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Defender by One Identity vs Fortinet FortiAuthenticator 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

Defender by One Identity
Ranking in Authentication Systems
12th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Fortinet FortiAuthenticator
Ranking in Authentication Systems
5th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
65
Ranking in other categories
Single Sign-On (SSO) (10th), Identity Management (IM) (14th), Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Authentication Systems category, the mindshare of Defender by One Identity is 1.6%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiAuthenticator is 3.0%, down from 7.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Authentication Systems Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiAuthenticator3.0%
Defender by One Identity1.6%
Other95.4%
Authentication Systems
 

Featured Reviews

Mahesh Malve - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Business Development Associate at DigitalTrack Solutions ind pvt ltd
Advanced analytics have strengthened privileged access security and reduced incident response time
While One Identity Defender is a strong solution overall, there are a few areas where I feel it could be improved. One area is the user interface and dashboard customization. Although it is functional, making it more modern and allowing deeper customization would improve the user experience, especially for quick monitoring. Another improvement could be in reporting flexibility. While it provides good reports, having more custom report building options and easier export features would be helpful for different compliance and manageability needs. From an integration perspective, while One Identity Defender works well with core systems, having more out-of-the-box integrations with modern cloud services and SaaS platforms would reduce the need for custom configuration. In terms of support, the overall support is good, but faster response times for critical issues and more detailed troubleshooting documentation would help teams resolve problems more efficiently.
reviewer2848395 - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Business Development Manager at a outsourcing company with 501-1,000 employees
Multi-factor security has improved device protection but still needs broader application coverage
Fortinet FortiAuthenticator could be improved in its cost structure. Although it is not expensive, other solutions offer more value for less money. Cisco Duo provides better value in this regard and connects to web applications much more easily, scaling effectively in that sense. While I have never used Cisco Duo to secure other devices in IoT environments, I know Cisco Duo is capable of doing so, whereas Fortinet FortiAuthenticator cannot. Additionally, Cisco Duo is also cheaper. These are the main reasons why we switched away from Fortinet FortiAuthenticator, as it was very limited compared to other solutions available. Fortinet FortiAuthenticator was primarily missing the ability to scale to web applications.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"If you decide to activate this solution, your infrastructure will be centered around flexibility."
"One Identity Defender has good network protection."
"We have definitely seen a positive ROI from using One Identity Defender, as our security team now spends about twenty to thirty percent less time on manual log analytics and investigations because the system automatically highlights high-risk activities, and we did not need to increase team size despite growing infrastructure as the tool helps us handle more security events with the same team."
"We find that the product scales very well."
"It's very fast, and it's easy to use because it's integrated with Active Directory."
"One Identity Defender has positively impacted our organization by improving overall security through the addition of MFA, which reduces the risk of unauthorized access and makes user authentication more controlled and reliable."
"The implementation has significantly improved access management within our organization."
"The web feature is quite versatile. It serves as the sole server authenticator and is valuable not only with FortiGate products but also within the entire Forti system, making it highly useful for me."
"The tool's most valuable features are push notifications and integration with the FortiGate firewall. Push notifications provide an instant acceptance mechanism. When customers try to access SSL VPN, the solution sends a push notification to their mobile phone, and they can easily approve the access. The integration with FortiGate firewall is very easy if our customers use FortiGate for their firewall."
"FortiAuthenticator has created a straightforward easy-to-use product."
"The initial setup is very easy."
"I prefer the passing tool that sent an active directory console to a Fortinet FortiAuthenticator, then Fortinet FortiAuthenticator does not pass the locks."
"The solution is stable; I installed it two years ago, and we rarely check the internet for changes because it's really stable and we don't have problems."
"This is a scalable product."
 

Cons

"The only reason it is not a ten is because response time can sometimes be slower for complex or escalated cases."
"One Identity Defender is a strong product, but there are a few areas where it can be improved."
"Maybe it could provide support for more web applications. It seems more focused on IIS web applications."
"We have some clients that are wanting to protect their Apache web servers with One Identity Defender but all the research I have done says cannot be done. It can only be oriented to an IIS server. One Identity Defender should have more integration with more types of web servers."
"The login capabilities could be better."
"There are some protocols, such as SHA and SHA-2, that are not supported."
"I don't have any issues with this solution, but it may need a better, more user-friendly interface or better design of the platform."
"The support team is pathetic and does not properly understand the solution."
"The technical support is mid-range; it's not your wow kind of support, and they're not really there when it comes to support."
"If you can't authenticate to protect transactions, and the security is weak, it's a problem."
"One of our clients has faced a lot of issues with FortiAuthenticator. For example, one of the devices restarted by itself, and the database was corrupted."
"The area for improvement in Fortinet FortiAuthenticator is its price."
"I think the tool could provide this solution on the cloud. It's currently an on-premises solution. A cloud-based version could make setup, installation, and management easier. With on-premises, you must pay capital expenses (CapEx) upfront. However, if the solution was cloud-based, it would be operational expenses (OpEx), which is often easier to manage. You can pay monthly instead of paying the total cost at once. In my opinion, OpEx is more easily manageable than CapEx."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The price seems okay. It's not that expensive compared to other authenticators."
"When we buy the Fortinet FortiAuthenticator device there is a comparison between price and security."
"I price of the solution is expensive."
"I rate the product price as two or three on a one-to-ten scale, where one is expensive, and ten is cheap."
"It costs more to license the high-availability option."
"I would rate the pricing a four out of ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive. It is not that costly. It is cheap, easy to manage, easy to install, and easy to configure."
"The platform provides a user-based pricing model rather than a subscription pricing model."
"The product has affordable pricing compared to other vendors."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
23%
Construction Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
13%
Retailer
6%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Construction Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise1
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business38
Midsize Enterprise19
Large Enterprise11
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with One Identity Defender?
One Identity Defender is a strong product, but there are a few areas where it can be improved. First, the user interface and reporting dashboards could be made more intuitive and customizable for f...
What is your primary use case for One Identity Defender?
One Identity Defender strengthens identity and access security through MFA, helping us ensure that only authorized users can access critical systems, especially for privileged accounts, with a focu...
What advice do you have for others considering One Identity Defender?
My advice for others looking into using One Identity Defender would be first to clearly define your use case, especially whether you need MFA mainly for privileged access, remote users, or both, as...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiAuthenticator?
My experience with Fortinet FortiAuthenticator's pricing found the pricing to be good. There are better solutions available in the market. Overall, Fortinet FortiAuthenticator is an inexpensive sol...
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiAuthenticator?
Fortinet FortiAuthenticator could be improved in its cost structure. Although it is not expensive, other solutions offer more value for less money. Cisco Duo provides better value in this regard an...
What is your primary use case for Fortinet FortiAuthenticator?
Fortinet FortiAuthenticator was implemented as a multi-factor authentication solution to serve as a second barrier for accessing and unlocking devices. However, Fortinet FortiAuthenticator was limi...
 

Also Known As

No data available
FortiAuthenticator
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Bakersfield Police Department, Village of Westmont, Illinois
Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
Find out what your peers are saying about Defender by One Identity vs. Fortinet FortiAuthenticator and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
917,743 professionals have used our research since 2012.