AWS Directory Service vs Axiad Conductor comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Axiad are both solutions in the Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #16 with an average rating of 9.0, while Axiad is ranked #13 with an average rating of 10.0. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 1.5% mindshare in IAMS, compared to Axiad’s 0.3% mindshare. Additionally, 93% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Axiad users who would recommend it.

AWS Directory Service

Read 15 AWS Directory Service reviews

684 Views
101 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Axiad Conductor

Read 6 Axiad Conductor reviews

383 Views
41 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

AWS Directory Service

Axiad Conductor

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 16, 2025

AWS Directory Service and Axiad Conductor compete in identity management. AWS Directory Service excels in AWS integration, whereas Axiad Conductor provides superior security features for complex environments.

Features: AWS Directory Service offers seamless integration with AWS, automatic scaling, domain trust, and flexible deployment options. Axiad Conductor provides passwordless authentication, centralized credential management, and strong security capabilities to ensure a secure unified user experience.

Room for Improvement: AWS Directory Service could enhance its support for non-AWS environments, improve detailed insight capabilities, and expand its security features. Axiad Conductor may benefit from simplified deployment processes, better user interface customization, and expanded integration with third-party applications.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: AWS Directory Service offers easy deployment within AWS, with minimal infrastructure handling. Axiad Conductor involves a more complex setup due to diverse configurations, but provides robust customer support to guide through deployments.

Pricing and ROI: AWS Directory Service offers cost-effective pricing with a pay-as-you-go model, presenting a strong ROI for AWS-centric businesses. Axiad Conductor, despite higher initial costs, delivers ROI through advanced security features that are crucial for stringent security needs.

To learn more, read our detailed AWS Directory Service vs. Axiad Conductor Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

AWS Directory Service vs. Axiad Conductor

June 2025

Download the complete report

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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

AWS Directory Service

Ranking in Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS)

16th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Axiad Conductor

Ranking in Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS)

13th

Average Rating

9.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Authentication Systems (12th), Privileged Access Management (PAM) (17th), Passwordless Authentication (3rd), Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) (5th)

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) category, the mindshare of AWS Directory Service is 1.5%, down from 2.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Axiad Conductor is 0.3%, down from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS)

Featured Reviews

MassimilianoCollavo

Computer Area Instructor of the Municipality of Asolo at Comune di asolo

Integrates well with other tools, particularly through single sign-on

I've been working with AWS Directory Service as part of a broader solution for moving our infrastructure to a hybrid cloud model. Initially, the goal was to replicate our on-premises server to the cloud and then eventually shut down the on-premises server entirely. My work with AWS Directory Service is focused on migrating to the cloud and finding a suitable document management system that allows for online editing, document sharing, and workflow management. I rate it an eight out of ten.

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TonyVentura

Director of Information Technology Services at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees

Eliminated the drudgery of having to run our own PKI environment

One of the things that we find the most valuable is not actually a feature, but it's the fact that we are not managing the environment ourselves. Because it is a managed solution in the cloud, it takes away a lot of the drudgery of having to run our own PKI environment. And the product has proven itself to be incredibly flexible and has been able to address all of our pain points. That's why we bought it. And even while we've been going through it, new pain points or challenges keep coming up, and Axiad has been able to deal with all of them. It was very impressive in terms of its utility right from the get-go, and has shown its ongoing utility when we have reached these catch points, issues it has been able to resolve. And when it comes to enrolling a user, it's super easy with One Click Issuance. It's far easier than the solution we replaced. I haven't put a stopwatch on it, but I'm sure it takes less than a minute with Axiad, whereas before it was taking three to five minutes. It's so easy now that we can offload the process to our clients who can self-enroll. Previously, we would have to do the enrollment process because it was so complicated. In addition, it's super simple for deploying and managing authentication devices. Our IT department is rather small, so all the incremental wins that we can get are hugely important to us.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Two-step authentication is very useful and important."

"AWS Directory Service is secure."

"AWS handles everything on the backend requiring minimal legwork from our team. We only require a dedicated database administrator while depending on Amazon for RDS."

"The most valuable feature is that because it's all in the cloud, you don't need to manage the infrastructure."

"Provides good performance and availability."

"The pricing is very good because it is low and there is no management cost."

"The support is very good. I would rate the technical support as a nine out of ten."

"I would rate AWS Directory Service nine out of ten."

More AWS Directory Service pros

"Aside from Active Directory, anything that is a multi-factor platform is handled through Axiad Cloud. It is critical for helping to enforce usage of authentication devices across our organization."

"The solution has also saved us time by having end-users troubleshoot issues through the MyCircle feature, and has definitely reduced the efforts of our administrators. It is saving us five to 10 minutes per incident."

"It's very user-friendly. We're issuing YubiKeys for our corporate users and they just plug it in, go to the Axiad Cloud portal, and click the issue button. It's a couple of steps."

"And when it comes to enrolling a user, it's super easy with One Click Issuance... It's so easy now that we can offload the process to our clients who can self-enroll. Previously, we would have to do the enrollment process because it was so complicated."

"The life cycle management of credentials is the aspect that we have found to be the most useful... The differentiator that Axiad provided was the ability to provide users a way to self-serve the updating of their credentials on their private keys. That was the feature we were most interested in and Axiad does an excellent job of it."

"What I have found most valuable is the overall way Axiad listened to our problems and helped us solve them. They provided guidance and expertise, with their experience, that enabled us to be successful in a very challenging space."

Cons

"AWS Directory Service needs to improve processing."

"The group policy can be improved."

"Can be improved by including on-premises access for services through Identity Access Management."

"To get CloudWatch to monitor your memory and storage, you have to do some configuration within your server, which sometimes results in errors."

"The AWS Directory Service should be easier to integrate."

"I would like to see better integration with other business solutions."

"Accessing the data needs improvement."

"Our only complaint is that you cannot integrate your Exchange server. Or, if you are planning to install an Exchange server on your Amazon EC2 instance, then you need to configure Active Directory on EC2 instance. We would like for this limitation to be lifted."

More AWS Directory Service cons

"We would prefer that the solution be hosted in Canada because we're a Canadian entity. That would be nice to have. It's not a feature, as such, but it would really make us a lot happier if it could be located in Canada."

"I would like a more modern look to the portal."

"I'm looking forward to seeing how they move to FIDO U2F as their primary authentication method across all of their solutions."

"There are just some minor tweaks that could be made on the front end. It would be cool to have nicknames for authenticator devices. If you have more than one, it's hard to discern what you have."

"macOS is notoriously ever-evolving and it's difficult to keep pace with it as it pertains to certain kinds of crypto authentication. That's really not even on Axiad. That's a decision by Apple, but it makes it a moving target."

"With their licensing model, it becomes hard to scale. For example, we couldn't roll it out enterprise-wide because if you scale it across more than 100,000 users, the cost becomes too exorbitant."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We pay an annual subscription fee."

"The pricing depends because with AWS there are two types of directory objects: 30,000 and 500,000. It varies. AWS provides the pricing calculators so we can get an estimate from there as per the company requirement of how many users and objects that we need to create. So we can go to that portal, put in the data, and get the quotation. There are no extra licensing fees. It's all included."

"The pricing is reasonable."

"AWS' pricing is fair, and costs can be cut if you look carefully at when you're using it."

"Don't just focus on the hardware or software costs of acquiring a solution, but look at it from the perspective that so much of what it takes to run a PKI environment has to do with the people who are running it.... look at the total cost of ownership and not just the cost of acquisition."

"It's very cheap on a per-year basis. The cards themselves last about three years and the license is on the order of double-digit dollars per user, and not hundreds of dollars per user, per year."

"The pricing is very competitive for what is offered at the level that we need. They are right there with what the industry standards are. They tend to be a little bit less, in terms of cost, when we are talking about security at government standards. So, I would say that they have a slight advantage on cost compared to the industry average. They are the lower cost solution and the best bargain out on the market today."

"Axiad's pricing was what we were expecting. It was at the right spot. They were competitive."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

18%

Healthcare Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

22%

Government

12%

Manufacturing Company

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about AWS Directory Service?

The most valuable feature of AWS Directory Service is cost-cutting features.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS Directory Service?

The pricing is very good because it is low and there is no management cost. You do not need to hire any system administrator to manage your Active Directory.

See all answers

What needs improvement with AWS Directory Service?

Accessing the data needs improvement. Additionally, integration and compatibility with other AWS ( /products/amazon-aws-reviews ) services, network open LDAP, support for on-premise and cloud envir...

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What do you like most about Axiad Cloud?

The life cycle management of credentials is the aspect that we have found to be the most useful... The differentiator that Axiad provided was the ability to provide users a way to self-serve the up...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Axiad Cloud?

Our use case is credential management for one of the business units. Axiad provides credential management for those users, including the creation of new credentials and life cycle management of the...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Axiad Cloud?

You have to understand the number of users and the number of devices that are going to use the solution. I'm saying that because of my experience with the licensing part. That's my one gripe. If yo...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 83% of the time

Microsoft Entra External ID vs AWS Directory Service

Compared 17% of the time

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Venafi vs Axiad Conductor

Compared 43% of the time

Cisco Duo vs Axiad Conductor

Compared 31% of the time

Yubico YubiKey vs Axiad Conductor

Compared 25% of the time

More Axiad Conductor Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS)

June 2025

Download AWS Directory Service product report

Buyer's Guide

Axiad Conductor

June 2025

Download Axiad Conductor product report

Also Known As

AWS Managed Microsoft AD

Axiad Cloud

Overview

AWS Directory Service lets you run Microsoft Active Directory (AD) as a managed service. AWS Directory Service for Microsoft Active Directory, also referred to as AWS Managed Microsoft AD, is powered by Windows Server 2012 R2. When you select and launch this directory type, it is created as a highly available pair of domain controllers connected to your virtual private cloud (VPC). The domain controllers run in different Availability Zones in a region of your choice. Host monitoring and recovery, data replication, snapshots, and software updates are automatically configured and managed for you.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Axiad Conductor offers a user-friendly platform for managing multifactor authentication and credential lifecycle, supporting seamless transitions to cloud environments for enhanced security compliance and access control.

Axiad Conductor stands out with intuitive management of multifactor authentication systems, assertive device lifecycle management, and a managed cloud solution that streamlines operations. It promotes user self-service for credential updates, minimizing the need for extensive training. With the capability to handle large networks, it enhances efficiency while meeting contract demands. Addressing user suggestions, plans include interface design updates and Canadian hosting, although macOS's frequent updates pose integration challenges.

What are the principal features of Axiad Conductor?

"One Click Issuance": Simplifies user enrollment through easy interface actions.
Multifactor Authentication: Manages critical authentication processes securely.
PKI Support: Facilitates seamless management in PKI environments.
Credential Self-Service: Empowers users to handle updates independently.
Cloud Management: Reduces operational burdens due to its managed environment.

What should users look for in terms of ROI and benefits?

Efficiency: Streamlined operations boost productivity across large networks.
Flexibility: Adaptability to meet evolving challenges and contract requirements.
User Empowerment: Enables users to manage their credentials autonomously.
Compliance: Supports regulation adherence effortlessly.

In diverse industries, Axiad Conductor is implemented to manage multifactor authentication and PKI elements like smart cards and YubiKeys. Organizations leverage it to ensure compliance, facilitate secure workforce access, and transition PKI systems to the cloud, handling substantial volumes of smart card and machine certificates with ease.

Axiad

Sample Customers

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

AWS Directory Service vs. Axiad Conductor

June 2025

Free Report: AWS Directory Service vs. Axiad Conductor

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