AWS Directory Service vs Okta Workforce Identity comparison

AWS Directory Service vs. Okta Workforce Identity

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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

Okta Workforce Identity

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

3rd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Single Sign-On (SSO) (3rd), Authentication Systems (6th), Privileged Access Management (PAM) (7th), Access Management (4th), ZTNA as a Service (12th)

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) category, the mindshare of AWS Directory Service is 1.6%, down from 2.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Okta Workforce Identity is 12.1%, down from 14.4% 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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Tor Nordhagen

Executive Director at Semaphore

Extremely easy to work with, simple to set up, and reasonably priced

The drawback of this solution is that in our shops, many staff members sometimes have to be borrowed from one shop to another and the solution does not really support having multiple roles. The user experience we would like to have when a person works in shop A which pays their salary is that they should have access to pretty much everything. Maybe you have somebody who is a manager in that shop A, he should be able to order new wear, he should be able to change the pricing, he should be able to empty the cash registry, and ship it to the bank. But when for instance, in COVID, people had to fill in for people in shops where a lot of people were sick, then they had to actually use user accounts of people that work in shop B. If you were employed in shop A, you could not work in shop B without borrowing somebody else's user ID and password. Which is really bad. We haven't been able to work around that and Okta Workforce Identity does not have a solution for it. We are now piloting their identity governance solution. Obviously, it's easy to give somebody access, give them an account, and give them roles, but it's hard to maintain that. For example, if you moved from, say working in a shop to working in a warehouse. But why do you still have all this shop access? The solution has until now not had anything to really support the process of taking away access. But now we are in a better release program of Okta's identity governance solution. Although it's very basic, the solution has started on a journey, but identity governance is something that Okta Workforce Identity really needs to improve. The ability or the options in the solution for changing the look and feel are not good enough because in our partner portal, essentially what they have is an ugly admin interface. The admin interface is good enough for us technical people because that's all we need. We work with the product and we're able to see the data but when it comes to presenting the service portal, Okta Workforce Identity does not have any capabilities really for making it look pretty. To add branding and different graphical user interface elements than Okta basic for essentially delegated admin for the business-to-business portal is horrifying because you're essentially using the tech admin. The only option we had and used, was to take the tech admin console and strip it. so that a vendor that has some goods that are sold in the shops, when they want to add a user on their side, say a driver or a packer on their side who should know how much they've packed in a truck to come to our warehouse, then the user interface that this vendor is using, these functional people will then have to use an extremely basic user interface.

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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

"We can provide specific access to people based on what they need from our accounts."

"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."

"AWS has eliminated the downtime we waste when our on-premises resources go down."

"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."

"AWS Directory Service is secure."

"The AD Connector is very good and easy to implement."

"The solution integrates well with other tools, particularly through single sign-on, allowing users to connect to various applications using just one password, including email."

More AWS Directory Service pros

"One of the best features of Okta Workforce Identity is its integration with different SaaS applications, which makes it a better product than the competitors."

"We face no challenges in integrating the product with our legacy systems."

"Enabled MFA to access federated applications as well as increased user satisfaction through improved provisioning times and more reliable processes."

"Okta Workforce Identity is easy to use and has a lot of components."

"We find the solution to be reliable for our customers and it is nice that it is cloud-based and can be accessed from anywhere."

"The initial setup is easy."

"Having a single sign-on to all our applications."

"The product is easy to use."

More Okta Workforce Identity pros

Cons

"The group policy can be improved."

"Accessing the data needs improvement."

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

"We had a problem with the schema uploading and setting up the directory when we are migrating our users from on-premises to cloud infrastructure."

"The solution lacks certain features."

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

"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."

"AWS Directory Service needs to improve processing."

More AWS Directory Service cons

"On the admin side, we can create our own passwords instead of generating one, which is usually difficult to explain to a user."

"The training is too costly."

"The integration with third-party tools needs to be improved."

"We faced some challenges during the Okta Identity Workforce deployment. Integrating with AWS and other cloud services posed some limitations with federated options. For instance, features like automatic user addition from AWS to the tool were missing, requiring manual intervention. The API is limited compared to the manual configuration possible through the UI."

"In my country, there's a lot of stealing of mobile phones, and mobile phones are the authentication device through the Okta application. If someone should steal my mobile phone, which is very common in my country, he or she might have access to my company account. That's my concern."

"The solution’s policies are difficult to understand due to the policy methods. They use authentication. The solution’s workflow is also difficult and not very active. They need to have proper documentation on it. In the next release, I would like to see the workflows being more digestible."

"The high cost of the product is an area of concern where improvements are required."

"The only area of concern in the solution stems from the fact that my company needs some help regarding the setup phase from a partner."

More Okta Workforce Identity cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"We pay an annual subscription fee."

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

"The licensing is per user per month and includes full technical support."

"This is an expensive solution but the security makes it worthwhile."

"The pricing is reasonable."

"The solution's pricing model could be better for SMBs."

"The pricing for Okta Workforce Identity could still be improved or made cheaper. It costs from 50 to 100 euros a year per user. Okta Workforce Identity has different packages you can choose from, and my previous company had all of them, particularly the full Okta suite."

"The price of Okta Workforce Identity is reasonable."

"Okta has fairly competitive pricing."

"The solution’s pricing needs to be reasonable. You are dealing with a lot of components and the pricing is component-based."

More Okta Workforce Identity pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) solutions are best for your needs.

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859,579 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

17%

Healthcare Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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.

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.

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...

What do you like most about Okta Workforce Identity?

Okta has introduced the Universal Directory. It has custom attribute capability and user permissions to read/write on their profiles or hide them. Profile sources and identity profile sourcing are ...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Okta Workforce Identity?

Pricing for Okta is reasonably not that much, however, I don't have access to the commercial aspect.

What needs improvement with Okta Workforce Identity?

I believe that if we integrate the workflows section into the main Okta Workforce Identity dashboard, it can be very useful.

Microsoft Entra ID vs AWS Directory Service

Comparisons

Compared 73% of the time

Microsoft Entra External ID vs AWS Directory Service

Compared 17% of the time

SailPoint Identity Security Cloud vs AWS Directory Service

Compared 9% of the time

More AWS Directory Service Competitors

Microsoft Entra ID vs Okta Workforce Identity

Compared 28% of the time

SailPoint Identity Security Cloud vs Okta Workforce Identity

Compared 12% of the time

Google Cloud Identity vs Okta Workforce Identity

Compared 11% of the time

Saviynt vs Okta Workforce Identity

Compared 8% of the time

Auth0 vs Okta Workforce Identity

Compared 2% of the time

More Okta Workforce Identity Competitors

Product Reports

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

Download AWS Directory Service product report

Okta Workforce Identity

Download Okta Workforce Identity product report

Also Known As

AWS Managed Microsoft AD

No data available

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)

Okta Workforce Identity is a comprehensive identity and access management (IAM) solution designed to enhance security and streamline user experiences for businesses of all sizes. As a cloud-based platform, it offers a suite of tools that simplify user authentication, authorization, and management across a variety of applications and services.

Core Features

Single Sign-On (SSO): Enables users to access multiple applications with a single set of credentials, enhancing convenience and reducing password fatigue.
Adaptive Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Provides robust security by requiring additional verification factors, which can adapt based on the user's location, device, and behavior.
Lifecycle Management: Automates user account creation, updating, and deactivation, ensuring access rights are current and compliant with company policies.
Universal Directory: A centralized directory service that supports user and group management across various applications, simplifying administrative tasks.
API Access Management: Safeguards APIs by implementing policies that control how and when they can be accessed, which is crucial for protecting sensitive data.

PeerSpot users often praise Okta Workforce Identity for its ease of use and robust security features. IT professionals appreciate the streamlined integration with numerous applications and the flexibility in configuring access policies. Business executives value the enhanced security posture and the ability to enforce compliance across their digital assets.

For IT professionals, Okta Workforce Identity offers a scalable and efficient solution to manage user identities and access rights. The ability to automate routine tasks like user provisioning and deactivation significantly reduces administrative overhead, allowing IT teams to focus on more strategic initiatives. Furthermore, the platform's comprehensive reporting capabilities aid in monitoring and auditing access, which is critical for maintaining security and compliance.

Business executives will find that Okta Workforce Identity aligns with broader organizational goals of operational efficiency and risk management. Its intuitive user experience minimizes disruptions to workforce productivity, while advanced security features like adaptive MFA help mitigate the risk of data breaches. The platform's cloud-based nature ensures scalability and agility, enabling businesses to adapt quickly to changing market conditions and workforce dynamics.

Okta Workforce Identity stands out as a versatile and secure IAM solution, adept at meeting the complex needs of modern enterprises. Its combination of user-friendly features and robust security measures makes it a top choice for organizations aiming to streamline their identity management processes while bolstering their cybersecurity defenses.

Okta

Sample Customers

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers

FedEx, Zoom, Takeda, Lululemon Athletica, GrunHub, jetBlue, McKensson, Bain & Company, Engie, Peloton, Sonos, T-Mobile, Hewlett Packard, MGM Resorts, Ally Financial, Priceline, Albertsons, Itercom, Classy, FICO, Kensho, Live Nation, Drata, Rotary, and others.

AWS Directory Service vs. Okta Workforce Identity