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5 min read
Total cost of B2B CIAM: A small enterprise case study in 2026
Kinde offers the best value for money compared to WorkOS in a side-by-side comparison, updated with 2026 pricing.

By Alex Norman — Published

In the B2B CIAM (Customer Identity and Access Management) space, it can be hard to compare the full cost of technology choices before you invest. You need to measure them side by side.

This article explains how Kinde offers the best value for money compared to WorkOS using a common scenario to compare the two, with pricing verified as of 2026.

Scenario: Your company sells a B2B product to 150 organisations where most of the customers require single sign on (SSO) to their own enterprise directory for roughly 10,000 users total.

Let’s compare Kinde and WorkOS.

Kinde is best value with the right B2B features built-in

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Kinde offers a clear and scalable B2B pricing model, which charges for monthly active users (MAU) and monthly active organizations (MAO). With this model, you only pay for the users and organizations that authenticate within your billing month. Enterprise connections to the customer’s identity provider (IdP) are free, so go ahead and make as many as you need to suit their identity and security requirements. See Kinde’s pricing page for more details.

Kinde price calculation

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  • 150 Organizations (50 included, 100 = $43.00 MAO)
  • 75 Enterprise connections (included)
  • 10k users (included)
  • Custom domain (included)

Kinde Scale plan for $250 per month + $43.00

A significant feature of the Kinde Scale plan is that enterprise connections are included at no additional cost, regardless of the number of connections. It is also important to note that a custom domain, which is crucial for brand consistency, is also included in all paid plans at no additional cost.

Total cost of Kinde $293.00 USD per month

Extra features on the Kinde plan

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Kinde Scale plan base price also includes additional B2B features.

WorkOS has expanded its platform but SSO connections still carry a premium

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WorkOS has made meaningful moves in 2026, launching AuthKit — a full user management layer (social login, MFA, RBAC, passkeys) that is free for up to one million monthly active users. This positions WorkOS as a more complete authentication platform than it was in 2025, when it was primarily known as an enterprise SSO add-on that required a separate auth provider alongside it.

However, the core pricing challenge for our scenario remains the same: WorkOS charges per enterprise SSO connection, using a tiered volume pricing model. For a company with 75 enterprise connections, the math is:

WorkOS price calculation (2026 tiered pricing)

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  • 150 Organizations (Included with AuthKit)
  • 75 Enterprise connections — tiered at $125 each for the first 15, $100 for connections 16–30, $80 for connections 31–50, and $65 each for connections 51–75
  • 10k users (Included with AuthKit free tier)
  • Custom domain ($99.00)

Enterprise connections breakdown:

ConnectionsRateSubtotal
1–15 (15 connections)$125 each$1,875
16–30 (15 connections)$100 each$1,500
31–50 (20 connections)$80 each$1,600
51–75 (25 connections)$65 each$1,625
Total connections$6,600

See WorkOS’s pricing page for more details.

The total monthly price for WorkOS is $6,699.00 USD.

Price summary Kinde and WorkOS

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To provide a clear overview, the table below summarizes the monthly costs for both providers based on the needs of a small enterprise with 150 customer organizations and 75 enterprise connections.

FeatureKindeWorkOS
Cost for 150 Customer Orgs (MAO)$293.00$0.00
Cost for 75 Enterprise Connections$0.00$6,600
Custom Domain$0.00$99.00
Total Monthly Cost$293.00$6,699.00

The choice between these two pricing models highlights a key difference in pricing philosophy.

WorkOS’s 2026 AuthKit launch means the platform is now a more complete authentication solution — you no longer need a separate provider for basic user management. That is a genuine step forward. But the per-connection pricing model for enterprise SSO means that costs scale sharply as you add more enterprise customers to your product. For a company with 75 SSO connections, that totals $6,600 per month in connection fees alone before any other costs.

Kinde’s platform approach bundles key B2B identity features into a single solution, with pricing that scales based on organizations and users — not on the number of enterprise connections. For a small enterprise working in the B2B space, the significant cost difference could be a decisive factor in selecting a CIAM solution that not only meets their technical requirements but also aligns with their budget.

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