Stormpath was founded with a mission: to build an authentication and user management service that developers love and trust. Today, we’re excited to announce that we’re doubling down on that mission by joining forces with Okta.
As the first developer-focused Identity API, when we started the company in 2011 there were still a lot of doubts about cloud-based services — not to mention an API to power identity. Six years later, deploying applications in the cloud is a no-brainer. Our early successes attracted other companies to the Identity API space, which has grown dramatically in the last few years. When we started Stormpath, the Identity API market was Les and I working at my kitchen table in Pacifica. We recruited a few (dubious) friends, worked the booths ourselves, and using lean startup principles, found our way to a market.
Now, nearly every tech behemoth has an Identity service.
Joining Okta was not an easy decision. Our two powerful technology stacks are so similar that we knew we would need to shutter the Stormpath API. Stormpath had grown to a 45-person company with a strong and nerdy culture, so the prospect of folding into a larger organization was daunting. And Stormpath was enjoying healthy growth – paying customers and signups were growing in a non-linear fashion.
But there were three things that made joining forces with Okta the right business decision.
First, joining forces with the leader – a company with great momentum, a great brand, a huge set of customers relationships, an amazing track record of execution, a shared vision and financial stability – lets us focus on building the best authentication and user management platform for developers. This gives customers the assurance that their businesses and applications can reliably and securely scale with their identity platform, for years to come.
Second, it was clear that the two teams would be better together. Stormpath has incredible developer DNA. We understand the importance of elegant API design, robust framework integrations, docs that developers love, and how to help devs onboard to a platform. Hell, even our marketing team can code. Okta has become a stronghold in identity in enterprise platforms by building a powerhouse of a company. Their sales team, product team, internal infrastructure, ops and marketing provide an excellent foundation for building great technology. While we were building Stormpath, Okta emerged as the leader in Enterprise Identity.
Finally, Okta felt like a great fit. They share our vision for building a secure, reliable cloud-native identity platform for any web, mobile or API service. They also share our tech stack, our approach to software architecture, our commitment to customer service, and our company culture. It was clear to everyone at Stormpath that Okta felt like home, and was a place where our team could deliver on our mission of building an identity API that developers would love and trust.
Sadly, because the two systems have so much in common, we are shutting down the Stormpath API in August, and our goal is for Stormpath API users to become delighted Okta customers. We realize that in the near term, this transition will cause some pain for developers who rely on Stormpath. We understand and are working hard as hell to minimize that pain as much as possible. You can skip right to the details in our Customer FAQ if you want. We’re developing tools that allow most Stormpath users to migrate to Okta with a simple version upgrade of our framework integrations.
Okta is also gaining a license to all our technology so we’re also racing to bring the best Stormpath features and developer experiences to the Okta platform. Our intent is not to create a clone, but to take everything both companies have learned, and truly build something much better together. It won’t be easy and it won’t happen immediately, but we’re committed to providing transparency through the process. We’re joining Okta because we believe we can make 1 + 1 = 3.
Finally, from Les, I and everyone at Stormpath, thank you. Thank you to our users and customers for all the feedback and support. Thank you to our coworkers for keeping our focus on quality and humility, even while termites were falling from the ceiling in the first office. Thank you to our investors for committing to our vision. Thank you to our families for the many late nights.
And thank you, thank you, thank you, to all the developers who have used Stormpath. I hope that you will consider migrating to Okta and joining us in this next chapter. We’re going to build amazing things for you, together.