IT AI Index
September 2026 Edition · The permanent record of this edition. The unqualified address always carries the latest edition.
Index › Identity and access › Workforce identity › Enterprise › September 2026 Edition

Workforce identity and SSO for enterprise buyers

Asked as “workforce identity platform”, and as “single sign-on and identity provider for employees”, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. 53 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Microsoft Entra ID
Clear leader
47% of first choices, clear leader.
ShowinginAll 67 categories in the September 2026 Edition →

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.
Small businessJumpCloud48%Clear leaderStanding →Mid-marketMicrosoft Entra ID36%ContestedStanding →EnterpriseMicrosoft Entra ID47%Clear leaderThis page

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for an enterprise B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Microsoft Entra ID47%9%67endorsed leader
02Okta28%16%32accepted challenger
03Okta Workforce Identity25%16%37accepted challenger
Show the seven products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
10OneLogin0%50%14criticized challenger
09JumpCloud0%43%14criticized challenger
07IBM Verify0%24%17accepted challenger
08ForgeRock0%20%15accepted challenger
04Ping Identity0%16%61accepted challenger
06SailPoint0%9%11accepted challenger
05CyberArk Identity0%5%22accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.
Head to head
Microsoft Entra ID vs OktaMicrosoft Entra ID vs Okta Workforce IdentityOkta vs Okta Workforce Identity

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative60%
Key
01Microsoft Entra ID47%
02Okta28%
03Okta Workforce Identity25%
04Ping Identity0%
05CyberArk Identity0%
06SailPoint0%
07IBM Verify0%
08ForgeRock0%
09JumpCloud0%
10OneLogin0%

02What they warned about

Two of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Ping Identity
16%
10 of 61 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“You should be **extremely cautious** about organizations heavily reliant on **Ping Identity** and **ForgeRock** due to their recent merger” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt
Microsoft Entra ID
9%
6 of 67 labels negative · 6 of 12 models
“You should be **cautious** about choosing **Microsoft Entra ID** (formerly Azure AD) if your enterprise is not deeply invested in the Microsoft ecosystem.” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt
Okta Workforce Identity
16%
6 of 37 labels negative · 6 of 12 models
“Okta Workforce Identity (High Security Risk & Vendor Fatigue)... Caution is warranted if you lack the internal IAM team to harden it” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
OneLogin
50%
7 of 14 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Avoid OneLogin for the *primary* workforce identity provider if you require extensive governance and complex B2B trust relationships.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt

03What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: twelve of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

66 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 5 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 907 links across 240 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

startwithidentity.com
43 answers · 92 citations · 10 models
securityboulevard.com
33 answers · 49 citations · 10 models
okta.com
vendor site · Okta28 answers · 35 citations · 11 models
siit.io
vendor site · Siit23 answers · 26 citations · 8 models
ssojet.com
vendor site · SSOJet19 answers · 31 citations · 8 models
decryptiondigest.com
15 answers · 20 citations · 7 models
cybersecurityessential.com
14 answers · 14 citations · 5 models
majorkeytech.com
12 answers · 13 citations · 6 models
hideez.com
12 answers · 12 citations · 9 models
idsync.com
12 answers · 12 citations · 7 models
forrester.com
11 answers · 18 citations · 8 models
microsoft.com
vendor site · Microsoft11 answers · 16 citations · 6 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

startwithidentity.com/articles/top-6-workforce-identity-platforms
29 answers · 10 models
securityboulevard.com/2025/12/top-12-identity-and-access-management-platforms
26 answers · 10 models
startwithidentity.com/rankings/best-iam-platforms
24 answers · 9 models
siit.io/blog/best-iam-tools
16 answers · 7 models
cybersecurityessential.com/tools/iam-zero-trust/okta-entra-ping-zero-trust-iam
14 answers · 5 models
startwithidentity.com/articles/top-10-enterprise-iam-platforms-2026
14 answers · 9 models
decryptiondigest.com/blog/onelogin-vs-okta-vs-ping-identity-vs-entra-id
10 answers · 5 models
forrester.com/blogs/announcing-the-forrester-wave-workforce-identity-platfo…
9 answers · 7 models
hideez.com/blogs/news/identity-service-pricing-comparison
9 answers · 9 models
okta.com/products/workforce-identity
9 answers · 7 models

04How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ModelDirect“What is the best workforce identity platform for an enterprise B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which single sign-on and identity provider for employees would you recommend to a large B2B company with thousands of employees?”Comparative“What are the top enterprise-grade workforce identity platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best workforce identity platform for a large company that needs predictable total cost across thousands of users?”Scale-constrained“We are a 5,000 person company with SSO, SOC 2 and procurement review requirements evaluating a workforce identity platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which workforce identity platforms should a large enterprise avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Microsoft Entra ID, Okta Workforce Identity
One alternativeOkta Identity Governance
Microsoft Entra ID, OktaChanged
Two alternativesAuth0, Ping Identity
Microsoft Entra ID, Okta Workforce Identity
Three alternativesIBM Verify, JumpCloud, SailPoint
Microsoft Entra ID
One alternativePing Identity
against: OktaOkta
Four alternativesForgeRock, IBM Verify, Microsoft Entra ID, Ping Identity
nothing named
GPT-5.4 miniOkta Workforce Identity
One alternativeMicrosoft Entra ID
Microsoft Entra IDChanged
One alternativeOkta
Microsoft Entra ID, Okta Workforce Identity
Four alternativesCyberArk Identity, IBM Verify, Ping Identity, SailPoint
Microsoft Entra ID
Two alternativesOkta Workforce Identity, Ping Identity / PingOne for Workforce
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashOkta Workforce Identity
Five alternativesAuth0, Microsoft Entra ID, Ping Identity, PropelAuth, WorkOS
Microsoft Entra ID, Okta Workforce IdentityChanged
One alternativePing Identity
Microsoft Entra ID, Okta Workforce Identity
Two alternativesCyberArk Identity, Ping Identity
Microsoft Entra ID
Two alternativesOkta Workforce Identity, Ping Identity / ForgeRock
Microsoft Entra ID, Okta
One alternativePing Identity
against: CA/Broadcom SiteMinder, CyberArk Identity, ForgeRock, IBM Verify, Okta Workforce Identity, OneLogin, Oracle Access Manager, Ping Identity
Perplexity SonarOkta
Two alternativesMicrosoft Entra ID, Ping Identity
OktaHeld
Two alternativesAuth0, Microsoft Entra ID
Microsoft Entra ID, Okta Workforce Identity
Five alternativesCyberArk Identity, IBM Verify, JumpCloud, OneLogin, Ping Identity
Microsoft Entra ID
One alternativeOkta
against: Ping Identityno first choiceagainst: Cisco Duo, ForgeRock Identity Cloud / ForgeRock Identity Platform, IBM ISAM, IBM Verify, JumpCloud, OneLogin, Rippling, SailPoint IdentityIQ / Identity Security Cloud, Saviynt
Grok 4.1 FastMicrosoft Entra ID, Okta Workforce Identity
One alternativePing Identity
Microsoft Entra IDChanged
One alternativeOkta
against: Ping IdentityMicrosoft Entra ID, Okta Workforce Identity
Two alternativesPing Identity, SailPoint IdentityNow/IdentityIQ
against: IBM VerifyMicrosoft Entra ID
One alternativeOkta Workforce Identity
against: Ping IdentityOkta Workforce Identity
Three alternativesMicrosoft Entra ID, OneLogin, Ping Identity
against: JumpCloudagainst: JumpCloud, Okta Workforce Identity, Omada Identity, One Identity, OneLogin, Ping Identity
Mistral SmallOkta Workforce Identity
Four alternativesFrontegg, Microsoft Entra ID, Ping Identity, SSOJet
Microsoft Entra ID, OktaChanged
Three alternativesCisco Duo, JumpCloud, Ping Identity
Microsoft Entra ID, Okta Workforce Identity
Four alternativesCyberArk Identity, ForgeRock, IBM Verify, Ping Identity
Microsoft Entra ID
Two alternativesCisco Duo, Okta
no first choiceagainst: ForgeRock, Microsoft Entra ID, Okta Workforce Identity, Ping Identity
DeepSeek V4 FlashOkta Workforce Identity
Five alternativesCyberArk Identity, JumpCloud, Microsoft Entra ID, Ping Identity, SailPoint
OktaChanged
Two alternativesMicrosoft Entra ID, Ping Identity
against: OneLoginMicrosoft Entra ID, Okta Workforce Identity
Five alternativesCyberArk Identity, IBM Verify, Ping Identity, SailPoint, Saviynt
Microsoft Entra ID
Two alternativesOkta Workforce Identity, Ping Identity
against: OneLoginMicrosoft Entra ID, Oktaagainst: Auth0, IBM Verify, JumpCloud, Microsoft Entra ID, Okta Workforce Identity, OneLogin, Oracle Access Manager, Ping Identity
Llama 4 MaverickOkta
Five alternativesCyberArk Identity, ForgeRock, IBM Verify, Microsoft Entra ID, Ping Workforce360
OktaHeldno first choiceOktano first choiceagainst: Microsoft Entra ID, Okta, Ping Identity
Qwen 3.7 FlashMicrosoft Entra ID, Okta
One alternativePing Identity
Okta Workforce IdentityChanged
Two alternativesMicrosoft Entra ID, Ping Identity
Microsoft Entra ID, Okta Workforce Identity
Two alternativesPing Identity, SailPoint
Microsoft Entra ID, Okta Workforce Identityagainst: Auth0, Salesforce Identityno first choiceagainst: 1Password, AuthConn, CA Single Sign-On, Dashlane, Microsoft Entra ID, Okta, OneIdentity
Kimi K2Okta
Two alternativesMicrosoft Entra ID, Ping Identity
Microsoft Entra IDChanged
Two alternativesOkta, Ping Identity
Microsoft Entra ID, Okta Workforce Identity
Four alternativesCyberArk Identity, Ping Identity, SailPoint Identity Security Cloud, Saviynt
Microsoft Entra ID
One alternativePing Identity
against: Okta Workforce IdentityMicrosoft Entra ID, Okta
One alternativePing Identity
against: Okta, OneLogin, Ping Identity, SailPoint
GLM 4.7 FlashXOkta
Four alternativesJumpCloud, Microsoft Entra ID, OneLogin, Ping Identity
Okta Workforce IdentityChanged
Four alternativesAuth0, IBM Verify, Microsoft Entra ID, Ping Identity
Microsoft Entra ID, Okta
Four alternativesForgeRock, OneLogin, Ping Identity, SailPoint Identity Security Cloud
Microsoft Entra ID
One alternativeOkta Workforce Identity
no first choiceagainst: ForgeRock, Microsoft Entra ID, Okta, Ping Identity
MiniMax M2.5Okta Workforce Identity
Three alternativesCyberArk Identity, Microsoft Entra ID, Ping Identity
Microsoft Entra IDChanged
Two alternativesJumpCloud, Okta Workforce Identity
Microsoft Entra ID, Okta Workforce Identity
Two alternativesCyberArk Identity, Ping Identity
against: JumpCloudMicrosoft Entra ID
Two alternativesOkta Workforce Identity, Ping Identity
Microsoft Entra ID, Okta Workforce Identity
Two alternativesCyberArk Identity, Ping Identity
against: JumpCloud, Microsoft Entra ID, Okta Workforce Identity
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 09:10yes99 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 08:16yes26 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 09:01yes1628 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 08:31yes206 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 08:16yes3415 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 08:58yes55 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 08:39yes916 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 08:53yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 09:04yes1032 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 08:39yes1449 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 08:31yes1517 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 08:59yes1466 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 08:37no05 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 08:48yes25 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 09:11yes1224 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 09:06yes204 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 08:47yes3414 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 08:32no03 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 08:30yes1011 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 09:00yes52 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 08:58yes1028 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 08:23yes1521 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 08:48yes1447 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 08:25yes1549 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 08:17yes98 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 08:50yes612 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 08:43yes2229 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 08:22yes208 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 09:08yes2414 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 09:12yes56 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 09:11yes1624 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 08:18yes52 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 08:25yes536 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 08:49yes15170 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 09:08no036 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 08:25yes1432 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 09:11yes1612 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 08:48yes38 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 08:19yes1427 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 09:06yes206 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 09:05yes3818 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 09:09yes55 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 08:57yes1919 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 09:02yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 08:51yes560 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 08:28yes1425 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 08:41yes2438 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 08:42yes19104 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 08:33yes2512 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 09:08yes410 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 09:09no018 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 08:22yes2010 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 08:53yes2013 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 08:33no09 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 08:28yes2424 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 08:55yes54 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 08:43no045 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 08:28yes2559 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 08:37yes15258 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 08:52yes532 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 09:05yes2713 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 08:49yes47 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 08:23yes1631 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 09:05yes207 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 08:31yes2916 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 08:22yes55 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 08:53yes2540 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 09:10yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 08:24yes2072 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 08:43yes2947 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 08:24yes2863 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 09:09yes2378 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

Category-scoped readings
CyberArk read as CyberArk Identity
Microsoft Entra read as Microsoft Entra ID
Ping read as Ping Identity
Unresolved, counted raw
AuthConn
CA Single Sign-On
CA/Broadcom SiteMinder
ForgeRock Identity Cloud / ForgeRock Identity Platform
Ping Identity / PingOne for Workforce
Salesforce Identity
Strata Identity
Trusona
YubiEnterprise
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in identity and access

The other categories of this function, with the leader in each.
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