Authress
Swiss login and access control API that pairs hosted sign-in with resource-level permissions and an audit trail
Quick Overview
| Company | Rhosys AG |
|---|---|
| Category | Authentication Providers |
| Headquarters | Winterthur, Switzerland |
| Founded | Not stated |
| EU Presence | Yes - Switzerland |
| Data Location | Option to restrict data storage to a specific region (vendor homepage); regions not listed on the pages read |
| Open Source | No |
| GDPR Compliant | Yes |
| Self-Hosting | No |
| Main Features | Hosted login UI, unlimited SSO connections (SAML, OAuth, OIDC), unlimited machine tokens, social login, passwordless and WebAuthn, React components, role and resource based permissions, access audit trail, service-to-service authorization, Terraform provider |
| Pricing | See website (pricing page is rendered client-side) |
| Best For | Product teams that want sign-in and per-resource permissions from the same API |
| Replaces | Clerk, Auth0 |
Detailed Review
Authress splits the work into two halves that its homepage keeps apart: identity, which answers who the user is, and access control, which answers what that user may do. The second half is where it differs from Clerk, because permissions can be attached to individual resources and nested, not only to roles.
The company behind it is Rhosys AG, shown in the site footer and on rhosys.ch as based in Winterthur, Switzerland. The homepage states that data processing complies with European GDPR and that storage can be limited to a specific region.
Login without a separate SSO tier
The homepage lists unlimited SSO connections over SAML, OAuth and OIDC, unlimited machine tokens, unlimited social login connections and a hosted login UI. Enterprise sign-up and invitations are mentioned as part of the login side.
For a B2B product this removes the per-connection fees that the Clerk pricing page attaches to extra SSO connections, although the Authress price list itself could not be read.
Permissions as code
Access control is described as granular, resource based and nestable, with an access audit trail and object-level checks through an authorizeUser call in the SDK. The homepage also mentions access control as code and a Terraform provider.
Keeping identity and permissions separate means a change of login method does not touch the permission model, which is the design the vendor argues for.
Developer tooling
There is a first-class REST API, SDKs in several languages and an offline test instance, which lets you run tests without calling the hosted service.
Customizable React components cover the front end, so a team can start from the hosted UI and replace parts of it later.
Limitations to Consider
The pricing page and legal pages of authress.io render only in the browser, so no price or terms text could be read for this review. The list of storage regions is not shown, and the vendor is smaller than the US platforms it is compared with. There is no self-hosted edition. For a passkey-first drop-in flow, Hanko is the narrower choice.
Who Should Use Authress
Teams building a multi-tenant product that need login and a fine-grained permission model in one service, hosted by a Swiss company.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Permissions are modelled per resource, not only per role
- SSO connections and machine tokens are listed as unlimited
- Terraform provider and offline test instance
- Hosted by a Swiss company, with a region restriction option
- Passwordless and WebAuthn login listed
Cons
- Pricing could not be read from the client-rendered page
- No self-hosted edition
- Storage regions are not enumerated
- Smaller vendor than Clerk or Auth0
Alternatives to Authress
Other European authentication providers worth comparing before you decide:
Hanko
Germany · Passkey-first login and user management from Kiel
cidaas
Germany · Customer and workforce IAM with list prices on the page
Curity
Sweden · Standards-heavy OAuth and OpenID Connect identity server
Keycloak
United Kingdom · Open-source SSO and identity brokering server under the CNCF
See all European authentication providers or compare them directly against Clerk on our alternatives page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Its website footer and rhosys.ch name Rhosys AG in Winterthur, Switzerland as the company behind it.
Yes. The homepage describes role and resource based permissions, nesting, an access audit trail and service-to-service authorization next to the login features.
Nothing on the pages read offers a self-hosted edition. It is a managed API, and the data region can be restricted according to the homepage.