The SSO Tax: The Hidden Cost of Unmanaged Accounts in SaaS Security

Imagine buying a new cell phone and realizing you must pay extra for the battery. Or ordering a laptop only to discover the keyboard is sold separately. You’d likely feel frustrated and even question the product’s value. Yet, this kind of scenario is standard in enterprise software, especially when it comes to something known as the “SSO Tax.”?

What Is the SSO Tax??

The SSO Tax is the extra charge some SaaS vendors impose to activate Single Sign-On (SSO) capabilities. SSO isn’t a luxury feature—it’s an essential tool that simplifies access, minimizes password fatigue, and strengthens security. It allows employees to log in once to access multiple applications, much like a master key opens all the doors in your office. Without SSO, users must juggle multiple credentials, which creates security risks.?

The Real Cost of the SSO Tax: Unmanaged Accounts?

Here’s the problem: many organizations don’t want to pay extra for a feature they see as basic. As a result, they may choose not to activate SSO for all their SaaS apps, leading to unmanaged accounts—user accounts not tied to a centralized identity provider (IdP). These unmanaged accounts are left vulnerable, creating a significant security gap. Without SSO, IT teams lose visibility into who is accessing which apps, making it harder to enforce security policies, terminate access when an employee leaves, or even track usage.?

The Security Gaps Left by the SSO Tax?

When organizations opt out of SSO due to its extra cost, they inherit numerous risks, including:?

1. Unmanaged User Access: Without SSO, user access to SaaS apps often goes unchecked, creating blind spots in security. Employees could be using sensitive applications without the IT team’s knowledge, putting company data at risk.?

1. Ineffective Offboarding: Unmanaged accounts make it difficult to revoke access promptly when an employee leaves the company. This gap creates potential backdoors, allowing former employees to access sensitive data long after they’ve departed.?

1. Increased Vulnerability to Cyber Attacks: Unmanaged accounts are often the weakest link in security. They lack centralized oversight, making them prime targets for credential stuffing, phishing, and other attacks. Without SSO to ensure centralized access control, it becomes challenging to protect these accounts effectively.?

1. Lack of Accountability: When employees access SaaS apps outside SSO, it’s harder to track activity and enforce security policies, leaving organizations open to compliance risks.?

By leaving these accounts unmanaged, organizations inadvertently compromise their security posture, exposing themselves to risks that could otherwise be mitigated with comprehensive SSO coverage.?

Why SSO Should Be Standard?

The costs of managing identity without SSO are clear—unmanaged accounts, ineffective offboarding, and a higher likelihood of data breaches. With modern solutions like OAUTH, LDAP, OpenID, and SAML available, the cost of implementing SSO is low, and there’s little justification for treating it as a premium feature. Unfortunately, the SSO Tax discourages many organizations from implementing it broadly, increasing their risk instead of protecting it.?

How Savvy Can Help: Visibility into Unmanaged Accounts?

At Savvy, we believe that security shouldn’t come with a hidden price tag. We know the risks of unmanaged accounts and the gaps left by the SSO Tax. That’s why Savvy takes an identity-first approach to security, providing visibility into all accounts—even those that aren’t under the control of SSO. Our platform helps organizations:?

• Visibility into Unmanaged Accounts: Savvy continuously discovers all apps and identities—both human and non-human—including shadow IT and often-overlooked on-premises applications that may expose the organization to vulnerabilities. This provides IT teams with comprehensive visibility into every user account, regardless of whether it’s managed by SSO. By uncovering and securing these hidden accounts, Savvy helps to close critical security blind spots, reducing risk and strengthening overall identity protection.?

• Detect SSO Bypass and Direct Logins: Savvy continuously monitors and detects when a user logs in directly to a SaaS application, bypassing your organization’s SSO. By tracking these direct logins, Savvy ensures that all user activity is properly authenticated and authorized through your secure SSO system, which typically enforces multi-factor authentication (MFA). This reduces the risk of unauthorized access, helps maintain compliance with security policies, and provides a centralized log of all access events—a critical component for auditing and incident response.?

• Enforce Consistent Security Policies: By identifying unmanaged accounts, Savvy allows organizations to extend security policies across all apps, even those not covered by SSO. This helps mitigate risks and ensures that security protocols are consistent.?

• Streamline Offboarding: Savvy detects orphaned accounts and makes it easy to revoke access for departing employees, reducing the risks posed by lingering accounts left unmanaged due to SSO’s extra costs.?

• Close Security Gaps in SaaS: With Savvy, you gain visibility across your SaaS environment, allowing you to secure every account effectively—regardless of whether the app is connected to your IdP.?

At Savvy, we don’t believe in outdated practices that compromise security. Instead, we empower organizations to identify and secure all accounts, bridging the gap left by the SSO Tax. Interested in learning how Savvy can help you secure your SaaS applications without hidden costs? Learn more.