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Active Roles by One Identity vs OpenText Identity Manager 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

Active Roles by One Identity
Ranking in User Provisioning Software
3rd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
92
Ranking in other categories
Active Directory Management (1st), Non-Human Identity Management (NHIM) (1st)
OpenText Identity Manager
Ranking in User Provisioning Software
12th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
Identity Management (IM) (26th), Identity Governance Administration (IGA) (9th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the User Provisioning Software category, the mindshare of Active Roles by One Identity is 4.9%, down from 6.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OpenText Identity Manager is 3.3%, down from 4.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
User Provisioning Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Active Roles by One Identity4.9%
OpenText Identity Manager3.3%
Other91.8%
User Provisioning Software
 

Featured Reviews

Puru Solanki ( ITIL. CISM , CCSP ) - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Head at Citadel Global
Automation has streamlined onboarding and governance and delivers faster, more secure access
Overall, we are very satisfied with Active Roles by One Identity, but there are a few areas that could be improved. The user interface could be more modern and intuitive, especially for new administrators. Some advanced configuration and policy settings have a steep learning curve and could be simplified. We would also like to see more built-in integrations with cloud platforms and SaaS applications, along with additional out-of-the-box reporting templates. These improvements would make the product even easier and more flexible for organizations managing hybrid environments. One thing that would make our daily work even smoother is having more ready-to-use templates for common administrative tasks and reports. This would reduce the need for customization and help teams get up and running more quickly. Additionally, faster and simpler synchronization for hybrid and cloud environments would be beneficial, especially for organizations managing both on-premises and cloud identities. More detailed documentation and guided setup for advanced features would help new administrators learn the platform faster and more easily. One additional improvement I would like to see for Active Roles by One Identity is a better built-in dashboard with more real-time insights into identity and access activities. It would be helpful if upgrades and migrations were simpler and required less planning. Finally, expanding native integrations with more cloud services and third-party applications would make the platform even more versatile and reliable. These enhancements would improve the overall user experience while keeping the product's strong security and automation capabilities.
GA
IDM Consultant at GCA Consultoria de Informática Ltda
Highly flexible with many connectors, offers excellent scalability
The initial deployment of the environment typically takes about a day to a day and a half to install and configure all the servers. Integrating applications can vary, with easy and well-documented integrations taking around 40 hours, while more complex ones may take up to 80 hours or more. However, integration with applications can vary in complexity, depending on their documentation and APIs. We prioritize integrations based on customer needs, starting with HR systems and adapting to their specific requirements for user configuration. Typically, a deployment team consists of up to four people, depending on project size, with expertise in operating systems and integration. For ongoing management and maintenance, at most two people are required to monitor servers, and integrations, and address any issues that arise.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Active Roles by One Identity has significantly reduced the complexity and workload of Active Directory administration by automating many tasks that previously required manual effort, allowing our IT team to spend much less time on routine requests and focus on higher-value projects."
"Overall, beyond just making tasks easier, it adds a strong layer of control, security, and visibility of AD operations."
"Instead of deleting accounts, we like the deprovision option so that we can reverse any accidental deletions. It also gives a higher level of quality control in terms of enforcing any number of variables, such as making sure that an account has a description entered before the account can be created. We can backtrack and know the history of it that way."
"Overall, One Identity Active Roles has significantly reduced the complexity and workload in Active Directory administration in our organization."
"After moving to One Identity Active Roles, I achieve better automation, improved security through controlled delegation, and enhanced compliance with detailed auditing and reporting, significantly improving efficiency and reducing operational risk compared to the previous approach."
"It provides automatic provisioning/update/deprovisioning workflows from a source system to a target system."
"Heavily Automates - it will automate the entire provisioning, re-provisioning, de-provisioning and undo-de-provisioning tasks Complete Audit Trail - it gives an audit trail for each and every activity Increase in accountability – various tasks can be enabled for approval."
"Active Roles is easy to configure. It isn't a plug-and-play solution, and you need expertise to set it up. However, once you have your templates, it's easy to deploy in a highly decentralized environment. The custom configuration for our customers is fantastic, especially the web interface."
"The product is easy to use."
"The most valuable features of NetIQ Identity Manager are the synchronization of different directories, such as Active Directory. We have many Active Directory systems, not only one."
"It's a solid product, it's a mature product."
"Identity and access management processes have developed to become automatic and fast."
"The access request management has improved significantly in terms of its user interface. What sets it apart from competitors like SailPoint is that it's an event-based solution rather than schedule-based. That's a key differentiator."
"It's a very flexible tool, so you can synchronize multiple sources of data and you have multiple connections to various kinds of systems."
"The greater strength was to keep the identities synchronized without failures in both attributes and passwords."
"NetIQ Identity Manager is by far the most flexible product available, and the pricing is incredibly good, even if you're not situated in the BeNeLux."
 

Cons

"For mid-sized to small companies, I do not know if it would be that useful, considering the tool's purpose."
"The main improvement I would like to see for One Identity Active Roles is a more modern and intuitive interface, along with more customizable reporting and dashboards to enhance our experience with the platform."
"When doing a workflow, we would like a bit better feedback on the screen, as we're trying to get it to work. For example, there is a "Find" function that you need set up in a workflow to do some of the automation. It is not the easiest to get a result from those finds when you're trying to do that. In the MMC, they have a couple different types of workflows. In this particular case, we use their workflow functionality to find all of X within the environment, then if you find it, do X, Y, and Z. You can have multiple steps. When you do that search function within that workflow, it's really hard to find out, "Is my search working?" It would be nice if there was some feedback on the screen so you could see if your search is working properly within the workflow."
"The user interface could be more modern and intuitive, especially for new administrators."
"I believe the initial setup could be more simplified to allow for better and faster deployment."
"Customer support is rated six. Sometimes having a fix for a bug takes too much time. While in production, issues tend to take a while to resolve."
"One area where One Identity Active Roles could be improved is the user interface."
"The initial setup was quite easy, but it was time-consuming. It took about three months."
"The integrations must be made easier."
"It needs some modern features. They should improve and modernize their management interface. It has been created over years and by different persons. You can see different applications, different management consoles for different things. There should be an integrated interface."
"There's no huge thing missing, because it's already comprehensive. Now and then, however, there might be a minor issue."
"If it works, Designer is a charm, but it can be a pain to keep updated because of all the Java stuff that regularly goes wrong."
"User Application UI Product Licensing"
"Technical support is average. When it's come to complex issues, it takes longer than expected to solve."
"NetIQ Identity Manager could improve by updating the user portal, it is out of date."
"Areas for improvement are further enhancing the access granting process to reduce time and improve accuracy."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is high. I have not been involved with the renewal or cost aspect, but I know it is not cheap by any means. However, it is very useful for our environment."
"The price is reasonable. It costs us about 1 million Danish kroner annually, and we also spend about half as much on consultants."
"The licensing model is a simple user-based model, not that much complicated."
"It's expensive."
"The pricing is on the higher end."
"It's fairly priced."
"The pricing for Active Roles is expensive but not as expensive as other solutions like Okta."
"You just need to be aware that the more systems you connect, the more license fees you have to pay."
"The solution is quite affordable."
"The price of the solution is a bit high and could be reduced."
"I would rate the pricing a two out of ten, with one being low price and ten being high price. It is significantly more cost-effective than the major players in the market."
"Micro Focus is flexible when it comes to price. The cost varies from customer to customer. There are no additional costs, though. Everything is included."
"It would easily help them in getting more market and more customers if more consultants knew about their software. If they could keep it free for schools for teaching purposes, it would be good. I had to pay myself to get it and use it for training. Their competitors are giving it for free. I had to pay for it myself. They are losing market to their competitors."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
28%
Healthcare Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
6%
Outsourcing Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
University
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business100
Midsize Enterprise17
Large Enterprise45
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise6
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for One Identity Active Roles?
Our experience with the pricing, setup cost, and licensing of Active Roles by One Identity has been very positive. Although Active Roles by One Identity is not the lowest-priced solution, we believ...
What needs improvement with One Identity Active Roles?
Overall, we are very satisfied with Active Roles by One Identity, but there are a few areas that could be improved. The user interface could be more modern and intuitive, especially for new adminis...
What is your primary use case for One Identity Active Roles?
Active Roles by One Identity is our main solution for simplifying and automating user account management in our Active Directory environment. We use it for tasks like user provisioning, deprovision...
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Also Known As

Quest Active Roles
Novell Identity Manager
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

City of Frankfurt, Moore Public Schools, George Washington University, Transavia Airlines, Howard County, MD. See all stories at OneIdentity.com/casestudies
Sheetz
Find out what your peers are saying about Active Roles by One Identity vs. OpenText Identity Manager and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
916,056 professionals have used our research since 2012.