ForgeRock vs Microsoft Identity Manager comparison

Ping Identity and Microsoft are both solutions in the Identity Management (IM) category. Ping Identity is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.5, while Microsoft is ranked #7 with an average rating of 7.8. Ping Identity holds a 4.5% mindshare in IAM, compared to Microsoft’s 4.2% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of Ping Identity users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 75% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 1, 2024

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.

To learn more, read our detailed ForgeRock vs. Microsoft Identity Manager Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

ForgeRock vs. Microsoft Identity Manager

March 2025

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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

Omada Identity

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Identity Management (IM) category, the mindshare of Omada Identity is 3.3%, down from 3.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ForgeRock is 4.5%, down from 5.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Identity Manager is 4.2%, down from 6.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Identity Management (IM)

Featured Reviews

Pernilla Hulth

IAM Project Manager (Independent) at a retailer with 10,001+ employees

The interface is easy to use and gives you a solid overview

The cloud-based deployment was straightforward, but the on-prem deployment was in a highly complex ecosystem. Omada has matured since then. I wouldn't say that it isn't straightforward, but it depends on the customer. A standard deployment is relatively easy, but it can be more painful if you need a lot of customization. We deployed the cloud solution in around four months, nearly meeting the 12-week benchmark. The on-prem deployment took three years. It was a highly complex ecosystem that was dependent on other systems. Depending on the size of your environment, you need a product owner and some specialists for maintenance. My last customer was a university with a complex environment. They had around 12 people involved in maintenance at that organization. Typically, it's between 2-5 people.

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Trisha Bhola

Senior Associate at Cognizant

It's easier to customize and maintain our code

I worked on two different projects based on ForgeRock, and both are automated deployments. One is a UI-based deployment. It's an automated process using some scripts. The deployments are done through Octopus, so it's also automated. We first deploy the essential components of AM and then implement additional configurations like Amster Imports. After that, we import all the SAML Federation data and add some certificates. We have two teams of five and three team members working on the different deployment processes. One is working on the dev side, another is looking at the higher environment, and one is managing the data. In another project, I'm the only developer. We also deploy on the dev environments so that anyone can test new features, configurations, and client requirements. They can test it on the dev environment, but a team of four people manages higher environments. The Access Management component involves the most customization, which takes around 15 to 20 minutes because of the need to import the Amster configuration. If another deployment is simultaneously happening, it may be a little slower and take around 30 minutes. The other components, like the user data stores, take about five to seven minutes. It's another five to 10 minutes for Identity Management. After deployment, the maintenance is mostly checking for security vulnerabilities. If ForgeRock shares security vulnerabilities or advisories, we check to see if there is something inside we need to maintain. Other than that, we just install updates when they add features each month.

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MANUEL VALDIVIA

Senior Manager at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Priced in a low range but needs to improve the support services offered to users

If we don't use Microsoft Identity Manager for data masking, we can use some other tools, like IBM InfoSphere. The scope of Microsoft Identity Manager is limited to the identity part of our applications. Microsoft Identity Manager is an old technology, and Microsoft will discontinue it soon. Microsoft Identity Manager is very complex compared with other platforms. For example, I know Microsoft Azure is working on Azure Identity. In the future, Microsoft Identity Manager will migrate to Azure Identity because Azure Identity is a software asset and is less complex. The solution's technical support is bad, making it an area where improvements are required.

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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

"The Governance and self-service that can be set up so you can use them yourself to work in the system are the most valuable features. End users can be enabled to help themselves."

"The most relevant feature is Omada's reporting engine. Omada never 'forgets' and archives every process. All steps an admin, user, or manager has executed, are recorded in Omada."

"We used to have a problem where an employee's access wasn't terminated when they left the company. Now, we have much better visibility into and control over who has access."

"Our customers have benefited from Omada Identity automating the certification process. Most of our customers were using manual methods for user access certification. With Omada Identity, you can automate almost all of it, which means that certification now becomes on demand. You don't have to wait for two or three months to execute a certification timeframe. Instead, you can do certifications as often as you want."

"The most valuable feature for us is the ability to set up connectors to various IT systems and offer a wide range of supported connectors."

"We don't have to go in and do a lot of the work that we did before. It may have saved us somewhere in the range of 10 to 30 percent of the time we spent on provisioning access."

"The most valuable feature in Omada is the governance. We work with other products and other product vendors, but the sweet spot in the market for Omada is where things are heavy on governance."

"Omada offers a technical solution that addresses both our needs."

More Omada Identity pros

"Installation and configuration are pretty easy for ForgeRock OpenIDM."

"ForgeRock has CIAM, which other products didn't have, and they have DevOps ready."

"The solution integrates well and it is important for them to keep up with the current trends in the market quickly enough, and they have been doing a good job at it."

"The product is easy to use in a development environment."

"The most valuable features of ForgeRock are social login and data protection."

"I like the way it is handling authentication and authorization."

"ForgeRock products are customizable, and the out-of-the-box features are solid, too. I primarily use the OIDC compliance features. It's just a configuration. it's easy to set up and customize trees. We can add our own features if necessary. Banks and corporations have different standards and specific validations."

"The most valuable features are that it is easy to manage and it's stable."

More ForgeRock pros

"The most valuable feature of the solution is the fact that I can use it to track who is sending which email, who is accessing which documents or which files, etc. These tools help me improve security within the enterprise environment."

"The product’s simplicity and integration are valuable."

"The feature that I find most valuable is the security layer of the identity and access management solution. The ability to secure on-premises and cloud-based workloads and to provide seamless authentication into hybrid workloads, which is also both on-premises and in cloud environments."

"The most valuable and most interesting feature is the conditional access."

"The integration with other Microsoft ecosystems, such as Graph API, is really cool."

"I appreciate how Microsoft keeps adding new features to Microsoft Identity Manager."

"The most valuable feature is that it provides protection for our company documents."

"The features that we find most valuable are security, mobility, and Single Sign-On."

More Microsoft Identity Manager pros

Cons

"Omada Identity's user interface needs improvement, especially for new users."

"Omada Identity has two main issues that need to be solved or improved the most. One is its setup or installation process because it's complex and cumbersome. I'm talking about the process for on-premises deployment because I've never tried the cloud version of Omada Identity. Setting up the cloud version should be much easier. The second area for improvement in Omada Identity is that it's piggybacking on Microsoft's complex way of having all kinds of add-ons, extensions, or setups, whether small or large, such as the new SQL Server, and it's cumbersome to make sure that everything works. Omada Identity is a complex solution and could still be improved."

"If I had to name one thing, it would be the user interface (UI)."

"The security permission inside Omada needs improvement. It's tricky to set up."

"If you're running Omada on a cloud service, you may have some issues deploying the newest release. Sometimes, the latest release doesn't adapt to the processes we have already installed. Identity Access Management is a critical system for our organization, and we need to ensure that everyone has the same access as they did before the release."

"The solution should be made more agile for customers to own or configure."

"The architecture of the entire system should also be less complex. The way they process the data is complex."

"Omada's performance could be better because we had some latency issues. Still, it's difficult to say how much of that is due to Omada versus the resources used by our other vendors in our on-prem environment. Considering the resources we have invested into making it run well, it's slightly slower than we would expect."

More Omada Identity cons

"I find that it's quite expensive for just an open-source system. Support is quite expensive."

"I think the upgrade process is sometimes a little complicated and there are failures that occur."

"It should have a better user interface. Its flexibility should also be improved. It is not about simplifying; it is more about flexibility. Each company has its own requirements, and ForgeRock can provide more flexibility in terms of the use of existing modules to implement features for the customers."

"It should be a little bit easier to implement. It is user-friendly, but there is always scope for improvement."

"We're worried about the scaling. We're told it will be okay and there won't be issues, however, I'm not 100% convinced."

"Automatic Deployment needs improvement. it could be made easier."

"In future releases, I would like to see easier integration with other solutions, like facial recognition and KYC solutions with biometric onboarding."

"The only problem with ForgeRock is that it is derived from an open-source product, so sometimes it's a bit unstable."

More ForgeRock cons

"In terms of the identity and access management solution for on-premises environment, I think Microsoft needs to eliminate or minimize the number of workloads for the solution to run in on-premises environment."

"They have to improve the User Entity and Behavioral Analysis."

"It requires a lot of improvements. Microsoft is killing this product and migrating some of the features to Azure AD. The last version of this solution was 2016. If it is going to stay and integrate with Azure AD, its integration needs to be worked on in terms of connectors, etc. It doesn't seem that they are improving it alone. Microsoft wants to integrate it with Azure AD, but the integration is still not complete."

"The governance reporting of the solution can be improved, as it can be difficult to get good, intelligible reports. Microsoft could implement an API of some sort to allow report customization or some form of SQL model, to further customize modules and improve the reporting. That would be a major improvement to the product."

"The product's pricing and integration features could be improved."

"It would be good if Microsoft Identity Manager Maybe could be integrated with Azure Active Directory directly and made as a cloud platform."

"Integration with third parties and enhanced policy management could be improved. The current policy management features are limited, and custom, flexible policies would be ideal."

"Microsoft Identity Manager could be more intuitive in terms of interface."

More Microsoft Identity Manager cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is not cheap. It is expensive, but compared to what we did almost three years ago, it is value for money. It is worth it."

"From an on-prem point of view, the cost is quite transparent and reasonable. The direct cost is primarily for licenses and maintenance on licenses."

"The pricing for Omada Identity is fair."

"The pricing is too high for SMBs."

"It is not cheap. None of these solutions are cheap, but we have good pricing at least for now from a licensing perspective."

"Omada Identity is very reasonably and competitively priced."

"Omada Identity is competitively priced and delivers good value for our money."

"It is licensed per managed user per year."

More Omada Identity pricing and cost advice

"The license is purchased annually per user. However, you can negotiate if you are signing for a longer period of time. When comparing this solution to others on the market it is priced fair, it is not at the top of the price range or at the bottom end."

"It's a bit pricey and could be more competitive."

"ForgeRock is an expensive solution."

"The pricing of the solution is fair but I do not have the full details."

"We have multiple clients we are looking at right now. We are at a very small number, however, the idea and the goal is to grow. We are looking at about $100,000 and $50,000 a minimum a month cost. That'd be minimum maybe in a couple of years."

"Its price is comparable to other products in the market."

"Its licensing is on a yearly basis, but it also depends on the contract that you have with the vendor. They have multiple types of contracts. There are additional costs to the standard licensing fees. If you need some of the features, you have to pay more."

"ForgeRock's pricing is more competitive than other products."

"When comparing the cost, Microsoft Identity Manager is the best solution because it is free if you have an Azure P2 license."

"It is an expensive tool."

"The tool's price is low for my company."

"The prices can always be improved. I'd rate it a 4 out of 10 in terms of pricing."

"MIM is free with a Microsoft Azure license."

"Microsoft Identity Manager comes with the premium or community license. If the customer doesn't have a premium license, the reseller who sells the licenses of Microsoft to the enterprise can extend the license for the client."

"The solution is included in the Microsoft E3 license and premium subscriptions of Azure AD."

"My rating for the pricing of Microsoft Identity Manager is average, neither too expensive nor too cheap."

More Microsoft Identity Manager pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

24%

Computer Software Company

12%

Insurance Company

Government

Computer Software Company

13%

Government

11%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Omada Identity Cloud?

As an administrator, we benefit from a lot of functionality that is available out of the box, but it is also configur...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Omada Identity Cloud?

They are positioned at a good price point. They are lower than some of their competitors.

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What needs improvement with Omada Identity Cloud?

The biggest issue, which is the reason why we are transitioning from their product to SailPoint, is the overall user ...

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What do you like most about ForgeRock?

The most valuable features of ForgeRock are social login and data protection.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ForgeRock?

Our company was considering switching back to Keycloak from ForgeRock, so as to not pay any license fees. ForgeRock a...

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What needs improvement with ForgeRock?

In the past, I saw that Splunk was integrated with a testing portal, and then it was integrated with Slack. I don't t...

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What do you like most about Microsoft Identity Manager?

The product’s simplicity and integration are valuable.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Identity Manager?

The pricing of Microsoft Identity Manager is expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Microsoft Identity Manager?

Integration with third parties and enhanced policy management could be improved. The current policy management featur...

See all answers

Comparisons

SailPoint Identity Security Cloud vs Omada Identity

Compared 30% of the time

Microsoft Entra ID vs Omada Identity

Compared 23% of the time

Saviynt vs Omada Identity

Compared 17% of the time

One Identity Manager vs Omada Identity

Compared 7% of the time

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) vs Omada Identity

Compared 3% of the time

More Omada Identity Competitors

Microsoft Entra ID vs ForgeRock

Compared 19% of the time

SailPoint Identity Security Cloud vs ForgeRock

Compared 13% of the time

Ping Identity Platform vs ForgeRock

Compared 9% of the time

Symantec Siteminder vs ForgeRock

Compared 8% of the time

Auth0 vs ForgeRock

Compared 8% of the time

More ForgeRock Competitors

SailPoint Identity Security Cloud vs Microsoft Identity Manager

Compared 36% of the time

Microsoft Entra ID vs Microsoft Identity Manager

Compared 21% of the time

One Identity Manager vs Microsoft Identity Manager

Compared 10% of the time

Saviynt vs Microsoft Identity Manager

Compared 10% of the time

Symantec Identity Governance and Administration vs Microsoft Identity Manager

Compared 3% of the time

More Microsoft Identity Manager Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Omada Identity

March 2025

Download Omada Identity product report

Buyer's Guide

ForgeRock

March 2025

Download ForgeRock product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Identity Manager

March 2025

Download Microsoft Identity Manager product report

Also Known As

Omada Identity Suite, Omada Identity Cloud

ForgeRock Identity Platform, ForgeRock OpenIDM

MIM, Forefront Identity Manager, FIM, MS Identity Manager

Overview

Omada Identity is an identity governance and administration (IGA) solution designed to help organizations manage and secure digital identities and access across their IT environments. It focuses on enhancing security, compliance, and efficiency by automating identity management processes.

Omada Identity offers a robust set of features that streamline identity lifecycle management, access governance, and compliance reporting. It integrates with a wide range of IT systems, applications, and data sources, providing a centralized platform for managing user identities and access rights. The solution enables organizations to enforce security policies, ensure regulatory compliance, and reduce the risk of unauthorized access.

What are the critical features of Omada Identity?

Identity Lifecycle Management: Automates the process of creating, updating, and deactivating user identities throughout their lifecycle.
Access Governance: Ensures that users have appropriate access rights, enabling continuous monitoring and recertification of access.
Compliance Reporting: Provides comprehensive reporting capabilities to demonstrate compliance with regulatory requirements.
Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): Simplifies the assignment and management of access rights based on user roles within the organization.
Self-Service Access Requests: Empowers users to request access to resources through a user-friendly portal, reducing administrative burden.
Integration Capabilities: Seamlessly integrates with various systems, applications, and data sources for unified identity and access management.

What benefits or ROI items should users look for in the reviews when evaluating Omada Identity?

Improved Security: By ensuring that only authorized users have access to sensitive information, Omada Identity enhances overall security posture.
Regulatory Compliance: Helps organizations meet compliance requirements by providing detailed audit trails and reporting features.
Operational Efficiency: Automates routine identity management tasks, reducing manual effort and freeing up IT resources for strategic initiatives.
User Productivity: Streamlines access management processes, enabling users to quickly obtain the resources they need to perform their jobs.
Reduced Risk: Minimizes the risk of data breaches and insider threats by enforcing strict access controls and continuous monitoring.

Omada Identity is widely adopted across various industries, including healthcare, finance, and manufacturing. In healthcare, it helps protect patient data and comply with regulations like HIPAA. In finance, it ensures compliance with SOX and other financial regulations. In manufacturing, it secures access to sensitive production data and intellectual property.

Pricing and licensing for Omada Identity are typically based on the number of users and the specific features required. Customer support is available through various channels, including online resources, support tickets, and professional services for implementation and customization.

In summary, Omada Identity is a comprehensive IGA solution that enhances security, compliance, and efficiency in managing digital identities and access.

Omada

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

Elevate your security and efficiency: Consolidating your legacy systems under one single platform provides reliable, unified control over all your user identities and access-related policies. ForgeRock Access Management also supports scaling existing policies for application onto new setups.
Passwordless authentication: Implementing passwordless authentication is simple with ForgeRock Access Management. You can easily replace user-selected passwords with other options, such as easy multi-factor authentication, biometrics, and SSO.
Identity governance: ForgeRock Identity Governance is a modern, AI-driven identity governance solution. By leveraging ForgeRock generated analysis reports, you can identify and apply appropriate user access, automate high-confidence access approvals, recommend certification for low-risk accounts, and review high-risk and inappropriate user access privileges. In addition, you can grant and enforce access to systems, applications, and infrastructure according to established policies.

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."

Ping Identity

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.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

Bayer, ECCO Shoes, Vattenfall, NuStar Energy, Unicredit, Schiphol Group, BMW Group, Deutsche Leasing

Geico, Thomson Reuters, Salesforce, McKesson, Trinet, SKY, BNP Paribas, Deloitte, Capgemini, North Western University

Dow Chemical Company (Dow), Whole Foods Market

Buyer's Guide

ForgeRock vs. Microsoft Identity Manager

March 2025

Free Report: ForgeRock vs. Microsoft Identity Manager

Find out what your peers are saying about ForgeRock vs. Microsoft Identity Manager and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.

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