Your app is taking off—that's fantastic news! Users are signing up, and you're ready to build the next feature that will delight your customers or land your first major client.
You realize you need a professional-grade authentication capability. Maybe you want to host the login page on your own custom domain for a seamless brand experience. Perhaps a new client requires their own user pool and branding using Auth0 Organizations, or maybe you're ready to boost security with multi-factor authentication (MFA).
You're at a crossroads every successful developer faces: Your feature roadmap now requires a more powerful toolset.
You head to the pricing page and see two types of plans: Self-Service and Enterprise. The choice often comes down to the scale of the decision. The Self-Service plans are designed for teams that just need to get things done, letting you upgrade and add features as your project evolves. The Enterprise plan is a strategic, company-level commitment, involving custom contracts and sales conversations to ensure a long-term architectural fit. For a developer focused on the next sprint, the agility of the self-service model is the most direct path to progress.
The journey from a free plan to a paid one isn't just about accommodating more users—it's about unlocking the capabilities you need to build a mature, secure, and scalable application. Scaling effectively isn't about buying the biggest plan; it's about unlocking the right features, right now, without slowing your momentum.
This is where our Self-Service plans shine. Our Self-Service plans are designed for teams that need the ability to move fast while staying in control. For many, the most direct path to progress is also the best long-term fit. This is why for a huge number of growing teams, our Self-Service plans aren't just a stepping stone, they're the destination.
How do you know if a Self-Service plan is the right fit?
Three signs an Auth0 Self-Service plan is right for you
1. Prioritize speed and autonomy
Your team is lean, your roadmap is packed, and your time is your most valuable resource. The last thing you have time for is a multi-touch procurement process. You identified a need this morning, and you want to solve it this afternoon.
The self-service advantage: You can upgrade your Auth0 plan with a credit card directly from your dashboard. There are no meetings and no negotiations. You see a feature you need, and you can unlock it instantly. This is the essence of self-service plans: you are in the driver's seat.
Real-world scenario: Let's say you signed your first business-to-business (B2B) client. Now you need to provide them with the ability to manage their users and customize branded login experiences. With the Professional plan, you can enable the Organizations feature, configure the connection, and customize the login screen before the end of the day.
2. No customization needed
You're not trying to solve a niche, corner-case problem that requires a team of solutions architects; you need a robust, secure, and scalable product that just works.
The self-service advantage: Upgrading unlocks a suite of security and scalability tools designed to help you land larger customers and protect your application in production. Here are some of the key capabilities you could get instantly:
- Enterprise connections: Onboard B2B customers seamlessly by allowing their employees to log in with their existing company identity providers. Our paid plans support standard protocols like SAML and OpenID Connect, enabling you to connect to providers like Microsoft Entra or Okta.
- MFA: Improve security without sacrificing user experience. Our paid plans unlock more intuitive and user-friendly MFA factors.
- Enhanced attack protection: Protect your application and users from sophisticated threats with an advanced security suite. This includes breached password detection, which automatically blocks compromised credentials during sign-up and login.
This suite of features is designed to help you build a more secure, scalable, and enterprise-ready product.
Real-world scenario: A promising B2B client is ready to sign, but their security team requires all vendors to support SSO via their corporate identity provider. Instead of seeing the deal stall, you upgrade to the Professional plan. Within two hours, your team completes the SAML configuration, tests it, and gives the client’s security team the green light. The deal closes this week, not next quarter.
3. You need predictable, transparent pricing
Whether you're a startup or a team within a larger company, you need to forecast your costs as you grow.
The self-service advantage: Our pricing is public and straightforward. It's based primarily on your Monthly Active Users (MAUs), so the cost scales directly with your user base and use case (B2C or B2B). You can model your expenses from 500 MAUs and beyond. There are no hidden platform fees or long-term commitments you aren't ready for. This financial clarity is crucial for managing your burn rate effectively.
Real-world scenario: Your product manager wants to add enterprise features like SSO to start winning more B2B deals. To justify the cost, you pull up the pricing page. You see the plan has a predictable software cost, with no hidden fees. You quickly calculate the enterprise features ROI and realize that landing just one of the new clients in your pipeline will cover the cost for the entire year. The decision becomes a simple, data-driven "yes," and you upgrade on the spot.
When does an Enterprise plan make sense?
The Enterprise plan is incredibly powerful for businesses that truly need it. It's designed to address a different set of challenges, often centered around complex compliance, infrastructure, and support needs.
You might need an Enterprise plan when:
- You are dealing with strict regulatory requirements, like HIPAA/BAA.
- You need extensive identity federation with dozens of SAML or complex enterprise connections.
- You require a private cloud deployment.
- Your service requires a 99.99% uptime SLA and dedicated, high-touch support.
Build now, scale with confidence
Choosing the right Auth0 plan isn't about selecting the biggest package; it's about making the smartest choice for your momentum. For most growing teams, the Self-Service Plans provides the professional-grade identity features you need, exactly when you need them, without the friction of a sales cycle.
Don't let the process slow your progress. Embrace the speed and autonomy of Self-Service plan and get back to what you do best: building.
Ready to unlock your next feature? Log in to your Auth0 Dashboard to review your plan and upgrade today.
If you have questions, reach out to us at customeradvocate@auth0.com. We're here to help.
About the author
Carlos Aguilar
Customer Advocate