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One Identity Active Roles vs OpenText Identity Manager comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 28, 2025

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

One Identity Active Roles
Ranking in User Provisioning Software
3rd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
34
Ranking in other categories
Active Directory Management (1st), Non-Human Identity Management (NHIM) (4th)
OpenText Identity Manager
Ranking in User Provisioning Software
8th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
Identity Management (IM) (15th), Identity Governance Administration (IGA) (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the User Provisioning Software category, the mindshare of One Identity Active Roles is 6.4%, up from 6.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OpenText Identity Manager is 3.8%, down from 4.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
User Provisioning Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
One Identity Active Roles6.4%
OpenText Identity Manager3.8%
Other89.8%
User Provisioning Software
 

Featured Reviews

IO
Cybersecurity Consultant at CyberBackbone
One Identity Active Roles makes it easier to maintain a detailed auditing workflow
I want One Identity Active Roles to improve in the area of user interface, modernizing it to feel more like a SaaS tool and to have user-friendly navigation. I also want One Identity Active Roles to improve in their policy configuration area, which requires advanced expertise, and in the area of reporting, I want the reporting to be more basic, visible, and have the ability to export and customize options. The areas needing improvement for One Identity Active Roles include the reporting, the dashboard, and simple policy configuration. I would appreciate improvement in policy configuration and making the reporting system more basic for user interface usage.
reviewer2401464 - PeerSpot reviewer
Architect at a consultancy with 51-200 employees
Updates systems quickly and does not have a limit on the number of users
NetIQ does not have a limit on the number of users. The tool is secure by nature. It can have more than one billion users. Event-based systems know what has to be changed. SQL-based systems can only change using time and date. Event-based systems provide immediate results, while SQL-based systems need time to sync. It is totally different from a security perspective. Event-based systems can update all the systems in seconds or minutes. Other systems do it within 24 hours. The basic event-based system is AI-driven. It has some kind of robotics and programming. Other tools need programming. I like systems that have prebuilt ideas of security. NetIQ has been in the market for a long period. It has all the systems and connectors. There is not much coding. We just need to configure the products. We need not do any programming. I haven't seen any other product that needs only configuration to do the job. Most products in the market are SQL-based. They need programming. Some service providers who sell other products to customers do not sell NetIQ because they can make more money by selling solutions that need more consultancy and programming. More hours lead to more money.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Heavily Automates - it will automate the entire provisioning, re-provisioning, de-provisioning and undo-de-provisioning tasks Complete Audit Trail - it gives an audit trail for each and every activity Increase in accountability – various tasks can be enabled for approval."
"One Identity Active Roles brings a positive impact to organizations in that they will start realizing the ROI in a much faster manner because the implementation time is very short and it is easy to use."
"It has helped increase operational efficiency in our organization."
"The ease of managing on-prem and cloud-based directories through a single pane of glass is good."
"Having a tool to manage all changes to AD from a single pane of glass is awesome."
"Operational issues are much easier and more reliable with Quest ActiveRoles's directory layer and portal."
"One Identity Active Roles has positively impacted the organization by significantly improving efficiency through automating repetitive tasks and saving time for the IT team."
"One Identity Active Roles takes us less time, probably half the time, to complete delegations that are very granular and complex, compared to having to use native tools and scripts."
"The main value lies in the simplicity of implementation, as well as its customized look and feel."
"The product is easy to use."
"I would recommend this product, its quite flexible and quick to start with."
"The most valuable features are Password Reset Alerts, Password Sync, and SQL connectors."
"It's a very flexible tool, so you can synchronize multiple sources of data and you have multiple connections to various kinds of systems."
"The most valuable feature of this solution has been the ability for us to integrate a lot of external systems, and the automatic transfer of a lot of identity information. Additionally, the customization is very good."
"To my knowledge it is the only event based IDM system."
"Identity and access management processes have developed to become automatic and fast."
 

Cons

"I want One Identity Active Roles to improve in the area of user interface, modernizing it to feel more like a SaaS tool and to have user-friendly navigation."
"It's a fairly stable product but not perfectly reliable."
"For mid-sized to small companies, I do not know if it would be that useful, considering the tool's purpose."
"The way you can search groups could be better."
"I am not really satisfied with the customer support for One Identity Active Roles as the support is pretty limited."
"I know they have increased support for Entra ID and mentioned providing support for AWS. A way to connect to various directories and integrate with cloud directories would be beneficial."
"Additional documentation about the Angular web interface is needed."
"The possibility to request group membership, similar to the past, was disabled and moved to Identity Manager."
"Areas for improvement are further enhancing the access granting process to reduce time and improve accuracy."
"It needs some modern features. They should improve and modernize their management interface. It has been created over years and by different persons. You can see different applications, different management consoles for different things. There should be an integrated interface."
"User Application UI Product Licensing"
"The integrations must be made easier."
"There are some limitations in the custom workflows, mainly in the GUI presentation, but the latest release improved."
"The interface is old and outdated, and the design software seems archaic."
"There's no huge thing missing, because it's already comprehensive. Now and then, however, there might be a minor issue."
"We have another system that is using the SAML system, and we also integrate with Active Directory only. If NetIQ Identity Manager can integrate directly, we would not need to use the Active Directory directory."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's fairly priced."
"It's expensive."
"The pricing is on the higher end."
"The price is reasonable. It costs us about 1 million Danish kroner annually, and we also spend about half as much on consultants."
"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."
"The pricing for Active Roles is expensive but not as expensive as other solutions like Okta."
"The licensing model is a simple user-based model, not that much complicated."
"You just need to be aware that the more systems you connect, the more license fees you have to pay."
"It would easily help them in getting more market and more customers if more consultants knew about their software. If they could keep it free for schools for teaching purposes, it would be good. I had to pay myself to get it and use it for training. Their competitors are giving it for free. I had to pay for it myself. They are losing market to their competitors."
"Micro Focus is flexible when it comes to price. The cost varies from customer to customer. There are no additional costs, though. Everything is included."
"The price of the solution is a bit high and could be reduced."
"I would rate the pricing a two out of ten, with one being low price and ten being high price. It is significantly more cost-effective than the major players in the market."
"The solution is quite affordable."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Healthcare Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
7%
Marketing Services Firm
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise21
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise6
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for One Identity Active Roles?
I am aware of the pricing; it is on the expensive side, though pricing is not my department.
What needs improvement with One Identity Active Roles?
One Identity Active Roles can be improved by simplifying the setup process since a small team in a small business requires implementation without extensive IT support. Additionally, the pricing cou...
What is your primary use case for One Identity Active Roles?
One Identity Active Roles is used primarily to simplify and automate Active Directory user and permission management. The solution automates routine tasks such as account creation, password reset, ...
What do you like most about NetIQ Identity Manager?
The most valuable feature of NetIQ Identity Manager for identity synchronization is the ability to provide users with all necessary access on day one through automated provisioning, facilitated by ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetIQ Identity Manager?
The pricing depends on whether we buy the solution as a service or a license. The license is expensive. If we buy it as a service for a large number of users, it is the cheapest tool we can get. Th...
What needs improvement with NetIQ Identity Manager?
The tool is used mostly in big systems to understand what is happening. There are not many technicians who know how to use the product. The vendor must provide an easier console for configuring thi...
 

Also Known As

Quest Active Roles
Novell Identity Manager
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

City of Frankfurt, Moore Public Schools, George Washington University, Transavia Airlines, Howard County, MD. See all stories at OneIdentity.com/casestudies
Sheetz
Find out what your peers are saying about One Identity Active Roles vs. OpenText Identity Manager and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,933 professionals have used our research since 2012.