalable, deep integration with the AWS ecosystem, complete control for developers willing to build from scratch.
  • Cons: High implementation complexity for passkeys, poor developer experience for custom flows and a password-centric data model that requires workarounds.

• Verdict: Only suitable for organizations with a highly skilled AWS development team that requires the absolute control of a DIY approach and is willing to invest the significant time and resources needed to build and maintain a custom passkey solution from the ground up.

IBM Security Verify

• Overview: IBM's comprehensive cloud-native IAM platform, offering a range of services from single sign-on and MFA to identity governance.

• Analysis:

  • Solution Architecture & Type: IBM Security Verify is a Backend IdP (DIY), with strong orchestration capabilities, similar in concept to ForgeRock and Ping Identity.
  • Primary Use Case & Target Audience: The platform is designed to serve both Workforce and CIAM use cases for large enterprises.
  • Implementation & Integration Effort: The effort is High. Like other orchestration-based platforms, enabling passkeys is not a simple toggle. It requires administrators to use the "Flow Designer" to build a custom authentication journey. IBM provides documentation and example flows, such as a "passkey IFA (Identifier-First Authentication)" flow, but this still requires importing files, creating custom branding themes, and configuring the flow logic.
  • User Experience & Adoption Focus: The focus is Low. While IBM Security Verify supports the creation of an identifier-first flow that can use passkey auto-complete, the platform provides the tools, not a finished, adoption-optimized product. The end-user experience is entirely dependent on the custom flow and theme developed by the enterprise.
  • Ecosystem & Flexibility: The Flow Designer is the core of the platform's flexibility, enabling administrators to create highly customized authentication and registration processes. This provides a high degree of control for enterprises with unique requirements.

• Summary:

  • Pros: Powerful and flexible flow orchestration, supports identifier-first concepts, strong enterprise security features.
  • Cons: High implementation complexity, requires specialized skills to configure and customize, no out-of-the-box optimized UX for driving passkey adoption.

• Verdict: A suitable choice for large enterprises, particularly those with existing IBM relationships, that need a powerful and flexible platform for orchestrating complex identity workflows. However, they will be responsible for designing and building the user experience to drive passkey adoption themselves.

8. Recommendations: Choosing the right Provider for your Enterprise

The analysis reveals that the top passkey solution is not a single product but rather the one that best aligns with an enterprise's specific priorities, technical maturity, and business objectives. The decision hinges on a fundamental trade-off between pre-packaged, adoption-focused solutions and flexible, control-oriented platforms.

For Enterprises Prioritizing Maximum User Adoption & ROI

For most B2C enterprises, the success of a passkey initiative is measured by user adoption. High adoption is the only path to achieving significant ROI through reduced support costs, eliminated SMS fees, and improved customer conversion.

• Recommendation: The Specialist Layer category is the clear leader for this objective. Providers like Corbado are purpose-built to solve the adoption challenge. Their "passkey-first" UX, identifier-first flows, and deep analytics are designed to make passkeys the easiest and most intuitive option for consumers, driving adoption rates far beyond what is typically achieved with generic IdP implementations.

For Enterprises Needing Maximum Control & Customization

For enterprises that are already invested in orchestration-heavy platforms like ForgeRock (by Ping) and Ping Identity, or are building their stack on Amazon Cognito, leveraging the native capabilities can be a logical starting point. These platforms provide a powerful toolkit for building highly bespoke authentication logic. However, the responsibility for designing, building, and maintaining a user experience that drives high passkey adoption falls entirely on the in-house team, which can be a complex and lengthy process.

• Recommendation: For this reason, even organizations using these platforms should strongly consider integrating a Specialist Layer. This hybrid approach combines the backend control and existing investment in their current IdP with the pre-built, adoption-optimized user experience of a specialist provider, offering the best of both worlds.

For Enterprises Deeply Embedded in the Microsoft Ecosystem

For organizations where the majority of users and applications exist within the Microsoft technology stack, ecosystem synergy is a powerful decision driver.

• Recommendation: Microsoft Entra ID is the natural choice. Its passkey implementation is seamlessly integrated with Windows Hello and the Microsoft Authenticator app, providing a consistent and unified security experience for employees and partners. While less optimized for broad CIAM adoption, its strength within its native environment is unmatched.

For Enterprises with Strict High-Security or Workforce Mandates

For securing employee access, especially in sensitive industries, the primary concern is often preventing credential compromise and unauthorized sharing, rather than maximizing convenience.

• Recommendation: Providers specializing in device-bound passkeys, such as HYPR and Beyond Identity, are the top contenders. Their architectures are explicitly designed to prevent passkeys from being synced or copied via cloud services, providing the highest level of assurance that the credential remains on a managed, trusted device. Thales is also a strong choice here, particularly for regulated industries needing to prove device binding for compliance.

9. Conclusion: Embracing the passwordless Future

The transition away from passwords is no longer a futuristic vision; it is a strategic imperative for modern B2C enterprises. Passkeys, built on the secure and open standards of FIDO2 and WebAuthn, offer a clear path to a future where digital interactions are both more secure and profoundly more convenient for millions of consumers.

This analysis demonstrates that the market for Passkey Enterprise Solution providers is mature and diverse, but not uniform. Choosing the right partner is a critical decision that extends beyond a simple feature comparison. The optimal choice depends on an enterprise's core priorities:

• Is the goal to maximize user adoption and achieve a swift, measurable ROI? A Specialist Layer provider like Corbado offers a purpose-built solution.

• Is the priority to maintain absolute control and flexibility to build a bespoke journey? An orchestration platform from ForgeRock or Ping Identity provides the necessary toolkit.

• Is the primary objective to secure a workforce with the highest level of assurance? A specialist in device-bound passkeys like HYPR or Beyond Identity is the most suitable choice.

Ultimately, the successful deployment of a large-scale passkey solution requires more than just technology; it requires a strategic partner that understands the nuances of the user journey, the complexities of cross-platform implementation, and the business drivers that define success. By carefully evaluating their own needs against the distinct approaches of the providers in this guide, enterprises can confidently select a partner to lead them into the passwordless future.