We currently use the free plan and make use of the Custom Database features to allow logins using our legacy database, which we plan to keep using. We’d like to upgrade to a paid plan to take advantage of the Custom Domains to work around some cookie issues we’ve been seeing with recent browsers.
Looking at the feature matrix, it looks like the Custom Databases are only available on Enterprise plans; does that mean that if we get a Developer plan we would lose this (essential) feature?
You’re correct, Custom DBs for authentication are only available for Enterprise customers. Developer plans include automatic migration to Auth0 DB. I understand you wish to keep using your custom legacy DB — is there a specific reason behind it? I mean, there’s no lock-in with Auth0 DB and you could take your users with you if you decide to leave. Let me know, please, if you have any specific concerns that prevent you from migrating to Auth0 DB.
So I think that the way it currently works on our site, the first time someone logs in via Auth0, it looks to our legacy database to verify the login, and then pulls them into Auth0. Subsequent logins are in Auth0, and password changes need to happen there rather than on our legacy database. Is that still a Enterprise-level Custom DB, or is that Developer-level?
We’re OK with this approach; we just need to keep on using our legacy database for the initial account creation.
I suppose my confusion is caused by the idea that a free account would have a feature that isn’t available in the entry-level paid account. I could just be misunderstanding the multiple facets of the Custom Database, though.
You are absolutely correct, it’s just a good ole lazy migration
In theory, (and don’t try this at home!) if you turn off lazy migration and disconnect your legacy DB from Auth0 entirely, your already migrated users won’t even know since they are authenticated against Auth0 DB now. Unless you also run some custom data fetching from your legacy DB and not 100% of user metadata is already stored in Auth0, there would be no difference from user perspective. This is because your users are not authenticated against your legacy DB; their password and profiles are stored in Auth0, they are authenticated by Auth0, and (possibly) some of their external and additional information is also fetched from your custom DB (but only after they are authenticated by Auth0). It’s a bit of a simplification, but you get the point.
Custom DB feature allows enterprise customers to run authentication against their custom DBs (bypassing Auth0, so to speak, but taking full advantage of every other available feature). I don’t think it’s your case, unless you run a massive enterprise with gazilions of users and a very particular set of skills requirements
We have also been a bit confused by the plan features for data migration. We are on the developer plan and looking to migrate our database soon.
When someone attempts to login we would like to check if they are in auth0 and if so authenticate. If they are not in Auth0 yet then we need to validate the credentials in our legacy system and if they exist create them in Auth0 and run an additional script to add them to our new downstream system.
Based on your response, I think this would be possible in the Developer plan by connecting our existing database, but could you please confirm? We don’t want to go through the implementation and then find out we are using enterprise features.
Apologize for the delay. What you’re describing is Database Migration, and it is available on Developer plans. It is intended for migrating your users from a legacy DB to Auth0 and leaving the legacy DB behind when the migration process is complete. It works exactly as you described:
With this being said, you will only be able to migrate users (only Login and Get User scripts will be available on the Developer Plan). Once a user is migrated, Auth0 will not attempt to authenticate them against your legacy DB or check any additional user information from the legacy DB moving forward.
The difference with the Enterprise “Custom DB” feature is that Enterprise customers can keep users in their custom DB, and use this DB to keep authenticating users without migrating to Auth0. On Developer Plans the only thing you can use your Custom DB for is to migrate users into Auth0 DB.
The Developer Plan no longer exists. Can you clarify please whether this “lazy migration” is available on ESSENTIALs or requires PROFESSIONAL? It is not clear from your feature comparison tables.
