So what exactly is a third-party software?

A third-party software means the reusable software components supplied or developed for a specific purpose by any company or person rather than the one who built the prevailing product on a specific system (source).

Third-party solutions are available in various forms and here’s a list of the foremost common sorts of third-party software:

Libraries

Libraries are available handy for writing web or mobile applications by delivering ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) text files for a component. They are open-source (available to everyone at no cost) or closed-source/proprietary (where a sale could also be necessary).

Platforms

Platforms are integrated, ready-made solutions that developers can use to understand a selected feature, e.g., user logging, chat, or maps. They are SaaS (Software as a Service) products to which developers can outsource certain functionalities for a fee (usually monthly), or in some cases for free of charge.

Tools

A variety of tools that in some ways make the app development simpler and increase the standard of the ultimate product.

Let’s check out a few 3rd party authentication services providers:

  1. Auth0: It provides the dual service of both authentication and authorization. They provide the developers and companies the requisite building blocks to secure their respective designed software applications even without bedding to become security experts.We can connect any application which might be written in any other stack or language to Auth0 and easily define how we want our app users to be able to log into the app. Based on the app’s tech stack, the users just need to choose the API to be integrated into the system.From the next time onwards, each time a user tries to authenticate, Auth0 verifies their identity and sends the information back to our app seamlessly and relentlessly.
  2. KeyCloak: This is an open-source Access Management and Identity solution for all modern applications and services. KeyCloak can easily secure our apps with a little or no code.
  3. Firebase Authentication: The majority of apps seek the identity of its users as identifying the user allows an app to save all the user data securely in the cloud. This also delivers across all of the user’s devices with a personalized and smooth experience.Firebase Authentication is an easy to use backend services, SDKs, and a ready-made UI library to authenticate users to our respective app. It supports authentication using popular federated identity providers like Google, Facebook and Twitter, etc. which are federated and also through passwords and phone numbers.
  4. AWS Cognito: Amazon Cognito is another simple data synchronization and user identity service that helps to securely manage and synchronize app data for users across their mobile devices.We can easily create unique identities for the users through a number of public login providers (Amazon, Facebook, and Google) and also support unauthenticated guests. On the other hand, we can save a lot of app data locally on users’ devices by allowing our applications to work even when the devices are offline.This platform enables saving of any kind of data in the AWS Cloud, such as app preferences or game state, without writing any backend code or managing any infrastructure. This means we can now focus on creating great app experiences instead of having to worry about building and managing a backend solution to handle identity management, network state, storage, and sync.
  5. OKTA: This popular service providing tool connects an individual with any requisite application on any device, It is completely an enterprise-grade, identity management service, on the cloud, yet is compatible with ample on-premises applications.

Here are the key advantages of 3rd-party software:

  1. Paying only for what we like: When employing a third-party solution, you pay a monthly fee for the used limit rather than having to pay a high up-front cost for building the feature from scratch. Sometimes you pay the fee after passing a group limit – at the start, you would possibly escape without paying anything for using the answer.
  2. Significant cost savings: While considering both upfront and through the app’s operation over time, using third-party services comes at a comparatively lesser costing value. Some third-partyplatforms could be available free from charge until a particular level and then it’s likely that you’ll be paying a monthly fee for the used resources. As a result, the value of employing a feature is cover time, and you finish up paying monthly fees rather than a high upfront fee.
  3. Faster development process: The greatest perk of using third-party software is that developers don’t need to write everything from the bottom up. For instance, if you’d wish to add a login feature to your app, your team can simply use Auth0 and focus more on the features that form the core of your app and its competitive advantage. Hence, in this way the app development process becomes much faster.
  4. Faster time-to-market: By accelerating the event speed, you’ll bring your application to plug faster. As a result, you’ll quickly verify your idea, check whether it solves the matter of your target users, and achieve a product-market fit.
  5. Shorter feedback circuit from users: By releasing the merchandise or MVP faster to the market, you’ll quickly verify the worth of your application to users and learn what they believe. Their feedback will assist you to create a better app.
  6. Potentially greater capabilities: Platforms are samples of mature software that may be too sophisticated for the client’s initial requirements. They assist us to create applications that provide greater capabilities than needed, but at an equivalent time, they provide a true value for the
    application’s future development.
  7. Easy integration for developers: There are ample quality platforms available on the market today that are equipped with modern SDKs that allow easy and fast integration. for instance, it always takes only 2 days to implement the user authentication feature with Auth0, while building an equivalent from scratch would take several weeks.
  8. Less maintenance effort: Third-party platforms accompany another advantage – there’s no got to maintain their code in shape. This is often the work of the provider, not the corporate using the resource. As a result, developers get less code to require care of and maintain, making their job easier.

Conclusion

As we all have heard before; “True cybersecurity is preparing for what next, not what was last.” as quoted by cybersecurity expert, Neil Rerup, looking forward to more acceptance and more advancements in this space.