# Customer identity and access management: 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 a mid-market B2B company. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/identity/customer-identity-and-access-management/

**Standing:** Auth0 (tied with WorkOS) leads with 22% of first choices; verdict contested. 54 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| # | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Auth0 | 22% | 22% | 67 |
| 2 | WorkOS | 22% | 7% | 30 |
| 3 | Frontegg | 17% | 0% | 32 |
| 4 | Clerk | 7% | 10% | 21 |
| 5 | Microsoft Entra External ID | 4% | 9% | 32 |
| 6 | Ping Identity | 4% | 14% | 22 |
| 7 | FusionAuth | 4% | 13% | 15 |
| 8 | Amazon Cognito | 4% | 28% | 25 |
| 9 | LoginRadius | 2% | 7% | 14 |
| 10 | Descope | 0% | 8% | 26 |
| 11 | Stytch | 0% | 0% | 19 |
| 12 | Keycloak | 0% | 33% | 15 |

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

- Claude Haiku 4.5: Frontegg; alternatives Stytch, Thales OneWelcome
- GPT-5.4 mini: Auth0; alternatives FusionAuth, WorkOS
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: WorkOS; alternatives Frontegg, PropelAuth
- Perplexity Sonar: WorkOS; alternatives Auth0, Clerk, Frontegg
- Grok 4.1 Fast: Frontegg, WorkOS; alternatives Auth0, Descope, Microsoft Entra External ID
- Mistral Small: Auth0, Ping Identity; alternatives Frontegg, Tealium
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: WorkOS; alternatives Auth0, Frontegg, Stytch
- Llama 4 Maverick: Auth0, Frontegg, Ping Identity; alternatives Hightouch, Tealium, Twilio Segment
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Auth0, Clerk; alternatives Microsoft Entra, SuperTokens
- Kimi K2: Frontegg; alternatives Auth0, Stytch, WorkOS
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: WorkOS; alternatives Auth0, Frontegg
- MiniMax M2.5: Auth0, Frontegg

## Sources the answers cite

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

- expertinsights.com: 35 answers, 35 citations
- loginradius.com: 29 answers, 37 citations
- startwithidentity.com: 23 answers, 37 citations
- securityboulevard.com: 23 answers, 29 citations
- guideflow.com: 23 answers, 23 citations
- descope.com: 20 answers, 21 citations
- guptadeepak.com: 18 answers, 25 citations
- idsync.com: 17 answers, 24 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://expertinsights.com/identity-and-access-management/top-customer-identity-and-access-management-ciam-solutions (34 answers)
- https://guideflow.com/blog/ciam-software (23 answers)
- https://descope.com/blog/post/ciam-solutions (18 answers)
- https://loginradius.com/blog/identity/top-ciam-for-small-and-medium-businesses (17 answers)
- https://peerspot.com/categories/customer-identity-and-access-management-ciam (14 answers)
- https://worldmetrics.org/best/customer-identity-management-software (14 answers)
- https://guptadeepak.com/top-5-enterprise-ciam-platforms-in-depth-comparison (12 answers)
- https://idmworks.com/insight/customer-identity-and-access-management (11 answers)
- https://idsync.com/compare/best-ciam-tools (11 answers)
- https://workos.com/blog/top-ciam-providers-in-2026 (11 answers)

## Warned against

- Auth0: 15 of 67 labels negative. "Developers report massive price increases of 300% to 1,500% on renewal" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt)
- Amazon Cognito: 7 of 25 labels negative. "generally not recommended for highly regulated industries or enterprise-grade governance without significant customization" (GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt)
- Keycloak: 5 of 15 labels negative. "Avoid self-hosting Keycloak unless you have a dedicated, experienced DevOps and Security team" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt)
- IDMerit: 3 of 3 labels negative. "IDmerit: MongoDB exposure of ~1 billion KYC records (November 2025)" (Kimi K2, 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.