What are the pros and cons of using “Sign in with Twitter/Facebook” for a new website?

Posted by Paul D. Waite on Programmers See other posts from Programmers or by Paul D. Waite
Published on 2011-02-10T21:32:05Z Indexed on 2011/02/10 23:33 UTC
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user-interface

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Identity

Myself and a friend are looking to launch a little forum site. I’m considering using the “Sign in with Facebook/Twitter” APIs, possibly exclusively, for user login.I haven’t used either of these before, nor run a site with user logins at all.

What are the pros and cons of these APIs? Specifically:

Is the idea of using them, and/or using them exclusively (i.e. having no login system other than one or both of these), any good? What benefits do I get as a developer from using them?
Do end users actually like/dislike them?
Have you experienced any technical/logistical issues with these APIs specifically?

Here are the pros and cons I’ve got so far:

Pros

More convenient for the user (“register” with two clicks, sign in with one)
Possibly no need to maintain our own login system

Cons

No control over our login process
Exclude non-Facebook/non-Twitter users (if we don’t maintain our own login system)
Exclude Facebook/Twitter users who are worried about us having some sort of access to their accounts
Users’ accounts on our site are compromised if their Facebook/Twitter accounts are compromised.

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