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Microsoft Active Directory VS Okta

Compare Microsoft Active Directory VS Okta 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.

Okta logo Okta

Enterprise-grade identity management for all your apps, users & devices
  • Microsoft Active Directory Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-09
  • Okta Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-11

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.

Okta features and specs

  • Comprehensive Identity Management
    Okta provides a full suite of identity management solutions, including Single Sign-On (SSO), Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), and Lifecycle Management to ensure secure and efficient identity management.
  • Ease of Integration
    Okta supports integration with thousands of apps and services, ensuring that you can easily incorporate it into your existing IT ecosystem.
  • User-Friendly Interface
    The platform has an intuitive and easy-to-use interface that simplifies the setup and management of user identities, making it accessible for administrators with varying technical skills.
  • High Security Standards
    Okta employs strong authentication methods and security protocols, helping to ensure that your organization’s identities and data are well protected against threats.
  • Scalability
    Okta is designed to scale with your organization, making it suitable for businesses of all sizes, from small startups to large enterprises.
  • Excellent Customer Support
    Okta is known for providing high-quality customer support through various channels, including phone, email, and an extensive knowledge base.

Possible disadvantages of Okta

  • Cost
    The cost of Okta can be relatively high compared to some other identity management solutions, which might be a concern for smaller businesses with tight budgets.
  • Complexity for Small Organizations
    Some smaller organizations may find Okta's extensive range of features to be more complex than they need, potentially leading to underutilization of the platform.
  • Dependency on Internet Connectivity
    As a cloud-based service, Okta requires reliable internet connectivity. Any disruption in internet service can affect access to the Okta platform and its associated functionalities.
  • Learning Curve
    Despite its user-friendly interface, there can be a learning curve associated with understanding and fully leveraging all of Okta’s features and capabilities.
  • Custom Development Needs
    While Okta offers an extensive range of pre-built integrations, organizations with very specific requirements may need to invest in custom development to achieve full functionality.

Microsoft Active Directory videos

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Okta videos

Okta | What Does Okta Do?

More videos:

  • Review - Okta | What Is Okta?
  • Review - Okta User Experience

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Microsoft Active Directory and Okta)
Identity And Access Management
Identity Provider
16 16%
84% 84
SSO
17 17%
83% 83
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 Okta

Microsoft Active Directory Reviews

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

Top 7 Firebase Alternatives for App Development in 2024
Okta is ideal for large-scale applications and enterprises with complex identity requirements.
Source: signoz.io
Top 10 Best SAML Identity Providers List for SSO (Pros and Cons)
Okta is one of the popular cloud solutions that allow SSO vendors to easily access cloud and on site applications via any device, from anywhere at any time with the use of robust security policies. Able to directly integrate with 4000+ applications and also existing directories and identity solutions a company uses. Primarily integrates every service that offers SAML.
12 User Authentication Platforms [Auth0, Firebase Alternatives]
Okta is again a flagbearer of password-less security. However, you can ask for the strongest passwords with Okta as well.
Source: geekflare.com
Top 11 Identity & Access Management Tools
Okta is a development tool for backend user identity and a workforce management solution. It is a flexible system that aims to be a one-stop solution for all IAM needs. Currently, Okta falls short on passwordless solutions, prompting users to change their passwords often. In addition, users also report some technical issues with logins.
Source: spectralops.io
Best identity access management software 2022
Okta enables organizations to secure and manage their extended enterprise, whether on-premises or in a private, public or hybrid cloud. With more than 6,000 pre-built integrations to applications and infrastructure providers, Okta claims that its customers can securely adopt the technologies they need to fulfil their missions. Okta provides SSO (single sign-on), MFA...
Source: www.zdnet.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Okta seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 7 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.

Okta mentions (7)

  • Are millions of accounts vulnerable due to Google's OAuth Flaw?
    Sign up for an Employee Identity Solution (IdP) that provides OAuth, there are actually many solutions here, Google Workspace, Okta, Microsoft Entra ID, Ping Identity. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • How to use PassportJS for authentication in NodeJS
    The majority of the codebases I've worked on over the years have always favoured using JSON web-tokens (JWT) or Authentication-as-a-Service platforms (Auth0, Okta etc) for authentication logic. These are indeed excellent choices! however, on smaller projects I find these to always seem to be overkill. Recently I started working on a chrome extension that performs social sign-in using twitter OAuth API and... - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Millennials, what confuses you about Gen Z?
    This happened to me three days ago! A new employee had trouble logging into our intranet, which is at OurCompanyName.okta.com. He was going to okta.com. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Access Control System (ACS) Architecture
    Maybe go to okta.com , they have some cool solutions, might give you some ideas. Source: over 3 years ago
  • GameStop knows. DRS 💜
    Okta.com is being used by gamestop to power the login to the creator platform. their favicon is a dark blue circle. Source: over 3 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

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

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.

Microsoft Azure Active Directory - Azure Active Directory is a comprehensive identity and access management cloud solution that provides a robust set of capabilities to manage users and groups and help secure access to applications including Microsoft online services like Office 365 …

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.

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.