Appsmith vs Auth0
Side-by-side trajectory, velocity, and editorial themes.
Appsmith spent six months in a sustained security-patch cycle, capped by a release with 15+ named advisories.
Appsmith's recent release stream is dominated by security work. v1.99 alone landed roughly fifteen security-tagged fixes — multiple named GHSAs (super-user race condition, SSRF via send-test-email, OAuth2 callback ACL bypass, application snapshot delete permission, expanded metadata denylist), critical CVE patches (CVE-2025-70952, CVE-2026-33937 in handlebars, CVE-2026-22732 around Spring Security headers), AQL injection prevention in the ArangoDB plugin, and several reflected XSS and email-normalization fixes. The same pattern repeats in v1.98 (SQL injection in UQI filters, simple-git critical CVE), v1.96 (arbitrary file write outside repo scope, OS command injection in in-memory Git, XSS in Table HTML cells), and earlier. Feature work continues alongside but at a much smaller volume — Redis TLS, BetterBugs SDK, Favorite Applications V2, Helm extraVolumes.
The arc is clear: Appsmith is absorbing the output of what looks like a sustained external audit (or several converging ones) and using minor releases as the patch vehicle. The diversity of vuln classes across the ArangoDB plugin, Spring Security headers, OAuth2 callback, in-memory Git, snapshot deletion permissions, and metadata denylist points to a broad-surface review rather than a single component. Feature work isn't stalled, but it's clearly running second to the security queue.
Expect at least one or two more 1.9x releases to keep landing security patches before a 2.0 line emerges. Watch for a release that bundles fewer security items than features — that's the signal the audit cycle has caught up. Likely product-side bets are continued data-source TLS coverage and more granular permission scoping (the GHSAs around snapshots and OAuth2 lookup suggest the permission model is being tightened systematically).
Auth0 ships Auth for MCP GA and starts unbundling the rest of identity for AI agents.
Auth0 just made Auth for MCP generally available — a bundle of CIMD client registration, On-Behalf-Of token exchange, and OAuth resource-parameter compatibility purpose-built for AI agents talking to MCP servers. Around it, the team is reworking core identity primitives: non-unique emails reached GA, online refresh tokens entered beta with session binding, and the Account API now supports step-up auth for sensitive scopes. Smaller polish items (CMD+K palette, Resend GA, signing algorithm coverage) round out the release stream.
Auth0 is repositioning from a B2C/B2B login provider to an authorization layer for agent ecosystems. The MCP work is the centerpiece, but the supporting moves — session-bound refresh tokens, step-up auth on the Account API, non-unique emails — all point at use cases where users, agents, and resources have more complex relationships than classic OIDC was designed for. Outbound event streams to AWS EventBridge and Okta Workflows extend the same direction outward.
Expect Auth for MCP to gain a managed catalog of pre-vetted MCP clients and deeper Actions-based policy hooks for OBO token exchange, plus online refresh tokens reaching GA within a quarter.
See more alternatives to Appsmith →
See more alternatives to Auth0 →