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IBM Security Identity Governance and Intelligence vs One Identity Active Roles comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 6, 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

IBM Security Identity Gover...
Ranking in User Provisioning Software
14th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Identity Management (IM) (30th)
One Identity Active Roles
Ranking in User Provisioning Software
3rd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
87
Ranking in other categories
Active Directory Management (1st), Non-Human Identity Management (NHIM) (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the User Provisioning Software category, the mindshare of IBM Security Identity Governance and Intelligence is 3.1%, up from 2.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of One Identity Active Roles is 5.6%, down from 6.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
User Provisioning Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
One Identity Active Roles5.6%
IBM Security Identity Governance and Intelligence3.1%
Other91.3%
User Provisioning Software
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer1830612 - PeerSpot reviewer
Head, Cybersecurity at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
We use the solution to ensure organizations conform to industry base certifications and best practices
We use the product to ensure organizations conform to industry base certifications and best practices and do not contradict their security policies within the base points they specify in the system, which are used to match everything against their governance use cases I think the product's most…
Varun Mehra - PeerSpot reviewer
collaboration support engineer at a retailer with 11-50 employees
Automation has transformed onboarding and access control and now streamlines daily governance
While One Identity Active Roles is a strong identity and access management solution overall, there are a few areas where it could improve. One challenge we experienced was the initial setup and configuration complexity. Deploying workflows, policies, and delegation models require careful planning and a good understanding of the Active Directory environment. For organizations without experienced administrators, the learning curve can feel quite steep in the beginning. The user interface could also be more modern and intuitive. Some administrative tasks require navigating through multiple menus and the overall experience could be simplified for faster day-to-day management. Another area for improvement is reporting and customization. While the auditing features are good, creating highly customized reports sometimes requires additional efforts or scripting knowledge. More built-in reporting templates and easier dashboard customization would be helpful. We have also noticed that troubleshooting workflows or synchronization issues can occasionally take time because the logs can be very detailed and technical. Better diagnostic tools and simpler error explanations would improve the operational experience. That said, once the platform is properly configured and maintained, it performs reliably and delivers strong automation, delegation, and governance capabilities. One additional area where One Identity Active Roles could improve is cloud integration and hybrid environment management. While it works well with Active Directory and the Microsoft environment, organizations moving heavily towards cloud-first infrastructure may want even deeper and more seamless integration with modern SaaS platforms and identity providers. Performance optimization in large environments could be improved. In very large enterprise deployments with complex workflows and multiple managed domains, some administrative actions and synchronization tasks can occasionally feel slower than expected. Another point is documentation and onboarding resources. The product is feature-rich, but some advanced configurations require going through extensive documentation. More practical examples, guided setup wizards, and easier to follow best practice guides would help new administrators adopt the platform faster. Overall, the core functionality is solid, and most of the pain points are related more to usability, complexity, and modernization rather than the reliability. One additional improvement I would mention is around integration flexibility with third-party ITSM and DevOps tools. While the platform integrates well within Microsoft-centric environments, broader out-of-the-box integration and simpler API workflows for non-Microsoft ecosystems would make deployment and automation easier for organizations using diverse infrastructure. Another area is upgrade and migration simplicity. In enterprise environments, version upgrades and environment migration sometimes require careful planning and testing. Streamlining that process with more automated compatibility checks and migration assistance would reduce operational overhead.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We use the product to ensure organizations conform to industry base certifications and best practices and do not contradict their security policies within the base points they specify in the system, which are used to match everything against their governance use cases."
"This solution has a very good dashboard and the documentation is also very good, and life cycle management and governance are also good features in this solution."
"Lifecycle management, governance and documentation."
"I would rate the price eight out of 10, with 10 as the best value for money."
"One Identity Active Roles has significantly reduced both the complexity and the workload for Active Directory administration in our environment."
"Active Roles is a thousand times better than native Microsoft tools."
"One Identity Active Roles has had a very positive impact on the organization, especially in terms of efficiency, security, and compliance."
"Instead of deleting accounts, we like the deprovision option so that we can reverse any accidental deletions. It also gives a higher level of quality control in terms of enforcing any number of variables, such as making sure that an account has a description entered before the account can be created. We can backtrack and know the history of it that way."
"Another good feature is the change history. It's centralized in a single place and allows us to manage people's Active Directory domains from a central location. We can also drill down into individual objects in a troubleshooting or even an auditing situation. We can show evidence to auditors by drilling down into the individual history. It gives you all the history of what happened around an individual object. That is something that would be almost impossible to do in Active Directory, or extremely complicated."
"Overall, beyond just making tasks easier, it adds a strong layer of control, security, and visibility of AD operations."
"One Identity Active Roles has helped my organization reduce the number of incorrect privileged accounts through the management unit feature and enables comprehensive group membership management with features not available in Active Directory, such as adding multiple secondary owners and dynamic groups."
"One Identity Active Roles is highly recommended because it is a good solution that is really helping our organization streamline the process and reduce manual errors or manual efforts while providing a good return on investment."
 

Cons

"Self service center is not always easy to understand."
"I think improvements could be made in the self service center, making it easier for the user to understand."
"The solution is also a bit pricey for the Nigeria region."
"The initial setup was quite easy, but it was time-consuming. It took about three months."
"One area where One Identity Active Roles could be improved is troubleshooting and visibility."
"It also has workflows and those are really powerful, but there are no built-in workflows. When it comes to them, it's empty. I would personally love for it to come with ten, 15, or 20 workflows where each achieves a certain task... I could just look at how each is done, clone them, copy them, modify them the way I want them, and be good to go. Right now we have to invent things from scratch."
"A few improvements I would like to see in One Identity Active Roles are mainly around usability, reporting, and modern integration."
"One Identity Active Roles is very helpful, but a few improvements could make it even better, such as simplifying the user interface to make it more user-friendly, especially for new users, and making setup and configuration easier."
"Integration capabilities are somewhere in the middle; it is not easy to integrate, but it is not the hardest thing out there."
"Pricing for One Identity Active Roles is a bit on the higher side compared to other options in the market."
"The main improvement I would like to see for One Identity Active Roles is a more modern and intuitive interface, along with more customizable reporting and dashboards to enhance our experience with the platform."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I would rate the price eight out of 10, with 10 as the best value for money."
"It's fairly priced."
"The licensing model is a simple user-based model, not that much complicated."
"The pricing is on the higher end."
"The pricing for Active Roles is expensive but not as expensive as other solutions like Okta."
"The pricing is high. I have not been involved with the renewal or cost aspect, but I know it is not cheap by any means. However, it is very useful for our environment."
"It's expensive."
"The price is reasonable. It costs us about 1 million Danish kroner annually, and we also spend about half as much on consultants."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Government
12%
Computer Software Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
22%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business93
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise42
 

Questions from the Community

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for One Identity Active Roles?
The pricing, setup cost, and licensing for One Identity Active Roles are enterprise-oriented and typically based on the number of managed users or accounts. While setup requires moderate implementa...
What needs improvement with One Identity Active Roles?
One Identity Active Roles can be improved with a more modern user interface, better reporting and analytics capabilities, simplified workflow customization, improved troubleshooting tools, and stro...
What is your primary use case for One Identity Active Roles?
One Identity Active Roles serves as our centralized Active Directory administration platform for identity lifecycle management, including automated user provisioning, delegated administration, role...
 

Also Known As

IGI, IBM Security Identity Manager, ISIM
Quest Active Roles
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

E.ON Global Commodities
City of Frankfurt, Moore Public Schools, George Washington University, Transavia Airlines, Howard County, MD. See all stories at OneIdentity.com/casestudies
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Security Identity Governance and Intelligence vs. One Identity Active Roles and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,747 professionals have used our research since 2012.