Anvil Research, Inc

Identity and Access Management (IAM) Softwareanvil.io

Company typePrivate
Founded2013
HeadquartersBox Elder, United States
Headcount1–10
GTM typeB2B
OfferingSoftware

Anvil Research, Inc firmographics

Firmographics

Name: Anvil Research, Inc
Legal name: Anvil Research, Inc.
Website: https://anvil.io
Company type: Private
Founded year: 2013
Operating status: Closed
Headcount range: 1–10 employees
Ownership category
akta.pro rank

Anvil Research, Inc industry classification

Industry

Product category: Identity and Access Management (IAM) Software
NAICS: Software Publishers (5132), Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151)
SIC: Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)
akta.pro primary industry: Federation & Identity Standards (SAML/OIDC/OAuth, Federation Hubs) (HDADAAAG)
akta.pro secondary industries: Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) & Passwordless Authentication (HDAEAJAC), Cloud Identity & Access Management Infrastructure (IAM/IdP/MFA) (HDABAHAF), Identity & Access Security Services (IAM, PAM, Zero Trust) (BPAKAHAI)

Keywords

Identity access management
Open source authentication
Single sign-on
OAuth 2.0 platform
Federated identity

Where Anvil Research, Inc is headquartered

Location

Headquarters

HQ city: Box Elder
HQ country: United States
HQ region: North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

Anvil Research, Inc business model

Business model

GTM type: B2B
Offering type: Software
Cost components: Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

Professional Services: Support, Training, and Consulting services offered to enterprises and developers implementing Anvil Connect. These service offerings complemented the open source software distribution.
IDaaS (Identity as a Service): Identity as a Service offering, providing managed identity and access management solutions to customers who prefer not to self-host the open source software.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Anvil Research, Inc product offering

Product offering

Core offering

Anvil Research developed and distributed Anvil Connect, an open source identity and access management (IAM) hub that provides single sign-on (SSO), federated identity, and OAuth 2.0/OpenID Connect authentication for applications, services, and devices. The software issues digitally signed JSON Web Tokens for API authorization and is 100% MIT licensed open source code, distributed via GitHub and npm. The company monetized adjacent professional services — Support, Training, Consulting, and a managed Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) offering — for enterprises and developers implementing the platform.

Product overview

Anvil Research offered a single unified open source product called Anvil Connect — an identity and access hub based on OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, and JSON Web Tokens. The product provided single sign-on capabilities supporting multiple OAuth providers, federated identity management for ecosystem growth, and token issuance for API authentication. It was 100% MIT licensed open source software. The company announced the archival of Anvil Connect in December 2018, with development ceasing in early 2019.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

Anvil Connect: Open-source identity and access hub providing OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, and JSON Web Token authentication.

Products and services

Anvil Connect
Support
Training
Consulting
IDaaS (Identity as a Service)

Companies that use Anvil Research, Inc

Customer profile

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Anvil Research, Inc technology and API

Technology

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API: Yes
API docs
API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Anvil Research, Inc partnerships and signals

Strategic signal

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

Stranger LabscoreOthers · 1 January 2018Christian Smith and other community members formed Stranger Labs in early 2018 to pursue new research questions and technical ideas departing dramatically from the Anvil Research work. This new company became the focus for future development, representing a strategic pivot from Anvil Research's original direction. Anvil Research members transitioned their energy entirely to Stranger Labs.

Recent moves5 records

Anvil Research, Inc competitors and assessment

Company assessment

Broad incumbents

AWS Cognito: Managed identity service from Amazon Web Services for authentication, authorization, and user management for web and mobile apps. Comparable to Anvil Connect's IDaaS offering, with deep integration into the AWS ecosystem and OAuth/OIDC support.
Okta (Auth0): Market-leading cloud identity platform providing SSO, OAuth/OIDC support, and federated identity for enterprise and developer use cases. The dominant commercial incumbent in the IAM space that Anvil Connect competed against, offering both a SaaS platform (Okta) and a developer-focused identity service (Auth0).
ForgeRock: Enterprise identity platform providing identity management, access management, and federated identity services. A broader incumbent in the IAM space, now part of Ping Identity, competing with Anvil Connect at the enterprise IAM level.
Microsoft Entra ID (Azure Active Directory): Microsoft's cloud-based identity and access management service supporting OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, SAML, and federation at massive enterprise scale. A dominant IAM platform against which any open source IAM offering must compete.
Google Cloud Identity: Google's identity platform providing SSO, user management, and OAuth/OIDC-based authentication integrated with Google Workspace and cloud services. Competes with Anvil Connect's developer-focused identity and access hub offering.

Direct peers

Keycloak (Red Hat): Open source identity and access management solution supporting OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, SAML, and federation. Most directly comparable to Anvil Connect as an open source IAM hub with SSO and federated identity capabilities, but with vastly greater enterprise adoption, Red Hat/IBM backing, and a more mature feature set.
Duende IdentityServer: Open source OpenID Connect and OAuth 2.0 server for .NET, descended from the original IdentityServer project. A directly comparable standards-based identity platform, though targeted specifically at the .NET ecosystem rather than Anvil Connect's HTTP-agnostic approach.
WSO2 Identity Server: Open source IAM platform supporting OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, SAML, and federated identity with both community and enterprise editions. A directly comparable open source IAM offering with optional commercial support, similar in positioning to Anvil Connect's open source + professional services model.
Gluu (Gluu Server): Open source identity and access management platform supporting OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, SAML, and UMA for federated identity. A direct open source IAM peer to Anvil Connect, targeting similar enterprise and developer use cases with a community-driven distribution model.

Emerging players

Stranger Labs: Successor company formed in early 2018 by Christian Smith and members of the Anvil Research community to pursue new research directions in private data protection. Founded by Anvil Research's own founder, it is the closest possible peer organizationally and is the entity to which Anvil's team and energy transitioned.

Market position

Strengths2 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

Anvil Research, Inc financial estimates

Financial estimate

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Anvil Research, Inc leadership team

Management profile

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Anvil Research, Inc funding detail

Funding detail

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Anvil Research, Inc M&A and investment

M&A and investment

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Anvil Research, Inc

What does Anvil Research, Inc do?

Is Anvil Research, Inc a public or private company?

Anvil Research, Inc is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently closed.

When was Anvil Research, Inc founded?

Anvil Research, Inc was founded in 2013. It employs 1 to 10 people.

Where is Anvil Research, Inc based?

Anvil Research, Inc is headquartered in Box Elder, United States, in the North America region.

How does Anvil Research, Inc make money?

Two revenue lines are on record. Professional Services are the primary driver. The others are IDaaS (Identity as a Service).

Who are Anvil Research, Inc's main competitors?

Broad incumbents on record are AWS Cognito, Okta (Auth0), ForgeRock, Microsoft Entra ID (Azure Active Directory) and Google Cloud Identity. Direct peers are Keycloak (Red Hat), Duende IdentityServer, WSO2 Identity Server and Gluu (Gluu Server). Stranger Labs is listed as an emerging player.

Does Anvil Research, Inc have an API?

Yes. Anvil Connect issues stateless, signed JSON Web Tokens (JWT) for identity and access using OAuth 2.0 authorization flows. Supports two-legged and three-legged OAuth 2.0 flows. Compatible with any language, platform, or framework that can communicate via HTTP. The system supports dynamic registration and can work with existing Passport.js strategies or custom authentication code.

What industry is Anvil Research, Inc in?

Anvil Research, Inc's product category is Identity and Access Management (IAM) Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDADAAAG, Federation & Identity Standards (SAML/OIDC/OAuth, Federation Hubs), with a secondary code of HDAEAJAC, Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) & Passwordless Authentication. Its NAICS code is 5132 and its SIC code is 7372.