Modernizing identity management for Easy Weddings
Established 25 years ago, Easy Weddings is Australia’s leading online wedding marketplace, connecting thousands of couples with wedding suppliers nationwide.
With an additional presence in the UK, the platform facilitates interactions between couples planning their weddings, suppliers showcasing services, and internal teams managing operations. To facilitate these interactions, Easy Weddings manages three bespoke systems: Easy Weddings for couples, WedCRM for suppliers, and Easy Admin for internal staff.
So much happiness depended on those systems, and updating them was the only way to remain reliable.
Easy Weddings previously managed authentication and identity services internally, leveraging a custom-built server based on an open-source identity library. However, as the solution reached its end-of-life and licensing costs ballooned (exceeding $12,000 annually) the risks escalated.
“We were stuck on old versions of .NET, creating security risks in the product underpinning our entire business. We had to move forward.” Jeremy Gunzburg, Technical Lead at Easy Weddings explains.
This is a typical turning point for a fast growing company accustomed to building everything in-house. Do you fix the embedded infrastructure that is showing technical limitations and potential security vulnerabilities? Or do you shop around for a more modern, scalable authentication solution that is still affordable?
With distinct user pools across three complex systems and additional replication for their UK business, Easy Weddings faced more than just a purchase decision. They also had:
- Significant technical debt
- Complex authentication flows
- An increasingly inflexible infrastructure hindering innovation
Kinde needed to be more than a replacement for what they had.
Easy Weddings evaluated a number of auth companies, including larger providers like Auth0 and AWS Cognito, but chose Kinde due to the ease of migration, competitive pricing, future-proof capabilities, and exceptional support.
“Kinde stood out because the support we got—even before we became paying customers—was fantastic,” Jeremy said. “We got clear answers and transparency around their roadmap, enabling us to plan confidently.”
Easy Weddings evaluated Kinde through a proof-of-concept, verifying that endpoints and migration capabilities worked as advertised. This initial phase confirmed that Kinde could support simultaneous authentication from both their legacy and new authentication solutions, for a controlled, phased migration.
Kinde’s roadmap also offered future capabilities, such as custom authentication workflows, which Easy Weddings saw as a valuable investment.
Easy Weddings opted for a five-organization setup within one Kinde business account, simplifying their complex multi-region, multi-application structure. This allowed them to maintain smooth user experiences without excessive technical disruption.
“It was really easy. Everything worked really well. Got a lot of confidence in Kinde doing what it said it would do.” Jeremy Gunzburg.
The migration happened in phases:
- Easy Admin and WedCRM were transitioned first, enabling detailed monitoring and fine-tuning with a smaller, controlled user base.
- The larger consumer-facing Easy Weddings site and mobile apps transitioned next, introducing passwordless sign in and Google integration to enhance user experience and security.
Jeremy elaborated, “We positioned it internally and externally as a meaningful upgrade. Moving to passwordless authentication significantly enhanced security and reduced friction, which our marketing team absolutely loved.”
Once fully migrated, Easy Weddings saw immediate benefits:
- Cost savings: reduced authentication-related hosting costs, with Kinde’s SaaS model proving less expensive than their former infrastructure.
- Enhanced security and user experience: Google integration and passwordless sign in dramatically improved both security and user experience.
- Reduced technical burden: engineering resources previously tied to maintaining and upgrading legacy authentication solutions were freed up for more impactful work.
The transition to Kinde was notably smooth. Jeremy commented, “We anticipated potential friction or user access issues, but aside from minor, quickly resolved hiccups, the migration was seamless. The level of proactive support from Kinde was extraordinary.”
Reflecting on the entire journey, Jeremy described it as overwhelmingly positive, highlighting the clarity and transparency from initial exploration through to final deployment. “We had detailed discussions about our unique setup, and Kinde’s team worked through different pathways to make implementation as smooth as possible.”
Kinde’s considered onboarding process coupled with exceptional support is the difference between an easy system adoption and hard one.
“It’s been very positive. Kinde has been straightforward, reliable, and responsive. The product and the ethos of the company align with our values—transparent pricing, clear communication, and dedication to genuinely helping businesses like ours succeed.”
With Kinde firmly embedded into their infrastructure, Easy Weddings is well-positioned to explore additional features such as deeper UI customization and advanced authentication workflows, further enhancing their competitive edge.
When asked what he would say to others considering Kinde, Jeremy said, “I’d tell them exactly what we experienced: great support, competitive costs, transparent roadmap, and a product that genuinely fits complex requirements with minimal disruption. It’s worked incredibly well for us.”
Easy Weddings is an innovation-driven company and by partnering with Kinde, they transitioned effortlessly to a more secure, cost-effective, and scalable auth solution. They now have more time to grow, innovate, and help their customers live happily ever after.