How to Migrate From Auth0 to an Open-Source Identity Provider: A Complete Step-by-Step Guide

As organizations grow and their identity management needs evolve, many teams find themselves reevaluating their choice of authentication providers. Auth0 is a popular, fully managed identity-as-a-service (IDaaS) platform that provides authentication, authorization, and single sign-on (SSO) solutions. 

While it offers convenience and scalability, some teams start encountering challenges with cost, vendor lock-in, or the desire for greater control over security and customization. For such teams, migrating to an open-source identity provider (IdP) can offer flexibility, transparency, and cost savings.

This blog provides a detailed, step-by-step walkthrough for migrating from Auth0 to an open-source IdP, covering everything from auditing your current setup to testing, rolling out, and avoiding common pitfalls.

Why Teams Move Away from Auth0

Auth0 is widely adopted due to its ease of use and extensive features, but several factors motivate organizations to explore alternatives:

• Rising Costs: Subscription fees can escalate rapidly as user bases grow, especially for enterprise plans with advanced features.
  
  
• Vendor Lock-In: Relying on a proprietary platform can reduce flexibility, making it harder to integrate with custom systems or adopt new workflows.
  
  
• Limited Customization: Organizations with multi-tenant architectures, advanced authentication logic, or specialized login flows may find managed services restrictive.
  
  
• Data Control & Compliance: Teams handling sensitive data often prefer self-hosted solutions to maintain full control and meet regulatory requirements.
  
  
• Open Standards & Community Support: Open-source identity providers typically support protocols like OIDC, OAuth2, and SAML, allowing teams to customize, audit, and extend authentication workflows while benefiting from active developer communities.
  
  

Migrating to an open-source identity provider helps organizations reduce costs, improve flexibility, and gain greater control over authentication and user management.

The Rise of Open-Source Identity Providers

Open-source identity providers have grown in popularity as businesses seek cost-effective, flexible, and transparent alternatives to proprietary services. 

Solutions like Authgear, Keycloak, Ory Kratos, and FusionAuth provide enterprise-grade authentication capabilities while allowing organizations to self-host, modify, and integrate deeply with existing systems. Key advantages of open-source IdPs include:

• Customization: Full access to source code allows tailoring authentication flows, policies, and integrations.
• Security Transparency: Open-source software can be audited by internal teams or the community, offering confidence in data handling.
• Community Support: Active developer communities provide plugins, extensions, and guides, helping teams implement complex authentication setups.
• Cost Efficiency: Self-hosting reduces dependency on subscription fees and provides predictable infrastructure costs.

With these benefits, open-source IdPs are increasingly chosen by startups and enterprises alike, particularly those looking to manage sensitive user data, implement multi-tenancy, or maintain control over authentication and authorization workflows.

How the Migration Process Works (End-to-End Overview)

Migrating from Auth0 to an open-source IdP is a multi-step process that requires careful planning, testing, and execution. Here’s a high-level view of the workflow:

Audit Your Existing Auth0 Setup

Before migrating, it’s essential to gain a thorough understanding of your current Auth0 configuration. This includes reviewing authentication flows, user data, roles, permissions, multi-factor authentication (MFA) settings, social login integrations, and APIs. Understanding these elements helps identify dependencies, custom rules, and security considerations. 

Audit also involves cataloging client applications, connections, and tenant settings. This step ensures no critical functionality is overlooked during migration and helps in mapping features to the new identity provider. 

It’s often helpful to document workflows and any custom logic or extensions used, as these will need replication or adaptation in the new system. A detailed audit reduces the risk of downtime or data loss during the transition.

Choose Your Open-Source Identity Provider

Selecting the right open-source IdP is a crucial decision. Evaluate providers based on feature parity with Auth0, such as OAuth/OIDC support, SAML integrations, MFA options, user management capabilities, and extensibility. 

Security features, compliance standards, and the strength of the open-source community or enterprise support should also factor in. Consider scalability for growing user bases and the ease of deploying updates. 

Popular options include Authgear, Keycloak, and Janssen. The choice affects your architecture, migration complexity, and long-term maintenance. It’s important to test the candidate IdP in a sandbox environment to ensure it supports all required authentication flows and integrations.

Design Your Migration Architecture

Migration architecture defines how the transition occurs. You can choose a staged approach, where users are gradually migrated while both systems run in parallel, minimizing risk. Alternatively, a full cutover might be faster but requires careful timing to avoid downtime.

The architecture should account for token validation, session management, and application reconfiguration. Plan data flow, error handling, and fallback mechanisms to ensure seamless user experience. Decisions here also include whether to maintain temporary dual-login systems, handle legacy password formats, and synchronize user roles. Proper design ensures that the new system can fully replace Auth0 without affecting ongoing operations.

Export Users from Auth0

Exporting users safely is critical to preserve authentication continuity. This step involves extracting user records, hashed passwords, metadata, roles, and any custom claims. Auth0 provides APIs and bulk export tools to help with this. It’s important to maintain password hashes in a format compatible with the new IdP or implement password reset flows for users. 

Audit exported data for completeness and correctness, verifying that no users, roles, or permissions are missed. Protect exported data with encryption during transfer and storage. A clean export lays the foundation for a smooth import into the new system.

Import Users into Your New IdP

Once user data is exported, it must be imported into the new identity provider. Map user attributes, roles, and permissions accurately to preserve the existing access structure. Ensure password hashes are supported or initiate a secure migration flow for credentials. Some IdPs may require data transformation to match schema or field formats. 

Verify that imported users can authenticate and that roles and metadata are correctly applied. Testing a small batch of users first helps uncover potential issues before migrating the entire user base. This step ensures continuity in user authentication and access control.

Recreate Applications & OAuth Clients

Applications and OAuth clients need to be reconfigured in the new IdP. Create new client IDs, secrets, and redirect URIs matching your application requirements. Re-establish scopes, consent screens, and token lifetimes. 

Ensure integration with web, mobile, and API clients is properly set up. Any third-party applications that rely on Auth0 for authentication must be updated to recognize tokens issued by the new provider. Testing each client thoroughly prevents authentication failures and broken sessions after migration.

Rebuild Authentication & Login Flows

Login, registration, password reset, and email verification flows must be reimplemented in the new system. This includes custom branding, user-friendly error messages, and security mechanisms. Ensure workflows like account activation, forgot-password, and session handling function correctly. 

If you had social logins or multi-step authentication in Auth0, replicate these flows. Testing with real user scenarios ensures smooth transitions and avoids disruption to users. Properly rebuilt flows preserve both security and usability.

Update Backend APIs for Token Validation

All backend services that previously validated Auth0-issued tokens need updates to recognize tokens from the new IdP. This may involve configuring JWT signature verification, audience claims, issuer URLs, and token expiration checks. Update SDKs or middleware libraries to support the new authentication provider. Ensure that RBAC or ABAC rules are enforced consistently. Thorough testing of APIs is critical to prevent unauthorized access or service disruption.

Reconfigure MFA

If your applications use multi-factor authentication, replicate these setups in the new IdP. Configure available factors (TOTP, SMS, push notifications) and enforce policies per security requirements. Ensure enrollment, verification, and recovery flows are functioning. Migrating MFA may involve prompting users to re-enroll if factor data cannot be exported. Properly configured MFA maintains security while minimizing friction for users.

Migrate Roles & Permissions

Roles, permissions, and access control policies must be recreated in the new system. Map Auth0 RBAC or ABAC configurations to equivalent constructs in the new IdP. Verify that all applications honor these roles and that users retain proper access rights. Testing with a subset of users helps identify gaps or misconfigurations. Correct migration of roles ensures security and prevents accidental access issues.

Configure Social Providers

Reintegrate social login providers like Google, Facebook, or Apple. Create new app credentials on each platform and configure redirect URIs and scopes in the new IdP. Verify login and consent flows for each provider. Test edge cases like account linking and duplicate email handling. Social provider configuration is key to maintaining seamless authentication options for end users.

Test End-to-End

Comprehensive testing validates that all migrated components work together correctly. Test login, registration, MFA, social login, APIs, and role-based access. Simulate different user journeys and error scenarios. Collect feedback from QA teams or pilot users. Identifying issues at this stage prevents major disruptions during rollout.

Plan Your Rollout Strategy

Develop a communication and rollout plan for internal stakeholders and users. Define fallback options if migration encounters issues. Decide on cutover timing and inform users about potential changes in login experience. Prepare monitoring and support channels to address post-migration issues. A clear plan reduces risk and builds confidence among stakeholders.

Gradually Cut Over Traffic

If using a staged migration, gradually redirect users from Auth0 to the new IdP. Monitor logs, error rates, and user feedback. Adjust configurations as needed to ensure smooth operation. Once confident, complete the full cutover and decommission the old system. Gradual migration minimizes disruption and allows quick remediation if issues arise.

Common Mistakes & How to Avoid Them

Even the most meticulously planned migrations can run into unexpected issues. When moving from Auth0 to an open-source identity provider, small missteps can quickly cascade into bigger problems, affecting user experience and security. 

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By knowing the most common pitfalls and how to address them, teams can navigate the migration confidently, avoid downtime, and ensure a seamless transition for their users.

Password Hash Incompatibility

One of the most frequent issues during migration is password hash incompatibility. Different platforms use different hashing algorithms and formats, and if this isn’t carefully addressed, users may be unable to log in with their existing passwords. To prevent this, it’s important to understand the hashing method used by the current system. 

Since password hashes cannot be converted into a different format, the new system must either support the existing hash algorithm or require users to reset their passwords. In some cases, passwords can be securely re-hashed only after the user logs in and provides their original password.

Neglecting Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

MFA is a critical layer of security that protects users even if passwords are compromised. Failing to migrate MFA settings or not planning for user re-enrollment can leave accounts vulnerable. Ensure that MFA configurations are fully supported in the new system and communicate clearly with users about any necessary steps they must take during the migration.

Overlooking API Integrations

Many applications rely on identity provider APIs for authentication, user management, or custom workflows. If these integrations are not reviewed and updated to align with the new provider, functionality can break, leading to frustrated users and operational issues. Comprehensive API mapping and testing are essential before going live.

Skipping Staged Testing

Teams sometimes skip staged testing and jump straight into a full migration. This can result in downtime, errors, and poor user experiences. A phased rollout, starting with a small subset of users, allows teams to identify and fix issues without impacting the entire user base.

The Importance of Planning

Thorough planning, careful testing, and clear communication are the best ways to avoid these common mistakes. Paying attention to password compatibility, MFA, API integrations, and staged rollouts ensures a smooth migration while maintaining security, functionality, and user trust.

Wrapping Up

Migrating from Auth0 to an open-source identity provider requires careful planning, thorough testing, and methodical execution. When done correctly, teams gain flexibility, lower costs, and full control over authentication and identity management.

Providers like Authgear offer modern, developer-friendly open-source solutions with OAuth2, OIDC, passwordless authentication, and extensibility. By following this step-by-step approach, teams can ensure a smooth migration while maintaining security, compliance, and user experience.

Explore Authgear’s open-source identity platform on GitHub to understand how it supports secure, flexible authentication. 

Planning a migration from Auth0? 

Schedule a free consultation with our authentication experts to design a smooth, low-risk transition.

FAQs

Do users need to reset passwords after migration?

Not always. If password hashes are compatible, users can continue using existing credentials. Otherwise, a staged password reset process is recommended.

Can MFA settings be migrated from Auth0?

Most MFA settings need to be reconfigured in the new provider. Inform users about changes ahead of time.

Is downtime unavoidable during migration?

No. Using phased migration or parallel operation strategies can minimize or eliminate downtime.

Can I rollback if migration fails?

Yes. Keeping Auth0 in read-only mode during the transition allows rollback if needed.