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One Identity Active Roles vs OpenText Identity Manager comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 29, 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

One Identity Active Roles
Ranking in User Provisioning Software
3rd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
87
Ranking in other categories
Active Directory Management (1st), Non-Human Identity Management (NHIM) (1st)
OpenText Identity Manager
Ranking in User Provisioning Software
9th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
Identity Management (IM) (15th), Identity Governance Administration (IGA) (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the User Provisioning Software category, the mindshare of One Identity Active Roles is 5.6%, down from 6.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OpenText Identity Manager is 3.4%, down from 4.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
User Provisioning Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
One Identity Active Roles5.6%
OpenText Identity Manager3.4%
Other91.0%
User Provisioning Software
 

Featured Reviews

Varun Mehra - PeerSpot reviewer
collaboration support engineer at a retailer with 11-50 employees
Automation has transformed onboarding and access control and now streamlines daily governance
While One Identity Active Roles is a strong identity and access management solution overall, there are a few areas where it could improve. One challenge we experienced was the initial setup and configuration complexity. Deploying workflows, policies, and delegation models require careful planning and a good understanding of the Active Directory environment. For organizations without experienced administrators, the learning curve can feel quite steep in the beginning. The user interface could also be more modern and intuitive. Some administrative tasks require navigating through multiple menus and the overall experience could be simplified for faster day-to-day management. Another area for improvement is reporting and customization. While the auditing features are good, creating highly customized reports sometimes requires additional efforts or scripting knowledge. More built-in reporting templates and easier dashboard customization would be helpful. We have also noticed that troubleshooting workflows or synchronization issues can occasionally take time because the logs can be very detailed and technical. Better diagnostic tools and simpler error explanations would improve the operational experience. That said, once the platform is properly configured and maintained, it performs reliably and delivers strong automation, delegation, and governance capabilities. One additional area where One Identity Active Roles could improve is cloud integration and hybrid environment management. While it works well with Active Directory and the Microsoft environment, organizations moving heavily towards cloud-first infrastructure may want even deeper and more seamless integration with modern SaaS platforms and identity providers. Performance optimization in large environments could be improved. In very large enterprise deployments with complex workflows and multiple managed domains, some administrative actions and synchronization tasks can occasionally feel slower than expected. Another point is documentation and onboarding resources. The product is feature-rich, but some advanced configurations require going through extensive documentation. More practical examples, guided setup wizards, and easier to follow best practice guides would help new administrators adopt the platform faster. Overall, the core functionality is solid, and most of the pain points are related more to usability, complexity, and modernization rather than the reliability. One additional improvement I would mention is around integration flexibility with third-party ITSM and DevOps tools. While the platform integrates well within Microsoft-centric environments, broader out-of-the-box integration and simpler API workflows for non-Microsoft ecosystems would make deployment and automation easier for organizations using diverse infrastructure. Another area is upgrade and migration simplicity. In enterprise environments, version upgrades and environment migration sometimes require careful planning and testing. Streamlining that process with more automated compatibility checks and migration assistance would reduce operational overhead.
reviewer2401464 - PeerSpot reviewer
Architect at a consultancy with 51-200 employees
Updates systems quickly and does not have a limit on the number of users
NetIQ does not have a limit on the number of users. The tool is secure by nature. It can have more than one billion users. Event-based systems know what has to be changed. SQL-based systems can only change using time and date. Event-based systems provide immediate results, while SQL-based systems need time to sync. It is totally different from a security perspective. Event-based systems can update all the systems in seconds or minutes. Other systems do it within 24 hours. The basic event-based system is AI-driven. It has some kind of robotics and programming. Other tools need programming. I like systems that have prebuilt ideas of security. NetIQ has been in the market for a long period. It has all the systems and connectors. There is not much coding. We just need to configure the products. We need not do any programming. I haven't seen any other product that needs only configuration to do the job. Most products in the market are SQL-based. They need programming. Some service providers who sell other products to customers do not sell NetIQ because they can make more money by selling solutions that need more consultancy and programming. More hours lead to more money.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"One Identity Active Roles absolutely helps reduce identity-based breaches, making it very seamless for our user base to ensure that folks in specific positions have the least privileged access possible across our for-profit healthcare conglomerate with thirty states and over fifty community hospitals under a single Active Directory domain."
"Automated provisioning and access management reduced manual administrative effort by nearly 50 to 60%, which saved significant onboarding time and lowered the number of access-related errors and support tickets."
"I saw a strong ROI with One Identity Active Roles through around a forty to fifty percent reduction in service desk workload, faster user provisioning from hours to minutes, fewer manual errors, and improved compliance and audit efficiency, which saves significant administrative time and operational efforts."
"One Identity Active Roles has had a transformative impact on my organization, moving from controlled chaos to governed operations."
"One Identity Active Roles has reduced a significant amount of manual AD admin work, improved security through tighter access control, and made onboarding and offboarding much faster and more consistent across teams."
"We have eased the burden on the support desk and reduced the risk of them doing something they shouldn't."
"Over a decade, this solution has done its job; it's a very stable system, easy to implement, easy to upgrade, and has very low operation maintenance costs."
"One Identity Active Roles has impacted my organization positively by reducing manual work, improving security, saving administrative time, and reducing human errors."
"The main value lies in the simplicity of implementation, as well as its customized look and feel."
"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."
"I like the eDirectory feature."
"I would recommend this product, its quite flexible and quick to start with."
"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."
"To my knowledge it is the only event based IDM system."
"The most valuable features are Password Reset Alerts, Password Sync, and SQL connectors."
"NetIQ does not have a limit on the number of users."
 

Cons

"One area where One Identity Active Roles could be improved is troubleshooting and visibility."
"Additional documentation about the Angular web interface is needed."
"The initial setup and configuration can be complex, especially when designing workflows, policies, and delegation models."
"For mid-sized to small companies, I do not know if it would be that useful, considering the tool's purpose."
"One Identity Active Roles could be improved with a more modern and intuitive UI, faster performance for large environments, simpler reporting customization, and smoother integration with cloud-native identity platforms and APIs."
"The initial setup was quite easy, but it was time-consuming. It took about three months."
"The main improvement I would suggest for One Identity Active Roles is making the UI and policy configuration more intuitive."
"It also has workflows and those are really powerful, but there are no built-in workflows. When it comes to them, it's empty. I would personally love for it to come with ten, 15, or 20 workflows where each achieves a certain task... I could just look at how each is done, clone them, copy them, modify them the way I want them, and be good to go. Right now we have to invent things from scratch."
"Technical support is very good, but in my country the ecosystem of consultants is scarce."
"The interface is old and outdated, and the design software seems archaic."
"NetIQ Identity Manager can improve the bulk account uploads, it's very slow. We work in the education sector, and every year we have approximately 20,000 accounts to create in a very short period, the NetIQ Identity Manager has a problem with this, we need to use a batch job."
"Be more honest about how poorly it runs on Windows servers. It is optimized for Linux."
"The vendor must provide an easier console for configuring things for smaller customers."
"Technical support is average. When it's come to complex issues, it takes longer than expected to solve."
"We have another system that is using the SAML system, and we also integrate with Active Directory only. If NetIQ Identity Manager can integrate directly, we would not need to use the Active Directory directory."
"The problem is the ecosystem. There's not a lot of people that know the product, so it's hard to find someone to work with the product."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price is reasonable. It costs us about 1 million Danish kroner annually, and we also spend about half as much on consultants."
"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."
"It's fairly priced."
"It's expensive."
"The licensing model is a simple user-based model, not that much complicated."
"The pricing for Active Roles is expensive but not as expensive as other solutions like Okta."
"The pricing is on the higher end."
"The solution is quite affordable."
"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."
"The price of the solution is a bit high and could be reduced."
"You just need to be aware that the more systems you connect, the more license fees you have to pay."
"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."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
23%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
8%
University
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business93
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise42
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?
The pricing, setup cost, and licensing for One Identity Active Roles are enterprise-oriented and typically based on the number of managed users or accounts. While setup requires moderate implementa...
What needs improvement with One Identity Active Roles?
One Identity Active Roles can be improved with a more modern user interface, better reporting and analytics capabilities, simplified workflow customization, improved troubleshooting tools, and stro...
What is your primary use case for One Identity Active Roles?
One Identity Active Roles serves as our centralized Active Directory administration platform for identity lifecycle management, including automated user provisioning, delegated administration, role...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetIQ Identity Manager?
The pricing depends on whether we buy the solution as a service or a license. The license is expensive. If we buy it as a service for a large number of users, it is the cheapest tool we can get. Th...
What needs improvement with NetIQ Identity Manager?
The tool is used mostly in big systems to understand what is happening. There are not many technicians who know how to use the product. The vendor must provide an easier console for configuring thi...
What is your primary use case for NetIQ Identity Manager?
NetIQ Directory is the main function of the product. As far as I know, it is the only event test directory that exists. It has all the potential for event-based testing. It has rules, connectors, a...
 

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
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