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AWS IAM Identity Center vs Microsoft Active 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
7.9
AWS IAM Identity Center boosts ROI by enhancing efficiency, security, cost management, and user experience through improved access control and auditing.
Sentiment score
8.8
Microsoft Active Directory is valued for its efficiency and time savings in centralized user management and system integration.
The return on investment includes operational efficiency gains, security risk reduction, compliance with regulations, improved user experience, productivity benefits, reduced overhead, and better security posture.
We have achieved significant time efficiencies with AWS IAM Identity Center.
The solution is really time-saving since I don't need to create users in each server or system manually, and user access control is streamlined.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.3
AWS IAM Identity Center offers effective, prompt support with comprehensive documentation, though a live chat option is desired.
Sentiment score
5.9
Customer satisfaction with Microsoft Active Directory service varies due to inconsistent support, varied response times, and differing representative expertise.
AWS provides immediate solutions and assistance whenever needed, especially if issues arise that cannot be handled internally.
They are prompt, keep you updated, and provide excellent assistance.
AWS offers better assistance plans for their services.
Support documents are available on the internet in every language.
Sometimes support takes long to engage and resolve, extending over weeks or even months.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.3
AWS IAM Identity Center efficiently manages large user bases and permissions, supporting organizational growth and integrating with AWS Organizations.
Sentiment score
6.7
Microsoft Active Directory is scalable and adaptable, suitable for large enterprises, though integration can be complex in bigger setups.
AWS Identity Center successfully supports scalable deployments, allowing additional resources as the company grows.
The scalability of AWS IAM Identity Center is excellent.
It can handle both a small number of users and a bigger number of users efficiently.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.7
AWS IAM Identity Center is praised for its reliability and efficiency, with consistent performance and 99.96% uptime.
Sentiment score
7.5
Microsoft Active Directory is stable and reliable but requires updates for occasional issues, ensuring scalability for large organizations.
There can be issues if there is an outage on AWS's side, which could prevent logging in because your region might be down, affecting the Identity Center's availability.
It offers 99.96% uptime.
Stability-wise, it is functioning well without any outages or crashes.
With multiple domain controllers, stability is ensured.
 

Room For Improvement

AWS IAM Identity Center needs enhancements in user interface, integration, flexibility, security, automation, and comprehensive documentation.
Microsoft Active Directory requires modernization in interface, security, logging, and integration, with challenges in setup, support, and cloud migration.
Having a lot of users on one instance is hard to configure, so I hope for more flexibility and ease in configuration.
Enhancements could include automation tools or a centralized dashboard for managing roles and policies across multiple accounts, simplifying the process.
When configuring it with third-party tools, like Active Directory, the naming convention of permission sets requires careful attention, which can be confusing.
Exporting and verifying group memberships require command line scripts, which isn't simple.
There are some features that need improvements in terms of ease of use and frequency of updates.
AI is offering solutions.
 

Setup Cost

AWS IAM Identity Center is cost-effective, offering free basic features, while advanced features may require budget planning.
Microsoft Active Directory pricing varies by user count, offers education discounts, and balances server costs with Azure integration benefits.
AWS IAM Identity Center is available as a free service by default.
It is not that expensive, rated at three out of ten for costs.
Pricing for AWS IAM Identity Center is very affordable, rated at two out of ten with one being cheap.
 

Valuable Features

AWS IAM Identity Center offers centralized access control, enhanced security, and automated role management for efficient and secure cloud operations.
Microsoft Active Directory offers user-friendly management, cloud integration, and efficient access control, ideal for large organizations.
It provides the least privilege-based access control, which limits users to only the operations they need to perform without interfering with unrelated configurations.
These features allow for excellent micro-level control over resources, ensuring specific permissions are granted.
Its valuable features include granular access control, allowing precise control over who can access specific AWS resources and under what conditions using JSON-based policies.
One valuable feature is the centralized creation of IDs.
I can control all the devices in my domain by just changing the group policies in one place.
Having active deployment and well-configured systems helps me manage tasks and easily oversee thousands of users.
 

Categories and Ranking

AWS IAM Identity Center
Ranking in Single Sign-On (SSO)
9th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) (8th)
Microsoft Active Directory
Ranking in Single Sign-On (SSO)
7th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
42
Ranking in other categories
Active Directory Management (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Single Sign-On (SSO) category, the mindshare of AWS IAM Identity Center is 1.5%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Active Directory is 3.0%, up from 1.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Single Sign-On (SSO)
 

Featured Reviews

Khaled Saidi - PeerSpot reviewer
Manage cloud security with granular access control and enhanced authentication
Managing IAM in complex environments can be challenging, and there are several areas for improvement. First, incorporating automation tools or a centralized dashboard for managing roles and policies across multiple accounts would simplify administration, especially for large organizations. Additionally, policy debugging and validation could be more streamlined, as troubleshooting misconfigurations can be time-consuming and prone to errors. A more robust error messaging system or a dedicated debugging tool would be beneficial. Another area for improvement is temporary access credentials. AWS documentation should offer more detailed guidance on edge cases and exceptions, along with clearer examples of how to handle various scenarios. Lastly, enhanced session-level policies that are more context-sensitive and based on specific conditions (such as IP address, device, or time) would greatly increase flexibility and allow for more granular control over user sessions.
Rajitha Abhisheka - PeerSpot reviewer
A solution that easily merges with cloud-based ADs and provides superior data security
The interface for logs should be user-friendly and allow for enhanced filtering to drill down to incidents. It is time consuming to get a clear picture and review deviations in conditional policies because you have to check each and every log to find information on malicious attacks, a compromised end-user's account, or phishing emails. The logs for sign-ins and auditing should be available for more than a 30-90 day window. Most logs are displayed in UTC but it would be helpful to include time conversions for tenant regions. Currently, we must do time conversions manually before we contact users to share information and troubleshoot issues.
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832,138 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
19%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Insurance Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
21%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about AWS IAM Identity Center?
The product is easy for beginners to learn and use.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS IAM Identity Center?
AWS provides the lowest pricing among other service providers like Azure, Google, Oracle. It is cost-effective, and they use a pay-as-you-go model.
What needs improvement with AWS IAM Identity Center?
There are new AI features coming to AWS that are easy and simple to use. However, focusing on further allowing customization and flexibility in developing solutions as a solution architect or devel...
What do you like most about Microsoft Active Directory?
The solution is easy to install and has good reliability.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Active Directory?
The challenges everyone now has in mind is how to really migrate fully to the cloud. Many companies face both technical and cost-related challenges when moving from on-premise Active Directory to M...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Active Directory?
We are still on a hybrid environment where we have Azure Directory on-premises, and sync it up to Microsoft.
 

Also Known As

AWS Single Sign On, AWS SSO
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about AWS IAM Identity Center vs. Microsoft Active Directory and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
832,138 professionals have used our research since 2012.