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Active Roles by One Identity vs Netwrix Auditor 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 Active Directory Management
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
90
Ranking in other categories
User Provisioning Software (3rd), Non-Human Identity Management (NHIM) (1st)
Netwrix Auditor
Ranking in Active Directory Management
3rd
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
GRC (14th), Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (33rd), Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) (15th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2026, in the Active Directory Management category, the mindshare of Active Roles by One Identity is 12.3%, up from 6.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Netwrix Auditor is 10.7%, down from 13.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Active Directory Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
One Identity Active Roles12.3%
Netwrix Auditor10.7%
Other77.0%
Active Directory Management
 

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.
RishiPandit - PeerSpot reviewer
Lead - Technical Services at Impetus
Optimizing time and effort through comprehensive auditing features
Netwrix Auditor doesn't have many competitors at the level in which it is placed. All other companies provide auditing solutions but not up to the feature list; it is very broad and robust. The best features include flexibility to interact directly with MS-SQL. Real-time alerts help identify potential security threats. The ability to streamline audits with insights into configuration states is helpful, as the access reviews and audit reports are really insightful. This is a good tool. The search functionality is available, but comparative to other vendors, this is a bit slower. Reports are effective; the compliance reports and all the reports are very insightful. That is good.

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 Identity Active Roles has helped my organization reduce the number of incorrect privileged accounts through the management unit feature and enables comprehensive group membership management with features not available in Active Directory, such as adding multiple secondary owners and dynamic groups."
"One Identity Active Roles has positively impacted our organization by improving AD administration efficiency, reducing manual errors, strengthening access governance, and helping to standardize user provisioning and compliance processes across the team."
"One Identity Active Roles has positively impacted our organization by helping us automatically complete user-based provisioning, dynamic groups, and RBAC provisioning, helping us improve compliance in a measurable way, saving time in provisioning users, and providing users with birthright access quickly upon arrival, allowing fast access."
"We achieve a strong ROI with One Identity Active Roles through approximately a forty to fifty percent reduction in service desk workload, faster user provisioning from hours to minutes, fewer manual administration errors, and improved compliance and audit efficiency."
"One Identity Active Roles is recommended as one of the best solutions currently in the market since it addresses many issues such as risks faced, inconsistent account setup, excessive admin privileges, lack of audit trails, and manual provisioning errors, all of which can be resolved with this solution."
"One Identity Active Roles has had a very positive impact on our organization, mainly by improving efficiency and security at the same time."
"The biggest thing for us is Active Roles saves a lot of man-hours in keeping groups up-to-date manually or trying to write some sort of script that you have to run, so we don't have to reinvent the wheel. Instead of when every time somebody joins a department, then somebody has to remember to put in a request to add "meet user Joe" to this group, the solution does it automatically for us. Therefore, it saves our business and IT staff time because they do not have to process requests since Active Role can do it for them."
"Netwrix provides features that no other solution on the market does."
"I have found user behavior analysis and the ability to run risk assessments important features, and additionally the interface and online documentation are very good."
"Netwrix Auditor was the easiest to use, most straightforward, and it had competitive pricing."
"It maintains audit logs for the duration of time that you wish, as long as you have the storage capacity to do so."
"I am impressed with the tool's reporting feature and notifications."
"The most valuable feature is the real-time monitoring."
"Without Netwrix, it's impossible to take control of things."
"Netwrix Auditor doesn't have many competitors at the level in which it is placed; all other companies provide auditing solutions but not up to the feature list—it is very broad and robust."
 

Cons

"The ability to send logs to a SIEM would be very beneficial."
"One Identity Active Roles could be improved with a more modern and intuitive user interface, faster performance during large-scale directory operations, and simpler initial deployment and configuration."
"When we add numerous domains, it becomes slow. With around 60 domains, attempting to add approximately 30 caused significant performance issues."
"There is room for improvement in One Identity Active Roles. While the product is very capable, managing complex workflows and hybrid environments can sometimes require deeper expertise than expected, so better cloud integration and troubleshooting visibility would also be valuable improvements."
"For ActiveRoles, it would be good if the product supports multi-scripting language. You can use only VBScript."
"The initial setup could be simpler because sometimes it feels like it should be more straightforward."
"It also has workflows and those are really powerful, but there are no built-in workflows."
"Areas for improvement in One Identity Active Roles include UI modernization, workflow customization, flexibility in reporting, and troubleshooting visibility."
"When there are issues I would like remediation to be in one place."
"If you buy direct, there is a minimum of 150 licenses that must be procured. The price point and barrier of entry is a little bit higher than it would be if you purchased the solution from an authorized reseller partner, rather than buying it and managing yourself."
"The solution lacks self-service on password reset. It also needs to improve its scalability."
"I expect usability features to become more refined over time. I'm interested to see how it evolves and continues to improve."
"There is room for improvements when it comes to the licensing."
"There is room for improvement with the introduction of AI functionality."
"The Linux compatibility of this solution could be improved."
"An improvement would be if there was an another way to manage the logs besides email because it's not so practical."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's fairly priced."
"The pricing for Active Roles is expensive but not as expensive as other solutions like Okta."
"The pricing is on the higher end."
"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 price is reasonable. It costs us about 1 million Danish kroner annually, and we also spend about half as much on consultants."
"The licensing model is a simple user-based model, not that much complicated."
"It's expensive."
"There is a license for this solution and we are on an annual license. The price is reasonable."
"The tool's price is fair."
"This solution is reasonably priced. I would rate it a nine out of ten."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
24%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Construction Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business96
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise44
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise4
 

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 Netwrix Auditor?
I don't know about the pricing of this, but it is good at this price point because our organization has purchased it, which means it was in budget. We usually do not buy expensive solutions, so the...
What needs improvement with Netwrix Auditor?
The areas of improvement include the front end, as the UI should be more intuitive and there should be fewer bugs. In the UI, we have to adjust and resize our console many times, and sometimes it a...
What is your primary use case for Netwrix Auditor?
We use Netwrix Auditor for auditing, log centralizing, centralizing the logs, log management, and for permission access management, giving permission on shared folders and Active Directory groups.
 

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
AT&T, SanDisk, Siemens, Verizon, Electrolux, Allianz, Societe Generale
Find out what your peers are saying about Active Roles by One Identity vs. Netwrix Auditor and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
904,973 professionals have used our research since 2012.