If you need user authentication for your web or mobile app look no further than Amazon Cognito. The service is cheap and if you follow the steps below you will have a user pool created and ready for use with your app in 10 minutes or less!

I created this post as a first step to setup an example app with Quasar using Cognito for authentication. I will link that post here once it is published.

Steps

Go to console.aws.amazon.com/cognito
Click on the "User Pools" button
Choose the region you want the user pool to reside in
Click on "Create a User Pool"
Create a name in "Pool name" and click on "Step through settings"

It is important to take some time and decide what you want for these settings since you will not be able to change them after the user pool is created
I decided on using the sign in with Username and allow email and phone number
The next section contains the standard attributes that you want to require on sign up
- All of the standard attributes will be available to use even if you don't require them. Be very careful to only select the items you need for your application to function. You will lose users if you require too much information from them at sign up.

Password Security

Strong passwords are important
- 8 characters at a minimum
- Numbers, capital and lowercase letters, and special characters
The defaults are good

Multi-factor Authentication and Account Recovery

Keep MFA off
- It can be setup later
Choose the defaults for the rest

Customize Email Address and Messages

Keep the defaults
When you go to production you will need to setup an email through SES

Remember your User's Devices

Select no
- You will need MFA setup if you want to remember the user's devices

Create an App client

An App client is required to use the user pool
Give it a name
Uncheck "Generate client secret" if you are using this app in a Javascript application
- Generate client secret is not supported in Javascript SDK

Do you want to customize workflows with triggers?

You can set this up later

Review

Verify everything looks good and click on "Create pool"

And that's it! You now have a functioning Cognito user pool. Happy coding!

Notes

Verification email will be sent by no-reply@verificationemail.com
- You may have to check your spam folder
- Both Gmail and Protonmail mark it as spam
Attributes needed for development:
- Region
  - The region will be the first part of the User Pool ID
  - For example: us-west-2
- User Pool ID
- Web Client ID (26-char alphanumeric string)

Create an AWS Cognito User Pool in 10 Minutes or Less