Symphony.

it's just I don't completely agree with these kind of policies.

what do you mean? don't like that FB and twitter are not offering openID?

Well I like the idea that using an 'umbrella' 3th party solution might cover future ID providers or features, and add them. If we integrate all ourselves we'd have to keep maintaining the code to keep up with novelties....

Personally I would use openID, and users 'should get with it' but I a want to have the lowest entry barrier for non tech savvy ecommerce visitors...

SimpleAuth integration would be nice!

My understanding was that OpenID is considered somewhat lacking (even deprecated?) when compared with oAuth. But I don't follow these things very closely.

what do you mean? don't like that FB and twitter are not offering openID?

Yes. The entry barrier you are referring is exactly that -- if they were offering openid authentication (at least facebook) we would have seen openid much more adopted than it is today.

Now, the problem a developer have to face is which of these services implement. Stackoverflow is awesome, but they're big. Supporting all these services is a rather huge task, so you have to choose one or another. Needless to say most of the time you simply go with facebook and that's were they win, and we -- the open web -- lose.

My understanding was that OpenID is considered somewhat lacking (even deprecated?) when compared with oAuth. But I don't follow these things very closely

Good point. The standard has evolved in OpenID connect which looks rather cool and might hopefully solve the issues outlined above.

I'll give a closer look to simpleauth and their api soon ;)

I read some docs on the simpleauth website.

The service is great, but has a big shortcoming: you are required to update your DNS records to add a CNAME pointing to them. That sounds like a show stopper to me...

add a CNAME pointing to them

What are the (evil?) consequences of that? I am fine with pointing my MX to google to be able to use their google email for my domain.

Nothing evil... it just seems too much hassle, to me :)

Any opinions on loginza as a single sign-on service?

Looks good, but I don't have the time to test it now :(

I am looking for a simple login to get access to a certain page..
Is this a good extension to do this or are there better, easier methods?

@Cremol Martijn, it is (obviously) using OpenID which is a bit techy. If your users have an Open ID and are familiar with the principle it could work but my guess it that you'd better look for another, simpler option (right Alpacaaa?).

It also depends on the sensitivity of the protected page/content. You could use the Members extension, write a simple front-end form/event yourself or even provide a basic .htaccess login.

It's got to be as simple as possible and no real sensitive content, it's for a portfolio so it doesn't have to be 100 procent secure
Members extension might be to big for this, but if it get's the job done then fine.
I will look into the different possibilities, thanks

Martijn take a look at the "Front End Authentication" extension: it's old but seems to do exactly what you are looking for.

I hope it is still relevant (2.2.3 compatible) and there's no other extension superseding it. If it works it would be beneficial if you could note that somewhere (@designermonkey?)

This basically only provide authentication, you have to take care of the rest, which may became a bit complex as @davidhund said ;)

Thanks David, will look into that

I hope it is still relevant (2.2.3 compatible) and there's no other extension superseding it.

Why not use Members extension? It is more powerfull. I used the front end authentication before Members was introduced and it needed some adjustments to make it work.

I am gonna try out both Members and Front End Authentication
It really needs to be as simple as it can get, but if members does the job, then no problem
I'll let you know which one is most suitable, thanks for the suggestions

Edit: (Got it working with members extension)