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Active Roles by One Identity vs Dameware Remote Support comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 20, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Active Roles by One Identity
Ranking in Active Directory Management
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
92
Ranking in other categories
User Provisioning Software (3rd), Non-Human Identity Management (NHIM) (1st)
Dameware Remote Support
Ranking in Active Directory Management
20th
Average Rating
8.6
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
Remote Access (31st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Active Directory Management category, the mindshare of Active Roles by One Identity is 11.8%, up from 10.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dameware Remote Support is 3.1%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Active Directory Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Active Roles by One Identity11.8%
Dameware Remote Support3.1%
Other85.1%
Active Directory Management
 

Featured Reviews

Puru Solanki ( ITIL. CISM , CCSP ) - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Head at Citadel Global
Automation has streamlined onboarding and governance and delivers faster, more secure access
Overall, we are very satisfied with Active Roles by One Identity, but there are a few areas that could be improved. The user interface could be more modern and intuitive, especially for new administrators. Some advanced configuration and policy settings have a steep learning curve and could be simplified. We would also like to see more built-in integrations with cloud platforms and SaaS applications, along with additional out-of-the-box reporting templates. These improvements would make the product even easier and more flexible for organizations managing hybrid environments. One thing that would make our daily work even smoother is having more ready-to-use templates for common administrative tasks and reports. This would reduce the need for customization and help teams get up and running more quickly. Additionally, faster and simpler synchronization for hybrid and cloud environments would be beneficial, especially for organizations managing both on-premises and cloud identities. More detailed documentation and guided setup for advanced features would help new administrators learn the platform faster and more easily. One additional improvement I would like to see for Active Roles by One Identity is a better built-in dashboard with more real-time insights into identity and access activities. It would be helpful if upgrades and migrations were simpler and required less planning. Finally, expanding native integrations with more cloud services and third-party applications would make the platform even more versatile and reliable. These enhancements would improve the overall user experience while keeping the product's strong security and automation capabilities.
it_user323577 - PeerSpot reviewer
Tier1 - IT Support Technician at a comms service provider with 501-1,000 employees
We're able to see issues from the users' perspectives, but there are issues when connecting over VPN.
The ability to see issue from users perspective and installation of software. Worked well for awhile but issues with it connecting over VPN was a major drawback. We've been using it since 2009. We also utilize GoToAssist which has more features and runs smoother. It also allows us to send…

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Instead of deleting accounts, we like the deprovision option so that we can reverse any accidental deletions. It also gives a higher level of quality control in terms of enforcing any number of variables, such as making sure that an account has a description entered before the account can be created. We can backtrack and know the history of it that way."
"ARS probably saves us at least two weeks out of every month."
"One Identity Active Roles has positively impacted our organization by making Active Directory management much more efficient, reducing manual work, improving control over permissions, and providing better visibility into changes, which has helped both security and compliance efforts."
"Another good feature is the change history. It's centralized in a single place and allows us to manage people's Active Directory domains from a central location. We can also drill down into individual objects in a troubleshooting or even an auditing situation. We can show evidence to auditors by drilling down into the individual history. It gives you all the history of what happened around an individual object. That is something that would be almost impossible to do in Active Directory, or extremely complicated."
"One Identity Active Roles has made things more organized and secure across the company, and it has also reduced the need to contact IT administrators directly, saving time for both me and the IT staff."
"Previously, I was handling a 100 percent workload, but after using One Identity Active Roles, 70 percent of my load has been resolved."
"I highly recommend all organizations to consider this as one of the best solutions."
"One Identity Active Roles has positively impacted our organization by simplifying Active Directory administration and reducing the amount of manual work required for user and access management."
"The ability to control admin rights through AD groups allows the techs to have all of the rights that they would normally without adjustments on the backend of the product."
"It was very easy to install."
"Using DameWare has made the troubleshooting process faster."
 

Cons

"We're pulling the identity components out because ARS is not an identity platform. It's not meant to be one. It's not robust enough to handle it all."
"One Identity Active Roles could be improved with a more modern and intuitive UI, faster performance for large environments, simpler reporting customization, and smoother integration with cloud-native identity platforms and APIs."
"Integration capabilities are somewhere in the middle; it is not easy to integrate, but it is not the hardest thing out there."
"One Identity Active Roles could be improved by making the initial setup and policy configuration simpler and more intuitive, especially for complex enterprise AD environments."
"Active Roles could add more options for web customization. Our requirements are exceedingly specific. We'd like to get the web interface down to just five buttons, but in some cases, we can only get to six. The web interface in the current version is less customizable than in the previous one."
"One Identity Active Roles could be improved with a modern and intuitive user interface, simpler configuration for complex workflows, and faster performance in large environments."
"I've had a difficult time getting it to cooperate with Azure in the cloud and, while the support staff are very good and very knowledgeable, what they assist with just on a call doesn't go deep enough to help with a number of issues. The answer that comes back is that we'd have to start an engagement with Professional Services, which is fine but that takes time to schedule and it takes budget."
"One Identity Active Roles is a mature and reliable product, but there are definitely areas where it could be improved."
"Worked well for awhile but issues with it connecting over VPN was a major drawback."
"SolarWinds has a great KB but many of the articles are lacking updated information and the keyword search is lacking if you don't have previous experience with the product and encounter issues."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price is reasonable. It costs us about 1 million Danish kroner annually, and we also spend about half as much on consultants."
"It's fairly priced."
"The pricing for Active Roles is expensive but not as expensive as other solutions like Okta."
"The pricing is high. I have not been involved with the renewal or cost aspect, but I know it is not cheap by any means. However, it is very useful for our environment."
"It's expensive."
"The licensing model is a simple user-based model, not that much complicated."
"The pricing is on the higher end."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
26%
Healthcare Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
13%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business98
Midsize Enterprise19
Large Enterprise46
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with One Identity Active Roles?
To improve Active Roles by One Identity, I would like to see more automation around role assignment and access reviews, along with better reporting and an easier-to-use dashboard. While the integra...
What is your primary use case for One Identity Active Roles?
My main use case for Active Roles by One Identity involves managing user access and roles across different applications while ensuring users have the right permissions based on their responsibiliti...
Ask a question
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Also Known As

Quest Active Roles
DameWare, SolarWinds DameWare, SolarWinds Dameware Remote Support
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

City of Frankfurt, Moore Public Schools, George Washington University, Transavia Airlines, Howard County, MD. See all stories at OneIdentity.com/casestudies
Illinois School District
Find out what your peers are saying about Active Roles by One Identity vs. Dameware Remote Support and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
919,894 professionals have used our research since 2012.