AWS Directory Service vs Okta Workforce Identity comparison

AWS Directory Service vs. Okta Workforce Identity

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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)

17th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Okta Workforce Identity

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

3rd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Single Sign-On (SSO) (2nd), Authentication Systems (6th), Privileged Access Management (PAM) (7th), Access Management (4th), ZTNA as a Service (11th)

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) category, the mindshare of AWS Directory Service is 1.6%, down from 2.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Okta Workforce Identity is 12.1%, down from 14.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

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

Featured Reviews

MassimilianoCollavo

Computer Area Instructor of the Municipality of Asolo at Comune di asolo

Integrates well with other tools, particularly through single sign-on

I've been working with AWS Directory Service as part of a broader solution for moving our infrastructure to a hybrid cloud model. Initially, the goal was to replicate our on-premises server to the cloud and then eventually shut down the on-premises server entirely. My work with AWS Directory Service is focused on migrating to the cloud and finding a suitable document management system that allows for online editing, document sharing, and workflow management. I rate it an eight out of ten.

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Tor Nordhagen

Executive Director at Semaphore

Extremely easy to work with, simple to set up, and reasonably priced

The drawback of this solution is that in our shops, many staff members sometimes have to be borrowed from one shop to another and the solution does not really support having multiple roles. The user experience we would like to have when a person works in shop A which pays their salary is that they should have access to pretty much everything. Maybe you have somebody who is a manager in that shop A, he should be able to order new wear, he should be able to change the pricing, he should be able to empty the cash registry, and ship it to the bank. But when for instance, in COVID, people had to fill in for people in shops where a lot of people were sick, then they had to actually use user accounts of people that work in shop B. If you were employed in shop A, you could not work in shop B without borrowing somebody else's user ID and password. Which is really bad. We haven't been able to work around that and Okta Workforce Identity does not have a solution for it. We are now piloting their identity governance solution. Obviously, it's easy to give somebody access, give them an account, and give them roles, but it's hard to maintain that. For example, if you moved from, say working in a shop to working in a warehouse. But why do you still have all this shop access? The solution has until now not had anything to really support the process of taking away access. But now we are in a better release program of Okta's identity governance solution. Although it's very basic, the solution has started on a journey, but identity governance is something that Okta Workforce Identity really needs to improve. The ability or the options in the solution for changing the look and feel are not good enough because in our partner portal, essentially what they have is an ugly admin interface. The admin interface is good enough for us technical people because that's all we need. We work with the product and we're able to see the data but when it comes to presenting the service portal, Okta Workforce Identity does not have any capabilities really for making it look pretty. To add branding and different graphical user interface elements than Okta basic for essentially delegated admin for the business-to-business portal is horrifying because you're essentially using the tech admin. The only option we had and used, was to take the tech admin console and strip it. so that a vendor that has some goods that are sold in the shops, when they want to add a user on their side, say a driver or a packer on their side who should know how much they've packed in a truck to come to our warehouse, then the user interface that this vendor is using, these functional people will then have to use an extremely basic user interface.

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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

"We can provide specific access to people based on what they need from our accounts."

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

"The most valuable feature is that because it's all in the cloud, you don't need to manage the infrastructure."

"I would rate AWS Directory Service nine out of ten."

"The most valuable feature of AWS Directory Service is cost-cutting features."

"The solution integrates well with other tools, particularly through single sign-on, allowing users to connect to various applications using just one password, including email."

"The AD Connector is very good and easy to implement."

"We like the fact that it's got such great redundancy."

More AWS Directory Service pros

"Okta has introduced the Universal Directory. It has custom attribute capability and user permissions to read/write on their profiles or hide them. Profile sources and identity profile sourcing are two different components that I haven't seen in other products."

"We face no challenges in integrating the product with our legacy systems."

"The most useful features of Okta for my organization are identity and access management, single sign-on, and the flexibility for hybrid setups."

"A solution that's easy to use, stable, and reliable."

"The product is easy to use."

"The most valuable features of Okta Workforce Identity are SSO, MFA, and beneficial feature sets."

"We find the solution to be reliable for our customers and it is nice that it is cloud-based and can be accessed from anywhere."

"The tool provides a single place of contact for managing users. We only need to manage users in Okta Workforce Identity, eliminating the need to duplicate efforts across different systems. For example, if a user needs to be decommissioned, we don't have to go through all the systems and cloud services; we delete the user in one place. This process is automated with our HR system for both organizations, simplifying user lifecycle management."

More Okta Workforce Identity pros

Cons

"Accessing the data needs improvement."

"The AWS Directory Service should be easier to integrate."

"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."

"The solution lacks certain features."

"The group policy can be improved."

"Can be improved by including on-premises access for services through Identity Access Management."

"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."

More AWS Directory Service cons

"RESTful Web Service calls and their response seem a bit slow."

"There is no proper documentation on integrating test cases with Okta, and this issue is troubling whenever I try to implement it."

"The ability or the options in the solution for changing the look and feel are not good enough because in our partner portal, essentially what they have is an ugly admin interface."

"Okta could improve by making their learning materials more user-friendly."

"It's not compatible with on-premises installations, unless you host it as a SaaS. We were not able to do that. For example, imagine a scenario where the cloud is not available. Then, Okta will not work for you. That use case will readily fail because it doesn't have an on-premises installation that you can use to authenticate or provide identity and access management. If you have a purely on-premises solution that is not connected to the internet, then this will not work. This is one area that can be improved."

"The guest user access could be improved."

"Application updates are lacking. Customer support needs to be improved."

"Okta Workforce Identity could improve provisioning it can be made simpler."

More Okta Workforce Identity cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"The pricing is reasonable."

"We pay an annual subscription fee."

"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."

"The price of the solution is good."

"The licensing is per user per month and includes full technical support."

"The product's price is high. For each feature, a certain payment is required."

"The solution is not the cheapest but not the most expensive. They are in the middle rating."

"I believe it competes well. The pricing is pretty competitive. I know that Microsoft also provides something similar with its MFA and identity services."

"Though I don't know about the licensing model of the product, I wouldn't be surprised if Okta offers a per user license subscription model."

"The licensing model is fine for general service usage. However, the charges for API features and API tokens can be quite high."

"The product has a user-based license model."

More Okta Workforce Identity pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) solutions are best for your needs.

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860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Healthcare Company

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about AWS Directory Service?

The most valuable feature of AWS Directory Service is cost-cutting features.

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.

What needs improvement with AWS Directory Service?

Accessing the data needs improvement. Additionally, integration and compatibility with other AWS ( /products/amazon-aws-reviews ) services, network open LDAP, support for on-premise and cloud envir...

What do you like most about Okta Workforce Identity?

Okta has introduced the Universal Directory. It has custom attribute capability and user permissions to read/write on their profiles or hide them. Profile sources and identity profile sourcing are ...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Okta Workforce Identity?

Pricing for Okta is reasonably not that much, however, I don't have access to the commercial aspect.

What needs improvement with Okta Workforce Identity?

I believe that if we integrate the workflows section into the main Okta Workforce Identity dashboard, it can be very useful.

Microsoft Entra ID vs AWS Directory Service

Comparisons

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Compared 17% of the time

SailPoint Identity Security Cloud vs AWS Directory Service

Compared 10% of the time

More AWS Directory Service Competitors

Microsoft Entra ID vs Okta Workforce Identity

Compared 27% of the time

SailPoint Identity Security Cloud vs Okta Workforce Identity

Compared 12% of the time

Google Cloud Identity vs Okta Workforce Identity

Compared 11% of the time

Saviynt vs Okta Workforce Identity

Compared 7% of the time

Ping Identity Platform vs Okta Workforce Identity

Compared 2% of the time

More Okta Workforce Identity Competitors

Product Reports

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

Download AWS Directory Service product report

Okta Workforce Identity

Download Okta Workforce Identity product report

Also Known As

AWS Managed Microsoft AD

No data available

Overview

AWS Directory Service lets you run Microsoft Active Directory (AD) as a managed service. AWS Directory Service for Microsoft Active Directory, also referred to as AWS Managed Microsoft AD, is powered by Windows Server 2012 R2. When you select and launch this directory type, it is created as a highly available pair of domain controllers connected to your virtual private cloud (VPC). The domain controllers run in different Availability Zones in a region of your choice. Host monitoring and recovery, data replication, snapshots, and software updates are automatically configured and managed for you.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Okta Workforce Identity is a comprehensive identity and access management (IAM) solution designed to enhance security and streamline user experiences for businesses of all sizes. As a cloud-based platform, it offers a suite of tools that simplify user authentication, authorization, and management across a variety of applications and services.

Core Features

Single Sign-On (SSO): Enables users to access multiple applications with a single set of credentials, enhancing convenience and reducing password fatigue.
Adaptive Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Provides robust security by requiring additional verification factors, which can adapt based on the user's location, device, and behavior.
Lifecycle Management: Automates user account creation, updating, and deactivation, ensuring access rights are current and compliant with company policies.
Universal Directory: A centralized directory service that supports user and group management across various applications, simplifying administrative tasks.
API Access Management: Safeguards APIs by implementing policies that control how and when they can be accessed, which is crucial for protecting sensitive data.

PeerSpot users often praise Okta Workforce Identity for its ease of use and robust security features. IT professionals appreciate the streamlined integration with numerous applications and the flexibility in configuring access policies. Business executives value the enhanced security posture and the ability to enforce compliance across their digital assets.

For IT professionals, Okta Workforce Identity offers a scalable and efficient solution to manage user identities and access rights. The ability to automate routine tasks like user provisioning and deactivation significantly reduces administrative overhead, allowing IT teams to focus on more strategic initiatives. Furthermore, the platform's comprehensive reporting capabilities aid in monitoring and auditing access, which is critical for maintaining security and compliance.

Business executives will find that Okta Workforce Identity aligns with broader organizational goals of operational efficiency and risk management. Its intuitive user experience minimizes disruptions to workforce productivity, while advanced security features like adaptive MFA help mitigate the risk of data breaches. The platform's cloud-based nature ensures scalability and agility, enabling businesses to adapt quickly to changing market conditions and workforce dynamics.

Okta Workforce Identity stands out as a versatile and secure IAM solution, adept at meeting the complex needs of modern enterprises. Its combination of user-friendly features and robust security measures makes it a top choice for organizations aiming to streamline their identity management processes while bolstering their cybersecurity defenses.

Okta

Sample Customers

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers

FedEx, Zoom, Takeda, Lululemon Athletica, GrunHub, jetBlue, McKensson, Bain & Company, Engie, Peloton, Sonos, T-Mobile, Hewlett Packard, MGM Resorts, Ally Financial, Priceline, Albertsons, Itercom, Classy, FICO, Kensho, Live Nation, Drata, Rotary, and others.

AWS Directory Service vs. Okta Workforce Identity