I Used AWS Cognito for a Startup. I Wouldn't Do It Again

(joshkaramuth.com)

16 points | by speckx 48 minutes ago

9 comments

  • wilkystyle 8 minutes ago
    > Reading Cognito docs feels like someone took three separate manuals, threw them in a blender, and then sprinkled in some outdated Stack Overflow answers for flavor.

    This is my experience with basically all of AWS documentation. It is nearly always either (1) far too high-level to be of any actual use, or (2) far too verbose, with a massive volume of superfluous information I need to parse and discard before I get to the stuff I am trying to figure out.

    As just one example, I recently needed to link an AWS Partner Central account with an AWS Management account, and process and documentation was painfully complicated: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/partner-central/latest/getting-s...

  • patwolf 2 minutes ago
    My experience with Cognito matches the author's experience exactly. I mostly used Auth0 in the past, but we switched to Cognito for a new project because it would be cheaper.

    Don't like that email addresses are case sensitive, and now you want to change that? Sorry, you gotta create a new user pool from scratch--no way to migrate.

  • samdixon 6 minutes ago
    Regardless of AI gen'd article... Cognito does have some rough edges. One day I'd like to make a best practices Cloudformation template (if doesn't already exist) that includes things like which login name to set, notification lambdas and the like.

    One big pro about cognito.. can't beat the price.

  • mikigraf 4 minutes ago
    Don't even get me started on backups or other basic functionality one would expect from a service like this. AWS should either make an acquisition (Auth0 or a smaller company like Wristband?) and rebuild the service, or just kill it. Instead, we have a critical service that enterprises rely on stuck in limbo...
  • opengrass 2 minutes ago
    LDAP, or...

    Linux/BSD as the identity/runtime layer, SSH is the protocol boundary, and your web backend is the command gateway.

  • pelagicAustral 5 minutes ago
    AWS documentation is the best excuse to stay away from their services. I thank everyday for their documents, it's like putting a lighthouse on an iceberg.
  • _3u10 13 minutes ago
    Just use whatever service that costs 10x as much to make it do what it was advertised to do in the first place, like DAX for dynamo or cloudfront for S3 in case you hit “scale” like 2000 req/sec
  • AndrewKemendo 16 minutes ago
    Nobody is ever going to convince me AWS isn’t hostile to users as a filter

    Like how scammers put in typos

    • _3u10 10 minutes ago
      It’s not for users it’s for people who think 1/4 of the traffic a raspberry pi could handle is scale. Or don’t know what a server is.
  • turboturbo 12 minutes ago
    This reads like, and is confirmed by Pangram to be, 100% AI slop
    • justinluther 11 minutes ago
      "That’s not an upgrade. That’s a hostage situation."
      • chasd00 9 minutes ago
        hah that quote makes my day.