Laravel auth vs Passport vs Sanctum

Question

What is the difference between Laravel auth, Passport and Sanctum and when are they used?

Scat

Answer 1

Passport provides a full OAuth2 server implementation for your Laravel application in a matter of minutes. It is therefore necessary to have a brief knowledge of OAuth2.

Sanctum it is a simple package to issue API tokens to your users without the complication of OAuth. Sanctum uses Laravel's built-in cookie based session authentication services.

In a small application use Sanctum. it's simple and easy

Auth (Authentication) is the process of identifying the user credentials. In web applications, authentication is managed by sessions which take the input parameters such as email or username and password, for user identification. If these parameters match, the user is said to be authenticated.

Refrences:

• Auth
• Passport vs Sanctum

Hope it helps..

Thanks.

Lederer

I would add that Sanctum can only be used when API and SPA are under the same domain name. And although Passport can be used between different domain names, the user of a SPA needs to be redirected to Laravel to sign in before being redirected to the SPA. Please, correct me if I'm wrong. – Gordon

Answer 2

For me, Sanctum is a lighter auth system to used in SPA under the same domain as the API. while Passport (OAuth2) allows to sign in from a SPA to another domain, and user is redirected to backend to login, which is complicated. Token and JWT just seem older and more difficult.

Entrain

Answer 3

Laravel Passport is more feature-rich and offers OAuth2 for complex applications, such as when you need third-party authentication.

Laravel Sanctum is lightweight and ideal for single-page applications (SPAs), simple token-based APIs

**Key Differences:**

Feature                        |  Laravel Sanctum                       |     Laravel Passport
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OAuth2 Support                 |  No                                    |     Yes
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Setup Complexity               |  Simple, minimal setup                 |     Complex, OAuth2 server setup
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Best for                       |  SPAs, simple token-based APIs         |     Advanced OAuth2, third-party integrations
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Token Types                    |  Personal Access Tokens                |     OAuth2 tokens, including various grant types
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Third-Party Authentication     |  No                                    |     Yes, supports third-party logins
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Use Case Example               |  Internal APIs for web or mobile apps  |    APIs where external services need to authenticate

Thea