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One Identity Active Roles vs One Identity Safeguard 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
5.4
One Identity Active Roles increases operational efficiency and security, reduces costs, and enhances user satisfaction with automation and data consistency.
Sentiment score
6.7
One Identity Safeguard delivers cost savings, enhanced security, and efficiency improvements, most effective for large organizations with local infrastructure.
One Identity Active Roles provides excellent reporting and auditing functionality, allowing administrators to track permissions, actions, and responsibilities effectively.
solution architect/ engineer at APEX.IT Sp. z o.o.
It has saved 90% of the time compared to before.
IAM Specialist
One Identity has a theme that they want the right people to have the right set of access, and this is what they are able to provide with their tool.
Assistant Manager- Pre-sales ( IT-Enterprise Vertical ) at a tech vendor with 201-500 employees
I have seen a return on investment through reduced audit effort and fewer security incidents related to privileged access, along with significant time savings for IT and security teams by automating access control and password management.
Data Manager at Gitarattan International Business School
We have seen a good amount of return on investment, saving our employees time and money while providing security.
Senior Technical Support Executive at DigitalTrack Solutions Pvt Ltd
Any PAM solution, when I deploy it well and customers use it, leads to a return on investment.
Consultant at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.7
One Identity Active Roles is praised for excellent customer service, proactive communication, and comprehensive support despite occasional issues.
Sentiment score
6.6
One Identity Safeguard support is generally responsive, but some users face delays and find premium support lacking.
Everything is good, and I can give One Identity technical support a rating of ten.
Assistant Manager- Pre-sales ( IT-Enterprise Vertical ) at a tech vendor with 201-500 employees
They are knowledgeable, and the response time is low.
IT Infrastructure & Cloud Manager at Softcell Technologies Limited
The customer support of One Identity Active Roles is very good and helps to balance policy enforcement capabilities while improving my approval workflow.
Cybersecurity Consultant at CyberBackbone
I sometimes need escalations to reach expertise.
Consultant at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
Sometimes, I get a very helpful response and they address issues on a call.
Systems Administrator at a university with 10,001+ employees
When I have day-to-day incidents and problems, the response is good enough in terms of time and quality.
Consultant at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.4
One Identity Active Roles efficiently supports large-scale Active Directory environments with flexibility and high scalability ratings.
Sentiment score
7.1
One Identity Safeguard is adaptable for enterprises, efficiently managing privileged access amid scalability challenges and complex cluster management.
It is very beneficial for large and complex environments.
Team Lead, Technical & Enterprise Directory Services Vita Program at AIS Network
If you are a major enterprise customer, it is a matter of scaling out on resources with more memory, disk, and CPU power.
IAM Specialist
The solution is highly scalable, with a scalability rating of nine.
IAM Product owner at a hospitality company with 10,001+ employees
The scalability of One Identity Safeguard is perfect, scoring ten out of ten.
Business Line Manager - IGA & PAM at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
We have a cluster of SPPs and a cluster of SPSs, and we can add a node to that cluster without much fuss.
Systems Administrator at a university with 10,001+ employees
I would rate it a nine out of ten for scalability.
Consultant at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
One Identity Active Roles offers stable, reliable performance with minimal glitches, excelling in automation and compliance, rated 8-10 by users.
Sentiment score
7.9
One Identity Safeguard is praised for stability, with occasional upgrade issues and minor bugs, receiving high dependability ratings.
There were no major problems with One Identity Active Roles.
solution architect/ engineer at APEX.IT Sp. z o.o.
One Identity Active Roles has had no downtime and no major reliability issues so far.
IT Infrastructure & Cloud Manager at Softcell Technologies Limited
Regarding stability, One Identity Active Roles is mostly stable.
Director, Identity & M365 Engineering at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
I would rate it a nine out of ten for stability.
Consultant at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
In terms of stability, I rate One Identity Safeguard nine to ten out of ten.
Business Line Manager - IGA & PAM at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
One Identity Safeguard is very stable and can handle the workload easily; I have not seen any downtime.
Data Manager at Gitarattan International Business School
 

Room For Improvement

One Identity Active Roles requires streamlined setup, modernized UI, better documentation, lower pricing, improved cloud integration, and enhanced customization.
One Identity Safeguard needs improved UI simplicity, setup ease, third-party integration, documentation, support, onboarding, and cost-effective scalability.
I also want One Identity Active Roles to improve in their policy configuration area, which requires advanced expertise, and in the area of reporting, I want the reporting to be more basic, visible, and have the ability to export and customize options.
Cybersecurity Consultant at CyberBackbone
The current REST API feels like an afterthought, and my developers want the ability to operate through CI/CD pipelines instead of logging into the GUI.
Identity and Access Management Specialist at a university with 10,001+ employees
A way to connect to various directories and integrate with cloud directories would be beneficial.
Team Lead, Technical & Enterprise Directory Services Vita Program at AIS Network
For some configurations on the SPS side, if I need to make changes, such as for DNS servers, I must redeploy the machine.
Consultant at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
There are many steps. We are still in the onboarding phase, and it seems very manual.
Systems Administrator at a university with 10,001+ employees
Another area for improvement could be the threat detection capabilities, like those seen in other PAM vendors.
Consultant at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Setup Cost

Enterprise buyers view One Identity Active Roles as expensive but justified by its ROI, efficiency, and flexible user-based licensing.
One Identity Safeguard is priced higher, appreciated for its licensing model, and potentially cost-effective for large organizations.
It is quite expensive, costing more than 50 euros per identity.
solution architect/ engineer at APEX.IT Sp. z o.o.
I think our total was in the seven-figure range for a couple of years of service.
Director, Identity & M365 Engineering at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
The pricing is high.
Team Lead, Technical & Enterprise Directory Services Vita Program at AIS Network
It is one of those where the more you buy, the cheaper it is.
Systems Administrator at a university with 10,001+ employees
It is cheaper than CyberArk.
Consultant at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
It is more expensive than Secret Server but way less expensive than CyberArk.
IAM Specialist
 

Valuable Features

One Identity Active Roles streamlines management and enhances security through automation, role-based access, dynamic groups, and compliance features.
One Identity Safeguard enhances security with password management, session recording, user-friendly interface, and seamless multi-platform integration.
It's improved our security posture. It has limited access to our crown jewels, where all our identities lie within Active Directory.
IAM Specialist
It helps in removing custom Active Directory delegation, which enhances security by eliminating unnecessary privileges, addressing identity-based breaches by reducing the number of Active Directory delegations.
Head of Global Digital Identity Services at a hospitality company with 10,001+ employees
Dynamic groups are also one of the best features, eliminating the need to add or manage members manually.
Technical Specialist at LSEG
The auditing and approval mechanisms are features we did not have before and are greatly appreciated.
Systems Administrator at a university with 10,001+ employees
Automatic credential rotation helps our team by removing the need for manual changes to privileged passwords, reducing the risk of stale or shared credentials and ensuring that every access is controlled and compliant.
Technical Consultant at ProTechmanize Solutions (P) Ltd.
The password vault has been a game changer because it provides a secure and controlled way to store, manage, and rotate sensitive credentials without exposing them to users.
Developer Intern at Stealth
 

Categories and Ranking

One Identity Active Roles
Ranking in Non-Human Identity Management (NHIM)
4th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
38
Ranking in other categories
User Provisioning Software (3rd), Active Directory Management (1st)
One Identity Safeguard
Ranking in Non-Human Identity Management (NHIM)
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
57
Ranking in other categories
User Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) (5th), Privileged Access Management (PAM) (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Non-Human Identity Management (NHIM) category, the mindshare of One Identity Active Roles is 5.0%, up from 2.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of One Identity Safeguard is 6.1%, down from 6.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Non-Human Identity Management (NHIM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
One Identity Safeguard6.1%
One Identity Active Roles5.0%
Other88.9%
Non-Human Identity Management (NHIM)
 

Featured Reviews

SN
Identity and Access Management Specialist at a university with 10,001+ employees
Governed access has transformed user management and now reduces internal attack surface
The crown jewels of One Identity Active Roles that make my life as an architect easier are Access Templates, Virtual Attributes, Workflow and Approval Engine, and Managed Units, which allowed us to structure our directory into a policy-driven asset rather than constantly firefighting manual errors. Access Templates and Managed Units are the real secret sauce of One Identity Active Roles for us. Access Templates standardize permission settings, reducing security drift and allowing for the creation of modular permission bundles such as those I created for the Tier 1 help desk. Managed Units help me stay organized without rewriting the physical structure of the directory, saving me hours of cleanup. A critical feature that I found essential for a clean environment is Dynamic Group management, which prevents permission creep by using rule-defined group memberships rather than manual additions. One Identity Active Roles automatically manages group membership based on rules tied to the HR records. One Identity Active Roles has had a transformative impact on my organization, moving from controlled chaos to governed operations. The biggest win has been a reduction in the internal attack surface, achieving over a 40% reduction in unauthorized or accidental access attempts.
ST
Senior Information Technology Consultant at Helse Nord IKT
Centralized privileged access has improved control and now supports secure vendor billing oversight
The transparent mode is a seamless approach when using it. We have some issues with it, but we are working on it to make it work for us. Managing remote access for privileged users with the secure remote access feature is both easy and hard depending on the scenario we face. We have some systems that are easy and take not even a minute to set up, while others take a bit longer. We are in the middle of integrating One Identity Safeguard with the IGA solution, Identity Manager. We have some A2A setups, but it is not optimal. We are using RPA for developers, not actually RPA accounts, but that is something we are working on. We are also using the service account password rotation on the asset to some degree, and we are exploring options there. For integrating One Identity Safeguard, figuring out how password rotation works is a bit difficult because we have to make custom integrations. After that, it was no problem really. For the A2A use, it is not as easy as using something like HashiCorp's password management tools. It is mostly for certain features in One Identity Safeguard that I would like some improvements. Some of the things you can do in entitlements, there is a lot you can do there, but not everything is optimal. You have to have duplicates of a lot of things to make it work the way you want.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
University
7%
University
11%
Computer Software Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business23
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise21
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business43
Midsize Enterprise22
Large Enterprise22
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for One Identity Active Roles?
I am aware of the pricing; it is on the expensive side, though pricing is not my department.
What needs improvement with One Identity Active Roles?
One Identity Active Roles can be improved by simplifying the setup process since a small team in a small business requires implementation without extensive IT support. Additionally, the pricing cou...
What is your primary use case for One Identity Active Roles?
One Identity Active Roles is used primarily to simplify and automate Active Directory user and permission management. The solution automates routine tasks such as account creation, password reset, ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for One Identity Safeguard?
We have a separate department that studies setup costs for each product, but as far as my information goes, the pricing and setup costs are very good.
What needs improvement with One Identity Safeguard?
The most common improvement needed is for upgrades. One Identity Safeguard's desktop client should have a faster and easier upgrade process that ensures compatibility.
What is your primary use case for One Identity Safeguard?
One Identity Safeguard serves as our Privileged Access Management solution to enforce session management for administrators and allow them to access our systems in recorded sessions, which secures ...
 

Also Known As

Quest Active Roles
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

City of Frankfurt, Moore Public Schools, George Washington University, Transavia Airlines, Howard County, MD. See all stories at OneIdentity.com/casestudies
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