Does Cognito satisfy NHS DTAC Domain 2 for clinical authentication?

AWS Cognito in eu-west-2 is the strongest NHS DTAC Domain 2 position for clinical authentication: (1) authentication events (login, MFA, token) processed in same AWS account as clinical data — no third-party data processor for authentication, (2) Cognito User Pool in eu-west-2 — UK data residency confirmed, (3) AWS CloudTrail logs all Cognito API calls (authentication audit trail — NHS DSP Toolkit Annex B Standard 7), (4) NHS SDS integration: Cognito can federate with NHS SDS (smartcard RBAC) via SAML — NHS Login for patient-facing apps, SDS for clinical staff apps. ClickMasters configures Cognito as standard for all NHS clinical applications.

Is Clerk suitable for FCA regulated fintech applications?

Clerk is suitable for non-regulated user-facing features (marketing site login, non-regulated customer portal) in FCA regulated applications. For FCA regulated functionality (account information, payment initiation, investment decisions): ClickMasters uses Cognito — authentication events for regulated actions should not go through a US-headquartered third party. Practical split: Clerk for the SaaS dashboard login (non-regulated), Cognito for the regulated Open Banking AISP API authentication. Clerk's EU data residency (via Cloudflare) is improving — future versions may be acceptable for more FCA use cases, but as of 2026 ClickMasters defaults to Cognito for FCA-regulated authentication paths.

Auth0 Vs Cognito Vs Clerk Uk 2026

Auth0 vs AWS Cognito vs Clerk — UK Authentication (2026)

Updated: February 20269 min read

🇬🇧 UK💷 GBP📊 Comparison🔒 UK GDPR⚖️ UK Law

Direct Answer

AWS Cognito is the right default for NHS and FCA regulated UK applications already on AWS — data stays in eu-west-2 (same account), no third-party data processor for authentication events, and integrates natively with AWS services. Clerk is right for B2B SaaS startups who want the best developer experience and fastest implementation. Auth0 (now Okta) is right for enterprise with complex MFA, social login, and compliance requirements who accept US-headquartered data processing. Authentication platform choice affects UK GDPR data residency, NHS DTAC Domain 2 compliance, and developer productivity.

Factor	AWS Cognito	Clerk	Auth0 (Okta)
UK GDPR data residency	✅ eu-west-2 — same AWS account	US-primary — EU edge available	US-primary — EU region available
NHS DTAC compliance	✅ Best — no third-party processor for auth events	Auth events leave AWS account	Auth events leave AWS account
FCA regulated	✅ Best — auth data in same AWS account as financial data	Acceptable with EU DPA	Acceptable with EU DPA
Developer experience (setup)	Complex — CDK/CloudFormation configuration	✅ Best — 15-minute setup	✅ Good — Auth0 dashboard
MFA options	TOTP, SMS, email	TOTP, Passkeys, SMS	TOTP, Passkeys, Push (Okta Verify), SMS
B2B multi-tenant (organisations)	Limited — requires custom implementation	✅ Native organisations feature	✅ Organisations feature
Social login (Google, Apple)	Limited — custom configuration	✅ Out of the box — 20+ providers	✅ Out of the box — 30+ providers
Cost at scale (50K MAU)	✅ ~£120/month	~£400/month (Pro plan)	~£1,500/month (Enterprise)
ClickMasters default	✅ All NHS/FCA regulated UK apps	B2B SaaS MVPs — fast setup	Enterprise with complex MFA/compliance