authentication-zero VS rails-authentication-from-scratch

Subsequently, we need a way to authenticate our users to associate prompts with them. Rather than using an incumbent like Devise, I chose to use a different approach. The authentication-zero gem can flexibly generate an authentication system, as opposed to including it as an engine. Conveniently, it comes with options such as:

If you don’t need a good amount of features that Devise brings to the table, I‘d skip it entirely. Look up has_secure_password, that will be enough for a vast amount of applications with authentication. Maybe combine with cancancan for authorization. Once you feel you have a grip on those, re-evaluate devise or take a look at https://github.com/lazaronixon/authentication-zero which will transparently integrate into your app instead of providing a Rube Goldberg machine (that’s what devise will feel like for beginners for a long time).

I keep going back and forth between Devise and something a little more friendly like authentication-zero gem for authentication.

For those that have used the authentication-zero gem or are familiar with its functionality, what is the best way to upgrade it in a project when new functionality is released?

True. I tend to stay away from gems that try to integrate into multiple parts of your app to provide some sort of comprehensive solution. The kinds of gems I recommend are: 1) libraries (you call into them when you need them) 2) mounted apps on a url, isolated from the rest of your app 3) generators (this one seems nice, the author mentioned it in another HN thread: https://github.com/lazaronixon/authentication-zero).

Check out https://github.com/lazaronixon/authentication-zero

I prefer to use authentication-zero, which generates code for me in the same application using has_secure_password, has good security practices, uses the same functions as Rails, and allows me to modify the flow to my liking.

You can certainly roll your own authentication with Rails and feel very confident about it. One such example: https://stevepolito.design/blog/rails-authentication-from-scratch

The owasp cheatsheet is probably the best resource https://cheatsheetseries.owasp.org/cheatsheets/Authentication_Cheat_Sheet.html, there's also this rails tutorial https://stevepolito.design/blog/rails-authentication-from-scratch that incorporates some (but not all) good practices that covers implementation details, but are broadly applicable to any language and framework

Devise not being Hotwire compatible is a huge turnoff for me. Honestly if I were staring a new project today I’d probably go with a “hand rolled” authentication. I haven’t done it myself but I know a lot of thought was put into this guide if you were interested in that route: https://stevepolito.design/blog/rails-authentication-from-scratch/

For those who are interested in building their own authentication, I would also recommend reading https://stevepolito.design/blog/rails-authentication-from-scratch/

I will not go fully in detail about how to make your own Authentication from scrap, although a really useful blog that does do that can be found here. I will be going over the logic behind it.

This looks promising and I'd love to have the full control on my application. And recently I went through this repo https://github.com/stevepolitodesign/rails-authentication-from-scratch with a lot of details on how Devise works under the hood. It makes it really easy to understando all the different chunks of code and how the work all together.

Thank you for the feedback! I went ahead and opened some issues around these points. One of the advantages to creating and promoting this guide is that lots of folks can review my work and make improvements.