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Google SSO vs. Okta: Why You Probably Don’t Need to Upgrade Yet
You are at a classic growth fork in the road...
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SaaS
Google SSO vs. Okta: Why You Probably Don’t Need to Upgrade Yet
December 2, 2025
Google SSO vs Okta. By now you've checked out multiple reddit & blog posts
You're a 50-500 person company. You run your life on Google Workspace. But suddenly, you have 140+ SaaS applications in your environment. The spreadsheet IT uses to track who has access to what is hopelessly outdated. Finance is asking why software spend is up 30%, and your SOC 2 auditor is asking for proof that you offboarded that contractor last Tuesday.
The standard industry advice is to rip out your infrastructure and "upgrade to Okta."
But is it actually an upgrade? While Okta is the gold standard for massive enterprises, for a mid-market company, it often feels like buying a semi-truck to do a grocery run. It brings heavy implementation costs, technical debt, and the dreaded "SSO Tax."
There is a smarter way to handle scale. You can stick with the Google SSO you already love—if you pair it with the right governance layer.
TL;DR: The Quick Verdict
- Google SSO handles the login perfectly well but fails at "who has access to what" and offboarding risks.
- Okta solves the governance problem but introduces massive costs and forces you onto "Enterprise" plans for every SaaS tool.
- The Smart Play: Pair Google SSO with VendorSage. This allows you to keep the free, frictionless login of Google while gaining the spend visibility and offboarding workflows of an enterprise tool—without the Okta price tag.
Where Google SSO Starts to Creak
If you are on Google Workspace, you already have a world-class authentication tool. It’s free, secure, and supports MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication).
The problem isn't logging in; the problem is lifecycle management.
Google Workspace is blind to what happens outside its ecosystem. It doesn't know that your marketing manager created a paid Miro account, or that your engineering lead is still logged into GitHub three days after they were fired.
The cracks show when:
- Shadow IT explodes: You have no central inventory of which apps exist or who is paying for them.
- Offboarding is risky: Deprovisioning is a manual checklist. If you miss one app (like Slack, Notion, or AWS), that ex-employee retains access.
- Compliance is painful: Google can’t easily tell you "Who had access to Salesforce on November 1st?" for your audit.
Why Okta Can Be Overkill for Growing Teams
The logical leap is to buy Okta to fix those governance holes. But for a company with 50–500 employees, the cure can be more painful than the disease.
1. The Hidden "SSO Tax"
This is the biggest shock for Finance teams. To use Okta’s automated provisioning (SCIM) and SAML, many SaaS vendors force you to upgrade to their "Enterprise" tier.
Take HubSpot as an example. You might be paying roughly $50/user for a standard Professional plan. To enable Okta SSO, you are often forced into the Enterprise tier, which can skyrocket the price to thousands of dollars a month.
When you multiply this across 50+ SaaS tools, your software spend doesn't just creep up—it doubles.
2. The Implementation Drag
Okta is not plug-and-play. It requires technical configuration, maintenance, and often a dedicated IT administrator to manage API keys and broken integrations. If you don’t have a full-time IT Security Engineer, Okta often ends up as shelf-ware—paid for, but barely configured.
3. The cost of Okta
- $2 per user/month for SSO
- $3 per user/month for MFA
- $4 per user/month for lifecycle management
- $9 per user/month for identity governance features
While it's possible to negotiate a 10% - 30% discount, it often requires a fair bit of volume (circa 300+ users).
The Solution: Supercharging Google with VendorSage
Instead of abandoning Google SSO, the modern approach is to augment it.
VendorSage acts as the intelligence layer that sits on top of your existing Google Workspace. It handles the messy reality of "Who has access to what?" and "How much are we spending?" while leaving the simple login flow to Google.
This combination gives you a feature set that rivals Okta, but specifically designed for the mid-market.
Comparison: The Heavy Path vs. The Agile Path
How VendorSage Fixes the Google Gaps
By keeping Google as your front door and using VendorSage as the "SaaS Superintendent," you solve the governance problems without the infrastructure overhaul.
1. The "Kill Switch" Offboarding Workflow
Google SSO handles turning off the email, but what about the 40 other apps the employee used?
- The Problem: In a manual world, IT relies on a static spreadsheet to remember which apps to revoke. It’s easy to miss one.
- The VendorSage Fix: When a user is archived in Google, VendorSage detects it immediately. It generates a dynamic Offboarding Checklist based on actual usage data. It tells IT: "This user was active in Slack, Notion, GitHub, and Figma. Revoke access here." It ensures you close every door, not just the front one.
2. Solving the "Zombie Account" & Spend Problem
Okta helps you log in, but it doesn’t help you save money. VendorSage connects directly with your ERP and Finance systems to spot wasted licenses.
- Scenario: A designer leaves the company. IT turns off their email. But their $60/month Adobe license keeps billing the company credit card for six months.
- The Fix: VendorSage matches finance data against active usage. It flags the inactive license immediately, allowing Finance and IT to cancel the seat and reclaim that budget.
3. Compliance Without the Headache
If you are prepping for SOC 2 or ISO 27001, auditors want to see "User Access Reviews." They want proof that you checked who has admin rights to GitHub and Salesforce every quarter.
- Doing this in Google Sheets is a nightmare.
- Doing it in Okta costs an extra $9+/user for their Governance pack.
- Doing it in VendorSage is automated. It sends Slack messages to managers: "Does Alice still need admin access to AWS?" The manager clicks "Yes" or "Remove," and the audit log is generated automatically for your auditor.
2025 Identity Trends You Can't Ignore
The landscape is changing fast. Here is what we are seeing in the market this year:
- Audit standards are tightening: 60% of SOC 2 auditors now reject screenshots or messy spreadsheets. They expect exportable, human-readable access logs from a centralized tool.
- Decentralized IT is the norm: Departments are buying their own software. IT isn't the gatekeeper anymore; they are the guardrails. You need tools that discover apps automatically via finance data, rather than relying on IT to manually configure them in an IdP.
- Finance and IT are merging: With SaaS becoming a top-3 expense for most startups, Finance leaders are demanding visibility into software ROI, not just security.
The Verdict: Which Stack wins?
If you are a complex Enterprise (500+ Employees)
Stick with Okta.
If you have complex on-premise requirements, need to manage Active Directory forests, or have an unlimited budget for Enterprise SaaS tiers, Okta is a powerhouse. You will likely still need a Spend Management tool alongside it, but for pure identity in a massive org, Okta is the choice.
If you are a Growth Company (50–500 Employees)
Stick with Google SSO + VendorSage.
If you have a lean IT team, primarily use SaaS tools, and want to keep costs down while nailing SOC 2 compliance, this is your winning stack. You avoid the implementation nightmare of a new IdP and save thousands in unnecessary "Enterprise" license upgrades.
Ready to take control of your SaaS stack?
You don't need to rip out Google Workspace to get enterprise-grade control. Let us show you how VendorSage can extend your current setup today.
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FAQ
Can VendorSage replace Okta?
VendorSage doesn't replace the authentication (password) part of Okta—Google SSO does that for free. VendorSage replaces the need for Okta’s expensive Governance and Lifecycle modules.
Does VendorSage help with the "SSO Tax"?
Yes. Because VendorSage manages access and offboarding via workflows and finance integration rather than relying strictly on SAML/SCIM, you can often stay on the "Professional" or "Team" plans of your SaaS vendors rather than being forced to upgrade to "Enterprise" just for security control.
Is Google SSO secure enough on its own?
For authentication, yes—provided you enforce MFA. However, Google SSO is not sufficient for lifecycle management on its own because it leaves "Zombie Accounts" active in third-party apps after employees leave. That is the specific security gap VendorSage fills.