computer window with beyond identity log in screen and free tag hanging off

Why We Made Passwordless Free

1/21/2021
Categories: Announcement, Product

The problems with passwords have existed for decades. While we didn’t create them, my business partner, Jim Clark, does feel a bit responsible for the proliferation of passwords that has taken place since the dawn of the Internet. He is sorry about all the passwords you have to contend with.

Passwords are fundamentally insecure and extremely tedious. Users hate them, cybersecurity teams loath them, and yet they remain the basis of authentication schemes globally. Passwords are costing organizations a fortune in fraud and breach recovery efforts, added security measures, and help desk calls.

After multiple years of effort, Beyond Identity exited stealth mode in April 2020 with a solution to the password problem. At that time we, like most of you reading this, shifted to a remote work setup. COVID-19 made the issues with passwords even more glaring as IT teams rushed to enable work from home, further accelerated cloud adoption, and businesses of all shapes and sizes kicked digital transformation projects into high gear. Hackers also took advantage of the situation and dialed their attacks up to 11. It is apparent to everyone today that passwords are a crisis, not a nuisance.

Organizations globally continue to struggle with passwords and half-baked remedies like password managers, legacy MFA, and other solutions that don’t actually eliminate passwords or adequately remove the risk, cost, and user friction associated with them. But inertia is a very powerful force, and we realized that the industry needed a big bump to help it finally put passwords in the past. So today, we are making our advanced passwordless authentication free.

Making our passwordless solution free seemed like the only approach that made sense if we were to help the community get serious about the task of ridding the world of passwords. Now I am sure this will raise a few skeptical eyebrows and a bunch of questions, which I have attempted to anticipate and address below.

 

Are there limits or conditions to this?

No. This is not a free trial or free for only up to a certain number of users or for a limited amount of time, it is completely free passwordless authentication.

 

How will you make money?

We have the best passwordless authentication solution on the market. It’s not even close. But it is our advanced identity and access management features that we will charge for. Available on the same platform, our advanced offering provides unmatched continuous risk-based authorization for your organization.

 

Can I go passwordless for free?

Yes, of course. Starting today, our passwordless authentication tier of our advanced identity platform is freely available to organizations who wish to give their workforce passwordless access to their single sign-on connected applications as well as to businesses who wish to offer their customers a passwordless experience on their website or application.

 

We look forward to working with the community to put passwords on the road to extinction.

Go Passwordless for Free