Okta Workforce Identity vs Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks comparison

Okta and Palo Alto Networks are both solutions in the ZTNA as a Service category. Okta is ranked #12 with an average rating of 8.4, while Palo Alto Networks is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.3. Okta holds a 1.7% mindshare in ZaaS, compared to Palo Alto Networks’s 14.5% mindshare. Additionally, 94% of Okta users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of Palo Alto Networks users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 30, 2024

Both Okta Workforce Identity and Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks are leading solutions in their respective fields with significant user adoption. While users generally appreciate the security features of Prisma Access, Okta is often preferred for its ease of use and scalability.

Features: Okta Workforce Identity is praised for its robust identity management, single sign-on capabilities, and ease of integration with existing systems. Prisma Access offers strong network security features, including advanced threat protection and zero-trust network access. Users generally find Prisma's security features more comprehensive.

Room for Improvement: Users suggest that Okta could improve its multi-factor authentication options and offer more flexible customization. For Prisma Access, feedback indicates that its complexity can be a barrier and that better documentation would be beneficial. Users find Okta more straightforward but less flexible.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Okta Workforce Identity is noted for its quick and smooth deployment, alongside responsive customer service. Prisma Access, while praised for its effectiveness, is often reported as complex to deploy, with mixed reviews on customer support responsiveness. Users generally find Okta easier to deploy and support more accessible.

Pricing and ROI: Okta Workforce Identity is considered cost-effective, offering good value for the investment with a clear return on investment. Prisma Access, though seen as a premium product with higher costs, is valued for its security capabilities. Users acknowledge the higher costs but feel it is justified by the features offered by Prisma Access.

To learn more, read our detailed Okta Workforce Identity vs. Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Okta Workforce Identity vs. Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks

June 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

iboss

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the ZTNA as a Service category, the mindshare of iboss is 1.9%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Okta Workforce Identity is 1.7%, down from 2.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks is 14.5%, down from 16.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

ZTNA as a Service

Featured Reviews

Matt Crockford

Head of Cybersecurity at SES Water

It's easy to roll out, and their understanding of our business made it seamless

One aspect we value about iboss is its simplicity. Their customer service is brilliant, and they are super responsive and knowledgeable. It's easy to roll out, and their understanding of our business made it seamless. We were impressed by the solution's mental health function, which can detect if someone needs help. It scans what users are browsing and flags warning signs so we can check to see if they are okay. We've had to use it a couple of times. The user interface is highly intuitive. Our IT team picked it up with minimal training. It's arranged so that it's easy to find where things are. Another advantage is the single pane of glass console, which gives you visibility into what's happening. We're not fully there yet because we haven't implemented zero trust, but we're excited about the possibilities from the demos we've seen. We launched a POC of iboss' ChatGPT Risk Protection feature two weeks ago. AI is a great tool, but you need to be careful what you put into it. My biggest fear is employees inputting sensitive corporate information or customer PII data into one of these chatbots. I was impressed by our trial of the feature. It's exactly what we wanted. Now, when a user goes to ChatGPT, there's a banner warning them not to share information, and we can block conversations containing customer data like bank details and email addresses. I don't want to stop people from using it, but we need visibility. We've only tried it on a test group of 15 people. You can configure it to look for specific keywords or integrate it with your DLP policy if you have that configured

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Tor Nordhagen

Executive Director at Semaphore

Extremely easy to work with, simple to set up, and reasonably priced

The drawback of this solution is that in our shops, many staff members sometimes have to be borrowed from one shop to another and the solution does not really support having multiple roles. The user experience we would like to have when a person works in shop A which pays their salary is that they should have access to pretty much everything. Maybe you have somebody who is a manager in that shop A, he should be able to order new wear, he should be able to change the pricing, he should be able to empty the cash registry, and ship it to the bank. But when for instance, in COVID, people had to fill in for people in shops where a lot of people were sick, then they had to actually use user accounts of people that work in shop B. If you were employed in shop A, you could not work in shop B without borrowing somebody else's user ID and password. Which is really bad. We haven't been able to work around that and Okta Workforce Identity does not have a solution for it. We are now piloting their identity governance solution. Obviously, it's easy to give somebody access, give them an account, and give them roles, but it's hard to maintain that. For example, if you moved from, say working in a shop to working in a warehouse. But why do you still have all this shop access? The solution has until now not had anything to really support the process of taking away access. But now we are in a better release program of Okta's identity governance solution. Although it's very basic, the solution has started on a journey, but identity governance is something that Okta Workforce Identity really needs to improve. The ability or the options in the solution for changing the look and feel are not good enough because in our partner portal, essentially what they have is an ugly admin interface. The admin interface is good enough for us technical people because that's all we need. We work with the product and we're able to see the data but when it comes to presenting the service portal, Okta Workforce Identity does not have any capabilities really for making it look pretty. To add branding and different graphical user interface elements than Okta basic for essentially delegated admin for the business-to-business portal is horrifying because you're essentially using the tech admin. The only option we had and used, was to take the tech admin console and strip it. so that a vendor that has some goods that are sold in the shops, when they want to add a user on their side, say a driver or a packer on their side who should know how much they've packed in a truck to come to our warehouse, then the user interface that this vendor is using, these functional people will then have to use an extremely basic user interface.

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Amar-Patil

Security Engineer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Enables seamless policy management and supports secure remote work

Our primary use case for Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks is to control the internet and serve as an internet proxy. Additionally, we use it for secure remote work One of the most valuable features of Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks is the ability to manage on-premise firewalls. We can…

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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

"Granular setup, which was able to set different levels of filters using the OUs in the AD."

"The console is cloud-based, which is something I really appreciate."

"The iboss system is highly reliable. The false positive rates are small compared to some other systems we've experienced through other partner agencies who use competing solutions."

"iboss is among the few products providing inline filtering where no application is needed on the device."

"Content filtering is the most useful feature of iboss."

"Valuable features: Within the filter: Controls (Web categories, applications, and Allow/Block list) and Network (local Subnets). Within the reporter: Logs (Event Log) and Reports."

"iboss has significantly lowered the number of security incidents. It is crazy how much it blocks and how much it is aware of the outside danger."

"I would rate the technical support of iboss a solid 10 without a shadow of a doubt."

More iboss pros

"The feature that is most valuable to me is the automated user provisioning that we set up using Okta as a major part of that process."

"Its integration components are most valuable. It integrates with everything in some way. There are some products, such as O365 or AD, with which it completely and 100% integrates. So, you can seamlessly create accounts across the board with some of these products. For some of the products with which it doesn't completely integrate, you can do some kind of interfacing."

"The provisioning functionality has been the most valuable. This solution has good performance, fast integration and is very responsive."

"It is dependent on the evolution of your user base. It depends on usage per user, so the more sign-ins there are, the more expensive it becomes, so it works best for smaller companies from a financial perspective."

"It is a very stable solution."

"We face no challenges in integrating the product with our legacy systems."

"Okta Workforce Identity is easy to use and has a lot of components."

"Workforce Identity's best features include its user-friendliness and easy setup."

More Okta Workforce Identity pros

"It's very stable. Sometimes after installing the boxes, we leave them for one or two years. We would just touch the box in the case of the customer needing new requirements or changes to the setup."

"It is easy to use, easy to integrate, and is stable. It's scalable as well."

"Prisma helped us build a moat around our production systems. It's now impossible to log into our production from a non-MDM laptop. Prisma Access provides decent security overall."

"It is geographically dispersed, and it sits on top of Google and AWS platforms. Therefore, you don't face the standard issues, such as latency or bandwidth issues, that you usually face in the case of on-prem data centers."

"The remediation process is easy compared to other platforms."

"The solution's most valuable features were the model's reduced complexity on the client side and its capability to provide security."

"It's great that we can make sure a machine meets the minimum requirements before users are allowed to log in."

"It supports auto-scaling for mobile users. It auto-scales depending on the mobile user traffic. For example, if 1,000 people are working from home today, and tomorrow, the number increases to 2,000, it is not going to be an issue."

More Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks pros

Cons

"Sometimes the agent stops working in iboss, and we have to reinstall the agent."

"SSL decryption: We had issues with learners using apps instead of using web browsers. This type of encryption is tough for any appliance in a BYOD environment."

"Sometimes, obviously, there are bugs."

"The solution could be stronger on the integration side and offer more cloud applications like G Suite or Oracle."

"I am currently doing a PoC of the zero trust aspect of it. Compared to other similar solutions, it is hard to get around each feature. It takes a while to get used to it."

"I'd like to see them accelerate development on the security side, particularly around data loss prevention."

"Our biggest problem with their service was it did not recognize the device and filtering did not always work correctly."

More iboss cons

"The pricing could be improved."

"Its pricing needs improvement."

"We still had to write several internal programs/scripts to complete the user-provisioning process. Okta does not have the ability to provision mailbox accounts for on-premise Exchange or in a hybrid O365 environment. The Group Push function from Okta to AD did not work reliably in our environment."

"Okta Workforce Identity could improve provisioning it can be made simpler."

"The solution lacks an on-premises deployment model so it can't offer a hybrid solution. It would be ideal if clients had options that weren't just cloud-based."

"We've not had any problems with Okta."

"It only facilitates provisioning and not de-provisioning."

"Okta should have at least a local peering partner for countries that align with or comply with GDPR, so there are no compliance or audit questions."

More Okta Workforce Identity cons

"The product's current price is an area of shortcoming where improvements are required."

"Better integration with the MDM solution would be useful."

"The price can be reduced to make it more competitive."

"There is some particular traffic that the security team wants to filter out and apply their own policies and they cannot."

"From any improvement perspective, the product's compatibility issues with Linux need to be resolved."

"Though the monitoring is fine, the solution should improve its application graphs and interface monitoring."

"One thing that would help is if we could get a guide. With Cisco, for example, you can just type the problem regarding your Cisco product and you will easily get your solution. In Palo Alto, however, it's not easy to find the solutions."

"They automatically update and they should give us time to fully understand what they're updating so that we can make sure it doesn't impact production."

More Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is not expensive, and it is also not cheap. iboss is priced right in the sweet spot for the number of features it offers."

"We have not priced the solution recently, but they were competitive with other vendors in the past."

"The overall pricing for iboss is very competitive and transparent."

"We had the cost of purchasing a new appliance along with the implementation and licensing costs. However, the following year, the cost of just licensing was similar to what was paid the previous year for a new appliance along with the implementation and licensing costs."

"It is probably in line with other solutions, but I do not deal with the financial side."

"It is expensive compared to one of its competitors."

"The price of Okta Workforce Identity is competitively priced. We pay annually for the use of the solution."

"It has a yearly subscription. As compared to its competitors, it is quite expensive. It also has a complex licensing model."

"The solution’s pricing needs to be reasonable. You are dealing with a lot of components and the pricing is component-based."

"The product has a user-based license model."

"It is costly for large companies."

"Workforce Identity is well-priced."

"Price-wise, Okta Workforce Identity is a cheap solution. The overall cost depends on the license since you can negotiate with Okta or any of Okta's partners only if you opt for many licenses."

"The licensing model is fine for general service usage. However, the charges for API features and API tokens can be quite high."

More Okta Workforce Identity pricing and cost advice

"Based on what I have heard from others, it is a pricey solution as compared to its peers, but I am not sure. However, considering the features that it offers, it is a break-even point. You get whatever they are promising."

"The initial prices of Prisma Access were okay. But as soon as you start deploying Palo Alto gear, the support prices and the recurring prices, which are the major operational costs, tend to increase over time."

"It is a little expensive. Because it is one of the best in the market, it is a little bit more expensive than other vendors."

"Prisma Access is a little bit expensive."

"Prisma SaaS is more expensive than similar solutions but I think it's worth it."

"This is not an expensive product and everything is included with one license."

"The solution is expensive."

"We have to pay additional costs for maintenance and support services."

More Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about iboss?

Content filtering is the most useful feature of iboss.

See all answers

What needs improvement with iboss?

For zero trust implementation, we encountered complexity issues, especially with a large infrastructure company Exxon...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for iboss?

Previously when I used iboss, we did the POC for iboss for ExxonMobil. Four or five people wanted to move from our ol...

See all answers

What do you like most about Okta Workforce Identity?

Okta has introduced the Universal Directory. It has custom attribute capability and user permissions to read/write on...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Okta Workforce Identity?

Pricing for Okta is reasonably not that much, however, I don't have access to the commercial aspect.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Okta Workforce Identity?

Okta should have at least a local presense for countries that align with or comply with GDPR or data sovereignty, so ...

See all answers

What is the better solution - Prisma Access or Zscaler Private Access?

We looked into Prisma Access before choosing Zscaler Private Access (ZPA). Palo Alto’s Prisma Access is a secure ac...

See all answers

What do you like most about Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks?

The most valuable features of the solution are in the areas of the secure remote access it provides while also being ...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks?

From my experience, Palo Alto is more expensive compared to solutions like Netskope and Triscale.

See all answers

Comparisons

Zscaler Internet Access vs iboss

Compared 18% of the time

Netskope vs iboss

Compared 15% of the time

Cisco Umbrella vs iboss

Compared 14% of the time

Cloudflare One vs iboss

Compared 8% of the time

Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform vs iboss

Compared 6% of the time

More iboss Competitors

Microsoft Entra ID vs Okta Workforce Identity

Compared 31% of the time

SailPoint Identity Security Cloud vs Okta Workforce Identity

Compared 12% of the time

Google Cloud Identity vs Okta Workforce Identity

Compared 10% of the time

Saviynt vs Okta Workforce Identity

Compared 7% of the time

IBM Security Verify Access vs Okta Workforce Identity

Compared 2% of the time

More Okta Workforce Identity Competitors

Cisco Umbrella vs Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 12% of the time

Netskope vs Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 10% of the time

Zscaler Internet Access vs Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 7% of the time

FortiSASE vs Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 7% of the time

Cato SASE Cloud Platform vs Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 6% of the time

More Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

iboss

June 2025

Download iboss product report

Buyer's Guide

Okta Workforce Identity

May 2025

Download Okta Workforce Identity product report

Buyer's Guide

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks

May 2025

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks report

Download Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks product report

Also Known As

iBoss Cloud Platform

No data available

Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access, Prisma Access, GlobalProtect, Palo Alto GlobalProtect Mobile Security Manager, Prisma SaaS by Palo Alto Networks, Prisma Access

Overview

iboss offers a comprehensive security platform designed for diverse use cases such as web filtering, data loss protection, corporate proxy services, and URL filtering.

iboss integrates advanced features to address dynamic security needs, leveraging its strength in SASE, ZTNA, AI initiatives, and cloud integration, while ensuring seamless operations for remote work. It excels in historical forensics, malware protection, and flexible cloud deployments. Users benefit from comprehensive traffic scanning, robust malware detection, and PaaS capabilities that reduce hardware management. An intuitive admin console ensures efficient management with content filtering and low false positives. SSL decryption enhances security, while DLP protects data in AI conversations. Deployment is rapid and scalable, allowing effortless integration with emerging technologies.

What features does iboss offer?

Granular Web Filtering: Provides precise control over web content access.
Traffic Scanning: Monitors data through multiple ports for security breaches.
Malware Detection: Ensures superior protection against malware threats.
PaaS Capabilities: Eliminates need for hardware management.
SSL Decryption: Enhances data protection by decrypting secure connections.
DLP Capabilities: Safeguards data during AI interactions.

What benefits and ROI should users consider?

Scalability: Adapts quickly to growing demands and emerging tech integration.
Rapid Deployment: Reduces time to implement security measures.
User-Friendly Admin Console: Facilitates efficient operations management.
Low False Positives: Increases accuracy of threat detection systems.

iboss finds significant application in sectors such as education, where web filtering for K-12 is crucial, and in corporate environments requiring robust proxy services and URL filtering for network security. Its adaptability is essential in scenarios demanding flexible, decentralized security frameworks, particularly for remote work setups.

iboss

Okta Workforce Identity is a comprehensive identity and access management (IAM) solution designed to enhance security and streamline user experiences for businesses of all sizes. As a cloud-based platform, it offers a suite of tools that simplify user authentication, authorization, and management across a variety of applications and services.

Core Features

Single Sign-On (SSO): Enables users to access multiple applications with a single set of credentials, enhancing convenience and reducing password fatigue.
Adaptive Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Provides robust security by requiring additional verification factors, which can adapt based on the user's location, device, and behavior.
Lifecycle Management: Automates user account creation, updating, and deactivation, ensuring access rights are current and compliant with company policies.
Universal Directory: A centralized directory service that supports user and group management across various applications, simplifying administrative tasks.
API Access Management: Safeguards APIs by implementing policies that control how and when they can be accessed, which is crucial for protecting sensitive data.

PeerSpot users often praise Okta Workforce Identity for its ease of use and robust security features. IT professionals appreciate the streamlined integration with numerous applications and the flexibility in configuring access policies. Business executives value the enhanced security posture and the ability to enforce compliance across their digital assets.

For IT professionals, Okta Workforce Identity offers a scalable and efficient solution to manage user identities and access rights. The ability to automate routine tasks like user provisioning and deactivation significantly reduces administrative overhead, allowing IT teams to focus on more strategic initiatives. Furthermore, the platform's comprehensive reporting capabilities aid in monitoring and auditing access, which is critical for maintaining security and compliance.

Business executives will find that Okta Workforce Identity aligns with broader organizational goals of operational efficiency and risk management. Its intuitive user experience minimizes disruptions to workforce productivity, while advanced security features like adaptive MFA help mitigate the risk of data breaches. The platform's cloud-based nature ensures scalability and agility, enabling businesses to adapt quickly to changing market conditions and workforce dynamics.

Okta Workforce Identity stands out as a versatile and secure IAM solution, adept at meeting the complex needs of modern enterprises. Its combination of user-friendly features and robust security measures makes it a top choice for organizations aiming to streamline their identity management processes while bolstering their cybersecurity defenses.

Okta

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks provides consistent security for all users and applications across your remote networks. Prisma Access grants users safe access to the cloud and data center applications and the internet as well. In addition, the solution combines all of your security and networking capabilities into a single cloud-delivered platform, enabling flexible hybrid workforces.

Prisma Access can be managed two ways:

Cloud Managed
Panorama Managed

Prisma Access delivers both networking and security services, including:

SD-WAN
VPN
Zero Trust network access (ZTNA)
Quality of service (QoS)
Clean Pipe
Firewall as a service (FWaaS)
DNS Security
Threat Prevention
Cloud secure web gateway (SWG)
Data loss prevention (DLP)
Cloud access security broker (CASB)

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks Features

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks has many valuable key features including: App-ID, User-ID, Device-ID, SSL Decryption, Dynamic User Group (DUG) Monitoring, AI/ML-Based Detection, IoT Security, Reporting, URL Filtering, Enterprise Data Loss Prevention (DLP), Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM)*, Logging, Policy Automation, Intrusion Prevention System (IPS), and many more.

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks Benefits

Some of the benefits of using Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks include:

Security: Prisma Access gives you consistent security to protect against cyberattacks, with enforcement of policy at every location. By implementing Prisma Access, you also gain protection that works to prevent known and unknown malware, exploits, credential theft, command and control, and many other attack vectors across all ports and protocols.
Global connectivity: Prisma Access provides global coverage through use of its connectivity layer.
Scalability: With Prisma Access, scaling is automatically managed and is scalable, flexible, and agile.
Instant deployment: Deployment is fast, eliminating wasted time that may otherwise be associated with setting up a solution, operating it, or shipping hardware in order to get started.

Reviews from Real Users

Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics

users who are currently using the solution.

PeerSpot user Partha D., Global Network Tech Lead at a computer software company, speaks about his experience using the product, saying, "It protects all app traffic so that users can gain access to all apps. Unlike other solutions that only work from ports 80 and 443, which are predominantly for web traffic, Prisma Access covers all protocols and works on all traffic patterns... The most sophisticated attacks can arise from sources that are not behind 80/443."

Tejas J., a Sr. Cloud Security Architect at a computer software company, mentions that "it is geographically dispersed, and it sits on top of Google and AWS platforms. Therefore, you don't face the standard issues, such as latency or bandwidth issues, that you usually face in the case of on-prem data centers.”

Another PeerSpot reviewer, Max I., Associate Director at Cognizant, comments that "Security is absolutely spot-on, really top-notch. It's the result of all the components that come together, such as the HIP [Host Information Profile] and components like Forcepoint, providing end-user content inspection, and antivirus. It incorporates DLP features and that's fantastic because Prisma Access makes sure that all of the essential prerequisites are in place before a user can log in or can be tunneled into."

Palo Alto Networks

Sample Customers

More than 4,000 global enterprises trust the iboss Cloud Platform to support their modern workforces, including a large number of Fortune 50 companies.

FedEx, Zoom, Takeda, Lululemon Athletica, GrunHub, jetBlue, McKensson, Bain & Company, Engie, Peloton, Sonos, T-Mobile, Hewlett Packard, MGM Resorts, Ally Financial, Priceline, Albertsons, Itercom, Classy, FICO, Kensho, Live Nation, Drata, Rotary, and others.

Concord Hospital, State of Colorado, Essilor International, RheinLand Versicherungsgruppe, University of Westminster, Universidade Nove de Julho, SPAR Austria, CAME Group, ZipRealty, Greenhill & Co., IKT Agder, Aviva Stadium, Animal Logic, Management & Training Corporation, Brigham Young University Hawaii, School District of Chilliwack

Buyer's Guide

Okta Workforce Identity vs. Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks

June 2025

Free Report: Okta Workforce Identity vs. Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks

Find out what your peers are saying about Okta Workforce Identity vs. Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.

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