SAML vs OAuth

Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) and Open Authentication (OAuth) are two open-source standards that can be used to grant access to a certain network or service for a user It’s worth noting that the former is usually used to grant access to a specific service, while the latter is usually deployed to protect some resources that a Service Provider owns.

A key difference between SAML and OAuth is that SAML supports authentication and authorization while OAuth only supports the latter.

Both these tools are passwordless, meaning that they allow users to avoid having to keep a list of usernames and passwords to access resources and services. For companies building apps, OAuth and SAML can make the onboarding process easier and allow delegation of user management. For administrators, they also have the advantage of providing greater control through centralized authentication and authorization—which can be very important for some companies, although it also can result in an energy-intensive activity.

The authentication process handled in a very different way by SAML and OAuth, where SAML can be considered like a house key that gives you access to the space while OAuth is more of an interphone where you ask for permission. The same goes for the authorization process, where OAuth allows only for a certain amount of privileges that were previously granted by the administrator.