# Customer identity and access management for small business 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 a small B2B company. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/identity/customer-identity-and-access-management/smb/

**Standing:** Clerk leads with 27% of first choices; verdict contested. 48 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| # | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Clerk | 27% | 5% | 38 |
| 2 | Auth0 | 25% | 51% | 61 |
| 3 | Frontegg | 15% | 5% | 19 |
| 4 | WorkOS | 10% | 6% | 31 |
| 5 | LoginRadius | 4% | 11% | 18 |
| 6 | Amazon Cognito | 4% | 50% | 20 |
| 7 | Descope | 2% | 5% | 20 |
| 8 | Firebase Authentication | 2% | 22% | 18 |
| 9 | Stytch | 0% | 0% | 26 |
| 10 | Supabase Auth | 0% | 0% | 15 |
| 11 | FusionAuth | 0% | 6% | 16 |
| 12 | Keycloak | 0% | 36% | 14 |

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

- Claude Haiku 4.5: Frontegg; alternatives SSOJet, WorkOS
- GPT-5.4 mini: Auth0; alternatives Clerk, Descope, WorkOS
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Kinde; alternatives PropelAuth, WorkOS
- Perplexity Sonar: WorkOS; alternatives Clerk, Descope, Frontegg
- Grok 4.1 Fast: Clerk, Frontegg; alternatives Stytch, Supabase Auth, WorkOS
- Mistral Small: Frontegg; alternatives Microsoft Entra External ID, MojoAuth
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: SSOJet, WorkOS; alternatives Stytch
- Llama 4 Maverick: Frontegg
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Clerk; alternatives Auth0, SuperTokens
- Kimi K2: Frontegg; alternatives Auth0, Clerk, FusionAuth, Kinde
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Frontegg; alternatives Amazon Cognito, Auth0, Descope, LoginRadius
- MiniMax M2.5: Clerk; alternatives Auth0, Supabase Auth, WorkOS

## Sources the answers cite

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

- loginradius.com: 45 answers, 67 citations
- startwithidentity.com: 34 answers, 56 citations
- expertinsights.com: 29 answers, 31 citations
- descope.com: 24 answers, 29 citations
- ibtimes.com: 18 answers, 18 citations
- worldmetrics.org: 18 answers, 18 citations
- workos.com: 17 answers, 33 citations
- g2.com: 15 answers, 32 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://loginradius.com/blog/identity/top-ciam-for-small-and-medium-businesses (39 answers)
- https://expertinsights.com/identity-and-access-management/top-customer-identity-and-access-management-ciam-solutions (29 answers)
- https://ibtimes.com/top-5-best-customer-identity-access-management-ciam-solutions-2026-3800878 (18 answers)
- https://worldmetrics.org/best/customer-identity-management-software (17 answers)
- https://descope.com/blog/post/ciam-solutions (16 answers)
- https://startwithidentity.com/articles/top-7-ciam-platforms-b2b-saas (16 answers)
- https://guideflow.com/blog/ciam-software (15 answers)
- https://startwithidentity.com/rankings/best-ciam-for-startups (14 answers)
- https://miniorange.com/blog/ciam-vendors (11 answers)
- https://startwithidentity.com/rankings/best-ciam-platforms (11 answers)

## Warned against

- Auth0: 31 of 61 labels negative. "What to Avoid for a Small Business ... Auth0 ... too expensive and complex for a small business" (GLM 4.7 FlashX, paraphrase prompt)
- Okta: 11 of 14 labels negative. "small businesses should be cautious about or avoid the following types of customer identity platforms: Enterprise-focused CIAM platforms ... such as Okta (for customer use cases)" (Mistral Small, negative prompt)
- Amazon Cognito: 10 of 20 labels negative. "Only suitable if your entire application is already deeply embedded in AWS ... Otherwise, avoid." (DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt)
- ForgeRock: 5 of 5 labels negative. "ForgeRock can be a significant investment, potentially making it less accessible for smaller businesses or startups with limited budgets." (Claude Haiku 4.5, 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.