WorkOS vs BuildBase: what you still need to buy after SSO
WorkOS handles enterprise SSO and SCIM well, but leaves billing, workspaces and RBAC to other vendors. Here is how BuildBase compares.
In short
WorkOS is a developer-focused identity platform built for enterprise SSO, SCIM sync and audit logs in B2B SaaS. It does not include billing, workspaces or email - teams pair it with Stripe. BuildBase bundles auth, billing, workspaces, RBAC, workflows and email in one SDK; enterprise SSO is not part of it.
Most WorkOS comparisons stop at the login screen, because WorkOS is very good at exactly that screen. The question worth asking is what a B2B SaaS team is still assembling around it once SSO works.
WorkOS answers one part of a SaaS backend better than almost anyone. It was never trying to answer the rest, and the rest is where a second, third and fourth vendor bill shows up.
The one-paragraph answer
Pick WorkOS if an enterprise buyer is asking for SAML or SCIM this quarter and you want the tool built specifically for that problem, with a self-serve portal their IT admin can configure directly. Pick BuildBase if auth is one of several systems you still need - billing, workspaces, roles, quota enforcement - and you would rather run one instance than add WorkOS on top of Stripe on top of your own permissions code and keep all of it in sync by hand.
What each one actually is
WorkOS is a developer-focused identity platform built around one problem: getting a B2B app to enterprise-ready authentication fast. SSO, SCIM directory sync, audit logs, and a self-serve Admin Portal that lets a customer's own IT team configure their SSO connection without WorkOS or your team in the loop. It is narrow by design, and the depth shows in exactly the area it targets.
BuildBase is the opposite shape. Nineteen modules ship as one instance
behind @buildbase/sdk - authentication, billing and subscriptions,
workspaces, role-based access, workflow automation, email. Eight sign-in
methods are built in: email and password, Google, LinkedIn, GitHub,
Microsoft, magic links, passkeys and OAuth 2.0, plus API tokens for
server-to-server calls. If the full 19-module bundle is more than you want,
Kinde sits in between - auth with billing
bolted on, short of a whole backend.
What is missing from that list matters here: no SAML, no enterprise SSO connections, no SCIM. If a deal is blocked on a security questionnaire asking for those, this is the wrong tool today.
Key takeaway
WorkOS optimizes for enterprise identity done right. BuildBase optimizes for not needing five vendors to ship the rest of a SaaS product - though we do not offer enterprise SSO at all.
Where the two overlap, and where they do not
Both handle sign-in for a B2B app. WorkOS's User Management product covers email and social sign-in the same way BuildBase's authentication module does, and both exist as one piece of a larger platform rather than the whole product.
The overlap ends there. WorkOS has no native subscription billing - the commonly reported pattern is pairing it with Stripe, because billing was never part of the product. It has no multi-tenant workspace model beyond "Organizations," no role-based permission system past org membership, no workflow automation and no transactional or campaign email sending. Every one of those gaps is a vendor you add, a bill that scales on its own axis, and an integration that has to agree with WorkOS about who the user is.
That is not a flaw in WorkOS. It chose depth on one problem over breadth across many, the same tradeoff Auth0 and Clerk make - WorkOS just specializes further, into the enterprise-SSO slice specifically rather than identity broadly.
Comparing the shape of each product
| Feature | BuildBase | WorkOS |
|---|---|---|
| What you get | Auth, billing, workspaces, RBAC and workflows on one instance | Enterprise SSO, SCIM directory sync, audit logs, Admin Portal |
| Enterprise SSO / SAML / SCIM | Not available | Core product, self-serve Admin Portal for customer IT admins |
| Subscription billing | Built in: plans, credits, usage quotas | Not included, bring your own Stripe integration |
| Multi-tenant workspaces | Built in | Basic "Organizations" concept, not a full workspace model |
| Permissions / RBAC | Built in, org- and workspace-scoped roles | Not included beyond org membership |
| Built in: Google, Mailgun, custom SMTP | Not included | |
| Pricing | Launch $49/mo, Grow $99/mo, Scale $199/mo | Free to 1M MAU, then $125/connection SSO/SCIM |
Pricing
Our numbers are published and simple: Launch at $49 a month, Grow at $99, Scale at $199, each with more monthly active users, workspaces and storage than the last. No free plan, but a 7-day trial that does not ask for a card. Full details are at /pricing.
WorkOS's User Management product, AuthKit, is free for the first 1M monthly active users, and that includes email and password, social login, passkeys, MFA and magic auth. Worth stating without a hedge: at the scale most products actually run at, the auth line on a WorkOS bill is zero, and we have no answer to that number. Our entry plan is $49 a month for 25,000 MAU.
What WorkOS bills for is the enterprise part. SSO and SCIM directory sync are priced per customer connection, starting at $125 each for the first 15 and sliding with volume down to $50 each in the 101-200 band, with 201+ quoted custom. Audit logs price separately again: $125/mo per SIEM streaming connection, and $99/mo per 1M events retained. There is no published platform fee. (Verified against workos.com/pricing on 15 August 2026.)
So the bill is a direct function of how many enterprise logos you land, not how much your product is used. That is a reasonable trade if enterprise SSO is the thing selling the deal - fifteen connections at $125 is $1,875 a month, and if those fifteen are enterprise contracts, that is not the line item anyone is arguing about. It is a stranger one if most of your customers never ask for SSO at all, because what you pay for is the connections you hold open, not what your product does.
Where WorkOS wins
Enterprise SSO and SCIM, done by specialists. This is WorkOS's entire reason to exist, and it shows. We do not ship SAML, enterprise SSO connections or SCIM directory sync at all. If a buyer's security team is asking for any of those this quarter, WorkOS wins that deal outright and there is no way to argue around it.
A self-serve Admin Portal. WorkOS gives a customer's own IT admin a portal to configure their SSO or SCIM connection directly, without your team or WorkOS's in the loop for routine setup. BuildBase has no equivalent construct anywhere in its module catalog - there is nothing for an enterprise buyer's admin to self-serve here, because there is no enterprise identity layer to configure.
If you are choosing between them
The tell is whether an enterprise security questionnaire is already on your desk. If it is, and SAML or SCIM is a checkbox you cannot skip, WorkOS solves that specific problem better than we do, full stop - we do not ship it and are not the right tool for that deal this quarter.
If you are earlier than that - building the product, still deciding on workspaces and roles, not yet fielding enterprise security reviews - WorkOS gets you enterprise-ready identity you may not need for another year, and leaves billing, workspaces and permissions as separate problems regardless. Charging per API call or enforcing usage quotas on top of WorkOS means building that layer from scratch either way.