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ForgeRock vs Symantec Identity Governance and Administration comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 1, 2024

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

ForgeRock
Ranking in Identity Management (IM)
13th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
30
Ranking in other categories
Access Management (15th), Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) (7th)
Symantec Identity Governanc...
Ranking in Identity Management (IM)
25th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
66
Ranking in other categories
User Provisioning Software (10th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Identity Management (IM) category, the mindshare of ForgeRock is 3.7%, down from 4.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Identity Governance and Administration is 1.8%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Identity Management (IM) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
ForgeRock3.7%
Symantec Identity Governance and Administration1.8%
Other94.5%
Identity Management (IM)
 

Featured Reviews

Ahmet Murat Ülker - PeerSpot reviewer
Devops Engineer and Trainer at a tech vendor with 1-10 employees
Easy to use, but customizations can be complicated to handle
I would suggest others use the product after asking them to consider their use cases. SSO may be a use case for some, and using the product as an IDM tool may be a use case. At the moment, my company is not deploying all the components of ForgeRock itself. My company uses ForgeRock for OAuth 2.0. For example, my company is not deploying the IDM and identity gateway components. You should consider your use case and select the required components for that use case. My company does not use the SSO features of the tool. My company uses SSO to access ForgeRock's AM Console for individual users. My company does not use single sign on features of the product and instead, we use Auth0. I rate the tool a seven or eight out of ten.
reviewer2183661 - PeerSpot reviewer
Managing Director at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
Has an easy initial setup process, but its technical support services need improvement
The product's technical support could be better. The integration project requires a lot of technical details, so we need to find it quickly and easily. There was a large community of knowledge in the past. We kept it together and got the results. The community that works around the particular technical issue is shrinking. It used to be a specialized community that would help with the process. These particular areas need improvement. Broadcom is still using a hybrid cloud model, with some workloads on-premises and some in the cloud. They must start with the cloud adoption and move as many workloads to the cloud as possible. The on-premises environment is becoming stable. They need to rebuild that cost and the software. The product's pre-sales, technical support, and installation could also improve.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"We have found the identity and access management tools in the solution to be particularly useful for our organization."
"The support is good and prompt."
"The product is easy to set up."
"The product is easy to use in a development environment."
"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 solution's most valuable feature is the authentication for the consumers. The integration with other third-party applications is excellent."
"I like the way it is handling authentication and authorization."
"When comparing it to other products, you can set up CA IAM in a PoC very quickly to demonstrate its provisioning capabilities."
"The most valuable aspects of Symantec Identity Governance and Administration are all the features, it is the most complete solution on the market. It has features, such as scanners and portals, it has everything."
"I've used it to manage users, create and update, delete users, change passwords, and assign and change rules."
"The most valuable features are role-based access and identity provisioning, which allow a single point of user access to multiple places."
"Word mining and risk campaigns are the most valuable features of this solution."
"The solution is easy to scale."
"The product is relatively easier to use than other identity management products."
"The product’s most valuable feature is flexibility. It can be customized as per the customer’s requirements."
 

Cons

"It should be a little bit easier to implement. It is user-friendly, but there is always scope for improvement."
"I find that it's quite expensive for just an open-source system. Support is quite expensive."
"We would like this solution to be developed for use with mobile applications."
"The solution's deployment should be made easier."
"The solution's documentation is not very good, and they do not give more details."
"The identity management model needs a bit of improvement."
"ForgeRock is an open source solution and is available to everyone but it is not freeware. If you need support, you need a subscription for ForgeRock. Many of its functionalities need to be built up with the help of a consultant."
"In future releases, I would like to see easier integration with other solutions, like facial recognition and KYC solutions with biometric onboarding."
"It has a large footprint which you'd expect to be much, much smaller. Just to run basic services, we have 10 different servers. Also, if it were easier to manage, that'd be useful."
"A better information display for the approvals within the workflow would give them more information and the ability to comment back on a request as to why they're rejecting it. We've been telling them we'd like this improvement, and we hope to see it."
"The Identity tool needs to do more kinds of reporting for audit purposes. It doesn't really track any of the metrics that are useful to us, at this point."
"The reporting functions."
"Symantec should develop a SaaS solution for cloud environments to make the solution available in various marketplaces for easy deployment."
"The support from Symantec Identity Governance and Administration could improve."
"Reporting could be improved."
"There are several areas for improvement in Symantec Identity Governance and Administration. They have no proper documentation on how to do backups. They also have a lengthy workflow process where we have to make some configurations to manage automation in the rules and in our tasks which takes time. We have to manually configure all the configuration files, and we cannot export users because there's no export system in Symantec Identity Governance and Administration. What we'd like to see in the next release of the solution is for them to make configuration and integration with other systems their top priorities. We have many API systems to manage, so hopefully, if they make these enhancements shortly, we can directly connect with our API systems when using Symantec Identity Governance and Administration."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Its price is comparable to other products in the market."
"The pricing of the solution is fair but I do not have the full details."
"ForgeRock is an expensive solution."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"ForgeRock's pricing is more competitive than other products."
"It's a bit pricey and could be more competitive."
"Symantec keeps increasing the price. I rate its pricing a seven on a scale of ten."
"I do not recall the approximate prices or licensing models, although I do so that it was priced per user number."
"The price is flexible for our existing customers."
"The price is based on the number of users."
"The product has a good price in competition with another product with the same solution."
"Pricing and licensing models are adequate and reasonable."
"The connector is free, and bundled with the product."
"Compared to other options, CA products are not that expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
21%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Insurance Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
15%
Marketing Services Firm
14%
Performing Arts
9%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business13
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise13
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business23
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise45
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about ForgeRock?
The most valuable features of ForgeRock are social login and data protection.
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 also supports M-PIN and biometric features that Keycloak does not provide. My com...
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 think ForgeRock directly supports integrations with Slack, making it an area wher...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Symantec Identity Governance and Administration?
The pricing has been very reasonable, but licensing costs vary based on the customer. It follows a user-based licensing model.
What needs improvement with Symantec Identity Governance and Administration?
Symantec should develop a SaaS solution for cloud environments to make the solution available in various marketplaces for easy deployment. It should also offer bundle installation instead of one by...
What is your primary use case for Symantec Identity Governance and Administration?
I am a consultant and we consult for identity and network management. We work with Symantec, which is owned by Broadcom, and also with Microsoft and Oracle. Additionally, we work with open-source s...
 

Also Known As

ForgeRock Identity Platform, ForgeRock OpenIDM
CA Identity Suite, Symantec IGA, Layer7 Identity Suite, CA Identity Manager (CA IDM), CA Identity Minder, CA IAM, CA Identity Manager (CA IDM), CA Identity Governance
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Geico, Thomson Reuters, Salesforce, McKesson, Trinet, SKY, BNP Paribas, Deloitte, Capgemini, North Western University
Acciona, Core Blox, DBS
Find out what your peers are saying about ForgeRock vs. Symantec Identity Governance and Administration and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.
881,757 professionals have used our research since 2012.