Best SSO Services for Cloud Storage 2020: Work With Single Sign-On

A single sign-on service — or SSO for short — is a service that lets you log in to different platforms using only one set of credentials. If you’re a business owner, this means fewer lost passwords for your employees. In this article, we’ve rounded up the best SSO services for cloud storage so that your employees will never get locked out of your company’s cloud accounts.

Single sign-on solutions allow users easy access to applications. They’re especially useful for cloud file storage or enterprise file and sync services (or EFSS) where your employees might need to log in frequently. Our number-one SSO for cloud storage is OneLogin, but the full list includes some excellent alternatives, so keep reading to find out more about them.

What Makes the Best SSO Services for Cloud Storage?

An SSO service can help simplify the login process for the applications your company uses and save your employees valuable time. It provides one-click access to applications without needing to log in to each app separately. An administrator can create and manage the employees’ user identities for more control over their work.

The best SSO solutions should provide support for a wide range of applications, including the most popular cloud storage solutions for businesses. As a hub for your company’s passwords, an SSO service should also provide an adequate level of security. Finally, it should be easy enough to use that your employees will quickly get the hang of it. These are our top single sign-on solutions for cloud storage.

1. OneLogin — Login identity management platform with wide application support
2. Okta — Affordable and easy-to-use single sign-on software
3. JumpCloud — SSO solution with an excellent free plan
4. Microsoft Azure Active Directory — SSO platform for Microsoft-centric businesses
5. LastPass Enterprise — Password management service with SSO capabilities

A good SSO service could have every feature imaginable, but it’ll all be for nothing if it doesn’t work with the cloud storage platform your business uses. Business-oriented cloud services — commonly called EFSS — will be the focus of this article in this regard.

The SSO solutions we’ve picked all have integrations with the most popular EFSS services, such as Egnyte Connect, Dropbox Business, Box Business and Google Workplace (formerly known as G Suite). These are some of the other popular EFSS platforms out there, and the more of these platforms an SSO service connects to, the better.

Security is a major concern with single sign-on services, and understandably so. SSO services manage all of your passwords, and if their security fails, your entire business could be at risk.

Thankfully, features like multi-factor authentication — or MFA — can help reduce the risk of data breaches. Your employees should always use strong passwords, but that’s especially true for SSO platforms.

However, even if a single sign-on platform manages to tick all the boxes, it shouldn’t cost an arm and a leg. Most SSO providers offer similar features, so the deciding factor for many business owners will ultimately be the price.

The Five Best Single Sign-On Services for Cloud Storage

We will be listing the five best SSO platforms for cloud storage. These services are all excellent in their own right, but they’re especially useful for managing your employees’ access to your company’s cloud accounts. Without further ado, let’s move on to our number-one pick.

1. OneLogin

More details about OneLogin:

• Pricing: $2 per month per user
• Website: www.onelogin.com

Our number-one SSO platform is OneLogin, a veteran in the SSO game. OneLogin presents an attractive choice for businesses because it’s easy to use, which helps cut down on employee training time. To make things even easier, OneLogin comes preconfigured for work with over 6,000 third-party applications, including all of the most popular EFSS providers and quite a few online collaboration tools.

OneLogin is secure too, letting admins set custom password policies. Unfortunately, its pricing is extremely confusing. The $2 base plan is very limited, and even necessities such as multi-factor authentication are missing. Purchasing the add-ons separately can be expensive, but there are two affordable bundles that include MFA and advanced identity management features.

2. Okta

More details about Okta:

• Pricing: $2 per month per user
• Website: www.okta.com

Okta is an identity and access management platform that provides a single sign-on for over 6,500 third-party applications, and it has over 1,000 SAML integrations. That’s around 500 integrations more than OneLogin — quite an impressive number. Expectedly, Okta integrates with plenty of cloud storage platforms as well as productivity staples, such as Office 365 and project management apps like Asana and Jira.

Okta has plenty of user management options. It lets admins create password policies for different user groups as well as view login activity in real time. Okta has two affordable base plans, costing $2 and $5. These include multi-factor authentication too, unlike OneLogin’s base plan. You can purchase add-ons for more advanced features too. However, there’s a $1,500 annual contract minimum, which leaves out smaller businesses.

3. JumpCloud

More details about JumpCloud:

• Pricing: $12 per month per user
• Website: jumpcloud.com

JumpCloud is a directory-as-a-service platform that provides single sign-on services as well. It has around 700 applications pre-integrated, which is fewer than our top two picks. Luckily, these include all of the major cloud storage providers as well as crucial office applications such as Slack (and many alternatives for it).

Users can be sorted into groups and roles, with custom access management for each role or group. Multi-factor authentication helps keep things safe too. JumpCloud has two paid base plans that are on the expensive side, with add-ons for extra features.

JumpCloud’s most promising aspect is its free plan, which is limited to 10 users but includes every single premium feature, so it’s an excellent choice for small teams.

4. Microsoft Azure Active Directory

More details about Microsoft Azure Active Directory:

• Pricing: $6 per month per user
• Website: azure.microsoft.com

Azure Active Directory is a cloud-based identity management software and it’s a very competent SSO solution for cloud storage. It boasts over 3,000 third-party integrations, including big-name enterprise clouds such as Egnyte and Dropbox Business as well as Google Workplace. Plus, integration with other Microsoft products — like Office 365 and OneDrive — is a given with Azure AD.

Azure AD comes with comprehensive identity management options, including two-factor authentication and custom roles and permissions. Its free plan includes multi-factor authentication, but the paid plans offer more granular control over logins. However, Azure Active Directory’s paid plans are a bit more expensive than the top two entries on this list.

5. LastPass Enterprise

More details about LastPass Enterprise:

• Pricing: $6 per month per user
• Website: www.lastpass.com

LastPass is a password management platform, but its Enterprise plan lets it function as an SSO solution as well. It provides single sign-on for over 1,200 applications, plus you can add your passwords manually if a service you use isn’t supported. As a password manager, LastPass offers quite a few access control options for admins, including custom policies and usage reports.

As our LastPass review explains, it was hit by a hacking attack in 2015. However, thanks to its zero-knowledge approach, no sensitive data was leaked. LastPass also features two-factor authentication via an easy-to-use app. Since single sign-on is only available to the Enterprise plan and above, the service is a little pricey, but you can try it free for 14 days before you buy.

Honorable Mentions: SSO for Cloud Storage

CA Single Sign-On is a cloud identity management solution that supports all of the major enterprise-grade cloud platforms. It almost made it onto the list, but creating password policies is complicated, and even multi-factor authentication requires some tinkering. Plus, you have to contact CA SSO’s customer support to get a price — and it’s not cheap, either.

Due to the nature of SSO, some password management software could also work as an alternative. We listed LastPass because it has true business-level SSO features, but there are plenty of free password management applications out there for businesses and teams on a budget.

Final Thoughts

These identity management solutions will help get you on your way to a more efficient workflow. The SSO software we’ve chosen can help you better manage your team by providing easy access to all of your employees’ app accounts. If privacy is a concern for you, you might want to use a VPN with your SSO. You can check out our best VPN services list for a reliable recommendation.

OneLogin is a standout choice for its cheap price, flexible identity management and widespread support for third-party applications. Okta comes at a close second, offering superb ease of use and similar application support and access management features as OneLogin. However, it’s let down by the high entry cost, which keeps it from taking the top spot.

JumpCloud and Microsoft Azure Active Directory both provide cloud-based single sign-on for applications. However, they’re on the expensive side and don’t provide the extensive out-of-the-box app support as our top two. Password manager LastPass rounds off our list with its Enterprise plan, though it too is pricey, and it’s not as focused on SSO as its competition.

That wraps up our list of the best single sign-on software for cloud storage. Did you enjoy our list? Did you find the single sign-on solution of your dreams, or do you have another suggestion for us? Feel free to leave a comment below. Thank you for reading.

FAQ

• What Is the Best Single Sign-On Solution?

  OneLogin is the best cloud-based SSO solution, especially for enterprise cloud storage. Thousands of applications are preconfigured to work with it seamlessly, which will certainly help cut down on setup time. Its free plan is limited to only three applications, but its paid plans offer great features and won’t break the bank.

• What Is an SSO Provider?

  An SSO provider lets users access multiple accounts across different apps, all from one place and using only one password. It’s a secure way to manage passwords because it lets your business’ employees use one strong password instead of multiple weak ones that can be hacked easily.

• How Much Does SSO Cost?

  An SSO solution can be purchased for as little as $2 a month, which is what the cheapest offerings from OneLogin and Okta cost. Other single sign-on services can be more expensive, but they’re typically under $10. Plus, some SSOs offer great free plans that can be used by small teams.