1Kosmos Identity-Backed Biometrics vs Rownd: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)

1Kosmos Identity-Backed Biometrics

Organizations replacing passwords with passwordless authentication need Identity-Backed Biometrics if liveness detection and government-ID verification matter more than SSO breadth. FIDO2 certification plus iBeta-certified liveness detection means you're getting cryptographically sound biometrics tied to real identity, not just fingerprint matching, and IAL2 compliance covers federal contractor requirements without retrofit. Skip this if your priority is replacing legacy AD/SAML infrastructure across 50 SaaS apps; 1Kosmos excels at high-assurance onboarding and device unlock, not at being your primary identity provider for everything.

Rownd

Teams building consumer or internal apps that need passwordless auth without managing their own identity infrastructure should evaluate Rownd for its free tier covering 1M monthly active users and air-gapped deployment option, which eliminates vendor lock-in concerns that plague most auth platforms. The passkey-first approach directly addresses NIST CSF 2.0 Govern priorities around credential hygiene by removing passwords entirely rather than bolting MFA onto legacy systems. Skip this if you need enterprise directory integration, advanced conditional access policies, or a vendor with established SOC 2 audit trails; Rownd's 10-person team means compliance certifications and support depth lag behind Auth0 or Okta.