JWT vs Sessions vs PASETO — Which Authentication Should You Use?

Authentication is one of the most critical components of backend architecture. In this video, we break down three major authentication techniques used in modern applications: • Cookies and Session-based authentication • JWT (JSON Web Tokens) • PASETO (Platform-Agnostic Security Tokens) You’ll learn: • How session-based authentication works • What makes JWT stateless and scalable • JWT structure: Header, Payload, Signature • Push vs pull validation models • Token signing vs encryption • How PASETO improves cryptographic safety • When to use each authentication method in real-world systems Whether you're building microservices, APIs, mobile apps, or distributed systems, understanding these authentication strategies is essential for designing secure and scalable architectures. This breakdown is ideal for backend engineers, system designers, security engineers, and software developers. Subscribe to Bazai for deep technical insights into system design, backend engineering, distributed systems, and security architecture.