9to5Mac Column Urges Apple to Acquire Clever to End Enterprise SSO Tax

Chambers writes that single sign-on should be required for sign-up, yet SaaS vendors routinely lock it behind their most expensive tiers. He calls the SSO tax possibly the most backward pricing model in enterprise software. The result, he says, is predictable: companies skip SSO, weak passwords fill the gap, and hackers benefit.

Citing his recent article on Dashlane's Vault Enforcement, Chambers says that on average 37 percent of enterprise SaaS apps are not managed through SSO. That leaves a critical security gap, especially because password management adoption remains low. About a third of the average company's app surface is protected by nothing more than a username and password, according to the column. Chambers attributes part of the problem to legacy passwords and setup complexity, but says a meaningful share comes from vendors charging a premium for the login method that actually keeps organizations safe. When SSO costs two or three times as much as the base plan, small and midsize businesses often skip it.

He also says the industry agrees the situation is broken, but nobody with enough leverage has been motivated to break it. Identity providers charge per user, SaaS vendors charge for integration, and customers pay more for something that should be required, Chambers writes. He asks readers to imagine if multifactor authentication cost extra.

Chambers points to Clever as a model that has already solved the problem in K-12. Clever is an SSO and rostering platform used by a vast majority of K-12 schools, and Chambers says he has been a Clever administrator multiple times. He praises the service and its support team, describing a recent call as speaking to someone nearby who knew exactly what his problem was and how to solve it.

The economic model is the key, according to the column. Clever is free for schools and districts, while application vendors pay to be on the platform because the Clever app gallery is how they reach customers. That flips the SSO tax: instead of the customer paying extra for secure login, the vendor pays for access to the customer, and secure login is simply how the platform works. Districts came to demand Clever support as part of any purchase, and vendors fell in line because losing deals was more expensive than integrating with Clever. Chambers says he will not purchase a K-12 tool that does not support Clever. Clever was acquired by Kahoot in 2021 and has continued to operate as its own platform since.

Chambers argues Apple already has pieces around the edges: Managed Apple Accounts, Apple Business, Apple School Manager, Platform SSO in macOS, and Sign in with Apple. What Apple lacks, he writes, is the connective tissue: a true identity brokerage layer between organizations and the thousands of SaaS apps they use, with an economic model that makes SSO free for the customer.

Buying Clever would give Apple three things at once, according to the column. First, a proven platform and team that has executed the same playbook at massive scale in K-12. Second, an instant dominant position in K-12 identity, a market where Apple is already fighting for device share against Chromebooks and where owning the login layer would make Apple hardware stickier. Google owns that layer today with Google Workspace, Chambers notes. Third, a model Apple could extend upmarket: Apple-backed SSO that is free for businesses, funded by vendor-side participation, and deeply integrated into macOS and iOS.

Chambers imagines 'works with Apple SSO' becoming a requirement in enterprise procurement, much as Clever support became one in district purchasing. Customers would demand it in deals, vendors would integrate because they have to, and the SSO tax would be dead. He also points to deeper integration on the procurement side as a possible next step.