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AWS IAM Identity Center vs IBM Cloud Identity Service comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 2, 2024

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 IAM Identity Center
Ranking in Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS)
7th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
Single Sign-On (SSO) (8th)
IBM Cloud Identity Service
Ranking in Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS)
31st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) category, the mindshare of AWS IAM Identity Center is 1.4%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Cloud Identity Service is 0.5%, up 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

Khaled Saidi - PeerSpot reviewer
Manage cloud security with granular access control and enhanced authentication
Managing IAM in complex environments can be challenging, and there are several areas for improvement. First, incorporating automation tools or a centralized dashboard for managing roles and policies across multiple accounts would simplify administration, especially for large organizations. Additionally, policy debugging and validation could be more streamlined, as troubleshooting misconfigurations can be time-consuming and prone to errors. A more robust error messaging system or a dedicated debugging tool would be beneficial. Another area for improvement is temporary access credentials. AWS documentation should offer more detailed guidance on edge cases and exceptions, along with clearer examples of how to handle various scenarios. Lastly, enhanced session-level policies that are more context-sensitive and based on specific conditions (such as IP address, device, or time) would greatly increase flexibility and allow for more granular control over user sessions.
reviewer1054431 - PeerSpot reviewer
Excellent support, beneficial integration, and low maintenance
I have found IBM Cloud Identity Service to be highly scalable. It can handle thousands of users. IBM solutions are truly enterprise-grade. You don't find a lot of use cases for small businesses, or even sometimes medium businesses, the price point does not fit smaller businesses. The implementation effort, it's hard to find that cost-benefit.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"AWS IAM Identity Center offers a secure and centralized way to manage access and permissions."
"I highly recommend AWS IAM Identity Center to new users, especially for storage and deployment services like EC2, which are cost-efficient and scalable."
"We efficiently use AWS to create multiple user privileges and permissions, making it very scalable and supportive of our clients' operations."
"The solution helps us manage access in a time-efficient manner and offers reliable integration for our services, avoiding security breaches and maintaining operational efficiency."
"IAM Identity Center provides micro-level control over resources, services, and users, allowing organizations to grant specific access and privileges safely."
"The solution enhances security through features like multifactor authentication."
"The most valuable feature of AWS Identity Center is its ability to centrally create permission templates, known as permission sets, which define AWS IAM roles."
"The most valuable features of AWS IAM Identity Center are role-based permissions and existing permissions templates."
"It is stable. We can automate many of our daily operations with it, and we don't have to manage many things manually."
"It is multiple identity and access management, so all of the applications are valuable. It's also part of the automated process."
"One of the most valuable features of IBM Cloud Identity Service is that it delivers integrations with the commercial SaaS software that's available."
 

Cons

"I would like to see more flexibility in the features as sometimes it doesn't meet my expectations."
"The initial setup isn't very easy, around four on a scale of one to ten. It permits setting up policies that might not be entirely secure if improperly configured, which can lead to issues later."
"I have opened support tickets and received responses, although not always resolving my queries fully. I would appreciate a live chat option with technical support for quicker resolutions."
"Greater visualization for security policies would be beneficial."
"The configuration with other tools can be hard."
"IAM is challenging to manage in complex environments."
"I would like to see more flexibility in the features as sometimes it doesn't meet my expectations."
"IAM is challenging to manage in complex environments. Enhancements could include automation tools or a centralized dashboard for managing roles and policies across multiple accounts, simplifying the process."
"IBM Cloud Identity Service is going in the right direction with the product. They need to keep building out the integrations and having the library is very critical."
"The initial setup is complex, it's not straightforward. It takes months because it's not straightforward."
"Everything can be more stable and secure. There could also be more account features. I would like to be able to do more things through it to manage users' accounts."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is cheap since it is available on the cloud."
"The price of the solution is expensive for non-enterprise companies. IBM's always going to be a little more expensive, you're going to be paying a premium. However, depending on the organization's needs, there's probably a benefit there to do even with the price being the way it is."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Performing Arts
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about AWS IAM Identity Center?
The product is easy for beginners to learn and use.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS IAM Identity Center?
AWS provides the lowest pricing among other service providers like Azure, Google, Oracle. It is cost-effective, and they use a pay-as-you-go model.
What needs improvement with AWS IAM Identity Center?
The tech support for AWS is time-consuming, as we have experienced this issue. However, I am not aware of many other cases.
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Also Known As

AWS Single Sign On, AWS SSO
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers
Baxter Healthcare, 
Find out what your peers are saying about AWS IAM Identity Center vs. IBM Cloud Identity Service and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.