Okta vs miniOrange

Why should you consider miniOrange as identity security instead of Okta?

This differentiating document is based on our experience and customer feedback across many platforms (G2, Capterra, Gartner Peer Insights, trustradius, etc.), and it covers major aspects and reasons why enterprises look outside of Okta’s licensing scheme.

1. Multi-Directory Management and Advanced SSO policies

Organizations have a variety of directories for different types of users and employees. One of the main reasons that firms must maintain several directories is because of acquisitions and mergers. Managing and sustaining all of these multi-domain settings is time-consuming and costly. If not carefully considered, security risks may arise.

1. miniOrange Directory Integration

One of miniOrange's primary features, unified directory integration, allows real-time bidirectional synchronization across various directories. A wide range of directories is supported, including on-premise Active Directory, Azure Active Directory, Google Workspace, AWS Cognito, HR directories like Bamboo HR, Oracle HRMS, SAP HRMS, etc., and connections with any of the local databases. With Okta it is mandatory to store all the users within Okta itself and you cannot have any third-party authentication source.




miniOrange functions as an IDP, serving as a single source of truth for all digital user identities and the applications and resources to which they have access. With the Unified method, new joiners, promotions, and leavers may be handled automatically as well. If a user is disabled/deleted anywhere, their access to all other directories is likewise disabled in real-time, thanks to the bidirectional synchronization capabilities.




Following are the advantages of using the miniOrange IAM service for multi directory management -




1. a. IDP Discovery flow:




It might not always be possible to know where the user identity is stored and which Identity Source to authenticate against. miniOrange provides an Identity Provider Discovery endpoint where the users can choose their Identity Provider to authenticate from. On successful authentication, this Identity Source is remembered by the system so that the user is redirected to that Identity Source automatically without prompting the user to choose his/her Identity Source on each login attempt.




2. b. Domain-based redirection to IDP :




miniOrange provides a feature where Admins can configure the domains of the users who would authenticate against a particular SAML Identity Provider. miniOrange system would automatically check the domain of the user and redirect him to the correct SAML Identity Provider to authenticate against.




3. c. App-based Identity Source :




Admins can configure which Identity Source should the users be authenticated from if the authentication request originates from a particular app.




4. d. IDP selection on broker flow :




A list of IDPs can be visible to the users along with the miniOrange login form while performing SSO into any application. Based on the selected IDP, the user will be redirected to the respective login form or he/she can log in with miniOrange IDP.




5. e. Multiple SAML Providers :




Admins can configure multiple SAML Identity Providers and configure which users/apps authenticate against which Identity Source.




With Okta, you cannot have the IDP discovery flow, domain-based redirection, App-based Identity Source, Multiple SAML Providers, etc., or the IDP selection with broker flow. All users have to be stored within Okta and will mandatorily be authenticated from Okta. This does not give freedom to organizations to set up customized policies as per the business requirements and operations which can be a hassle for many.

2. Cloud and On-premise solution

With miniOrange, you have the full leverage to choose from either a cloud or on-premise solution as per your business requirements. With the on-premise solution, the IDP will be hosted on your servers and all the data will be stored in your intranet which cannot be accessed by anyone outside the company. Most government and enterprise customers have it mandatory to set up an on-premise solution due to the regulations and compliances. The on-premise solution gives you an option for having a high availability active-active or active-passive setup. You can set up the solution in your DC and DR to have proper business continuity policies in place. You can also host the solution on our private cloud for your organization.

With Okta, you only have one option to choose from which is the cloud solution. So the solution will be hosted on the internet.

3. No User Migration is required

miniOrange can connect to any identity source or external directories like Active Directory, Azure AD, Database, Radius, etc., or any other IDPs. The authentication is done through your existing identity source and hence your users and sensitive data do not have to migrate to any other platform. Thus making it a hassle-free process and users can use the same username password for logging into the applications.

With Okta, all your user identities need to migrate from your existing identity source to the Okta platform. Organizations are usually not comfortable with the risks associated with such migration.

4. SSO, MFA for legacy Apps and unique Integrations

Unique proxy connectors for SSO, MFA, provisioning, and access management into legacy applications like Oracle EBS, SAP applications, Qlikview, etc. Achieve seamless experience with header-based SSO. Eliminate the requirement for multiple heavy, expensive and traditional components to enable SSO and MFA for these applications. Use a single: easy to use and easy to setup component to achieve all the required use cases for the business requirements. Thus saving you time and money. miniOrange provides a true highly available connector setup for these applications.

With Okta the gateway will be on top of the traditional setups and hence does not eliminate the need for traditional setup and increases the complexities in the infrastructure.

5. User Lifecycle Management

Onboarding is automatically controlled from the parent directory, (Azure AD, Microsoft AD, Google Directory) where accounts are synchronized to miniOrange IAM. The synchronization control is very granular depending on domain or group membership. Once onboarded, the user can continue to use their existing password, reducing friction and ease of adoption.

Integrate with HR applications to automate user workflows for joining, moving, and deleting the users. All administration can be done through the HR applications and the users, roles will be automatically synced with the respective applications for that specific user group. No need to manually create or move identities across applications. Out-of-box support for all standard HR and other applications. No need to integrate with any other third-party applications for extending such functionalities.

Okta has a limitation to the user lifecycle management capabilities. There are no out-of-box integrations with standard applications and you might need to use third-party applications which will increase your expense and increase the admin overhead of managing multiple applications.

6. Advanced RADIUS Solution

The majority of businesses have begun to migrate their IT infrastructure to the cloud. However, a VPN or remote access approach is frequently used to protect their current environments. All of these approaches are compatible with the RADIUS protocol.

"For these types of use cases, Okta MFA partially supports the RADIUS protocol. It also necessitates the installation of an on-premise module, which adds to the setup difficulty. RADIUS features are limited to a few VPN providers."

1. Full fledge MFA solution for RADIUS-based Clients

   
   

   miniOrange provides a fully functional pre-integrated RADIUS solution. This aids in the support of a wide range of legacy VPN and Remote Desktop Environment use cases. It provides settings for practically all major VPN providers, as well as a competitive advantage.

   
   

7. Expertise in technical Support

When it comes to implementing overall Identity and Access Management for organizational security, timely and effective support is essential. Organizations don't just need assistance when something breaks down; they also require direction and advice on best practices or solutions for dealing with business difficulties.

Many customers have said that support is the one area where Okta really needs to up its game. Customers need to raise a support ticket from the documentation and are again referred to some other documentation rather than actual help which is quite frustrating. Customers have also opted for higher levels of support plans but there has been no improvement in the process. Feedback: “It's easily among the worst support and Professional Services experiences I've ever encountered.”

1. 24*7 real-time Support

   
   

   A specialized Client Experience support team at miniOrange ensures that every customer encounter is of the highest quality. Each call is sent directly to an expert Technical Engineer, avoiding the time-consuming and sometimes irritating process of navigating faceless automated chatbots.

   
   

   We try to keep customer communications consistent by routing calls to engineers that have previously worked with the customer. This gives us a better perspective and understanding of the customer's environment, resulting in faster call closure times and higher customer satisfaction.

   
   

   Customers frequently benefit from our unique consultative service in addressing business concerns, in addition to receiving high levels of support and working closely with our skilled development team.

   
   

8. Easy installation and migration

Feature-driven products that are difficult to set up appear to be a time-consuming task for organization administrators. Organizations want solutions that are simple to set up, and the migration procedure appears to be as simple as a single click.

"The fact that it prevents me from accessing my work account from home, at which I have to wait until I return to the building to get on my company wifi to fix it," most customers say, and it takes a long time.

1. Quick and Easy Deployment

   miniOrange is a simple-to-install On-Premise and Cloud solution that can be used in any environment. Integrate with any directory, such as Azure Active Directory, LDAP, Active Directory, and any database can be used to perform one-click migration and synchronization. With an added advantage to it, miniOrange offers a quick time deployment.

   
   

9. Proper Administration and management

1. Pre-Configured Integrations

   
   

   Take advantage of the huge application catalog's pre-built application integrations. Single-sign-on (SSO) to the applications is enabled in a few clicks by automatically creating identity provider (IdP) URLs and certificates with built-in documentation.

   
   

   Timely Auditing

   
   

   The ability to visualize both live and historical activity is provided by an appealing, easy-to-understand dashboard that captures user metrics such as login activity, license count, agent connection status, throughput, and application access. It also helps to get a deeper understanding of how your end-users access apps and whether you have potential security risks.

   
   

   Self-Service Capabilities

   
   

   Reduce help desk costs by allowing users to reset their passwords securely through self-service. Either a web portal, a point of logon, or the mobile app itself can start and finish the lost password recovery process.

10. Effective Pricing

Given the fact that small and mid-sized businesses are growing rapidly these days. Their business part is cracked by a solution that meets their needs at a reasonable price.

The Okta Licensing Policy is just too complex. Their SSO + MFA + Adaptive Authentication, which includes most of the popular IAM features, cost roughly $6 per user per month.

Okta has a minimum annual contract of $1500 for all customers (even for small businesses) and additional pricing for lifecycle management, and legacy apps SSO using the access gateway. Okta provides APIs for additional scripts and custom workflows which come with huge additional expenses for any customization required by Okta. The majority of people have commented that their Okta setup is highly expensive.

miniOrange excels in the pricing department, with the most cost-effective per-user Workforce IAM solutions. miniOrange uses a special tier-based pricing structure for customer-specific (B2C) IAM services, making user authentication very economical.