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Active Roles by One Identity vs EmpowerID 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
90
Ranking in other categories
Active Directory Management (1st), Non-Human Identity Management (NHIM) (1st)
EmpowerID
Ranking in User Provisioning Software
12th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Identity Management (IM) (22nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2026, in the User Provisioning Software category, the mindshare of Active Roles by One Identity is 5.5%, down from 5.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of EmpowerID is 2.4%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
User Provisioning Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
One Identity Active Roles5.5%
EmpowerID2.4%
Other92.1%
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.
Varun Khandavalli - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Specialist Engineering Dev. & Integration at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
An excellent application with a strong use case
It is very intuitive and has improved significantly over the last seven years. Its deployment is very enterprise-focused, and I hope it will eventually become cloud-based for easier connection through AWS or similar services. Currently, it's an It is very intuitive and has improved significantly over the last seven years. Its deployment is very enterprise-focused, and I hope it will eventually become cloud-based for easier connection through AWS or similar services. Currently, it's an excellent application with a strong use case.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"One Identity Active Roles has impacted my organization positively by reducing manual work, improving security, saving administrative time, and reducing human errors."
"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."
"The best part of this Active Roles is the workflow engine. It features an industry-leading workflow automation feature. It's a visual PowerShell that allows task interruption."
"It's valuable to us in that it resembles the native tools that most people have grown accustomed to... Active Roles resembles traditional tools, such as from Microsoft. That is really good because it eases the way people interact with the tool."
"We have definitely seen a strong return on investment after implementing One Identity Active Roles, mainly in terms of time saving, reduced workload, and improved efficiency, where user provisioning and access requests that earlier took hours are now completed in a few minutes through automation, and we observe around a 40 to 50% reduction in service desk tickets related to Active Directory tasks, which allows the team to focus on more critical activities instead of repetitive work, while delegation reduces dependency on senior administrators, indirectly saving manpower effort, and overall, the reduction in errors, faster onboarding, and improved compliance also contribute to cost savings and operational efficiency, making it a valuable investment for the organization."
"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."
"One Identity Active Roles has made things more organized and secure across the company, and it has also reduced the need to contact IT administrators directly, saving time for both me and the IT staff."
"After moving to One Identity Active Roles, I achieve better automation, improved security through controlled delegation, and enhanced compliance with detailed auditing and reporting, significantly improving efficiency and reducing operational risk compared to the previous approach."
"It is very intuitive and has improved significantly over the last seven years. Its deployment is very enterprise-focused, and I hope it will eventually become cloud-based for easier connection through AWS or similar services. Currently, it's an excellent application with a strong use case."
"It allows for self-service which means quicker turnaround for end-user support."
 

Cons

"I believe the initial setup could be more simplified to allow for better and faster deployment."
"One area that could be improved in One Identity Active Roles is the user interface and initial configuration process, as some advanced workflows and policy settings can be complex for new administrators."
"When doing a workflow, we would like a bit better feedback on the screen, as we're trying to get it to work. For example, there is a "Find" function that you need set up in a workflow to do some of the automation. It is not the easiest to get a result from those finds when you're trying to do that. In the MMC, they have a couple different types of workflows. In this particular case, we use their workflow functionality to find all of X within the environment, then if you find it, do X, Y, and Z. You can have multiple steps. When you do that search function within that workflow, it's really hard to find out, "Is my search working?" It would be nice if there was some feedback on the screen so you could see if your search is working properly within the workflow."
"One Identity Active Roles is very useful, though there are a few areas where it could be improved, such as the user interface, policy creation, and reporting; it requires good knowledge of Active Directory."
"One specific issue I have encountered recently is that the interface and workflow configuration can become complex and less intuitive, especially when managing multiple approval steps or modifying existing workflows, which sometimes requires deeper scripting or backend adjustments, so more user-friendly and visual workflow design would be a great improvement."
"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."
"One Identity Active Roles is a mature and reliable product, but there are definitely areas where it could be improved."
"The main improvement I would suggest for One Identity Active Roles is making the UI and policy configuration more intuitive."
"I would like to see EmpowerID move to the cloud to facilitate easier deployment and connectivity through AWS or similar services."
"Perhaps it is the way my organization has it set up but I would like to add people to more than one group at a time."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"It's fairly priced."
"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 on the higher end."
"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."
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%
Construction Company
24%
Comms Service Provider
15%
Computer Software Company
9%
Healthcare Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business96
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise44
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for One Identity Active Roles?
I wasn't directly involved in the pricing or licensing decisions, so I cannot comment on the exact cost. For our operations, I believe the investment was considered worthwhile because the product r...
What needs improvement with One Identity Active Roles?
I think One Identity Active Roles is a mature and reliable solution, but there are a few areas where it could be improved. The biggest one is the management interface, which feels dated compared to...
What is your primary use case for One Identity Active Roles?
Our main use case for One Identity Active Roles is to simplify and standardize Active Directory administration across multiple business units while reducing the amount of manual work handled by our...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for EmpowerID?
The cost is fairly moderate, although I can't recall the exact amount, it's around twenty five.
What needs improvement with EmpowerID?
I would like to see EmpowerID move to the cloud to facilitate easier deployment and connectivity through AWS or similar services.
What is your primary use case for EmpowerID?
EmpowerID is an application that helps move LC-MS and HPLC data from instruments to systems of record to be able to get that data and manage it. It is used for a lot of small molecule research and ...
 

Also Known As

Quest Active Roles
The Dot Net Factory EmpowerID
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

City of Frankfurt, Moore Public Schools, George Washington University, Transavia Airlines, Howard County, MD. See all stories at OneIdentity.com/casestudies
Glencoe Specialty Services, GoDaddy, GTSI Corp., Alere Inc., Anadarko Petroleum, Bank of America, Bank of New York, Caterpillar, Coldwell Banker
Find out what your peers are saying about Active Roles by One Identity vs. EmpowerID and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
905,526 professionals have used our research since 2012.