What is a password manager? 

Pros:

1. While one user creates multiple accounts for all the apps and platforms, they need to remember only one master password.
2. In theory, this system should encourage your employees to use more complex passwords for their accounts for different apps and platforms.
3. The employees should be less likely to use the same password for each account. So, if one password is compromised, not all the systems are compromised.
4. The password manager can cover also your employees’ personal accounts.
5. It is easy to set up by users themselves.
6. It is a cost-efficient solution to defend against password-related attacks as long as the passwords are strong enough and different for each account.

Cons:

1. Even when they use a password manager, users don’t always set strong passwords or different passwords for each application or platform. Thus, the system might be vulnerable to password-related security attacks.
2. When employees leave your company, they usually leave with the passwords. This poses a problem for your IT team to cut off their access to different platforms and apps.
3. The password manager does not allow for monitoring and increased security in accessing the business apps and platforms. The IT control is limited given the nature of the tool which is only password-based.

What is an SSO? 

Pros:

1. The user gets only one set of credentials, and they do not need to create any other accounts for the apps and platforms they use.
2. You can integrate SSO with other company’s IT systems, such as VPN, WiFi, firewalls, on-premises resources, mobile apps, etc., as long as these systems use SAML-based authentication protocol.
3. When combined with multi-factor authentication (MFA), SSO provides increased security against stolen credentials or password-based security attacks.
4. It gives more control to your IT team in managing privacy and security issues. SSO can provide information on who the user is, where they login in from, what their IP is, what device they use, what they access in terms of applications and platforms.
5. if the user, your employee leaves the company, access to your company’s system can be changed immediately and efficiently for all the systems at once.

Cons:

1. Still, very few business applications and services support the SAML-based authentication protocol used by SSO.
2. SSO cannot cover and protect the personal accounts of your employees.

Password Manager vs. SSO 

1. Setup
2. The Password Manager can be easily set up by users.
3. SSO needs to be built and setup by IT professionals
4. Security
5. Both systems are efficient security solutions.
6. However, SSO provides increased security as it can be integrated with VPN, WiFi, firewalls, MFA, and it also allows the IT team to have more control over the business apps and platforms.
7. Compatibility with business apps and services
8. Password Manager has no compatibility issues, as the user creates a separate account for each app or service.
9. Fewer business applications are compatible with the SSO system.
10. Costs
11. The Password Manager requires fewer investments than an SSO system.