Building vs. Buying Authentication for AI-Driven Apps: Where Prefactor Stands Out

For scaling B2B SaaS companies embracing AI and automation, the question of how to manage identity securely and efficiently is paramount. Many still resort to building their own authentication systems, especially for the complex needs of non-human identities and granular authorization. But this comes with a severe "Developer Drag," costing hundreds of thousands annually and diverting critical talent.

The High Cost of Building Your Own Identity Stack

While some might consider building custom authentication, authorization, and audit solutions, this path is fraught with challenges and hidden costs:

• Massive Resource Drain: Building custom identity infrastructure can cost upwards of $400,000 for initial development and requires a continuous drain of valuable engineering time. We're talking about up to 2 FTEs (full-time equivalents) of senior engineers annually just to build and manage this complexity. This slows product innovation and inflates maintenance costs.

  
  

• Security Risks: Hand-rolled systems often lack modern audit capabilities and comprehensive future-proofing, leading to "Exploitable Gaps" and inconsistent security.

  
  

• Opportunity Cost: Every hour spent on building and maintaining a non-core identity system is an hour not spent on developing your core product's unique features, impacting your competitive edge and market responsiveness.

Why Off-the-Shelf Doesn't Always Cut It (Until Now)

The irony is that while building is costly, many existing off-the-shelf authentication providers (like AWS Cognito or Auth0 ) are often "Rigid, human-only" and have "High friction for B2B/multi-tenant" use cases. They force costly workarounds, particularly when dealing with complex non-human identities (APIs, bots, AI agents) that dominate modern application landscapes. This often leads to a "critical gap" in API security, where 78% of organizations have suffered breaches. Despite these challenges, over 50% of SaaS companies build their own authentication, and 99% build their own authorization.

Prefactor: The Next-Gen Alternative

Prefactor is built to address this dilemma directly, offering the control and flexibility of a custom build without the "Developer Drag".

• Native Identity Fabric for All Digital Entities: Unlike fragmented systems, Prefactor provides a unified, secure identity layer for all your application's entities – humans, APIs, bots, and AI agents – built as first-class identities. This is crucial as non-human identities now vastly outnumber humans in applications.

  
  

• Code-Native Control: Master Identity Logic: Our unique Domain Specific Language (DSL) empowers your developers to precisely define complex identity customization and control, eliminating the need for costly bespoke builds and the associated maintenance burden.

  
  

• Unified Security & Governance: We provide integrated authentication, authorization, and audit capabilities within a single platform. This allows for complete control, compliance, and helps address "Audit Blind Spots" that lead to security risks and fines.

• AI & Automation-First Authn Architecture: Prefactor is architected from the ground up for the future of intelligent applications, providing a secure identity foundation that scales predictably with the explosion of non-human identities.

By choosing Prefactor, B2B SaaS companies can avoid the "Identity Chaos" of fragmented systems and the "Developer Drag" of custom builds, ensuring their core product development accelerates while their identity infrastructure remains secure, scalable, and future-proof.