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Active Roles by One Identity vs BetterCloud comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 20, 2026

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

Active Roles by One Identity
Ranking in User Provisioning Software
3rd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
88
Ranking in other categories
Active Directory Management (1st), Non-Human Identity Management (NHIM) (1st)
BetterCloud
Ranking in User Provisioning Software
14th
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) (36th), SaaS Management Platforms (9th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the User Provisioning Software category, the mindshare of Active Roles by One Identity is 5.4%, down from 7.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of BetterCloud is 1.4%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
User Provisioning Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Active Roles by One Identity5.4%
BetterCloud1.4%
Other93.2%
User Provisioning Software
 

Featured Reviews

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.
PaulHeard - PeerSpot reviewer
CIO at a consultancy with 201-500 employees
Experienced easy deployment and stable performance but user support needs improvement
The most valuable features are that BetterCloud had a much more sophisticated workflow management toolset than Google itself. It was easy to build onboarding and offboarding workflows, which could handle the desired complexity versus out-of-the-box Google. BetterCloud allowed us to reallocate storage so all files created by a departing member would get reallocated to the manager, thus retaining access. BetterCloud saved help desk time by automating processes, providing a reasonable return on investment. BetterCloud now offers SaaS platform tracking capabilities, a key, previously missing feature.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The features I found most valuable in One Identity Active Roles are delegated administration, workflow-based automation, and role-based access control, which help streamline Active Directory management while maintaining better control over administrative permissions and access requests."
"We have eased the burden on the support desk and reduced the risk of them doing something they shouldn't."
"Overall, the return on investment comes from time savings, reduced errors, better resource utilization, and improved compliance, which together justify the investment."
"In comparison to native Active Directory tools, using Active Roles for delegation is so much better. It uses an access template and that makes it easy to see who can access what. In fact, you can do that for many objects as well."
"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."
"Clear ROI has been seen with One Identity Active Roles, mainly through the time savings and reduced manual administration."
"One Identity Active Roles has positively impacted our organization in both efficiency and security."
"The access templates help set up granular permissions and the web portal to manage Active Directory."
"BetterCloud saved help desk time by automating processes, providing a reasonable return on investment."
"You simply cannot use Google Apps without it, so it's a no brainer."
 

Cons

"I've had a difficult time getting it to cooperate with Azure in the cloud and, while the support staff are very good and very knowledgeable, what they assist with just on a call doesn't go deep enough to help with a number of issues. The answer that comes back is that we'd have to start an engagement with Professional Services, which is fine but that takes time to schedule and it takes budget."
"There are areas for improvement in One Identity Active Roles that include updating the web interface, creating an API accessible from the web, and improving overall performance, as it can be slow at times."
"One Identity Active Roles is a strong product, but like any enterprise tool, there are areas where it could be improved."
"The initial setup of One Identity Active Roles can be more simplified."
"One area for improvement would be troubleshooting and reporting."
"Active Roles could add more options for web customization. Our requirements are exceedingly specific. We'd like to get the web interface down to just five buttons, but in some cases, we can only get to six. The web interface in the current version is less customizable than in the previous one."
"I think its governance and security are very good. If they use a third party as an AI, the security may be compromised. However, if they are using their inbuilt assistance, it gives a very good result."
"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."
"The account support team was weak in engagement and communication, contributing to the decision to move to more comprehensive solutions."
"Would love for it to be able to replace our SSO as well as provide connectivity and the same level of automation to our other SaaS products."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"It's fairly priced."
"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."
"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."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
24%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business96
Midsize Enterprise16
Large Enterprise45
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for One Identity Active Roles?
Our experience with the pricing, setup cost, and licensing of Active Roles by One Identity has been very positive. Although Active Roles by One Identity is not the lowest-priced solution, we believ...
What needs improvement with One Identity Active Roles?
Overall, we are very satisfied with Active Roles by One Identity, but there are a few areas that could be improved. The user interface could be more modern and intuitive, especially for new adminis...
What is your primary use case for One Identity Active Roles?
Active Roles by One Identity is our main solution for simplifying and automating user account management in our Active Directory environment. We use it for tasks like user provisioning, deprovision...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for BetterCloud?
The real downside was it was a relatively expensive product, and ultimately we removed it as a cost-saving measure.
What needs improvement with BetterCloud?
BetterCloud's support for SaaS management was lacking initially, requiring development of a custom tool to handle some workflow automation. It was also relatively expensive. The account support tea...
What is your primary use case for BetterCloud?
We were using BetterCloud for onboarding and offboarding, particularly managing Google account setup and removal, because we wanted to retain information after people left, and not just have the ac...
 

Also Known As

Quest Active Roles
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

City of Frankfurt, Moore Public Schools, George Washington University, Transavia Airlines, Howard County, MD. See all stories at OneIdentity.com/casestudies
HelloFresh, Oscar Health, Square
Find out what your peers are saying about Active Roles by One Identity vs. BetterCloud and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,153 professionals have used our research since 2012.