Ending the Absurdity of SSO Tax – Introducing ssotax.org
Ever heard of the SSO Tax? In short, it's a tactic where software vendors bully security-conscious companies to upgrade to costly enterprise plans. They do this by gating SSO (Single Sign-On) features behind their priciest options, causing companies to pay up to 70 times their standard rates. As a former CTO at a VC-backed and security-conscious company, I've faced the tough choice of skipping costly enterprise upgrades, even when SSO was crucial. Take a look at Notion: to access SSO, they casually double their standard pricing. Imagine buying a Tesla and being charged extra to unlock full…
In plain words
ssotax.org is a directory that catalogs software vendors' pricing practices around Single Sign-On (SSO) features. It documents instances where companies gate SSO access behind expensive enterprise plans, sometimes charging up to 70 times standard rates. The site is designed for security-conscious companies and IT decision-makers evaluating software purchases. It aims to increase transparency around what the creator calls the "SSO Tax"—a practice where essential security features command premium pricing.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
In the maker’s words, at launch
Ever heard of the SSO Tax? In short, it's a tactic where software vendors bully security-conscious companies to upgrade to costly enterprise plans. They do this by gating SSO (Single Sign-On) features behind their priciest options, causing companies to pay up to 70 times their standard rates. As a former CTO at a VC-backed and security-conscious company, I've faced the tough choice of skipping costly enterprise upgrades, even when SSO was crucial. Take a look at Notion: to access SSO, they casually double their standard pricing. Imagine buying a Tesla and being charged extra to unlock full braking power. That's what SSO Tax is - vendors exploiting a built-in feature, essential for security, to extract excessive fees. So, why initiate a new project? Rob Chahin's work on sso.tax initially highlighted this issue. However, the site's updates dwindled, and data became outdated. Despite offering assistance, I received no response, leading to the creation of https://ssotax.org. While there has been short spike of activity post-fork, it already stopped again. That’s what we’ve seen often in the last few years. Instead, I want to give the topic the attention it deserves. In addition of integrating all pending PRs and enriching the data, I’ve introduced a new feature: "Friends of SSO". We should not only call out unfair practices but also praise vendors who are committed to security! Furthermore, I’d love to raise awareness about vendor practices by utilizing Twitter and Linkedin to publicly praise or critique them. The goal is to get attention for the topic, ideally sparking conversation with the vendors involved. What are your thoughts on getting rid of the SSO Tax? Excited to hear your ideas!
Does the same job
all alternatives →- STSkip the SSO Tax, access your user data with OSS2023 · github.com · ▲220
As the former CTO of an Insurtech and Fintech startup I always had the “pleasure” to keep regulators and auditors happy. Think of documenting who has access to what, quarterly access reviews, yearly audits and so on… Like many others we couldn’t justify the Enterprise-plan for every SaaS tool to simply get access to SSO and SCIM/SAML APIs. For Notion alone the cost would have nearly doubled to $14 per user per month. That’s insane! Mostly unknown to people, SSO Tax also limits access to APIs that are used for managing user access (SCIM/SAML). This has proven to be an incredibly…
- UOustaxes.org – open-source tax filing webapp2021 · github.com · ▲465
TokenTax: Crypto Tax Loss Harvesting2018 · ▲92📉Save money on taxes. Harvest your cryptocurrency losses
More commerce this month
the category →
Compare your startup equity grant for free.
Commerce · 26d ago · equitybee.com
Launched alongside, November 2023
the whole month →
Discover & book top creators to promote your product
Growth · 2023 · passionfroot.me
