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Login Solutions (Summary)

Most apps and software products need a login system to reliably identify the user and associate data with a single account over time.

Before you start: confirm with AppInChina​

important

Before beginning any implementation work on your login solution, always confirm your plan with the AppInChina operations and engineering team first.

This gives the AppInChina team time to:

  • Decide on a plan of action for account provisioning and configuration (if needed)
  • Confirm compliance requirements relevant to your setup
  • Align on pricing and any platform-specific considerations
  • Identify potential issues early and recommend adjustments

Reaching out early avoids rework and ensures your login integration is set up correctly from the start.

What "login required" means in practice​

You may support guest browsing, but once a user performs account-bound actions (for example: saving data, syncing across devices, using subscriptions/entitlements, or accessing personalized content), you must be able to attach those actions to a stable user identity that the user can regain later (across app restarts and, when applicable, across devices).

Minimal capabilities your login system must support​

At minimum, your login solution should provide:

  • Account creation: users can create an account the first time they need to access account-bound features.
  • User login: returning users can authenticate and regain access to the same account.
  • Account recovery: users can recover access if they lose credentials (commonly via email or SMS flows).
  • Persistent user identity: each authenticated user maps to a stable internal identifier in your system.
  • Session / token management: users stay signed in via sessions or refreshable tokens so identity remains stable across sessions.

Guidance for your stable internal user ID​

Recommended: create and use an internal user ID that is:

  • Stable (does not change over time)
  • Unique per user
  • Not user-editable
  • Not derived from a device identifier (device IDs break restore on device changes)

Avoid using raw PII (like plain phone number or email) as the primary identifier when possible. If your system uses phone/email for login, still prefer generating and storing an internal user ID and using that everywhere internally.

Use this page as a decision/index page, then go to the relevant solution page for detailed pros/cons and official links.

Quick comparison​

OptionBest whenMain trade-off
AuthingYou want a managed identity platform with low implementation overheadVendor/platform dependency
WeChat LoginYour target users are strongly WeChat-native and you want low-friction loginYou still need backend mapping + account linking strategy
Custom backend loginYou already have a backend and want full control (email/phone/password/OTP)Highest engineering + security maintenance
China cloud identity (CIAM/IDaaS)You run primarily on Alibaba/Tencent cloud and want a China-first managed identity platformMore vendor coupling; you still need internal userId + account linking

We generally recommend Authing as the default login solution for clients who want a managed identity platform.

Authing typically covers:

  • Registration and login
  • Password or OTP-based authentication (depending on your setup)
  • Password reset / account recovery flows
  • Token-based sessions

Even when using Authing, you should still maintain a stable internal user ID in your system and treat that as your canonical identifier (for example: user data ownership, entitlements, and cross-service integrations).

WeChat Login​

WeChat Login can be a good fit when your audience is strongly aligned with the WeChat ecosystem and you want a low-friction sign-in experience.

Important: you still need a backend mapping from the WeChat identity to a stable internal user ID, so your user data and entitlements remain consistently linked to one account.

China cloud identity (CIAM/IDaaS)​

If you run primarily on Alibaba Cloud or Tencent Cloud and your users are mostly in Mainland China, a China-first CIAM/IDaaS platform can reduce time-to-market while keeping identity aligned with your China-region architecture.

You still need to map provider identities to your own stable internal userId and implement account linking if you support multiple login methods.

Summary​

To build reliable account-bound features, your app must support a login solution that provides a stable, restorable user identity.

We recommend Authing as the default starting point because it satisfies the minimal requirements with low implementation and maintenance overhead.