Getting started with user pools

You have an application that requires authentication and access control. You can work within the OpenID Connect (OIDC) framework for single sign-on (SSO). Amazon Cognito has tools for handling the logic of authentication in the application back end with an Amazon SDK, and for invoking a browser in your client to access a managed authorization server.

The Amazon Cognito console guides you through the creation of a user pool from the view of your preferred application framework. From there, you can continue on to add features like federated sign-in with external social or SAML 2.0 identity providers (IdPs). The application models in the Amazon Cognito console lean on the addition of OIDC libraries to your project and invoking a browser.

As you work to expand your feature set and incorporate more components of Amazon Cognito, read the Amazon Cognito user pools chapter for full descriptions of everything you can do with user pools.

The examples in this chapter and in the Amazon Cognito console demonstrate a basic integration of application resources with Amazon Cognito user pools. Later, you can adjust your user pool to use more of the options that are available to you. Then you can update your application to adopt new features and interact with IdPs.

If you don't want to use the managed login pages, you can create an application with custom-built authentication interfaces using an Amazon SDK or Amazon Amplify. Applications that you build in this way interact with the user pools API and are suitable only for authenticating local users. Continue learning about this authentication model at Other application options.