Okta vs. Ping: The Best IAM for Digital Security

When it comes to selecting an Identity and Access Management (IAM) solution, the stakes are high. Your choice directly affects your organization's security, user experience, compliance, and the bottom line. To make the best choice for your organization, let's take a closer look at the major differences between two leaders in the IAM space, Okta and Ping, especially when considering an upcoming renewal.

The Ping Identity Platform goes far beyond the basics, ensuring your business can lead the way in IAM and differentiate from your competition. Extensive fraud prevention mechanisms, full IGA capabilities, and more put it ahead for organizations that require a higher level of security and compliance. Let's break down what sets Ping Identity apart from Okta.

Identity Governance and Administration (IGA)

For companies that prioritize compliance and auditability, Ping’s full IGA solution is robust enough to handle complex requirements. Ping stands out as the go-to solution, especially when compared to Okta's basic identity governance offerings.

Identity Verification and Decentralized Identity

In the era of rising identity fraud, Ping’s identity verification is unrivaled, tying digital identities securely to real ones. Ping’s decentralized identity solution puts control back in the hands of your customers, marking Ping Identity as a leader in pioneering IAM solutions.

Fraud Prevention

Bad actors gain access and do harm by attacking surfaces like registration forms, login, account recovery, and password reset. Ping continuously detects a wide range of attack vectors such as account takeover and new account fraud, as well as bots, emulators, brute force, credential stuffing, tampered devices, password spraying, etc. Okta protects against some forms of identity attacks, but it evaluates fewer vectors and less frequently.

Orchestration

Ping’s orchestration platform—PingOne DaVinci—is a robust engine that connects to your full identity ecosystem. It’s a no-code tool that lets you visualize and A/B test customer, partner, or employee experiences to maximize efficiency. There are even out-of-the-box templates for Zero Trust, passwordless, and more to give you a starting point based on best practices.

Okta Workflows is a tool for automating administrative tasks; While Okta has been evaluated by key analysts, their workflow tool has not been recognized by many analysts as a journey orchestration platform. Additionally, Auth0 Actions is a code-heavy tool for coding user journeys.

Scalability, Flexibility, and Deployment

Your organization is not static; it grows, evolves, and faces new challenges. Ping Identity promises growth without the growing pains. Its deployment options are varied and robust, ensuring a perfect fit for your unique needs.

When it comes to selecting an IAM solution, one size does not fit all. The choice between Ping Identity and Okta may come down to the specific needs of your business, factoring in company size, complexity, and future growth potential.

In any long-term vendor partnership, it’s important to select a partner whose goals and interests are aligned with your success. A few key areas where that alignment is important, especially when the partner will be responsible for access to your critical resources, are below:

Renewals

Identity and Access Management solutions touch everything you do and often have dedicated teams that manage them. You don’t want renewals to force you to continue down the wrong path. We’ve heard time and time again about Okta’s practices of sudden price hikes at renewal, giving only a short time to agree to surprising price hikes or have your services cut off.

Ping's proactive approach to renewals means you'll never be blindsided by sudden price hikes or service disconnection threats. With a customer success team that engages with you regularly, you can rest assured that you’ll have a smooth renewal process and a pricing model that reflects your monthly usage, reassuringly reverting to normal after any peak periods.

Security Event Transparency

When it comes to handling security events, transparency is key for your IAM partner to maintain your trust. Unlike Okta, which has faced criticism for how they've communicated during significant breaches, Ping Identity prioritizes clear and prompt communication. Ping has established protocols to keep you informed about any vulnerabilities, ensuring you’re never in the dark about your system's security. 

Choosing Ping means partnering with a company recognized for its clarity and response when customers need it the most. Though there hasn’t been a major security event at Ping, industry events like Log4j demonstrate Ping’s resolve as a trusted partner when you need it the most.

A Unified Approach

Okta's separation of Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) and Workforce Identity and Access Management solutions can lead to duplicated efforts and higher management costs for Okta customers. While the CIAM and workforce use cases are different, many core services, like directory, SSO, authorization, identity verification, and more are core services that can be used for both.

Ping Identity, in contrast to Okta, offers a unified platform that efficiently addresses all identity needs—be they for workforce, customer, or partner—from a singular, integrated suite of services. This strategic integration not only streamlines management but also reduces the complexity and costs associated with running multiple systems. With Ping, you can expect a seamless experience with universal services like directory and SSO, IGA, orchestration, and identity verification. This consolidation not only boosts ROI but also simplifies vendor relationships, as Ping's comprehensive SaaS solution serves all your identity requirements with a single, trusted partner.

Identity and Access Management (IAM) is the lifeblood of your business. It impacts everything you do including the user, employee, and partner experiences, security, compliance, and beyond. It's a strategic necessity for businesses; ensuring the right people can access the right resources at the right times. Below are six critical benefits Ping’s IAM solutions can bring to your business.

Cybersecurity and Compliance

IAM solutions are pivotal for enhancing cybersecurity and ensuring compliance, and crucial in an era of increasing data breaches and stringent data privacy regulations like GDPR, CCPA, CDR, Open Banking, eIDAS, and HIPAA, to name just a few. IAM solutions prevent unauthorized access and ensure adherence to global data protection laws. 

Scalability and Flexibility

As businesses grow, the need for scalable and flexible IAM solutions becomes paramount. The right IAM system supports growth, adapts to new technologies, and facilitates innovation.

Operational Efficiency

Efficient IAM systems enable quick and secure access to resources, boosting productivity and enhancing user satisfaction. 

Risk Management

IAM offers granular control over access rights and monitors user activities, helping businesses mitigate risks, detect potential breaches, and respond to threats promptly. 

Improving operational efficiency and user experience often translate into better customer retention and higher revenue.

Preventing Fraud

Ping Identity’s commitment to fraud prevention is evident in its extensive threat signal evaluation and protection mechanisms. 

Read KuppingerCole’s Take on Ping and Okta

Ping Identity: A Visionary IAM Partner

Identity and Access Management (IAM) is the cornerstone of digital security. It impacts user experience, security, compliance, and overall business success. In today's world of stringent data privacy regulations like GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA, choosing the right IAM solution is more critical than ever.

Ping Identity excels with features that enhance your digital security posture:

• Customer Experience Focused: Ping prioritizes seamless user interactions, fostering customer loyalty and satisfaction.

• Robust Fraud Prevention: Ping's sophisticated defense mechanisms proactively counter a wide range of identity attacks.

• Scalability and Flexibility: Ping's platform adapts seamlessly to your evolving business needs and integrates with new technologies.

• Operational Efficiency: Streamline access workflows with Ping, boosting productivity and user satisfaction.

While Ping Identity might not be the universal answer for every organization, its unified platform, commitment to security, focus on user experience, and scalable solutions make it a compelling choice.  When evaluating IAM providers, consider current features and their vision for the future. Ping Identity is a partner ideally suited for companies seeking a forward-thinking solution that keeps pace with their growth and the ever-changing digital security landscape.

When evaluating Okta vs. Ping Identity for your IAM solution, don’t only consider the capabilities you need today. Your IAM needs will evolve, so it’s important to also consider what you’ll need in a partner tomorrow. With Ping's unified platform, proactive renewal process, transparent security communications, and all-encompassing approach to IAM, you’re not just investing in technology, but in a partnership that understands and grows with your business. By choosing Ping Identity, you're ensuring that your organization is poised for success with a secure, flexible, and scalable identity management strategy, designed to meet the challenges of both today and the future.