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Microsoft Active Directory vs Symantec Siteminder comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 18, 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

Microsoft Active Directory
Ranking in Single Sign-On (SSO)
9th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
47
Ranking in other categories
Active Directory Management (2nd)
Symantec Siteminder
Ranking in Single Sign-On (SSO)
13th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
75
Ranking in other categories
Web Access Management (1st), Access Management (11th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Single Sign-On (SSO) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Active Directory is 3.1%, up from 2.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Siteminder is 2.7%, down from 3.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Single Sign-On (SSO) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Active Directory3.1%
Symantec Siteminder2.7%
Other94.2%
Single Sign-On (SSO)
 

Featured Reviews

Eko Kurniawan - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Operations & Security at veris
Has simplified credential management and improved secure access control across departments
The features I find most useful in Microsoft Active Directory are especially for the Single Sign-On. This is very useful for users, particularly if they have plenty of applications, such as tablet applications. When they log in to their computer, the application will automatically log in with their credentials. They don't need to remember another user and password to log in to the application because it's already maintained with Microsoft Active Directory using Single Sign-On. To assess the impact of Microsoft Active Directory's centralized domain management on security protocols and access permissions, Microsoft Active Directory itself has constraints with security because when we have a solution such as SSO or Single Sign-On, which makes it easier for users to log in, some parts have security openings. When their computer is compromised with a threat, malware, or other cyber threats, it becomes easier to enter the application without login permission.
Muzi Lubisi - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior technical Consultant at CA Africa
Improved user experience with seamless integration and easy installation
The feature that I mostly valued is the ease of installation on different systems, especially on Windows. Additionally, it is very beneficial for deploying single sign-on sessions between different windows on a web browser, provided I am connected to the right identity provider. That seamless integration significantly improves user experience and efficiency.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is very user-friendly."
"The solution is user-friendly, and I like using Microsoft products. I think there is no other choice for Active Directory. Microsoft Windows Server Active Directory is the best."
"I think the main reason we are using Active Directory for SSO Office for single time and for intake integrity capability to other services."
"Having active deployment and well-configured systems helps me manage tasks and easily oversee thousands of users."
"It is easy to understand all the components."
"The password policy helps enforce security protocols by requiring complex passwords and frequent password changes."
"One valuable feature is the centralized creation of IDs."
"It's useful in bringing order to the system."
"It's agent-based. It's convenient to deploy and integrate."
"Symantec Siteminder Is both scalable and stable."
"Authentication & Authorization are important because all the sites need authentication for security purposes. That has been handled pretty well all these years with SSO."
"It's quite scalable."
"As our identity model continues to mature, probably the Federation is most valueable."
"Ease of use is very good, for administrating it. It's very well known."
"The solution is easy to use for our managers."
"That seamless integration significantly improves user experience and efficiency."
 

Cons

"Sometimes support takes long to engage and resolve, extending over weeks or even months."
"Microsoft Active Directory Federation Services is very difficult for on-premises solutions, while for the cloud solution, it's very easy."
"Perhaps the synchronization could be simpler and more controllable. There are some features that need improvements in terms of ease of use and frequency of updates."
"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."
"There is room for improvement."
"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."
"I would like to see more integration with cloud-based applications. This would make it easier to manage users and devices across multiple platforms."
"We may occasionally experience difficulty integrating some solutions with Microsoft Active Directory, but I am unsure whether the issue lies with Microsoft Active Directory or the other solution."
"They need to make configurations easier, and not have the engineer having to guess what will happen when he changes a particular setting."
"I'd like to see a rework of the user directory configuration."
"The Federation part of CA Single Sign On, it's a bit complex to implement because it involves the SSL certificates, exchange of certificates, and lot of technical details. The documentation misses some important parts of this, so that's the reason it took some time for us to go live."
"The tech support has not been very good for us so we don't use them anymore. We have had some issues. Nobody is perfect."
"While I have some integration with a few major providers, support for more would be advantageous."
"I would like to see a move towards the newer technologies, which is what we are doing right now. I think that's in the roadmap that's coming, in the 12.8 and 14 releases, but we would like to have it sooner than later."
"The support team could work on their response time and overall competence."
"The support could be faster."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We purchase the license for the solution on a yearly basis."
"The version of Microsoft Active Directory I was using was expensive because it was used for large companies."
"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."
"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."
"The price of Microsoft Active Directory could improve. We pay annually for the solution."
"I'm unsure about the cost of the solution, as I was never involved in that aspect. However, I don't think it would be expensive. It might be average, around four or five out of ten."
"We have to purchase a license for the solution."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"Siteminder is a little costly. You pay for licensing, and they offer packages, so if you have less users, then you have to buy different products at different prices. If you have more of a user base, then the package is different. They also include other features—for example, if you have a database and you're using Siteminder, then it's good to use a Semantic-specific database, but if you are using less, then you have to purchase the database separately. Whereas if you are going for a bigger license, then it comes within the package. It depends on which plan you are using."
"The licensing is fair for this solution."
"Symantec Siteminder is expensive; they could definitely do better on the price."
"The price is quite comparable to the other enterprise-level solutions in that market."
"CA solutions are generally expensive but for the customer the ROI is big."
"I recommend conducting a PoC on every available product before choose one."
"The solution's pricing is competitive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Healthcare Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
26%
Insurance Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business20
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise20
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise69
 

Questions from the Community

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?
The best way to protect this is to use Microsoft Defender. For Microsoft support for Microsoft Active Directory, I would rate it as eight. If I give it 10, it would be too perfect. Eight is fair. M...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Active Directory?
My main use cases for Microsoft Active Directory are to manage user access and credentials.
What do you like most about Symantec Siteminder?
It's agent-based. It's convenient to deploy and integrate.
What needs improvement with Symantec Siteminder?
Symantec Siteminder needs to have adaptive authentication and multi-factor authentication as integrated features. Currently, multi-factor authentication is available as a separate solution, and it ...
 

Also Known As

No data available
SiteMinder, CA SSO, Layer7 SiteMinder
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
British Telecom, CoreBlox, DBS, HMS, Itera ASA and Simeo
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Active Directory vs. Symantec Siteminder and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,114 professionals have used our research since 2012.