In the world of software development, the open-source model has become a powerful force for innovation and collaboration. However, as more companies embrace open-source, some have adopted strategies that, while profitable, often take advantage of the community in ways that undermine the spirit of open source. One common strategy is the use of dual licensing with the AGPL (Affero General Public License). This approach can appear community-friendly on the surface, offering a free, open-source product while also providing a paid proprietary license.

At SpartanAuth we aim to make authentication as simple as possible. Simplicity prevents a ton of security and usability nightmares. So today we are going to talk about our login widget. Why Build a Widget? TLDR: Usability, branding and ease of proper implementation. Businesses stand to lose a ton of money if people are unable to sign in to their accounts. “About a third of online purchases are abandoned at checkout because consumers cannot remember their passwords,” from a study conducted jointly by MasterCard and the University of Oxford (source).

Have you ever switched phone providers? Maybe you walked into a store found that shinny new phone you’ve always wanted (or just learned that you always wanted). The store employees are super happy with your choice to go with them. They get your information, you give them your phone number and the next thing you know, you have a new phone and a new provider. Easy right? Now imagine, someone else, who is not you, decides they want to go buy a new phone.

It has been observed that many companies’ support teams are overloaded with password reset calls. According to research from Forrester, the average cost for a single password reset is about $70. Another report by Gartner estimates that 20% to 50% of all help desk calls are for password resets.

On top of all this, according to a report from IBM, 20% of all breaches came from compromised credentials.

SpartanAuth is a new, open-source authentication system for cloud-based applications. It is built on Golang, and is currently in development. We look forward to releasing it to the community.