Single Sign-On (SSO)

One login, every tool. SSO means an employee authenticates once with their company's identity provider, and that single login unlocks every connected application — no separate password to remember for each one.

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Definition

Single Sign-On (SSO) is an authentication method that allows a user to log into multiple separate applications using one set of credentials, managed centrally by a single identity provider, rather than maintaining a separate username and password for every individual tool they use. Once a user authenticates with the identity provider — typically their organisation's primary login system — they are automatically granted access to every connected application without logging in again for each one.

How SSO Works, Step by Step

1. A user attempts to access an application — the service provider — such as a shared link management platform
2. Instead of presenting its own password prompt, the application redirects the user to the organisation's identity provider (such as Okta, Microsoft Entra ID, or Google Workspace)
3. The user authenticates with the identity provider — entering their single set of company credentials, often combined with multi-factor authentication
4. The identity provider issues a secure, time-limited token confirming the user's verified identity
5. The original application receives this token, trusts it, and grants the user access — without ever asking for a separate password of its own

This exchange is most commonly implemented using the SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language) or OpenID Connect (OIDC) protocols — the technical standards that define exactly how identity tokens are formatted, signed, and exchanged securely between the identity provider and each connected application.

SSO vs Separate Logins for Every Tool

Why IT and Security Teams Require SSO

The single most significant operational reason organisations require SSO for the tools their employees use is centralised access revocation. The moment an employee leaves an organisation, disabling their one identity provider account immediately and simultaneously cuts off their access to every connected application — the shared link management platform, the CRM, the project management tool, the email system — all at once.

Without SSO, an IT team must separately track down and individually deactivate that departing employee's account in every single tool they had access to. This process is slow, frequently incomplete, and a recurring source of security exposure: forgotten accounts in lesser-used tools remain active long after someone has left, representing exactly the kind of unmonitored access that security audits and compliance reviews are specifically designed to catch.

SSO and Shared Link Management Platforms

For a team managing shared, branded short links, custom domains, and campaign infrastructure, SSO becomes particularly important once the team grows beyond a handful of people. A shared link platform with administrative access to a company's branded domain represents meaningful access that should be governed by the same centralised identity and offboarding controls as any other business-critical system — not managed through individually issued credentials that are easy to lose track of as a team scales.

Related Terms

• Audit Log
• Teams & Roles
• Team Workspaces
• Approvals & Governance
• Team Communicator