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Active Roles by One Identity vs IBM Tivoli Access Manager [EOL] comparison

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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
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
91
Ranking in other categories
User Provisioning Software (3rd), Active Directory Management (1st), Non-Human Identity Management (NHIM) (1st)
IBM Tivoli Access Manager [...
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
3.8
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

Puru Solanki ( ITIL. CISM , CCSP ) - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Head at Citadel Global
Automation has streamlined onboarding and governance and delivers faster, more secure access
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 administrators. Some advanced configuration and policy settings have a steep learning curve and could be simplified. We would also like to see more built-in integrations with cloud platforms and SaaS applications, along with additional out-of-the-box reporting templates. These improvements would make the product even easier and more flexible for organizations managing hybrid environments. One thing that would make our daily work even smoother is having more ready-to-use templates for common administrative tasks and reports. This would reduce the need for customization and help teams get up and running more quickly. Additionally, faster and simpler synchronization for hybrid and cloud environments would be beneficial, especially for organizations managing both on-premises and cloud identities. More detailed documentation and guided setup for advanced features would help new administrators learn the platform faster and more easily. One additional improvement I would like to see for Active Roles by One Identity is a better built-in dashboard with more real-time insights into identity and access activities. It would be helpful if upgrades and migrations were simpler and required less planning. Finally, expanding native integrations with more cloud services and third-party applications would make the platform even more versatile and reliable. These enhancements would improve the overall user experience while keeping the product's strong security and automation capabilities.
it_user711612 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Consultant at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Reverse proxy provides central control over authentication and authorization.
It is a single product that caters for all the business needs throughout the organization. It provides a seamless integration that in turn encourages most of the applications to use the SSO features Reverse proxy is the most valuable feature as it provides central control over authentication and…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It provides automatic provisioning/update/deprovisioning workflows from a source system to a target system."
"One of the biggest positive impacts of One Identity Active Roles was bringing more control and consistency to Active Directory."
"Active Roles helped reduce our identity-based breaches."
"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."
"One Identity Active Roles provides strong automation capabilities that significantly reduce manual administrative work, with one especially helpful example being automated employee onboarding, where user accounts, group membership, permissions, and mailbox access are assigned automatically based on the employee's department or role."
"Overall, it has made our identity administration process more structured, predictable, and easier to manage as our environment has grown."
"One Identity Active Roles has positively impacted my organization by speeding up the user provisioning, reducing manual AD tickets, strengthening the security through consistent access control, and improving compliance."
"Clear ROI has been seen with One Identity Active Roles, mainly through the time savings and reduced manual administration."
"Tivoli Access Manger lets you separate security from applications and manage at one place."
"TAM component integration and their SSO capabilities and transparency are the most valuable features I have found."
"It is a simple-to-deploy solution, with many features that are supported out-of-the-box without complicated setup."
"The integration effort with the end application is quite straightforward and easy."
"The WebSEAL reverse proxy is great for protecting your critical systems."
"Tivoli Access Manager (or IBM Security Access Manager) is a fully featured web authentication, sso and authorization product."
"I like the primary function of this product allowing the administration of user/network accounts with a fair amount of ease."
"This product is highly recommended to meet access management and web single sign-on requirements."
 

Cons

"I did not rate One Identity Active Roles at the highest level because areas such as user interface modernization, workflow complexity, troubleshooting experience, reporting capabilities, and cloud integration still have room for improvement."
"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."
"A few improvements I would like to see in One Identity Active Roles are mainly around usability, reporting, and modern integration."
"One area for improvement would be the initial setup, which feels a little bit complex and could be simplified."
"It also has workflows and those are really powerful, but there are no built-in workflows. When it comes to them, it's empty. I would personally love for it to come with ten, 15, or 20 workflows where each achieves a certain task... I could just look at how each is done, clone them, copy them, modify them the way I want them, and be good to go. Right now we have to invent things from scratch."
"One area where One Identity Active Roles can be improved is in the user interface. It can feel outdated and not very intuitive for new users."
"The user and group management in Azure AD could be better. Our focus these days is dynamic sharing with several on-prem Microsoft applications like SharePoint."
"When doing a workflow, we would like a bit better feedback on the screen, as we're trying to get it to work."
"The TAMeB policy server is not scalable."
"It was complex for us as we have multiple domains."
"Administration of the product can be improved a lot."
"Older TAM versions are not compatible for connecting to a DB."
"Yes, because there are so many moving parts it can often be difficult getting it right first time."
"The initial set-up is a bit complex for a novice as the Linux version of it needs you to be somewhat good with Linux."
"We have had stability issues lately with the hardware and SAN that the product runs on."
"Installation and configuration. If you don’t know the requirements of the supporting components, it could be complicated to install and this has been improved in the later versions that are renamed to IBM Tivoli Security Access Manager."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's expensive."
"The pricing for Active Roles is expensive but not as expensive as other solutions like Okta."
"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 licensing model is a simple user-based model, not that much complicated."
"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 is on the higher end."
"The IBM prices are, as ever, extortionate, even with a business partnership, and high levels of discounts."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
28%
Healthcare Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
6%
Outsourcing Company
15%
Construction Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Comms Service Provider
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business100
Midsize Enterprise16
Large Enterprise45
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise18
 

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...
Ask a question
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Also Known As

Quest Active Roles
Tivoli Access Manager, IBM Security Access 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
Essex Technology Group Inc.
Find out what your peers are saying about One Identity, SailPoint, Omada and others in User Provisioning Software. Updated: August 2026.
912,801 professionals have used our research since 2012.