Welcome to our resources for Cognito developers. Here you will find technical materials that describe how to accomplish a specific task with code samples you can re-use in your app. The first set of guides below teach you the essentials for Cognito User Pools, Cognito Identity Pools, and AWS AppSync development.
Getting started
Amazon Cognito user pools
Amazon Cognito user pools makes it easy to create and maintain a user directory and add sign-up (user on-boarding) and sign-in to your mobile or web application for authentication, authorization, and resource access and control.
- Getting Started with Amazon Cognito User Pools
- Set up the sample app: iOS | Android | JavaScript (Angular 2)
Amazon Cognito identity pools
With Amazon Cognito identity pools, you can create unique identities and assign permissions for users. You can also sign in users through social identity providers, such as Facebook, Google, or Apple, or through corporate identity providers with SAML or OIDC and control access to your backend resources.
AWS AppSync
If you're new to Amazon Cognito Sync, use AWS AppSync. Like Amazon Cognito Sync, AWS AppSync is a service for synchronizing application data across devices.
It enables user data like app preferences or game state to be synchronized. It also extends these capabilities by allowing multiple users to synchronize and collaborate in real time on shared data.
AWS AppSync simplifies application development by letting you create a flexible API to securely access, manipulate, and combine data from one or more data sources. AppSync is a managed service that uses GraphQL to make it easy for applications to get exactly the data they need.
- AWS AppSync - Get started by platform
- For existing customers of Cognito Sync, here is a reference to get started with Amazon Cognito Sync
Workshop
Amazon Cognito Workshop
In this workshop, we will deep dive into Cognito and build out an authentication solution for a sample retail store. We will be working with Amazon Cognito user pools for API Authentication for a Hosted UI, Amazon Cognito user pools SDK with AWS Amplify, and the Amazon Cognito identity pools SDK.
Overview videos
Documentation
Amazon Cognito user pools (Developer Guide)
Follow these steps to set up and configure a user pool for the first time with the Amazon Cognito console
Set up the sample app: iOS | Android | JavaScript (Angular 2)
Amazon Cognito identity pools (Developer Guide)
Provides an overview and steps of Amazon Cognito identity pools for creating identities or setup user authentication with federated social or SAML-based identity providers.
Set up a sample app: iOS | Android
Integrate identity pools with user pools (Developer Guide)
Connect your users and apps to other AWS services.
Synchronize application data across devices
If you're new to Amazon Cognito Sync, use AWS AppSync. AWS AppSync is a service for synchronizing application data across devices. It enables user data like app preferences or game state to be synchronized. It also extends these capabilities by allowing multiple users to synchronize and collaborate in real time on shared data. For existing customers of Cognito Sync, here is a reference to get started with Amazon Cognito Sync.
What's new
Developer tools and SDKs
Amazon Cognito user pools:
- API Reference
- JavaScript: SDK | Sample App (Angular 2) | Tutorial
- iOS: SDK | Sample App (Objective C) | Tutorial
- Android: SDK | Sample App | Tutorial
- Java: Sample App
- NET: Sample App
- AWS Amplify: Sample App
Amazon Cognito identity pools
- Android: SDK | Sample App
Amazon Cognito Sync
- API Reference
- iOS: SDK
- Android: SDK
In addition to using the higher-level mobile and JavaScript SDKs, you can also use the lower-level APIs available via the following AWS SDKs to integrate all Amazon Cognito functionality in your applications.
- Java: Install | Documentation | Learn more
- .NET: Install | Documentation | Learn more
- Node.js: Install | Documentation | Learn more
- Python: Install | Documentation | Learn more
- PHP: Install | Documentation | Learn more
- Ruby: Install | Documentation | Learn more
Blog posts and articles

Get started building with Amazon Cognito in the AWS Management Console.