We use Okta primarily for user-provisioning and as an SSO portal for access to our applications.
Sr. Systems Engineer at a healthcare company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Enables us to automate provisioning and deprovisioning of accounts
Pros and Cons
- "The feature that is most valuable to me is the automated user provisioning that we set up using Okta as a major part of that process."
- "We still had to write several internal programs/scripts to complete the user-provisioning process. Okta does not have the ability to provision mailbox accounts for on-premise Exchange or in a hybrid O365 environment. The Group Push function from Okta to AD did not work reliably in our environment."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
Our organization has a fairly high turnover rate so having an automated process for provisioning and de-provisioning of accounts saves a lot of time from an administration perspective.
What is most valuable?
The feature that is most valuable to me is the automated user provisioning that we set up using Okta as a major part of that process. We put the process in to save time and increase accuracy in the user-provisioning process. Most everything is driven from our HR system thereby limiting manual input and duplication of work when provisioning accounts. Accounts are disabled as soon as the account is terminated in the HR system.
What needs improvement?
We still had to write several internal programs/scripts to complete the user-provisioning process. Okta does not have the ability to provision mailbox accounts for on-premise Exchange or in a hybrid O365 environment. The Group Push function from Okta to AD did not work reliably in our environment.
Buyer's Guide
Okta Workforce Identity
January 2025
Learn what your peers think about Okta Workforce Identity. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2025.
831,071 professionals have used our research since 2012.
For how long have I used the solution?
Three to five years.
What other advice do I have?
In terms of rating Okta, it is always hard for me to say, as I have not used any other product to perform the functions we use Okta for, so I really don’t have a comparison. There are some things that Okta does very well – SSO being one of those so for that part I would rate it as a nine or 10 out of 10. For the provisioning part, we did have several issues that we have to work through, so for that aspect, I would rate it somewhere around a six to eight out of 10.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
CDO & Co-Founder at ELYTIK
Very compliant solution, and it is easy to deploy
Pros and Cons
- "It is dependent on the evolution of your user base. It depends on usage per user, so the more sign-ins there are, the more expensive it becomes, so it works best for smaller companies from a financial perspective."
- "Therefore, if you have 10 million users, that's almost 100 million, so it is costly."
What is our primary use case?
I am not using the custom identity aspect; I use it only for customers and staff. We wish to sell the customer EIM because, at the moment, they have a SaaS solution. You can use Microsoft Azure to host Workforce Identity.
How has it helped my organization?
Okta is a very compliant solution, and it is easy to deploy.
What needs improvement?
It is not very interesting from a marketing perspective. For this, you can use open source solutions to reflect different groups.
For how long have I used the solution?
Customer EIM is a new concept, and historically we use the customer EIM for the questionnaires or with focus. We have been using it for about 7 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable product.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is a perfect solution in terms of scalability.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support is excellent.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
All the providers of EIM have the same licensing model. If you have 10 million users or customers of Okta, it is just one payment. However, it is costly in this case. The licensing model is unique to each user. Each user costs 10 euros. Therefore, if you have 10 million users, that's almost 100 million, so it is costly. The model is effective, however. Each user's identity is unique. It is cheaper for small companies and organizations, as they have fewer users. It is dependent on the evolution of your user base. It depends on usage per user, so the more sign-ins there are, the more expensive it becomes, so it works best for smaller companies from a financial perspective.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We considered Arribatec, which is a new startup solution in the market.
What other advice do I have?
If you require identity solutions as a service, I would recommend it, but it is dependent on the use case. I would rate this solution 7 out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
Okta Workforce Identity
January 2025
Learn what your peers think about Okta Workforce Identity. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2025.
831,071 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Consultant at a financial services firm with 1-10 employees
Enables creating different identities and policies, but it could collaborate with a third-party tool for conditional access features
Pros and Cons
- "It is flexible and easy to install."
- "It only facilitates provisioning and not de-provisioning."
What is most valuable?
The platform’s most valuable feature is the universal directory, where we can create different identities and build policies. It is flexible and easy to install.
What needs improvement?
They could provide collaboration with Microsoft for conditional access and other features. They could work on reducing bugs as well.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Okta Workforce Identity for five years.
How are customer service and support?
We receive technical support through third-party suppliers. They provide good support services.
How was the initial setup?
The platform can be deployed on the cloud.
What was our ROI?
The product generates a return on investment in terms of documentation quality and support services provided by Okta.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The product is expensive compared to other vendors.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We are evaluating a few products for our customers.
What other advice do I have?
The impact on user provisioning and de-provisioning processes with Okta Workforce Identity varied depending on the application. Customized applications help in automatic identification. However, it only facilitates provisioning and not de-provisioning. The security posture has significantly eased various aspects of IAM. The integration capabilities of Okta have provided benefits, especially compared to Azure.
I rate it a seven out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Managing Director at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
Good product with ease of deployment, ease of use, speed of delivery, and easy integration with other software
Pros and Cons
- "The ease of deployment, ease of use, and speed of delivery is what I like about Okta Workforce Identity. It is very easy to use. For a lot of software, you need to be trained extensively and have a very technical background. Okta Workforce Identity is quite simple. You can integrate any software into Okta. They've got a network of 7,000 applications that easily integrate into it."
- "It would be pricing, which is a tough one because it goes against Microsoft. A lot of companies say they're a Microsoft partner, and they get all their software for free. Okta is like a luxury product, and it's not the most affordable one. I would say if they could work on pricing, it would help. Other than that, they've done great strides in developing a product that is really good. The companies that do see the value tend to invest in it."
What is our primary use case?
It has got a big network of apps that easily integrate into it, making deployments a lot faster than traditional identity platforms. So, the use case will be companies that are looking to be on a cloud journey for cloud adoption strategies. It also suits companies that have on-premise applications and would like to make them web-based, essentially, access them on one portal. Thus, allowing companies to ensure that they can pretty easily manage access to these applications by their users.
What is most valuable?
The ease of deployment, ease of use, and speed of delivery is what I like about Okta Workforce Identity.
It is very easy to use. For a lot of software, you need to be trained extensively and have a very technical background. Okta Workforce Identity is quite simple.
You can integrate any software into Okta. They've got a network of 7,000 applications that easily integrate into it.
What needs improvement?
It would be pricing, which is a tough one because it goes against Microsoft. A lot of companies say they're a Microsoft partner, and they get all their software for free.
Okta is like a luxury product, and it's not the most affordable one. I would say if they could work on pricing, it would help. Other than that, they've done great strides in developing a product that is really good. The companies that do see the value tend to invest in it.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for the last two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
They're really great stability-wise. The last year they've had like 99.9% uptime. They're really good for SLAs and things like that.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability is probably one of its best attributes.
How are customer service and technical support?
They're pretty good. I know they're a big organization, and they have a lot of clients. So, it's a place where they're always looking to improve, but from my side, it's been really good.
How was the initial setup?
It's pretty straightforward. If you need it, you get great support from Okta as well.
They provide a lot of datasheet information and step-by-step ways to deploy the solution. They're doing really well on this front.
What about the implementation team?
For deployment, right now, it's me and one more person. If we need any additional support, we get it locally in South Africa from a distributor who has a technical team skilled in Okta. Whenever I need more support, I go to them or directly to Okta, or the client can pay yearly fees for additional support if they need it.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It could be a bit too pricey for small companies. Okta Workforce Identity can add a lot of benefits, but smaller companies may not have a lot of applications that need to be managed by Okta Workforce Identity. In larger organizations, there are more departments, applications, and users to manage. Okta Workforce Identity adds a bit more value to those bigger organizations.
In addition to standard licensing fees, there are also additional costs for things like additional support and so on.
What other advice do I have?
Okta Workforce Identity can be suitable for smaller companies, whereas Okta Workforce Identity is suitable for a bit bigger companies, but they serve different purposes.
Essentially, Okta Workforce Identity is for medium and large companies. I would say for companies with at least 50 users, but then these companies should really see the value in Okta Workforce Identity. I guess when you start talking about 200 employees upwards, that's where Okta Workforce Identity really starts creating a lot of value.
Okta has recently created a business value assessment. Those who are starting the process and looking into Okta must be open-minded to the value assessment with the Okta team or with the person at the company that is selling the solution to them. Just be patient, see the value, and not be so caught up in thinking that Microsoft is a great product. I think Okta is way better.
I would, a hundred percent, recommend Okta than Microsoft. Essentially, Microsoft wants you to stay within their stack, whereas Okta is neutral. You can integrate any software into Okta or any application, whereas Microsoft takes a bit longer, or they may not support the integration and so forth.
I would rate Okta Workforce Identity a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Sales Executive at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Stable, with good scalability and very little maintenance
Pros and Cons
- "The product requires very little maintenance."
- "The initial setup can be complex at first."
What is our primary use case?
Okta essentially helps us to onboard employees. We do have difficulty onboarding specific employees, as we're a growing company. Okta helps us provision the software as a service applications that we have in our company for the new hires. We do about 5% software as a service application. Once they join the company, it's a simpler process and a quick onboarding process for them.
How has it helped my organization?
The solution helps speed up and simplify the onboarding process for new hires.
What is most valuable?
The onboarding is the solution's most valuable aspect. It helps us save time in terms of creating a password for each of the SaaS applications versus Okta, where you have this one single pane of glass to see who has what application or who needs which application. It also alerts us to if we should provide that application to this person from that department.
They've improved their user interface, which is much better than previous versions.
The solution is very stable.
The product requires very little maintenance.
The pricing is fair.
The scalability is quite good.
What needs improvement?
The solution needs to improve its own marketing. It's a great solution, however, most people don't know what it does. It should be first in line for onboarding employees.
The solution should continue to work to improve its interface and make it more user-friendly.
The initial setup can be complex at first.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for a year and a half or so. It hasn't been that long.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is extremely stable. there are no bugs or glitches. it doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution scales well. It does so very quickly.
We have ten to 16 people on the solution so far.
How are customer service and technical support?
I've never been in touch with technical support. We are pretty well-versed enough to support ourselves. We do not require their services.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup, for new users, is a bit difficult. It does get easier with time and practice, however. It's complex in that when you jump into the dashboard and you look at the screen, it's either a mish-mash of information, or, it starts off with a single sign-on, and then you have to look at the other components. They force you to look for the other components within menus. Everything is hidden. It's not clearly defined when you open the dashboard. That's one of the hurdles that we've had when setting everything up. It's just not intuitive and not clear where all the elements are in the menus.
As a SaaS solution, the product does not require very much maintenance at all. Any maintenance is more around governance and administration.
What about the implementation team?
We are an integrator. We help our clients implement the solution.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution is designed to be a software as a service, or SaaS. The pricing comes at a moderate cost. It's not the most expensive option on the market.
Their prices are publicly listed on the website. Any additional fees would definitely come into play if you need professional services from Okta themselves.
What other advice do I have?
We're integrators.
The solution is chopped up into modules. You'll sign on to the multifactor authentication and life cycle management components.
We're pretty satisfied with the product. It may be daunting at first, however, once you get the hang of it, it gets easier.
I'd rate the solution at a ten out of ten. It's checked all the boxes for our organization.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Integrator
Technology Manager at a pharma/biotech company with 51-200 employees
We've used it to integrate our HRIS system with Active Directory/Office 365.
What is most valuable?
- SSO
- Lifecycle management (provisioning / deprovisioning)
- Mobility management
How has it helped my organization?
We've integrated our HRIS system with our Active Directory/Office 365 using Okta. We're able to shift away from Active Directory as a master and allows us to be more mobile with our remote employees. Account creation and disabling people on time has made our team more productive.
What needs improvement?
- A couple of improvements with the lifecycle management that will help companies that don't have an HRIS system to help manage contractors and contingent workers would be to add ways to disable their accounts once a certain time point is designated.
- Also, an improvement to the reporting capabilities can make running reports easier and more customizable.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used it for four years.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
We have not encountered any deployment issues. The support team has been amazing.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
There was just one small downtime with the DNS attack that affected many cloud companies.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have not encountered any scalability issues.
How are customer service and technical support?
Customer Service:
Customer service is excellent.
Technical Support:Techncial support is excellent.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did not previously use a different solution. Okta was the industry leader.
What about the implementation team?
We implemented it in house with the consulting team.
What other advice do I have?
The Okta application network is a huge component of the company that will grow with the industry. If customers are asking for things, then Okta will consider adding it.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Managing Director at FOX DATA
A simple and perfect solution that has good integration with various platforms and 99.9% uptime
Pros and Cons
- "Its simplicity and its integration with various vendor-agnostic platforms are the most valuable features."
- "It can have more API integrations."
What is our primary use case?
We are an authorised reseller partner
What is most valuable?
Its simplicity and integration with various vendor-agnostic platforms are the most valuable features.
What needs improvement?
API Securities Solution
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been engaged with Okta for more than 2 years, have seen the latest version.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is highly stable. They claim 99.9% uptime. We never came accross downtime and performance issues
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Okta is not only a single sign-on platform but also Life cycle management, the core of the Identity Management platform. Okta access gateway can publish on-premise legacy applications to the cloud.
How are customer service and technical support?
They are very good. The Okta system engineers involved in presales engagement have sound knowledge on Okta platforms and IAM in general. What I have noticed personally is that Okta provides them with extensive training before assigning them to the Job. It helps them in understanding the technology well before starting with the job.
How was the initial setup?
Its initial setup is straight forward. Okta tenant creation can be done quickly. Adding users and applications to the okta platform has customer dependabilities. Integration and going live with O365 also takes a little bit more time than other apps because of internal rollout and user training. It is not an Okta problem but needs customer Microsoft teams active involvement
What about the implementation team?
Okta Service Partner
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend a phase-wise approach and not doing everything in one step. You can start with the basics of single sign-on and MFA and then proceed to life cycle management. I would also recommend starting with the lest critical applications and then add critical ones to the SSO platform. It is a journey, and we need to start small and slowly migrate it. Adaptive MFA provides proactive defence against login and credential abuse.
I would rate Okta Workforce Identity a ten out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
ISG Providers Lens Research Lead Analyst at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Easy to use with a good interface and is easy to expand
Pros and Cons
- "They have good push authentications."
- "In my country, there's a lot of stealing of mobile phones, and mobile phones are the authentication device through the Okta application. If someone should steal my mobile phone, which is very common in my country, he or she might have access to my company account. That's my concern."
What is our primary use case?
It is the authenticator for secure logins. We use it to log into companies' applications with a double security level.
It is to prove that I am an employee authorized to use certain applications.
How has it helped my organization?
Our repository of data and our work are all based on Microsoft Teams now since we are a global organization with people spread literally across the globe. Employees have access to these documents all over the world, so the company needs to have a high level of security and privacy to access these documents. Okta is an important tool for controlling this access.
What is most valuable?
I find it very useful and very easy to use.
They have good push authentications. This is when I get into my company's internet and they ask me for a code that is provided by Okta. I don't need to write the code, I just need to click the "push" button and my mobile phone is asking, "Someone is trying to connect to your account, do you authorize them?" I just click yes, and automatically it recognizes that that login is authenticated.
In terms of the user interface, it's fine. It's very good. I don't see any improvement needed in the user interface.
It's stable.
The solution can scale.
What needs improvement?
My concern is that I live in an emerging country. In my country, there's a lot of stealing of mobile phones, and mobile phones are the authentication device through the Okta application. If someone should steal my mobile phone, which is very common in my country, he or she might have access to my company account. That's my concern. I don't know if there's another way of doing the authentification. Maybe if you can have a dedicated device for using Okta, it might be better, or if there were other options for authentication.
I would like to have a version of this software for personal use, for my personal accounts.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for two and a half years now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution can scale.
I'd rate its ability to expand eight out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Everyone is using the solution in our company right now. That's roughly 3,000 people.
How are customer service and support?
I've never directly dealt with technical support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I'm not sure if any other solution was used previously. When I joined the company in 2020, I start using Okta, and I don't know if they had any previous applications.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is intermediate. A security solution is not supposed to be easy to apply. It's supposed to be somewhat bureaucratic. That said, the setup itself leans towards being straightforward. We didn't have any issues with the setup.
I'd rate the ease of implementation at a seven or eight out of ten.
I'm not sure about maintenance requirements, however, our company has a limited IT team of about three or four people, and therefore it's likely not too maintenance-heavy.
What was our ROI?
It has been a very stable product. It's reliable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze.
I'd rate the stability eight out of ten.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I don't have any visibility on the pricing. It was negotiated by my company. I'm not sure how much they pay.
What other advice do I have?
I'm a customer and end-user.
This solution is a direct competitor to Google Authenticator or Microsoft Authenticator. I use Okta. My company adopted Okta as a security platform.
It updates automatically, and therefore, we always use the latest version of the solution.
Generally speaking, it is a good tool, and I would recommend it to others.
I'd rate it eight out of ten overall. My main concern is security should a device get stolen.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Okta Workforce Identity Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Updated: January 2025
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