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Microsoft Active Directory vs Ping Identity Platform comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 18, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
8.8
Microsoft Active Directory offers value by streamlining user management, justifying investment despite limited direct financial calculations.
Sentiment score
7.4
Ping Identity Platform simplifies identity management, lowers IT overhead, enhances security, improves efficiency, boosts satisfaction, and offers scalability.
The solution is really time-saving since I don't need to create users in each server or system manually, and user access control is streamlined.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.9
Active Directory support receives mixed reviews, with delays and quality varying; premium service improves assistance but adds cost.
Sentiment score
6.6
Ping Identity Platform's customer service is timely and knowledgeable, though occasionally slow for complex issues; self-help resources are commended.
Support documents are available on the internet in every language.
Sometimes support takes long to engage and resolve, extending over weeks or even months.
I have reached out to technical support for troubleshooting SAML certificate mismatches and federated errors between Ping and enterprise apps.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.7
Microsoft Active Directory is scalable for thousands but faces challenges in large infrastructures, with cloud migration as a solution.
Sentiment score
7.5
Ping Identity Platform offers adaptable scalability and performance, varying by configuration, environment, and server setup for different user needs.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Microsoft Active Directory is stable and reliable, highly rated by users, effectively scalable, with minimal downtime or performance issues.
Sentiment score
7.9
Ping Identity Platform is stable and reliable, with minor integration challenges and manageable issues, rated 8-10 for stability.
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Active Directory needs interface, security, integration, and scalability improvements, focusing on user experience, migration, and reporting features.
Ping Identity Platform needs enhanced authentication, integration, and user interface improvements for better security and user adoption.
Exporting and verifying group memberships require command line scripts, which isn't simple.
There are some features that need improvements in terms of ease of use and frequency of updates.
AI is offering solutions.
I would like to enable ServiceNow Generative AI for auto-diagnosing PingFederate SSO failures and suggest remediation steps.
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Active Directory offers moderate pricing, often packaged with Windows OS, with cloud services like Azure being more cost-effective.
Ping Identity Platform offers flexible annual pricing, appealing for large enterprises, valued for security and efficiency over competitors.
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Active Directory offers robust user management, security, and seamless integration with Microsoft products, ideal for large network management.
Ping Identity Platform offers robust security with multi-factor authentication, seamless integrations, and customizable single sign-on for enhanced connectivity.
I can control all the devices in my domain by just changing the group policies in one place.
One valuable feature is the centralized creation of IDs.
Having active deployment and well-configured systems helps me manage tasks and easily oversee thousands of users.
The platform enhances security measures by analyzing multi-factor authentication attempts, highlighting suspicious patterns, and generating compliance reports.
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Active Directory
Ranking in Single Sign-On (SSO)
7th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
42
Ranking in other categories
Active Directory Management (6th)
Ping Identity Platform
Ranking in Single Sign-On (SSO)
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
Authentication Systems (6th), Data Governance (8th), Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) (6th), Access Management (4th), Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) (2nd), Directory Servers (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Single Sign-On (SSO) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Active Directory is 3.0%, up from 2.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Ping Identity Platform is 7.7%, down from 10.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Single Sign-On (SSO)
 

Featured Reviews

Rajitha Abhisheka - PeerSpot reviewer
A solution that easily merges with cloud-based ADs and provides superior data security
The interface for logs should be user-friendly and allow for enhanced filtering to drill down to incidents. It is time consuming to get a clear picture and review deviations in conditional policies because you have to check each and every log to find information on malicious attacks, a compromised end-user's account, or phishing emails. The logs for sign-ins and auditing should be available for more than a 30-90 day window. Most logs are displayed in UTC but it would be helpful to include time conversions for tenant regions. Currently, we must do time conversions manually before we contact users to share information and troubleshoot issues.
Dilip Reddy - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to use but requires improvements in the area of stability
In my company, we have worked on authorization, and I know that there are different types of grants. We have worked on the authorization code, client credentials, and ROPC grant. There are two types of tokens, like the JWT token and internally managed reference tokens. JWT tokens are useful for finding information related to the claim requests. Internally managed reference tokens are useful for dealing with visual data and information. For the clients to fit the user information, they need to do additional work to fit all the user info into the site, which is to define and validate the token issue and provide the request for VPNs. I worked on the key differences between the authorization code and implicit grant. In the authorization code type, you will have the authorization code issued initially to the client, and the client has to exchange it with the authorization server, like using a DAC channel to get the access token. In implicit grants, tokens are issued right away if the application is a single-page application. We can either use the authorization code or an implicit grant.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Educational Organization
8%
Financial Services Firm
26%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Insurance Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft Active Directory?
The solution is easy to install and has good reliability.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Active Directory?
Technology is evolving. AI is offering solutions. However, short-term fixes are like band-aids.
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Active Directory?
I utilize it in almost every scenario. I use the Hazer database and meet daily needs across every industry, every time.
What do you like most about PingID?
The mobile biometric authentication option improved user experience. It's always about security because, with two-factor authentication, it's always a separate device verifying the actual user logg...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for PingID?
The pricing is neither too expensive nor too cheap.
What needs improvement with PingID?
The management console needs to be improved. PingID should revise it.
 

Also Known As

No data available
Ping Identity (ID), PingFederate, PingAccess, PingOne, PingDataGovernance, PingDirectory, OpenDJ
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Equinix, Land O'Lakes, CDPHP, Box, International SOS, Opower, VSP, Chevron, Truist, Academy of Art University, Northern Air Cargo, Repsol
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Active Directory vs. Ping Identity Platform and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
849,686 professionals have used our research since 2012.