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Microsoft Active Directory VS Keycloak

Compare Microsoft Active Directory VS Keycloak and see what are their differences

Microsoft Active Directory logo Microsoft Active Directory

Active Directory is a special-purpose database \ 8212; it is not a registry replacement.

Keycloak logo Keycloak

Open Source Identity and Access Management for modern Applications and Services.
  • Microsoft Active Directory Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-09
  • Keycloak Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-03-20

Microsoft Active Directory features and specs

  • Centralized Management
    Active Directory allows for centralized management of user accounts, groups, and devices, making it easier to manage permissions and enforce policies across the enterprise.
  • Security
    AD offers robust security features, including support for multifactor authentication, Kerberos-based authentication, and fine-grained access controls to protect sensitive data.
  • Scalability
    Active Directory is highly scalable and can handle a large number of users and devices, making it suitable for both small and large organizations.
  • Integration
    AD integrates seamlessly with various Microsoft products and services, such as Exchange Server, SharePoint, and other third-party applications, providing a cohesive ecosystem.
  • Group Policy
    The Group Policy feature in AD allows administrators to enforce specific configurations and settings across all computers and users in the network, ensuring uniformity and compliance.
  • Replicated Data Store
    Active Directory uses a replicated data store, ensuring that domain information is consistent and up-to-date across all domain controllers.

Possible disadvantages of Microsoft Active Directory

  • Complexity
    Setting up and managing Active Directory can be complex, particularly for administrators who are not well-versed in Windows Server technologies.
  • Cost
    Implementing Active Directory can be expensive due to licensing, hardware requirements, and the need for skilled IT staff to manage it.
  • Single Point of Failure
    If not properly configured with redundancy, AD can become a single point of failure, leading to significant downtime if domain controllers go down.
  • Maintenance
    Regular maintenance tasks, such as updates, patches, and backups, are required to keep the AD environment secure and operational, which can be time-consuming.
  • Compatibility
    Some non-Windows operating systems and applications may not integrate seamlessly with Active Directory, requiring additional configuration or third-party solutions.
  • Cloud Adoption
    With the shift towards cloud-based identity and access management solutions, organizations may find traditional AD less aligned with modern, cloud-first strategies.

Keycloak features and specs

  • Open-Source
    Keycloak is an open-source identity and access management solution, which means it is free to use and has a community-driven support system. This can lead to lower costs and more flexibility compared to proprietary solutions.
  • Feature-Rich
    Keycloak offers a comprehensive set of features including single sign-on (SSO), multi-factor authentication (MFA), user federation, identity brokering, and social login. This makes it suitable for a wide range of use cases.
  • Customizability
    With Keycloak, you can customize the authentication and authorization processes through its extensible architecture, allowing for the addition of custom features and integrations.
  • Integration Capability
    Keycloak supports integration with various protocols such as OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, and SAML, making it versatile for integrating with different platforms and services.
  • Active Community
    Keycloak has an active and growing community of developers and users who contribute to its improvement and provide support, resources, and shared knowledge.

Possible disadvantages of Keycloak

  • Complexity
    Keycloak can be complex to set up and configure, especially for users who are not familiar with identity and access management concepts. This may require additional time and expertise.
  • Resource-Intensive
    Running Keycloak can be resource-intensive, requiring more CPU and memory compared to simpler authentication solutions. This may necessitate higher infrastructure costs.
  • Learning Curve
    The learning curve for Keycloak can be steep for new users due to its wide range of features and configuration options. Ample time might be required to fully understand and utilize its capabilities.
  • Documentation Quality
    While Keycloak has extensive documentation, some users find it to be insufficiently detailed or difficult to navigate, which can impede the setup and troubleshooting process.
  • Maintenance
    Operating a Keycloak instance involves ongoing maintenance tasks such as updates, security patches, and backups, which can be time-consuming and require dedicated resources.

Microsoft Active Directory videos

No Microsoft Active Directory videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

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Keycloak videos

What is Keycloak and what are the main features | DevNation Live

More videos:

  • Review - Keycloak Overview
  • Review - Easily Secure Your Front and Back End app with Keycloak

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Microsoft Active Directory and Keycloak)
Identity And Access Management
Identity Provider
32 32%
68% 68
SSO
32 32%
68% 68
Cloud Computing
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Microsoft Active Directory and Keycloak

Microsoft Active Directory Reviews

We have no reviews of Microsoft Active Directory yet.
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Keycloak Reviews

12 User Authentication Platforms [Auth0, Firebase Alternatives]
You can integrate Keycloak with your applications to have a single-sign-in and single-sign-out experience. Moreover, one can activate social logins without any modification in code. Additionally, it allows user authentication via existing OpenID Connect or SAML 2.0
Source: geekflare.com
10+ Open-source Single-Sign On (SSO) Solutions
Keycloak is a free, open-source identity and access management system with highly configurable Single-Sign-On (SSO) support.
Source: medevel.com
10 Best Auth0 Alternatives and Similar Platforms
Keycloak may be quite beneficial because it provides a built-in method for syncing with databases, such as LDAP or Active Directory, when your users already are registered on. If you use Social Login for social platforms such as Facebook, Keycloak might be a great tool for your organization.
Top 5 Open Source Single Sign-On Software In the Year 2021
KeyCloak is another free software that is based on OpenID Connect, OAuth2.0, and SAML2.0. It provides SSO capabilities across web applications and web services. Above all, this open source software provides integrations with LDAP and Active Directory. There is a logical user interface where users can manage roles, permissions, and sessions. Moreover, this free solution...
IAM: A comparison of open-source tools
/ Digitalberry news / IAM: A comparison of open-source toolsIAM: A comparison of open-source toolsWhy use an Identity Provider (IdP)?Comparative study of Identity Providers (IdP)1. Our team’s first choice: Keycloak2. In second place of our comparative study: Gluu3. Special mention: FusionAuthDiscover our expertiseContact our experts

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Keycloak seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 4 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Microsoft Active Directory mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Microsoft Active Directory yet. Tracking of Microsoft Active Directory recommendations started around Mar 2021.

Keycloak mentions (4)

  • Beyond the login page
    Most of the time nowadays, I prefer offloading this to an identity provider, using OpenID Connect or soon Federated Credential Management (FedCM), even if that means shipping an identity provider as part of the deliverables (I generally go with Keycloak, with keycloak-config-cli to provision its configuration). I'm obviously biased though as I work in IT services, developping software mainly for... - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Okta Says Hackers Stole Data for All Customer Support Users
    Yet another breach of Okta... Why are companies not running something like keycloak [1] themselves? Are administrative/maintenance costs too high or is it plausible deniability? [1] https://keycloak.org. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • I built a ready-to-use auth server with TypeScript and Express.js
    I'd stick with a solution like https://keycloak.org in that instance. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Authelia is an open-source authentication/authorization server with 2FA/SSO
    A few more projects in this space: - Keycloak (you won't get fired for picking this)[0] - CloudFoundry's UAA[1] - Gluu [2] - Keratin [3] - OpenUnison [4] - Dex[5] - Netlify's GoTrue[6] All of these solutions are a bit different but here are some of the axes: - Whether or not they function as an OAuth provider - Whether they're centered around application-user-login (email + password) or application auth (OAuth) or... - Source: Hacker News / about 4 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Microsoft Active Directory and Keycloak, you can also consider the following products

Okta - Enterprise-grade identity management for all your apps, users & devices

Auth0 - Auth0 is a program for people to get authentication and authorization services for their own business use.

OneLogin - On-demand SSO, directory integration, user provisioning and more

Atlassian Crowd - Crowd is a single sign-on and user identity solution.

Amazon Cognito - Amazon Cognito lets you add user sign-up, sign-in, and access control to your web and mobile apps quickly and easily. It scales to millions of users and supports sign-in with social identity providers and enterprise identity providers via SAML 2.0.

Google Cloud IAM - Google Cloud Identity & Access Management (IAM) lets administrators authorize who can take action on specific resources, giving you full control and visibility to manage cloud resources centrally.