# Customer identity and access management for enterprise buyers: what AI models recommend, September 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition. Asked as "customer identity platform" and as "CIAM solution for a product's users", six framings each, to twelve models with search on, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/identity/customer-identity-and-access-management/enterprise/

**Standing:** Auth0 leads with 47% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 47 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| # | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Auth0 | 47% | 16% | 61 |
| 2 | WorkOS | 13% | 26% | 23 |
| 3 | FusionAuth | 11% | 15% | 13 |
| 4 | Microsoft Entra External ID | 9% | 4% | 49 |
| 5 | LoginRadius | 6% | 0% | 14 |
| 6 | Ping Identity | 4% | 12% | 43 |
| 7 | Descope | 4% | 0% | 15 |
| 8 | Frontegg | 2% | 18% | 17 |
| 9 | IBM Verify | 0% | 0% | 15 |
| 10 | WSO2 Identity Server | 0% | 0% | 10 |
| 11 | ForgeRock | 0% | 27% | 11 |
| 12 | Keycloak | 0% | 33% | 12 |

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: no first choice
- GPT-5.4 mini: Auth0; alternatives Microsoft Entra External ID, Ping Identity
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: WorkOS; alternatives Frontegg
- Perplexity Sonar: Auth0, WorkOS; alternatives Frontegg, Microsoft Entra External ID, Ping Identity
- Grok 4.1 Fast: Auth0; alternatives Microsoft Entra External ID, Ping Identity, WorkOS
- Mistral Small: Auth0; alternatives LoginRadius, Thales OneWelcome
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Auth0, WorkOS; alternatives Frontegg, Microsoft Entra External ID, Ping Identity
- Llama 4 Maverick: no first choice; alternatives Thales OneWelcome
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: SSOJet, WorkOS; alternatives Auth0, Microsoft Entra External ID, Stytch
- Kimi K2: Auth0; alternatives Microsoft Entra External ID, Ping Identity
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Auth0, Descope; alternatives IBM Verify, Microsoft Entra External ID, Ping Identity, WSO2 Identity Server
- MiniMax M2.5: Auth0; alternatives LoginRadius, Microsoft Entra External ID, OneLogin, Ping Identity

## Sources the answers cite

66 of 72 answers came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- startwithidentity.com: 41 answers, 85 citations
- loginradius.com: 35 answers, 58 citations
- securityboulevard.com: 35 answers, 50 citations
- expertinsights.com: 31 answers, 33 citations
- guptadeepak.com: 29 answers, 45 citations
- descope.com: 20 answers, 21 citations
- workos.com: 18 answers, 27 citations
- guideflow.com: 18 answers, 18 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://expertinsights.com/identity-and-access-management/top-customer-identity-and-access-management-ciam-solutions (31 answers)
- https://startwithidentity.com/rankings/best-ciam-for-enterprises (29 answers)
- https://securityboulevard.com/2026/08/top-5-enterprise-ciam-platforms-in-2026-in-depth-comparison (26 answers)
- https://loginradius.com/blog/identity/top-ciam-for-large-enterprises (25 answers)
- https://guideflow.com/blog/ciam-software (18 answers)
- https://guptadeepak.com/top-5-enterprise-ciam-platforms-in-depth-comparison (18 answers)
- https://descope.com/blog/post/ciam-solutions (15 answers)
- https://workos.com/blog/top-ciam-providers-in-2026 (14 answers)
- https://miniorange.com/blog/ciam-vendors (13 answers)
- https://idmworks.com/insight/customer-identity-and-access-management (12 answers)

## Warned against

- Auth0: 10 of 61 labels negative. "Avoid Auth0 / Clerk / AWS Cognito for this specific goal" (Qwen 3.7 Flash, budget prompt)
- Amazon Cognito: 8 of 16 labels negative. "Avoid Auth0 / Clerk / AWS Cognito for this specific goal" (Qwen 3.7 Flash, budget prompt)
- Stytch: 5 of 13 labels negative. "large enterprises should avoid using them for core, complex identity estates" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt)
- Ping Identity: 5 of 43 labels negative. "Buying into legacy on-prem ForgeRock or older Ping components today carries a significant risk of forced migration" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt)

## Record

- Method: https://it-ai-index.com/methodology/
- Raw judge labels and full responses: https://it-ai-index.com/data/
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as IT AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition, it-ai-index.com.