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Opal vs Symantec Identity Governance and Administration 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

Opal
Ranking in User Provisioning Software
10th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) (19th), Access Management (20th)
Symantec Identity Governanc...
Ranking in User Provisioning Software
8th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
66
Ranking in other categories
Identity Management (IM) (17th), Identity Governance Administration (IGA) (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the User Provisioning Software category, the mindshare of Opal is 0.9%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Identity Governance and Administration is 6.0%, up from 5.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
User Provisioning Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Symantec Identity Governance and Administration6.0%
Opal0.9%
Other93.1%
User Provisioning Software
 

Featured Reviews

Pranay Jain - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior software engineer at Simplifyvms
Focused workdays have replaced doomscrolling and now reduce my daily screen time significantly
Opal can be improved in some ways. In the paid version, there are multiple features, but in the freemium version, there are fewer features. The blockage of the application can be more rigorous. Right now, if we play two to three games, then a math game or anything, we are able to remove that lock. It should be more rigorous in some manner, and for some applications, it should be more rigorous. Application-wise rigorousness should be introduced. The different modes are good, but they should be more customizable according to the person. The end goal should meet whatever the objective is, so if the person has used more than six hours, then it should remind the person frequently that this application has used this time and this is an application you should not use. It should give us a timer or some kind of notification that the person will not use it anymore.
reviewer2183661 - PeerSpot reviewer
Managing Director at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
Has an easy initial setup process, but its technical support services need improvement
The product's technical support could be better. The integration project requires a lot of technical details, so we need to find it quickly and easily. There was a large community of knowledge in the past. We kept it together and got the results. The community that works around the particular technical issue is shrinking. It used to be a specialized community that would help with the process. These particular areas need improvement. Broadcom is still using a hybrid cloud model, with some workloads on-premises and some in the cloud. They must start with the cloud adoption and move as many workloads to the cloud as possible. The on-premises environment is becoming stable. They need to rebuild that cost and the software. The product's pre-sales, technical support, and installation could also improve.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Previously, my phone usage was around nine hours and fifteen minutes or more, but it has significantly reduced to around six hours and thirty minutes to seven hours, meaning two and a half to three hours has been reduced after using Opal as my primary screen time blocker."
"Opal has positively impacted my organization by reducing stress and increasing effectiveness for all our employees; it works better so all our employees have more time to sleep and they can investigate more."
"With the Identity Manager product, we're able to automate that in a way that we couldn't in the past."
"When comparing it to other products, you can set up CA IAM in a PoC very quickly to demonstrate its provisioning capabilities."
"When my architecture team and security team checked the solutions, CA has a better score than Oracle, and they had a better price."
"It's saved on administration time, and reduced the wait time for access."
"Connector Xpress and Policy Xpress and the new interface."
"What I found most valuable in Symantec Identity Governance and Administration is its simple GUI. It's also easy to deploy compared to other products. With other products, you have to install the Windows version inside the Windows machine on all units, but with Symantec Identity Governance and Administration, it can work offline, so the solution is a little bit easier than other systems."
"I don't see any issues with CA, and everyone in the business is happy with CA and their support."
"This solution was implemented for a Financial Client to automate account provisioning across various disparate systems (more than 80 systems across 5 countries)."
 

Cons

"Opal can be improved in some ways."
"We have challenges because of the customization – it's difficult to do upgrades."
"Personally, I don't think the technical support is very good. The technicians don't seem to have enough training and knowledge surrounding the solution — they don't have in-depth knowledge."
"An improvement that we would like to see in a later version is taking it to the cloud."
"The product has a lot of need for improvement. Our issues are being raised back to the vendor as enhancements."
"Despite having a Linux/JBOSS version it does not perform at the same level of proficiency as Windows/.NET."
"Symantec is only on-premises, not on the cloud."
"Technical support from CA is not very good."
"The reporting functions."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The product has a good price in competition with another product with the same solution."
"The connector is free, and bundled with the product."
"The price is based on the number of users."
"Symantec keeps increasing the price. I rate its pricing a seven on a scale of ten."
"I do not recall the approximate prices or licensing models, although I do so that it was priced per user number."
"Pricing and licensing models are adequate and reasonable."
"Compared to other options, CA products are not that expensive."
"The price is flexible for our existing customers."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Construction Company
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
Construction Company
16%
Outsourcing Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business23
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise45
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Opal?
Opal can be improved in some ways. In the paid version, there are multiple features, but in the freemium version, there are fewer features. The blockage of the application can be more rigorous. Rig...
What is your primary use case for Opal?
The main use case of Opal for me is to reduce my screen time during my work hours, during my wake-up time, and during my sleeping time to improve my focus and feasibility towards my work and my act...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Symantec Identity Governance and Administration?
The pricing has been very reasonable, but licensing costs vary based on the customer. It follows a user-based licensing model.
What needs improvement with Symantec Identity Governance and Administration?
Symantec should develop a SaaS solution for cloud environments to make the solution available in various marketplaces for easy deployment. It should also offer bundle installation instead of one by...
What is your primary use case for Symantec Identity Governance and Administration?
I am a consultant and we consult for identity and network management. We work with Symantec, which is owned by Broadcom, and also with Microsoft and Oracle. Additionally, we work with open-source s...
 

Also Known As

No data available
CA Identity Suite, Symantec IGA, Layer7 Identity Suite, CA Identity Manager (CA IDM), CA Identity Minder, CA IAM, CA Identity Manager (CA IDM), CA Identity Governance
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Acciona, Core Blox, DBS
Find out what your peers are saying about Opal vs. Symantec Identity Governance and Administration and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.