In today’s digital-first economy, identity has evolved from a simple security checkpoint into a core driver of business growth and engineering velocity. Yet, many organizations remain trapped by "Identity Debt"—legacy systems that are too rigid to customize, too expensive to scale, and too complex for modern developers.
Based on a series of real-world success stories, a clear pattern has emerged: the world’s most innovative brands are moving away from restrictive "black-box" vendors and toward a more flexible, open, and developer-centric identity fabric.
The Hidden Cost of Legacy Identity
Before migrating to Ory, companies across industries faced remarkably similar bottlenecks that hindered their ability to compete:
- Engineering Drain: At Macromill, implementing a single new feature like "passwordless" login meant manually updating up to 30 disparate homegrown systems. North One engineers were losing dozens of hours every week just "fighting fires" related to authentication outages.
- The Scalability Wall: Organizations like OpenAI and Fandom operate at a scale where "viral success" is the norm. Legacy solutions often failed during these peaks, with Fandom requiring a system that could handle sudden 10,000% spikes in traffic without breaking.
- Fragmented Customer Experience: Disjointed login flows at Hemnet and Moonpig forced users to manage multiple credentials for different product silos, leading to friction that directly impacted conversion rates.
Ory made it easy for our development teams to focus on innovation versus identity management system updating and maintenance.”
- Robert Blanck, Chief Product Officer (CPO) Media Impact GmbH at Axel Springer Germany (Read the case study)
Why the Shift to Ory?
When these leaders evaluated the landscape, they chose Ory for three foundational reasons:
1. Total Control (The "Headless" Advantage)
Unlike traditional vendors that force you into a predefined UI, Ory’s headless architecture allowed customers to build bespoke authentication journeys. This ensures that identity feels like a native part of the product, not a third-party redirect.
2. Open Source Transparency
Trust is non-negotiable in security. Even when using the managed Ory Network, North One and Lumin valued the ability to inspect the underlying source code. This transparency fosters a level of understanding and security assurance that closed-source "black boxes" simply cannot provide.
3. Unprecedented Scale
By pairing Ory with a distributed architecture (like CockroachDB), OpenAI successfully scaled authorization to over 800 million weekly active users.
We needed someone that was able to support those 120 million users, those millions of sign-ups a month, and do it in a way that was both cost efficient but also computationally efficient.”
Tangible Business Impact
The move to Ory consistently delivers more than just technical stability—it moves the needle on the bottom line:
- Boosted Conversions: By eliminating friction using FedCM, Axel Springer saw a 15x lift in registrations. Similarly, Moonpig reported a "considerable uplift" in repeat business from returning customers.
- Reclaimed Velocity: DataRobot accelerated service integration from weeks to literally minutes, freeing their best engineers to focus on AI innovation rather than maintenance.
Our experience with Ory has been overwhelmingly positive. For companies in a similar position, the reduced burden of database management and the flexibility of deployment options are significant advantages. Ory’s competitive pricing further enhances its value.”
Looking Ahead: A Future Without Passwords
The transition to a modern identity stack is also a prerequisite for the next generation of security. Brands are now leveraging Ory to roll out Passkeys and FIDO2, eliminating account takeover risks while providing a frictionless experience for their users.
Is your identity stack a bottleneck or a business driver?
Whether you’re managing thousands of B2B users or nearly a billion global consumers, Ory provides the control to customize, the power to scale, and the support to win.
