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One Identity Active Roles vs Symantec Directory comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
71
Ranking in other categories
User Provisioning Software (3rd), Active Directory Management (1st), Non-Human Identity Management (NHIM) (2nd)
Symantec Directory
Average Rating
7.6
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Directory Servers (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Security Software solutions, they serve different purposes. One Identity Active Roles is designed for Active Directory Management and holds a mindshare of 11.9%, up 6.8% compared to last year.
Symantec Directory, on the other hand, focuses on Directory Servers, holds 26.7% mindshare, up 7.1% since last year.
Active Directory Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
One Identity Active Roles11.9%
Netwrix Auditor10.6%
ManageEngine ADManager Plus10.1%
Other67.4%
Active Directory Management
Directory Servers Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Symantec Directory26.7%
Ping Identity Platform35.0%
Oracle OUD18.3%
Other20.0%
Directory Servers
 

Featured Reviews

Mahesh Malve - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Business Development Executive at DigitalTrack Solutions Ind Pvt Ltd
Automation has transformed user lifecycle tasks and now enforces consistent secure access
While One Identity Active Roles is a strong platform, a few improvements would make it even better. Many users feel the user interface is not very modern or intuitive, and it can take time to get used to navigating the console and workflows. Another improvement area is the learning curve and setup complexity. One Identity Active Roles is very powerful, but initial configuration, especially for policies, workflows, and delegation, can be complex and require experienced resources. From an integration perspective, although it supports multiple systems, organizations would benefit from more out-of-the-box connectors and smoother cloud integrations such as Azure Active Directory and software-as-a-service applications, as some setups currently require customization. In terms of reporting, while auditing is strong, generating business-friendly reports can be challenging. Users have mentioned the need for better dashboards and easier report generation. There are also some performance considerations, especially in large environments, such as slower PowerShell execution or delays in dynamic group processing in certain cases. Overall, improvements in user interface, ease of use, integration, reporting, and performance optimization would significantly enhance the product experience.
it_user558261 - PeerSpot reviewer
Annalyst Programmer at a energy/utilities company with 5,001-10,000 employees
We use it for internal-facing and external-facing website security.
The most valuable feature of this product is the enterprise-based security and the reliability that it comes with. Most of the people in this industry are using this product, so you are a victim of it since you need to use what everybody else is using and adopt it to your basic criteria.

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 is highly recommended because it is a good solution that is really helping our organization streamline the process and reduce manual errors or manual efforts while providing a good return on investment."
"Secure access is the most valuable feature."
"One Identity Active Roles has positively impacted my organization by providing a consistent and easy to understand interface for Active Directory, whether you are reading it or whether you are actively managing Active Directory."
"ARS probably saves us at least two weeks out of every month."
"It gives us attribute-level control and the AD management features work very well."
"The provisioning and deprovisioning saves a lot of time and skips a lot of errors."
"One Identity Active Roles has significantly reduced the complexity and workload of administrative tasks related to Active Directory, as routine tasks like user creation, password resets, and access changes are automated or delegated, saving time and reducing manual efforts while making management more structured and consistent, making overall administration easier and more efficient."
"One positive impact we noticed from One Identity Active Roles was improved operational efficiency; earlier, many user management tasks were handled manually, which took more time and sometimes created inconsistencies, but using intelligent role-based workflows and automation made onboarding and access modification faster and more standardized, and we also saw better control over privileged access since permissions were delegated properly, reducing high-level administrative rights, which improved accountability and balanced security with operational speed."
"The most valuable feature of this product is the enterprise-based security and the reliability that it comes with."
"Technical support has been excellent."
 

Cons

"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."
"For ActiveRoles, it would be good if the product supports multi-scripting language."
"When we add numerous domains, it becomes slow. With around 60 domains, attempting to add approximately 30 caused significant performance issues."
"Integration capabilities are somewhere in the middle; it is not easy to integrate, but it is not the hardest thing out there."
"If One Identity Active Roles has to be positioned for all customers, not just the entities which are being regulated, then the pricing has to be normalized."
"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."
"One area of improvement is the user interface and overall usability."
"Something that is contributing to global development like social media. I know there is something today but if they could make it easier; instead of trying to figure things out."
"The configuration management could be better. It’s not very straightforward and is awkward to work with."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing model is a simple user-based model, not that much complicated."
"It's expensive."
"It's fairly priced."
"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 on the higher end."
"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 pricing for Active Roles is expensive but not as expensive as other solutions like Okta."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
19%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business71
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise38
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for One Identity Active Roles?
My experience with pricing and licensing for One Identity Active Roles has been reasonable for an enterprise solution, but it does require proper planning. The initial setup can involve some cost i...
What needs improvement with One Identity Active Roles?
One Identity Active Roles is very useful, though there are a few areas where it could be improved, such as the user interface, policy creation, and reporting - it requires good knowledge of Active ...
What is your primary use case for One Identity Active Roles?
One Identity Active Roles is used primarily for managing Active Directory, including user provisioning and group management. When a new employee joins, I use One Identity Active Roles to automatica...
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Also Known As

Quest Active Roles
CA Directory
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

City of Frankfurt, Moore Public Schools, George Washington University, Transavia Airlines, Howard County, MD. See all stories at OneIdentity.com/casestudies
DBS
Find out what your peers are saying about One Identity, Microsoft, Netwrix and others in Active Directory Management. Updated: May 2026.
895,151 professionals have used our research since 2012.