

ForgeRock and Microsoft Identity Manager are competing in the identity and access management market. Based on data comparisons, ForgeRock has the upper hand in pricing and support, while Microsoft Identity Manager is favored for its comprehensive feature set.
Features: ForgeRock offers adaptive authentication, identity orchestration, and IoT security features, appealing to those prioritizing flexibility and scalability. Microsoft Identity Manager excels with seamless Windows environment integration and strong synchronization services, ideal for enterprises invested in Microsoft ecosystems.
Room for Improvement: ForgeRock could improve in simplifying deployment and management of their tools. Additionally, better user interface enhancements and reducing complexity in customization are areas for growth. For Microsoft Identity Manager, expanding integration flexibility beyond Microsoft products, reducing licensing complexity, and enhancing non-Windows platform support are areas needing attention.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: ForgeRock provides a flexible deployment model supporting various platforms, with strong customer service noted for broader support. Microsoft Identity Manager emphasizes integration with existing Windows infrastructure, offering easier deployment for Microsoft users but limited flexibility outside this environment. Customer service for both is strong, each noted for different strengths.
Pricing and ROI: ForgeRock typically presents a lower initial setup cost and offers significant ROI for complex identity management needs due to its customization capabilities. Microsoft Identity Manager may have higher upfront costs but delivers substantial ROI through deep integration with existing Microsoft products, beneficial for those already using Microsoft technology. Differences primarily deal with ForgeRock’s cost-effectiveness versus Microsoft Identity Manager’s deep product integration benefits.
On a B2B level, it opened up the market for TomTom to sell its services in a more efficient way to car companies.
We can use a Linux image from ForgeRock with different systems, applications, websites, and mobile apps to create various types of access for users.
I can definitely see that fewer employees are needed compared to using different SaaS applications.
The support portals offer comprehensive documentation, troubleshooting guides, and community forums that have been helpful for resolving common issues independently.
For standard support tickets, response times were very decent, and the support team was helpful in identifying configuration issues, especially with authentication trees, token settings, and directory replications.
The customer support is very flexible and supportive, particularly in the area of automation and customer deployments.
I rate the technical support nine out of ten.
It is important to get to the right engineer quickly, but the process sometimes involves multiple levels before reaching the best support.
The technical support is of good quality
The access management layer is stateless, so I can scale horizontally by adding more nodes behind a load balancer as traffic increases.
The platform provides flexible authentication trees, enabling us to design custom MFA flows tailored for different user groups and risk profiles.
We scaled up with ForgeRock. My team received an award for implementing it for a 60 million customer base, which was the largest implementation at that time.
In terms of scalability, Microsoft Identity Manager allows management of up to 400,000 objects with a standard configuration.
ForgeRock supports integration with legacy systems in our organization by offering a wide range of connectors and APIs.
ForgeRock is very stable because it manages access, authentication, and authorization effectively.
Not all conditions can be satisfied at all times, leading to some employee or user accounts experiencing deviations and syncing issues.
ForgeRock needs to focus on low-code, no-code solutions that allow for drag-and-drop functionality with good orchestration.
It would be better if they were available for support whenever the customer needs it, especially during migration or go-live time periods.
The main area is complexity. ForgeRock is extremely flexible, but the learning curve can be steep.
Very often customers require real-time or almost real-time updates, and this feature is missing in Microsoft Identity Manager.
The current policy management features are limited, and custom, flexible policies would be ideal.
While the initial setup of Microsoft Identity Manager is not completely complex, migrating or upgrading to a new version can be complex and requires multiple backups to ensure it goes smoothly.
The pricing, setup cost, and licensing are very straightforward, which is a good success.
One has to spend considerable time trying to understand the different modules and different needs for those modules on the licensing front.
Microsoft's licenses are bundled, allowing access to multiple services, which is beneficial.
The pricing of Microsoft Identity Manager is expensive.
Regarding pricing, setup costs, and licensing of Microsoft Identity Manager, it has a couple of cloud connectors that can sync directly with the O365 admin center, which is good enough.
Centralized management makes the biggest difference because it allows us to define, update, and enforce security and compliance rules from a single location.
ForgeRock positively impacts our organization as we manage a large number of users with ease, providing a standard IAM solution that simplifies our processes.
ForgeRock has positively impacted my organization by allowing us to migrate from the older system to the newer ForgeRock component, enabling us to go live with many products across geographies, enhancing security as it is all cloud-based, and with the company taking care of availability, it has reduced costs for the company.
The features of Microsoft Identity Manager that have been most impactful in improving security and compliance include the granular policies, report, and the ability to gain end-to-end visibility for each user.
These features have been impactful in improving our security and compliance.
The best features of Microsoft Identity Manager are its 100% compatibility with Active Directory.
| Product | Mindshare (%) |
|---|---|
| ForgeRock | 3.7% |
| Microsoft Identity Manager | 2.3% |
| Other | 94.0% |

| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 15 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 5 |
| Large Enterprise | 18 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 13 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 3 |
| Large Enterprise | 11 |
ForgeRock is a comprehensive open-source identity and access management solution designed to meet the unique needs of your users and workforce. With ForgeRock you can orchestrate, manage, and secure the complete lifecycle of identities in any cloud or hybrid environment. ForgeRock allows you to set up bot detection, identity proofing, and risk-based authentication.
With ForgeRock, you can define access policies and automate the management of the identity lifecycle all from a central, easy to use, and graphical dashboard. ForgeRock Access Management allows you to build safe authentication using options like passwordless and usernameless logins, single sign-on, biometrics, contextual analytics, and behavioral authentication. When threats appear, you can swiftly change how your users access your most sensitive applications and provide users with secure access to the applications, systems, and resources they need on demand.
ForgeRock Benefits and Key Features
Reviews from Real Users
ForgeRock stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its robust identity and access tools and its being easy to manage and scale with one central dashboard.
PeerSpot users note the effectiveness of these features. A technology solutions leader at an outsourcing company writes, “We need it for multiple clients, multiple implementations. Not all of them are necessarily a multi-tenant solution. We need a very versatile solution that can do a lot of work, but from a single instance that we can centralize authentications and we don't duplicate the efforts and that's where ForgeRock seems to do better.”
Mohamed B., a cyber security consultant at a tech company, writes, "Their access management solution, OpenAM, is most valuable because it meets the needs of a lot of users. ForgeRock secured our system so that it is accessed only by authorized people, and it implemented the SSO."
Microsoft Identity Manager (MIM) builds on the identity and access management capabilities of Forefront Identity Manager. MIM helps you manage the users, credentials, policies, and access within your organization. Additionally, MIM adds a hybrid experience, privileged access management capabilities, and support for new platforms.
We monitor all Identity Management (IM) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.