AWS Directory Service vs AWS IAM Identity Center comparison

AWS Directory Service and AWS IAM Identity Center are both solutions in the Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) category. AWS Directory Service is ranked #18 with an average rating of 8.3, while AWS IAM Identity Center is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.5. AWS Directory Service holds a 1.1% mindshare in IAMS, compared to AWS IAM Identity Center’s 1.5% mindshare. Additionally, 93% of AWS Directory Service users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of AWS IAM Identity Center users who would recommend it.

AWS Directory Service

Read 16 AWS Directory Service reviews

1,163 Views
1,105 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

AWS IAM Identity Center

Read 12 AWS IAM Identity Center reviews

1,948 Views
1,091 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

AWS Directory Service

AWS IAM Identity Center

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 2, 2024

AWS Directory Service and AWS IAM Identity Center are competitors in the field of identity and access management. AWS IAM Identity Center seems to have an advantage due to its more comprehensive feature set, justifying a higher cost.

Features: AWS Directory Service is particularly effective in integrating with existing Active Directory environments, simplifying AWS resource management. It provides essential directory capabilities and supports various AWS services. AWS IAM Identity Center offers advanced access management features, single sign-on, and central identity management. It includes role-based permissions and templates, enabling structured access management across AWS accounts, and enhancing identity management and custom access solutions.

Room for Improvement: AWS Directory Service could enhance ease of integration with non-Windows environments, improve its user interface for better navigation, and provide more automation features to reduce manual configurations. AWS IAM Identity Center could expand its compatibility with third-party applications, improve its documentation for better user understanding, and lower its initial setup complexity for small to medium enterprises.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: AWS IAM Identity Center offers an intuitive setup experience with extensive support, allowing for seamless integration within AWS environments. It emphasizes personalized customer service, enhancing user satisfaction. AWS Directory Service, while efficient in simpler scenarios, generally requires more configuration for complex setups, potentially necessitating additional customer support.

Pricing and ROI: AWS Directory Service typically presents lower initial setup costs, attracting businesses with budget constraints. It offers a cost-effective solution for basic directory services. AWS IAM Identity Center, with its comprehensive capabilities, may deliver stronger long-term ROI due to its advanced management features and integration benefits within expansive AWS environments. Despite higher upfront expenses, its broad feature set often warrants the investment.

To learn more, read our detailed AWS Directory Service vs. AWS IAM Identity Center Report (Updated: April 2026).

Buyer's Guide

AWS Directory Service vs. AWS IAM Identity Center

April 2026

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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

AWS Directory Service

Ranking in Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS)

18th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

AWS IAM Identity Center

Ranking in Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS)

7th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Single Sign-On (SSO) (9th)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) category, the mindshare of AWS Directory Service is 1.1%, down from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of AWS IAM Identity Center is 1.5%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
AWS IAM Identity Center	1.5%
AWS Directory Service	1.1%
Other	97.4%

Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS)

Featured Reviews

Akram Zaki

IT Specialist at FlairsTech

Hybrid directory service has streamlined global server access and supported reliable daily operations

Some features in AWS Directory Service are not automated and are not scriptable, so they require manual work. In today's world where everything is pretty much automated and scriptable using AI, this is a downside. The price is another concern. AWS is really expensive. They provide an awesome service in general, but it's still expensive, very expensive. AD Connector is an application which connects my own Active Directory to AWS Directory Service or AWS infrastructure. There is a bit of latency which is bound by the AD Connector availability. If the AD Connector is having issues, there is a bit of latency, but in general, it's way better than Microsoft Azure. Still, it could be better. The migration was a bit challenging and required intensive planning and migration time. That is always a hassle. No matter which cloud environment you're moving into, the migration is sensitive because you're generally moving from on-premise to a cloud environment, so there is downtime and there are unexpected issues and errors. It needs very careful planning before doing the migration itself. AWS Directory Service is lacking a few things which could be better. Single sign-on federation is missing. SCIM provisioning is not available. In my company, we use other services for SSO federation, SCIM provisioning, and authentication because of these gaps. I would like AWS Directory Service to enroll a multi-factor authentication method. I would like to have an SSO federation where users, if we're hosting applications in AWS, would not need to log in to each application. Single sign-on would log in the user to their account and from there they can open all their applications without requiring a login each time. One of the other cons in AWS is that directories cannot span multiple regions because it's a region-bound architecture. This requires several directories for multi-region deployment. This is the case on my end because my company has several branches all over the world, so it requires several deployments.

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Kteams Michael

Web developer at King of CMS Consulting

Centralized access control has improved team collaboration but still needs a simpler onboarding

One of the best features AWS IAM Identity Center offers is the permission set, which is one of the best. Then there are the temporary credentials via SSO, the multi-account governance, and the centralized identity management. Those are good features that I believe assist developers, and another feature I can say is one of the best is the improved security with temporary credentials. The feature I find myself relying on the most day-to-day would be the centralized identity management and multi-account governance. It allows me to check what other developers are doing and since I am the admin, I can also revoke the access they have to the AWS accounts.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Two-step authentication is very useful and important."

"AWS has eliminated the downtime we waste when our on-premises resources go down."

"I like the manageability. Activate Connect makes it easier to assign information and to manage the resources in the network."

"AWS Directory Service is very useful; it is a role-based mechanism, similar to identity management, and it is one of the most useful AWS features."

"Technical support is very knowledgeable and responds very quickly."

"This is a managed directory service (by AWS) that offers a hands-free solution for our team as we are not required to hire or train people to manage Active Directory features and high availability backups, there is no security patching required on an operating system level or Active Directory malware attack, and we are able to easily integrate other AWS services."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is the security of my customers and my customers' customers."

"The support is very good. I would rate the technical support as a nine out of ten."

More AWS Directory Service pros

"The features of AWS IAM Identity Center that I appreciate are single sign-on and multi-factor authentication, and we can manage all authentication aspects while integrating it with third-party applications."

"The product is easy for beginners to learn and use."

"I highly recommend AWS IAM Identity Center to new users, especially for storage and deployment services like EC2, which are cost-efficient and scalable."

"The solution helps us manage access in a time-efficient manner and offers reliable integration for our services, avoiding security breaches and maintaining operational efficiency."

"The solution enhances security through features like multifactor authentication."

"The most valuable feature of AWS Identity Center is its ability to centrally create permission templates, known as permission sets, which define AWS IAM roles."

"We efficiently use AWS to create multiple user privileges and permissions, making it very scalable and supportive of our clients' operations."

"Overall, IAM Identity Center is a great service, currently rated at nine out of ten."

More AWS IAM Identity Center pros

Cons

"The solution lacks certain features."

"To get CloudWatch to monitor your memory and storage, you have to do some configuration within your server, which sometimes results in errors."

"I've encountered challenges, particularly with Amazon WorkDocs, which is being deprecated. This has made it necessary to find an alternative document management solution that can handle editing, sharing, and workflow management for documents like Word files and PDFs."

"I would like to grant partial access to a table contained in a database without having to provide full access to the whole database."

"Our only complaint is that you cannot integrate your Exchange server. Or, if you are planning to install an Exchange server on your Amazon EC2 instance, then you need to configure Active Directory on EC2 instance. We would like for this limitation to be lifted."

"Some of the security protocols are difficult to understand."

"Currently, there is no option to integrate our on-premises Cisco AWS Directory Service, requiring some manual configuration. If AWS Active Directory Service provided additional domain controller functionalities, like other on-premises Active Directory, it would be very helpful."

"We had a problem with the schema uploading and setting up the directory when we are migrating our users from on-premises to cloud infrastructure."

More AWS Directory Service cons

"Greater visualization for security policies would be beneficial."

"I think AWS IAM Identity Center can be improved by making it beginner-friendly. It was very hard for me to navigate initially because the UI was very complicated."

"There is a desire to see integration or adoption of time-based user creation features within AWS IAM Identity Center."

"The initial setup isn't very easy, around four on a scale of one to ten. It permits setting up policies that might not be entirely secure if improperly configured, which can lead to issues later."

"In the product, two groups cannot have the same name...In general, the tool does not allow for the duplication of names."

"I would like to see more flexibility in the features as sometimes it doesn't meet my expectations."

"IAM is challenging to manage in complex environments."

"The AWS Identity Center's user interface could be improved to provide a clearer understanding of how the system operates."

More AWS IAM Identity Center cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing depends because with AWS there are two types of directory objects: 30,000 and 500,000. It varies. AWS provides the pricing calculators so we can get an estimate from there as per the company requirement of how many users and objects that we need to create. So we can go to that portal, put in the data, and get the quotation. There are no extra licensing fees. It's all included."

"We pay an annual subscription fee."

"The pricing is reasonable."

"AWS' pricing is fair, and costs can be cut if you look carefully at when you're using it."

"The product is cheap since it is available on the cloud."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

13%

Computer Software Company

11%

Performing Arts

10%

Government

10%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Construction Company

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	5

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	4

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS Directory Service?

The pricing is very good because it is low and there is no management cost. You do not need to hire any system administrator to manage your Active Directory.

See all answers

What needs improvement with AWS Directory Service?

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering AWS Directory Service?

I would like AWS Directory Service to enroll a multi-factor authentication method. I would like to have an SSO federation where users, if we're hosting applications in AWS, would not need to log in...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS IAM Identity Center?

AWS provides the lowest pricing among other service providers like Azure, Google, Oracle. It is cost-effective, and they use a pay-as-you-go model.

See all answers

What needs improvement with AWS IAM Identity Center?

I think AWS IAM Identity Center can be improved by making it beginner-friendly. It was very hard for me to navigate initially because the UI was very complicated. I had to do a lot of research and ...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for AWS IAM Identity Center?

My main use case for AWS IAM Identity Center is hosting and redirecting web services that I want to use as localhost, but then I have to reroute it. What I did was create a permission set and use i...

See all answers

Comparisons

Microsoft Entra ID vs AWS Directory Service

Compared 28% of the time

Okta Platform vs AWS Directory Service

Compared 24% of the time

Omada Identity vs AWS Directory Service

Compared 12% of the time

SailPoint Identity Security Cloud vs AWS Directory Service

Compared 10% of the time

Google Cloud Identity vs AWS Directory Service

Compared 10% of the time

More AWS Directory Service Competitors

Microsoft Entra ID vs AWS IAM Identity Center

Compared 13% of the time

Fortinet FortiAuthenticator vs AWS IAM Identity Center

Compared 9% of the time

Okta Platform vs AWS IAM Identity Center

Compared 7% of the time

Auth0 Platform vs AWS IAM Identity Center

Compared 6% of the time

Ping Identity Platform vs AWS IAM Identity Center

Compared 5% of the time

More AWS IAM Identity Center Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

AWS Directory Service

May 2026

Download AWS Directory Service product report

Buyer's Guide

AWS IAM Identity Center

May 2026

Download AWS IAM Identity Center product report

Also Known As

AWS Managed Microsoft AD

AWS Single Sign On, AWS SSO

Overview

AWS Directory Service offers a cloud-based infrastructure for managing secure access, allowing seamless integration with other services and reducing hardware costs. It enhances reliability and access management for enterprises.

AWS Directory Service is integrated with Amazon services such as EC2 and RDS, providing high availability, quick replication, and seamless disaster recovery. Its cloud-based nature eliminates the need for hardware management, delivering cost efficiency and robust secure access management. Users benefit from its role-based mechanisms, redundancy, scalability, and low downtime, addressing diverse access and management needs. Despite its strengths, difficulties with integration, automation, and user interface have been noted. The lack of single sign-on and multi-factor authentication, along with challenges in migration and configuration, highlight areas for improvement. Users also desire expanded regional coverage and better integration with CloudWatch.

What are the key features of AWS Directory Service?

Cloud Infrastructure: Provides a cloud-based directory eliminating the need for physical hardware.
Secure Access Management: Ensures managed access and hybrid operations across networks.
Integration with EC2 and RDS: Supports seamless integration with Amazon EC2 and RDS.
High Availability: Offers robust and reliable directory service with minimal downtime.
Role-Based Mechanisms: Allows precise control over permissions and access levels.

What benefits and ROI should users consider?

Cost Efficiency: Saves expenses related to hardware and its maintenance.
Scalability: Adapts to increasing company needs effortlessly.
Performance: Delivers consistent directory performance without disruptions.
Redundancy: Provides exceptional backup solutions to prevent data loss.

AWS Directory Service is predominantly leveraged in industries requiring secure data management and integration with Microsoft Active Directory. It's widely used for domain authentication and policy implementation in sectors such as banking, where centralized data processing and enhanced security layers are crucial. Its role in managing ACL permissions and IAM for special access is critical, especially in environments handling sensitive information.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

AWS IAM Identity Center provides centralized identity management, permission sets for role creation, and structured access, offering single sign-on and multi-factor authentication while integrating with AWS and third-party apps.

IAM Identity Center offers granular control and flexibility through JSON and attribute-based policies. It facilitates single sign-on, multi-factor authentication, and integrates seamlessly with AWS and third-party applications. By utilizing existing templates, it streamlines permissions allocation. Some users note a lack of clarity in the interface and challenges in integrating with third-party tools, particularly with naming conventions in permission sets. There are requests for enhanced policy visualization, debugging tools, and better documentation on temporary access credentials.

What are the key features of AWS IAM Identity Center?

Centralized Identity Management: Streamlines user management across AWS accounts with a unified approach.
Permission Sets: Automates role creation for structured access control.
Granular Control: Supports JSON-based and attribute-based policies for detailed access permissions.
Single Sign-On: Simplifies access by consolidating credentials across multiple applications.
Integration Capabilities: Links effectively with AWS and third-party apps for enhanced security.

What benefits should be considered in reviews?

Improved Security: Enhances security with multi-factor authentication and micro-level control.
Operational Efficiency: Saves time with automated permissions and temporary credentials.
Adaptability: Integrates with existing authentication systems, accommodating varied enterprise needs.
User Management: Facilitates handling large user bases with ease and precision.

AWS IAM Identity Center is deployed widely for identity management, centralized access, and role-based control. Enterprises manage IAM over multiple AWS accounts and integrate it with systems like Azure AD. It allows setting permissions for DevOps and security teams, ensuring tailored access and limited privilege credentials for testing and deployment.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Sample Customers

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers

Buyer's Guide

AWS Directory Service vs. AWS IAM Identity Center

April 2026

Free Report: AWS Directory Service vs. AWS IAM Identity Center

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