WeRoad is a European adventure travel company founded in 2017 that specializes in organizing group travel experiences for adventurous travelers. Based in Europe with operations across multiple countries including the UK, WeRoad has grown rapidly since its founding, expanding from a small startup to an established company with approximately 200 employees, including a technical team of around 50 engineers.
WeRoad creates unique travel experiences that connect like-minded explorers, organizing adventures in various destinations across the globe. Their focus on community-building and authentic experiences has helped them carve out a distinct niche in the competitive travel industry.
The Challenge
As WeRoad rapidly expanded, their authentication needs grew increasingly complex. The DevOps team, led by Roberto Dedoro, faced several authentication challenges:
- Authentication for Multiple Applications: They needed a single sign-on solution that would work across multiple applications
- Social Login Support: The ability for users to authenticate using Google and potentially other social providers
- Mobile App Authentication: Supporting authentication for their newly launched Android and iOS applications
- Machine-to-Machine Authentication: Secure tokens for backend-to-backend services via M2M
- Passwordless Options: Support for magic links and other passwordless authentication methods
- Data Sovereignty: As a European company subject to GDPR, maintaining control over user data was essential
Additionally, WeRoad was facing significant cost increases with their previous authentication provider, Auth0, which was becoming unsustainable as they scaled.
Why FusionAuth?
After evaluating several authentication solutions including Auth0, Amazon Cognito, SuperTokens, and Keycloak, WeRoad selected FusionAuth for several key reasons:
1. Cost-Effective Scaling
The primary driver for migration was Auth0’s escalating costs:
“The main issue was pricing. We were growing, but at the time we were a quite small company, and so the cost of Auth0 was a big factor that we took into consideration.”
2. Self-Hosting Capability
Unlike Auth0, FusionAuth offered true self-hosting, giving WeRoad crucial data control:
“We wanted to have a little bit more control of the data. Now we’re able to look into the databases, so we’re sure that we have all the data that we need. And there are no issues if we have to export data.”
3. Simplified Deployment
WeRoad found FusionAuth’s deployment model aligned perfectly with their existing infrastructure:
“We host FusionAuth on Kubernetes, and we already had the requirements for FusionAuth. We already had the PostgreSQL database and the Kubernetes cluster, so it was really fairly easy to deploy.”
4. Comprehensive Feature Set
FusionAuth provided all the authentication capabilities WeRoad needed, including:
- Single sign-on across multiple applications
- Social login with Google
- Magic links and passwordless login options
- Machine-to-machine token support
5. Customization Options
FusionAuth’s theming capabilities allowed WeRoad to create a fully branded login experience:
“We like the customization. Our designers created a custom theme with animated clouds in the background. It’s fully customizable because we were able to make a nice login form.”
Results
Since implementing FusionAuth in 2021, WeRoad has experienced several benefits:
1. Substantial Cost Savings
By switching from Auth0 to FusionAuth’s self-hosted solution, WeRoad achieved significant cost reductions, since FusionAuth allows for far more monthly active users (MAUs) than a comparably-priced Auth0 plan.
2. Enhanced Data Control
Self-hosting has given WeRoad complete control over their authentication data, making GDPR compliance more straightforward and providing better visibility into user authentication patterns.
3. Easy Maintenance
Despite nearly four years of use, WeRoad’s implementation has been so stable that they’ve never needed to contact technical support:
“We’ve never had any need for tech support.”
4. Scalable Authentication
As WeRoad has grown from a small startup to a company with approximately 200 employees, and tens of thousands of customers, FusionAuth has scaled with them without any issues.
5. Seamless Integration
The availability of official SDKs and Terraform providers has made it easy for WeRoad to integrate FusionAuth into their development workflows and infrastructure-as-code practices.
Key Benefits
- Cost-Effective: Significant savings compared to Auth0’s pricing structure
- Data Control: Full control over authentication data for GDPR compliance
- Easy Deployment: Simple implementation using Kubernetes and Helm charts
- Comprehensive Features: All needed authentication capabilities in one platform
- Custom Branding: Fully customizable interface to match WeRoad’s design language
- Low Maintenance: Stable and reliable with no need for technical support
How can FusionAuth help you reach your goals? Drop us a line and let’s talk.
