Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Okta VS LDAP

Compare Okta VS LDAP and see what are their differences

Okta logo Okta

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

LDAP logo LDAP

LDAP is a very flexible standards-based method that can be used to store and query information about users, groups, devices and provide authentication and authorization services in a networked environment.
  • Okta Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-11
  • LDAP Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-11-26

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.

LDAP features and specs

  • Centralized Authentication
    LDAP provides a centralized system for authentication and directory access, allowing users to manage access controls and user credentials efficiently across a network.
  • Scalability
    LDAP is highly scalable and can handle thousands of queries and a large number of users, making it suitable for organizations of all sizes.
  • Compatibility
    LDAP is compatible with numerous applications and platforms, ensuring broad interoperability across different systems and software.
  • Flexibility
    LDAP can be used to store a wide variety of information beyond user credentials, such as email addresses, printer configurations, and other directory data.
  • Open Protocol
    As an open protocol, LDAP is supported by various open-source and commercial implementations, providing flexibility and choice in directory services.

Possible disadvantages of LDAP

  • Complexity
    Implementing and maintaining LDAP can be complex and may require specialized knowledge and expertise, especially in large and intricate environments.
  • Security Concerns
    LDAP, when not used with secured layers like LDAPS, can transmit data in plaintext, making it vulnerable to interception and unauthorized access.
  • Performance Overheads
    While scalable, LDAP can face performance issues if not properly optimized or if the directory data becomes cluttered and unmanageable.
  • Limited Built-In Features
    LDAP itself focuses on directory services and does not come with advanced features like policy enforcement or auditing, which may need to be handled by complementary systems.
  • Client Compatibility Issues
    Differences between LDAP implementations can lead to compatibility issues with various clients and applications, requiring careful configuration and management.

Okta videos

Okta | What Does Okta Do?

More videos:

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

LDAP videos

What is LDAP and Active Directory ? How LDAP works and what is the structure of LDAP/AD?

More videos:

  • Review - LDAP Server Guide - How Does It Work?
  • Review - Understanding LDAP Integration with EnterpriseOne

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Okta and LDAP)
Identity And Access Management
Identity Provider
95 95%
5% 5
SSO
97 97%
3% 3
Development
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Okta and LDAP

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

LDAP Reviews

We have no reviews of LDAP yet.
Be the first one to post

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Okta should be more popular than LDAP. 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.

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

LDAP mentions (1)

  • Five Dex Alternatives for Kubernetes Authentication
    Among the options for auth providers is Dex, which relies on OpenID Connect to enable authentication for other applications. It’s a popular choice because it comes with connectors to allow user authentication against other third-party identity providers. Dex supports protocols such as Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) and Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) as well as platforms such as GitLab,... - Source: dev.to / almost 3 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Okta and LDAP, 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.

Spring Security - The Spring portfolio has many projects, including Spring Framework, Spring IO Platform, Spring Cloud, Spring Boot, Spring Data, Spring Security...

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

Django REST framework JWT - JSON Web Token Authentication support for Django REST Framework - jpadilla/django-rest-framework-jwt

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 …

JSON Web Token - JSON Web Tokens are an open, industry standard RFC 7519 method for representing claims securely between two parties.