IBM Security Verify Access vs Microsoft Active Directory comparison

IBM Security Verify Access vs. Microsoft Active Directory

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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

IBM Security Verify Access

Ranking in Single Sign-On (SSO)

13th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Identity Management (IM) (21st), Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) (14th), Access Management (14th)

Microsoft Active Directory

Ranking in Single Sign-On (SSO)

8th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Active Directory Management (5th)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Single Sign-On (SSO) category, the mindshare of IBM Security Verify Access is 2.7%, up from 2.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Active Directory is 3.2%, up from 2.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Single Sign-On (SSO) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Microsoft Active Directory	3.2%
IBM Security Verify Access	2.7%
Other	94.1%

Single Sign-On (SSO)

Featured Reviews

Ateeq Rehman

Unit Head System Implementor at Allied Bank Limited

Has improved secure user access while managing development through multiple technologies

I have already explained this in my previous call; I don't handle financial terms and commercials. Pricing is generally managed by functional teams and management looking after licensing matters. In Pakistan, vendors such as Oracle and IBM manage account relationships with clients and have tailored pricing models, so I do not have sufficient insights into that aspect.IBM Security Verify Access installation process is not straightforward; it requires underlying specialized knowledge upon which the IBM products are based. The complexity and scalability of the architecture necessitate in-depth technical knowledge and understanding of the system. Thus, installation is not as simple as clicking through; it requires extensive configuration of the underlying application servers, such as IBM WebSphere, where these products are deployed and configured.

Read full review

Giovanni Baruzzi

Owner at Syntlogo GmbH

Mature technology delivers consistent capability and enhances centralized user management

I think Microsoft Active Directory could be more intuitive. My impression of the integration of Microsoft Active Directory with third-party applications is that it can be made better. It's not the tendency of Microsoft to use a standard, but to modify it to their needs. This is catastrophic if you have to integrate other applications that use the same standard. This creates a major problem, so you have to be very careful and implement step by step, knowing that the partner is Microsoft. I would leave Microsoft Active Directory as it is and build possibly interfaces. For example, there is a provisioning protocol standard named SCIM. It seems that Microsoft Active Directory does not yet have a SCIM interface, which is a problem.

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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

"Its stability and UI are most valuable."

"The most valuable feature of IBM Security Access Manager, at least for my company, is multi-factor authentication. That's the only feature my company is using. The solution works well and has no glitches. IBM Security Access Manager is a very good solution, so my company is still using it."

"IBM Security Verify Access is providing a secure way of handling the user login journey, and secure user authentication is fully managed by ISAM or ISVA."

"From the integration point of view, it supports SAML, OIDC, and OAuth. For legacy applications that don't have support for SAML and other new protocols, it provides single sign-on access to end-users. From the integration compatibility point of view, it is highly capable."

"It's a good solution for identification and access management."

"I have found this solution to be really practical and when a user wants to log in, it is effortless and runs smooth."

"IBM Security Verify Access, formerly known as ISAM, IBM Security Access Manager, now renamed to ISVA, integrates with central directory services for our organization and provides user management functionality."

"The solution has powerful authentification and authorization. It offers a good way to increase security."

More IBM Security Verify Access pros

"Technical support is helpful."

"I think the main reason we are using Active Directory for SSO Office for single time and for intake integrity capability to other services."

"The scalability of the solution is high...The initial setup of the solution is easy, and I would rate it an eight or nine out of ten on a scale of one to ten, where one being difficult and ten being easy."

"The most valuable features of Microsoft Active Directory are the management of user and group policies."

"The ability for a single sign-on for applications."

"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Active Directory is the ability to search for computers and users. While I do not have administrative privileges to reset passwords, I can view user information such as department, and communicate with someone who can make the changes."

"It is a stable solution."

"I've been working with Microsoft Active Directory for over 3 years, and we've had no problems."

More Microsoft Active Directory pros

Cons

"Configuration could be simplified for the end-user."

"The solution could be classified as a hilt system. There are a lot of resources being used and it is suitable for very large enterprises or the public sector."

"IBM Security Verify Access installation process is not straightforward; it requires underlying specialized knowledge upon which the IBM products are based."

"The user interface needs to be simplified, it's complex and not user-friendly."

"What we'd like improved in IBM Security Access Manager is its onboarding process as it's complex, particularly when onboarding new applications. We need to be very, very careful during the onboarding. We have no issues with IBM Security Access Manager because the solution works fine, apart from the onboarding process and IBM's involvement in onboarding issues. If we need support related to the onboarding, we've noticed a pattern where support isn't available, or they don't have much experience, or we're not getting a response from them. We're facing the same issue with IBM Guardium. As we're just focusing on the multi-factor authentication feature of IBM Security Access Manager and we didn't explore any other features, we don't have additional features to suggest for the next release of the solution, but we're in discussion about exploring ID management and access management features, but those are just possibilities because right now, we're focused on exploring our domain."

"They can improve the single sign-on configuration for OIDC and OAuth. That is not very mature in this product, and they can improve it in this particular area. OIDC is a third-party integration that we do with the cloud platforms, and OAuth is an authorization mechanism for allowing a user having an account with Google or any other provider to access an application. Organizations these days are looking for just-in-time provisioning use cases, but IBM Security Access Manager is not very mature for such use cases. There are only a few applications that can be integrated, and this is where this product is lagging. However, in terms of configuration and single sign-on mechanisms, it is a great product."

"There are a lot of areas that can be improved, but the main area is the lack of customization. You cannot easily customize anything in the product. It is not easy to tweak the functionality. It is challenging to change the out-of-the-box functionality."

"The user interface for users and administrators could be improved to make it easier. Automating some functions could also be beneficial."

More IBM Security Verify Access cons

"Sometimes support takes long to engage and resolve, extending over weeks or even months."

"Sometimes, it can be overly complicated, and when you apply Group Policy in an Active Directory environment, sometimes those settings apply and sometimes they don't."

"The security features could be improved."

"The solution's price could be better."

"It could be more scalable. We still need another software solution to monitor the network in addition to Active Directory and OpManager, our domain controller. We use SolarWinds."

"I did not have a good experience with the product's tech support. First-level support takes a lot of time since they ask many questions."

"Microsoft Active Directory fails to provide MFA. MFA, which is also known as multi-factor authentication on top of the password and username, is what I would like to see in the product's future releases."

"Microsoft Active Directory restricts most of the features our company's employees want to use since they are involved in research and development activities."

More Microsoft Active Directory cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It costs about 300K AED for a year. Its pricing is a bit on the higher end, but in comparison to other products in the market, its price is still better. There are lots of other products that are very costly."

"The license and costs depend on the amount range of users you have. For just approximately 2,000 users, the price is practical and fair. However, when you have 20,000 users, it starts to become really expensive, and the discount per user is not attractive enough to go ahead and purchase."

"The product is not expensive. It depends on the number of users."

"We purchase the license for the solution on a yearly basis."

"The license is perpetual and the cost is minimal. If you purchase Microsoft Windows then Microsoft Active Directory comes with the package."

"I rate the product’s pricing a five out of ten."

"We have to purchase a license for the solution."

"Microsoft Active Directory is not an expensive solution."

"Its price is reasonable."

"The solution is based on a licensing model."

"Active Directory is an expensive solution, primarily due to Microsoft's licensing model. This licensing approach includes paying for server licenses as well as for each computer that connects to it. However, when working with the Azure cloud, there is no cost for the server. This is profitable and one of the main reasons why Azure Cloud and other cloud-based solutions are being used more."

More Microsoft Active Directory pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

22%

Insurance Company

14%

Government

12%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Computer Software Company

11%

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	5

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	19
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	20

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM Security Access Manager?

The tool provides a password vault, single sign-on, and multifactor authentication. It offers various authentication methods like fingerprint integration, one-time passwords, or tokens sent via ema...

What needs improvement with IBM Security Access Manager?

The user interface for users and administrators could be improved to make it easier. Automating some functions could also be beneficial.

What advice do you have for others considering IBM Security Access Manager?

I rate the product an eight out of ten.

What do you like most about Microsoft Active Directory?

The solution is easy to install and has good reliability.

What needs improvement with Microsoft Active Directory?

What is your primary use case for Microsoft Active Directory?

My usual use case for Microsoft Active Directory is to share groups of authorization among many different applications. The other use case for Microsoft Active Directory is the authentication of us...

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Product Reports

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

Download IBM Security Verify Access product report

Microsoft Active Directory

Download Microsoft Active Directory product report

Also Known As

IBM Security Verify Access (SVA), IBM Security Access Manager, ISAM

No data available

Overview

IBM Security Verify Access is a complete authorization and network security policy management solution. It provides end-to-end protection of resources over geographically dispersed intranets and extranets.Provides a wide range of built-in authenticators and supports external authenticators.Provides permit and deny decisions for protected resources requests in the secure domain through the authorization API.Manages secure access to private internal network-based resources by using the public Internet's broad connectivity and ease of use with a corporate firewall system.

IBM

Active Directory stores information about objects on the network and makes this information easy for administrators and users to find and use. Active Directory uses a structured data store as the basis for a logical, hierarchical organization of directory information.

This data store, also known as the directory, contains information about Active Directory objects. These objects typically include shared resources such as servers, volumes, printers, and the network user and computer accounts.

Security is integrated with Active Directory through logon authentication and access control to objects in the directory. With a single network logon, administrators can manage directory data and organization throughout their network, and authorized network users can access resources anywhere on the network. Policy-based administration eases the management of even the most complex network.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

POST Luxembourg

Information Not Available

IBM Security Verify Access vs. Microsoft Active Directory