ForgeRock vs Microsoft Identity Manager comparison

Ping Identity and Microsoft are both solutions in the Identity Management (IM) category. Ping Identity is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.5, while Microsoft is ranked #7 with an average rating of 7.8. Ping Identity holds a 4.8% mindshare in IAM, compared to Microsoft’s 3.9% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of Ping Identity users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 75% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 1, 2024

ForgeRock and Microsoft Identity Manager are competing in the identity and access management market. Based on data comparisons, ForgeRock has the upper hand in pricing and support, while Microsoft Identity Manager is favored for its comprehensive feature set.

Features: ForgeRock offers adaptive authentication, identity orchestration, and IoT security features, appealing to those prioritizing flexibility and scalability. Microsoft Identity Manager excels with seamless Windows environment integration and strong synchronization services, ideal for enterprises invested in Microsoft ecosystems.

Room for Improvement: ForgeRock could improve in simplifying deployment and management of their tools. Additionally, better user interface enhancements and reducing complexity in customization are areas for growth. For Microsoft Identity Manager, expanding integration flexibility beyond Microsoft products, reducing licensing complexity, and enhancing non-Windows platform support are areas needing attention.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: ForgeRock provides a flexible deployment model supporting various platforms, with strong customer service noted for broader support. Microsoft Identity Manager emphasizes integration with existing Windows infrastructure, offering easier deployment for Microsoft users but limited flexibility outside this environment. Customer service for both is strong, each noted for different strengths.

Pricing and ROI: ForgeRock typically presents a lower initial setup cost and offers significant ROI for complex identity management needs due to its customization capabilities. Microsoft Identity Manager may have higher upfront costs but delivers substantial ROI through deep integration with existing Microsoft products, beneficial for those already using Microsoft technology. Differences primarily deal with ForgeRock’s cost-effectiveness versus Microsoft Identity Manager’s deep product integration benefits.

To learn more, read our detailed ForgeRock vs. Microsoft Identity Manager Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

ForgeRock vs. Microsoft Identity Manager

April 2025

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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

Omada Identity

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Identity Management (IM) category, the mindshare of Omada Identity is 3.5%, down from 3.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ForgeRock is 4.8%, down from 5.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Identity Manager is 3.9%, down from 6.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Identity Management (IM)

Featured Reviews

Pernilla Hulth

IAM Project Manager (Independent) at a retailer with 10,001+ employees

The interface is easy to use and gives you a solid overview

The cloud-based deployment was straightforward, but the on-prem deployment was in a highly complex ecosystem. Omada has matured since then. I wouldn't say that it isn't straightforward, but it depends on the customer. A standard deployment is relatively easy, but it can be more painful if you need a lot of customization. We deployed the cloud solution in around four months, nearly meeting the 12-week benchmark. The on-prem deployment took three years. It was a highly complex ecosystem that was dependent on other systems. Depending on the size of your environment, you need a product owner and some specialists for maintenance. My last customer was a university with a complex environment. They had around 12 people involved in maintenance at that organization. Typically, it's between 2-5 people.

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Trisha Bhola

Senior Associate at Cognizant

It's easier to customize and maintain our code

I worked on two different projects based on ForgeRock, and both are automated deployments. One is a UI-based deployment. It's an automated process using some scripts. The deployments are done through Octopus, so it's also automated. We first deploy the essential components of AM and then implement additional configurations like Amster Imports. After that, we import all the SAML Federation data and add some certificates. We have two teams of five and three team members working on the different deployment processes. One is working on the dev side, another is looking at the higher environment, and one is managing the data. In another project, I'm the only developer. We also deploy on the dev environments so that anyone can test new features, configurations, and client requirements. They can test it on the dev environment, but a team of four people manages higher environments. The Access Management component involves the most customization, which takes around 15 to 20 minutes because of the need to import the Amster configuration. If another deployment is simultaneously happening, it may be a little slower and take around 30 minutes. The other components, like the user data stores, take about five to seven minutes. It's another five to 10 minutes for Identity Management. After deployment, the maintenance is mostly checking for security vulnerabilities. If ForgeRock shares security vulnerabilities or advisories, we check to see if there is something inside we need to maintain. Other than that, we just install updates when they add features each month.

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MANUEL VALDIVIA

Senior Manager at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Priced in a low range but needs to improve the support services offered to users

If we don't use Microsoft Identity Manager for data masking, we can use some other tools, like IBM InfoSphere. The scope of Microsoft Identity Manager is limited to the identity part of our applications. Microsoft Identity Manager is an old technology, and Microsoft will discontinue it soon. Microsoft Identity Manager is very complex compared with other platforms. For example, I know Microsoft Azure is working on Azure Identity. In the future, Microsoft Identity Manager will migrate to Azure Identity because Azure Identity is a software asset and is less complex. The solution's technical support is bad, making it an area where improvements are required.

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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

"When we started with identity and access management, we cleaned up and skipped 500 accounts. Therefore, there are a lot of people who are still in our system. Using this tool, we have cleaned up a lot of accounts for ourselves as well as our partners and suppliers. So, we can manage everything now."

"Two valuable features of Omada Identity are the ability to discover accounts and link them to identities, and the automatic disabling of inactive accounts or identities."

"For me, the best feature of Omada Identity is its web interface because it's really easy for users to understand."

"Omada Identity Suite has a very powerful workflow engine. It is used for requesting access for approval to everything that's around Access Management and for re-certification purposes."

"The most valuable feature of Omada is its API connectivity, which allows seamless integration with various services like SAP, GRC, and Microsoft licenses."

"The thing that I find most valuable is that Omada consists of building blocks, which means that you can configure almost anything you want without using custom code, making it pretty easy to do. It's possible to connect to multiple target systems and to create one role that consists of different permissions in the different target systems. So one role in Omada can make sure that you have an account in three different systems."

"The most appealing aspect of Omada Identity is its self-service upgrade system."

"The most valuable feature is the automatic provisioning and reconciliation of things like the Active Directory groups and memberships."

More Omada Identity pros

"The solution is very scalable. We have a lot of users that have been increasing over the years that we have been using it. We have approximately 20,000 users."

"The solution's most valuable feature is the authentication for the consumers. The integration with other third-party applications is excellent."

"This is a stable solution. When you do experience any issues, you will see it in your DB logs or audit logs so you can easily reach a conclusion of might be causing it."

"Easy to customize and adaptable to any environment."

"The most valuable features are that it is easy to manage and it's stable."

"We have found the identity and access management tools in the solution to be particularly useful for our organization."

"We create and define the permissions and configurations for the users."

"Easy to navigate, handle and manage the applications."

More ForgeRock pros

"The most valuable feature is that it provides protection for our company documents."

"The most crucial feature of Microsoft Identity Manager is integration, especially with Office 365. A specific scenario where automation provided by the identity manager was crucial is when customers use hybrid clouds, with resources both locally and in the cloud. They require an easy identity solution across workspaces, local and cloud, integrating cloud identity with local identity sources, supporting single sign-on and authorizations, and ensuring security across applications.Microsoft Identity Manager integrates such local and cloud identity sources, supporting numerous applications."

"The integration with other Microsoft ecosystems, such as Graph API, is really cool."

"The features of Microsoft Identity Manager that have been most impactful in improving security and compliance include the granular policies, report, and the ability to gain end-to-end visibility for each user."

"I would recommend Microsoft Identity Manager to others anytime."

"The product allows us to track the logins easily."

"What makes this solution attractive is the licensing model. Microsoft Identity Manager is included in premium versions of Azure AD and in enterprise agreements such as E3. This makes the solution very attractive to many of our clients who are subscribed to those products."

"It is one of the easiest products to implement, which is one of the main advantages. The integration is easy. Unlike other products, it is not complicated to integrate."

More Microsoft Identity Manager pros

Cons

"We are trying to use Omada's standards and to adapt our processes. But we have had some trouble with the bad documentation. This is something that they could improve on. It has not been possible for us to analyze some of the problems so far, based on the documentation. We always need consultants. The documentation should include some implementation hints and some guidelines for implementing the processes."

"I would like to search on date fields, which is not possible now."

"The user interface should have a more flexible design, where you can change it to your requirement."

"One thing that we are not so happy about is the user interface. It is a bit dated. I know that they are working on that, but the user interface is quite dated. Currently, it is a little bit difficult to customize the user interface to the need of the business, which is a little bit disappointing. It needs it to be a little bit easier to operate, and it should have a better user interface."

"Functionality and usability could be improved."

"Omada could make it a bit more convenient to send emails based on events automatically. Having that functionality is critical for us to maintain transparency."

"The account management integration isn't bad, but it isn't plug-and-play like Microsoft Azure. You need some deep development knowledge to set up the connectors."

"I would like more training. As someone who is new to this world, I don't feel that the courses Omada provides are good enough. They should also improve the documentation. It is difficult to learn how to use the solution by yourself"

More Omada Identity cons

"We're worried about the scaling. We're told it will be okay and there won't be issues, however, I'm not 100% convinced."

"ForgeRock is an open source solution and is available to everyone but it is not freeware. If you need support, you need a subscription for ForgeRock. Many of its functionalities need to be built up with the help of a consultant."

"The solution's documentation is not very good, and they do not give more details."

"The solution's deployment should be made easier."

"The product's support services in the French language are not free."

"The user interface could be improved as it is cumbersome and outdated. It doesn't have a responsive UI."

"It should have a better user interface. Its flexibility should also be improved. It is not about simplifying; it is more about flexibility. Each company has its own requirements, and ForgeRock can provide more flexibility in terms of the use of existing modules to implement features for the customers."

"In an upcoming release, the solution could improve by limiting the need to do customizations."

More ForgeRock cons

"In terms of the identity and access management solution for on-premises environment, I think Microsoft needs to eliminate or minimize the number of workloads for the solution to run in on-premises environment."

"All actions require logging in to the server."

"The information that is available for the Active Directory portal is segregated here and there."

"The product's setup phase was difficult."

"Instead of using the connectors from the third-party companies, they should make the Microsoft templates available with this product. If Microsoft would increase the number of the box connectors that would be helpful to all the customers who use it daily."

"They have to improve the User Entity and Behavioral Analysis."

"It would be good if Microsoft Identity Manager Maybe could be integrated with Azure Active Directory directly and made as a cloud platform."

"I haven't explored it deeply enough to identify any areas for enhancement."

More Microsoft Identity Manager cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is not cheap. It is expensive, but compared to what we did almost three years ago, it is value for money. It is worth it."

"My client deals directly with the Omada Identity team in terms of licensing. I never look at pricing, so I'm not aware of how much the solution costs, but it's worth the money. Often, when you begin to use Omada Identity and it takes a while to set up, it'll be irreversible, and you'd depend on and focus more on the functionality of the solution, rather than its price tag."

"It is not cheap. None of these solutions are cheap, but we have good pricing at least for now from a licensing perspective."

"The pricing for Omada Identity is fair."

"It's a fair price for the on-premises system. Compared with what we had before, it's much cheaper and we get all the modules in one. We tried to go with the cloud, but it was far too expensive."

"The initial total cost of ownership to implement Omada Identity is not small. The TCO for the implementation is as high as any other solution. However, the cost of maintaining the solution is at par or lower than competitors, including adding more features or maintaining the system after the initial deployment or installation to make sure that they are available for users to use or extending the functionalities of those activities. Those maintenance costs are lower than other vendors, but the initial cost of getting the system installed is still high."

"The pricing is too high for SMBs."

"Being Dutch, I can only say that it is extremely expensive, but all software products are expensive. If you have 38,000 users, then even one dollar or one euro per person would amount to a significant amount of money. Because of the high number of users, anything gets expensive very fast here."

More Omada Identity pricing and cost advice

"It's a bit pricey and could be more competitive."

"We have multiple clients we are looking at right now. We are at a very small number, however, the idea and the goal is to grow. We are looking at about $100,000 and $50,000 a minimum a month cost. That'd be minimum maybe in a couple of years."

"The pricing of the solution is fair but I do not have the full details."

"ForgeRock's pricing is more competitive than other products."

"The license is purchased annually per user. However, you can negotiate if you are signing for a longer period of time. When comparing this solution to others on the market it is priced fair, it is not at the top of the price range or at the bottom end."

"ForgeRock is an expensive solution."

"Its licensing is on a yearly basis, but it also depends on the contract that you have with the vendor. They have multiple types of contracts. There are additional costs to the standard licensing fees. If you need some of the features, you have to pay more."

"Its price is comparable to other products in the market."

"The tool's price is low for my company."

"The solution is included in the Microsoft E3 license and premium subscriptions of Azure AD."

"The solution is expensive."

"Microsoft Identity Manager comes with the premium or community license. If the customer doesn't have a premium license, the reseller who sells the licenses of Microsoft to the enterprise can extend the license for the client."

"MIM is free with a Microsoft Azure license."

"The prices can always be improved. I'd rate it a 4 out of 10 in terms of pricing."

"It is an expensive tool."

"My rating for the pricing of Microsoft Identity Manager is average, neither too expensive nor too cheap."

More Microsoft Identity Manager pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

24%

Computer Software Company

12%

Insurance Company

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

12%

Government

11%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Omada Identity Cloud?

As an administrator, we benefit from a lot of functionality that is available out of the box, but it is also configur...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Omada Identity Cloud?

They are positioned at a good price point. They are lower than some of their competitors.

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What needs improvement with Omada Identity Cloud?

The biggest issue, which is the reason why we are transitioning from their product to SailPoint, is the overall user ...

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What do you like most about ForgeRock?

The most valuable features of ForgeRock are social login and data protection.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ForgeRock?

Our company was considering switching back to Keycloak from ForgeRock, so as to not pay any license fees. ForgeRock a...

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What needs improvement with ForgeRock?

In the past, I saw that Splunk was integrated with a testing portal, and then it was integrated with Slack. I don't t...

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What do you like most about Microsoft Identity Manager?

The product’s simplicity and integration are valuable.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Identity Manager?

The pricing of Microsoft Identity Manager is expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Microsoft Identity Manager?

Integration with third parties and enhanced policy management could be improved. The current policy management featur...

See all answers

Comparisons

SailPoint Identity Security Cloud vs Omada Identity

Compared 32% of the time

Microsoft Entra ID vs Omada Identity

Compared 22% of the time

Saviynt vs Omada Identity

Compared 17% of the time

One Identity Manager vs Omada Identity

Compared 7% of the time

More Omada Identity Competitors

Microsoft Entra ID vs ForgeRock

Compared 21% of the time

SailPoint Identity Security Cloud vs ForgeRock

Compared 12% of the time

Ping Identity Platform vs ForgeRock

Compared 9% of the time

Symantec Siteminder vs ForgeRock

Compared 8% of the time

Auth0 vs ForgeRock

Compared 8% of the time

More ForgeRock Competitors

SailPoint Identity Security Cloud vs Microsoft Identity Manager

Compared 36% of the time

Microsoft Entra ID vs Microsoft Identity Manager

Compared 20% of the time

One Identity Manager vs Microsoft Identity Manager

Compared 9% of the time

Saviynt vs Microsoft Identity Manager

Compared 9% of the time

More Microsoft Identity Manager Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Omada Identity

April 2025

Download Omada Identity product report

Buyer's Guide

ForgeRock

April 2025

Download ForgeRock product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Identity Manager

April 2025

Download Microsoft Identity Manager product report

Also Known As

Omada Identity Suite, Omada Identity Cloud

ForgeRock Identity Platform, ForgeRock OpenIDM

MIM, Forefront Identity Manager, FIM, MS Identity Manager

Overview

Omada Identity is an identity governance and administration (IGA) solution designed to help organizations manage and secure digital identities and access across their IT environments. It focuses on enhancing security, compliance, and efficiency by automating identity management processes.

Omada Identity offers a robust set of features that streamline identity lifecycle management, access governance, and compliance reporting. It integrates with a wide range of IT systems, applications, and data sources, providing a centralized platform for managing user identities and access rights. The solution enables organizations to enforce security policies, ensure regulatory compliance, and reduce the risk of unauthorized access.

What are the critical features of Omada Identity?

Identity Lifecycle Management: Automates the process of creating, updating, and deactivating user identities throughout their lifecycle.
Access Governance: Ensures that users have appropriate access rights, enabling continuous monitoring and recertification of access.
Compliance Reporting: Provides comprehensive reporting capabilities to demonstrate compliance with regulatory requirements.
Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): Simplifies the assignment and management of access rights based on user roles within the organization.
Self-Service Access Requests: Empowers users to request access to resources through a user-friendly portal, reducing administrative burden.
Integration Capabilities: Seamlessly integrates with various systems, applications, and data sources for unified identity and access management.

What benefits or ROI items should users look for in the reviews when evaluating Omada Identity?

Improved Security: By ensuring that only authorized users have access to sensitive information, Omada Identity enhances overall security posture.
Regulatory Compliance: Helps organizations meet compliance requirements by providing detailed audit trails and reporting features.
Operational Efficiency: Automates routine identity management tasks, reducing manual effort and freeing up IT resources for strategic initiatives.
User Productivity: Streamlines access management processes, enabling users to quickly obtain the resources they need to perform their jobs.
Reduced Risk: Minimizes the risk of data breaches and insider threats by enforcing strict access controls and continuous monitoring.

Omada Identity is widely adopted across various industries, including healthcare, finance, and manufacturing. In healthcare, it helps protect patient data and comply with regulations like HIPAA. In finance, it ensures compliance with SOX and other financial regulations. In manufacturing, it secures access to sensitive production data and intellectual property.

Pricing and licensing for Omada Identity are typically based on the number of users and the specific features required. Customer support is available through various channels, including online resources, support tickets, and professional services for implementation and customization.

In summary, Omada Identity is a comprehensive IGA solution that enhances security, compliance, and efficiency in managing digital identities and access.

Omada

ForgeRock is a comprehensive open-source identity and access management solution designed to meet the unique needs of your users and workforce. With ForgeRock you can orchestrate, manage, and secure the complete lifecycle of identities in any cloud or hybrid environment. ForgeRock allows you to set up bot detection, identity proofing, and risk-based authentication.

With ForgeRock, you can define access policies and automate the management of the identity lifecycle all from a central, easy to use, and graphical dashboard. ForgeRock Access Management allows you to build safe authentication using options like passwordless and usernameless logins, single sign-on, biometrics, contextual analytics, and behavioral authentication. When threats appear, you can swiftly change how your users access your most sensitive applications and provide users with secure access to the applications, systems, and resources they need on demand.

ForgeRock Benefits and Key Features

Elevate your security and efficiency: Consolidating your legacy systems under one single platform provides reliable, unified control over all your user identities and access-related policies. ForgeRock Access Management also supports scaling existing policies for application onto new setups.
Passwordless authentication: Implementing passwordless authentication is simple with ForgeRock Access Management. You can easily replace user-selected passwords with other options, such as easy multi-factor authentication, biometrics, and SSO.
Identity governance: ForgeRock Identity Governance is a modern, AI-driven identity governance solution. By leveraging ForgeRock generated analysis reports, you can identify and apply appropriate user access, automate high-confidence access approvals, recommend certification for low-risk accounts, and review high-risk and inappropriate user access privileges. In addition, you can grant and enforce access to systems, applications, and infrastructure according to established policies.

Reviews from Real Users

ForgeRock stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its robust identity and access tools and its being easy to manage and scale with one central dashboard.

PeerSpot users note the effectiveness of these features. A technology solutions leader at an outsourcing company writes, “We need it for multiple clients, multiple implementations. Not all of them are necessarily a multi-tenant solution. We need a very versatile solution that can do a lot of work, but from a single instance that we can centralize authentications and we don't duplicate the efforts and that's where ForgeRock seems to do better.”

Mohamed B., a cyber security consultant at a tech company, writes, "Their access management solution, OpenAM, is most valuable because it meets the needs of a lot of users. ForgeRock secured our system so that it is accessed only by authorized people, and it implemented the SSO."

Ping Identity

Microsoft Identity Manager (MIM) builds on the identity and access management capabilities of Forefront Identity Manager. MIM helps you manage the users, credentials, policies, and access within your organization. Additionally, MIM adds a hybrid experience, privileged access management capabilities, and support for new platforms.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

Bayer, ECCO Shoes, Vattenfall, NuStar Energy, Unicredit, Schiphol Group, BMW Group, Deutsche Leasing

Geico, Thomson Reuters, Salesforce, McKesson, Trinet, SKY, BNP Paribas, Deloitte, Capgemini, North Western University

Dow Chemical Company (Dow), Whole Foods Market

Buyer's Guide

ForgeRock vs. Microsoft Identity Manager

April 2025

Free Report: ForgeRock vs. Microsoft Identity Manager

Find out what your peers are saying about ForgeRock vs. Microsoft Identity Manager and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.

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