SSO guide

SSO guide for Business & Enterprise

Set up SAML 2.0 Single Sign-On for your organization.

Single Sign-On (SSO) lets your team authenticate through your organization's identity provider and access Magnific without separate credentials. SSO is available on Business and Enterprise plans.

SSO uses the SAML 2.0 protocol to securely exchange authentication data between your identity provider (IdP) and Magnific. When a user attempts to log in, they are redirected to your organization's IdP for authentication. Once verified, they gain access to Magnific without entering additional credentials.

Key benefits include:

In this article

SSO availability by plan

Feature

Business

Enterprise

SSO via SAML 2.0

Yes (self-service)

Yes (advanced)

Domain verification

Yes

Yes

Multiple domains

Limited

Unlimited

Dedicated SSO support

No

Yes

Before you begin

To configure SSO you will need:

Magnific SAML values

These values are the same regardless of which identity provider you use. Copy them from Settings → Security SSO in your Magnific admin panel.

Required attribute mappings

All identity providers must send the following three attributes. Use Unspecified as the Name Format for each one.

Attribute name

Source attribute

email

user.mail

first_name

user.givenname

last_name

user.surname

Step 1: Verify your domain

Before configuring your identity provider, you must verify ownership of your company domain.

  1. Go to Settings → Security SSO in your Magnific admin panel.

  2. Enter your company's domain (e.g., yourcompany.com). This is the domain after the @ symbol in your employees' email addresses.

  3. Copy the verification code provided by Magnific.

  4. Log in to your DNS provider (e.g., GoDaddy, Cloudflare, AWS Route 53) and add a new TXT record at the root domain with the verification code as the value.

  5. Return to Magnific and click Verify domain.

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DNS propagation may take up to 48 hours but typically completes within minutes.

Step 2: Configure your identity provider

Magnific supports any SAML 2.0 compatible identity provider. In all cases you will create a new SAML application, paste the Magnific SAML values, configure the required attribute mappings, assign users, and download the IdP metadata XML for the next step.

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Okta

  1. In your Okta Admin Console, go to Applications → Create App Integration and select SAML 2.0.

  2. Name the app Magnific. Click Next.

  3. In SAML settings, paste the Entity ID into Audience Restriction, and the ACS URL into Single Sign On URL, Recipient URL, and Destination URL.

  4. Configure the three attribute mappings (email, first_name, last_name).

  5. Click Next, select I'm an Okta customer adding an internal app, then click Finish.

  6. Go to the Assignments tab and assign the app to the users or groups who need access.

  7. Go to the Sign On tab and copy the Metadata URL or download the metadata XML.

Microsoft Entra ID

  1. In the Microsoft Entra admin center, go to Identity → Applications → Enterprise applications → New application. Create your own application named Magnific.

  2. Click Set up single sign on and select SAML.

  3. In Basic SAML Configuration, paste the Entity ID, ACS URL, and Sign-on URL.

  4. Under Attributes and Claims, configure the three attribute mappings (email, first_name, last_name).

  5. In the SAML Certificates section, download the Certificate (Base64) and copy the App Federation Metadata URL.

  6. Go to Users and groups and assign the users or groups who need access.

Google Workspace

  1. Sign in to your Google Admin console (admin.google.com) with a super administrator account.

  2. Go to Apps → Web and mobile apps → Add app → Add custom SAML app.

  3. Name the app Magnific. Click Continue.

  4. Download the IdP metadata XML from the Google Identity Provider details page. Click Continue.

  5. Enter the Entity ID, ACS URL, and Sign-on URL as service provider details.

  6. Add the three attribute mappings (email, first_name, last_name). Click Finish.

  7. In the app settings, click User access and enable the app for your users or organizational units.

Other providers like Duo, OneLogin, Auth0, and Ping Identity also work with the same Magnific SAML values and attribute mappings.

Step 3: Complete setup in Magnific

  1. Return to Settings → Security SSO in Magnific.

  2. Upload the metadata XML file from your identity provider.

  3. SSO starts in Flexible mode by default so you can test without disrupting existing logins.

  4. Once confirmed working, choose your preferred enforcement mode.

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Where SSO sign-in starts

Magnific always starts the sign-in process. Your users can start SSO in three ways, and all three end up in the same place.

From the login page

On the Magnific login page, your users choose Continue with SSO and enter their work email

address. We use the domain of that address to find your organization and redirect them to your identity provider.

From your direct SSO link

In Settings → Security SSO you will find a link unique to your organization that

starts the sign-in immediately, without asking for an email address:

https://id.magnific.com/sso?client_id=magnific&provider_id=your-organization-id

Copy it exactly as shown in your panel — both parameters are required, and the link will not work without them.

This is the link to share with your users: add it to your intranet, your onboarding emails, or your browser bookmarks.

The identifier in this link is not the same as the one in your ACS (Reply) URL. They look similar but they are different values, and swapping them will stop the sign-in from working. Copy each one from the field it belongs to in your SSO settings panel.

From your identity provider’s app tile

When your users open Magnific from their Okta, Microsoft Entra ID or Google Workspace portal, they sign in from there. We don’t use the login response your identity provider sends on that click: we discard it and start the sign-in from our side. Their session with your identity provider is already open, so the extra step is a redirect they never see.

One field in your SAML application decides whether the tile works: Default Relay State (Relay State in Entra ID). Leave it empty, or set it to a full URL starting with http:// or https://. Any other value — a GUID, a relative path, an ADFS RPID= string — stops the sign-in.

Two things to expect from this entry point: the tile lands users on the Magnific home, not on a specific page; and if your SAML application has ForceAuthn enabled, your identity provider asks for credentials again on the second step.

Enforcement modes

Mode

Behavior

Flexible

Users can sign in via SSO or email and social login. Ideal for testing before full rollout.

Restricted

Existing users keep email and password login. New registrations are blocked outside of SSO.

Strict

All users must sign in via SSO only. Email and password login is disabled.

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Start with Flexible mode to verify the configuration works. Once confirmed, switch to Restricted or Strict.

Troubleshooting

Email address not valid error

This error occurs when the SSO Attribute Statements are not correctly configured in your Identity Provider (IdP).

Our system expects specific user attributes to be sent during the SSO authentication process. If these attributes are missing, misnamed, or mapped incorrectly, the login will fail and return the “Given email address is not valid” error.

Verify that your IdP sends the three required attributes (email, first_name, last_name) with the correct source values and Unspecified name format.

Certificate error

This error occurs when there is an issue with the XML metadata file uploaded during the SSO configuration.

Specifically, the certificate included in the XML file is not valid or does not match the expected configuration. As a result, the system is unable to verify the identity provider and the SSO setup fails.

Common causes

  1. The XML file uploaded is outdated.

  2. The certificate in the XML does not belong to the active IdP.

  3. The certificate has expired.

  4. The XML file was modified manually and the certificate is malformed or incorrect.

How to fix it

  1. Re-download the latest XML metadata from your identity provider.

  2. Make sure the certificate in the XML is correct and active.

  3. Upload the new XML file without modifying it.

If the error persists, contact your IT or security team to verify the certificate configuration in your IdP.

Sign-in from my identity provider’s tile or test button fails

What you see. You click your identity provider’s app tile — or the button it offers to test the application — and instead of signing in, your browser shows a page of plain text starting with {"success":false,"message":"We couldn't complete your single sign-on because it wasn't started from our login page.

Why it happens. Magnific starts the sign-in on our side. When your identity provider sends a login response we never asked for, we discard it and start a fresh sign-in from our own flow — which is why the tile works at all. We only do that when we can tell that response apart from a sign-in of ours that expired, and the Default Relay State field is how we tell: empty or a full URL means the click came from your portal. Any other value is ambiguous, so we stop instead of risking sending the user to the wrong place.

How to fix it. In your SAML application, open Default Relay State (Relay State in Entra ID). Clear it, or set it to a full URL starting with https://. Save, then click the tile again.

What this error doesn’t mean. Your certificate, your signature, your attribute mappings and your verified domain are all verified before this point. This failure says nothing about the rest of your SAML configuration.

Don’t retry with a hand-edited link. After five failed attempts with an invalid organization identifier, your IP address is blocked for 15 minutes. Copy the link from your settings panel instead of editing it.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use SSO with multiple domains?

Yes. Business plans support a limited number of domains. Enterprise plans allow unlimited domains, which is useful for organizations with multiple subsidiaries or regional domains.

What happens to existing users when I enable SSO?

It depends on the enforcement mode. In Flexible mode, nothing changes. In Restricted mode, existing users keep their current login methods but new registrations are blocked outside SSO. In Strict mode, all users must use SSO.

Can I enforce SSO for all users?

Yes. Set the enforcement mode to Strict. All users with emails matching your verified domain will be required to sign in through SSO.

Which identity providers are supported?

Any provider compatible with SAML 2.0. This guide covers Okta, Microsoft Entra ID, and Google Workspace, but others (Duo, OneLogin, Auth0, Ping Identity) work with the same Magnific SAML values.

Can users sign in from our identity provider’s app tile?

Yes. Opening Magnific from your Okta, Entra ID or Google Workspace portal signs your users in. Keep the Default Relay State field empty or set to a full URL starting with http:// or https:// — any other value stops the sign-in. The tile lands users on the Magnific home rather than a specific page.

Do you support IdP-initiated SAML?

Not as a protocol flow. We never consume an unsolicited assertion: we discard it and run a service-provider initiated sign-in instead. Your app tile works, and the attributes we read are the ones your identity provider sends on that second request — worth knowing if it sends different attribute statements depending on how the sign-in started.