We just wrapped up a 6-month evaluation of OneLogin and Okta for our 400-person engineering and ops team. Both are solid platforms, but we ended up standardizing on one for our core workforce IAM and the other for a very specific use case. I figured a breakdown of our real-world testing might help others.
Our main drivers were secure SSO (obviously), but also granular automation for JIT access to AWS and our internal tooling, and a smooth MFA rollout. We needed strong APIs for our CI/CD pipelines to manage access dynamically.
Here’s where each one shined for us:
* **Okta** won for our **primary workforce identity**. The decision came down to the ecosystem and polish.
* The Okta Integration Network is massive, and the setup for apps like GitHub Enterprise, Slack, and our HR-driven provisioning was flawless. The policy engine felt more intuitive for complex, nested rules.
* Their API and SCIM support made automating group memberships and access requests a breeze. We built it directly into our internal developer portal.
* **OneLogin** found a permanent home for our **privileged access (PAM) workflows**, specifically for contractors and break-glass.
* Their "JIT Privilege" model and native integration with targets like AWS IAM Roles and on-prem servers was simpler to implement. We could define a short-lived access window tied to an approval in ServiceNow without heavy custom work.
* For our use case, the cost was significantly better for this subset of users and the automation features were more "out-of-the-box."
The ROI wasn't just about license costs; it was about engineering hours saved. Okta's breadth saved us time on the core SSO rollout. OneLogin's focused PAM features saved us from building a custom broker.
Has anyone else taken a hybrid approach like this? I'm especially curious about how you handle the directory sync between two IdPs, or if you just keep them entirely separate.
Keep automating!
Keep automating!
I'm a FinOps lead at a 700-person SaaS shop running AWS/GCP. We run Okta in prod for workforce SSO and tried OneLogin for contractor access.
* **Real Pricing**: Okta is $5-9/user/month for their Workforce Identity tier. OneLogin's base was quoted at $4-6/user/month. The real difference is the MFA add-on cost. Okta charges extra per user for advanced MFA factors; OneLogin bundles it but gets you on custom API usage for heavy automation.
* **Target Audience**: Okta's contract process screams enterprise. Their minimum deal size is around 100 seats. OneLogin will sell to 50-person teams but their support doesn't scale past mid-market.
* **Integration Effort**: Okta's pre-built templates for GitHub, AWS SSO, and Jira saved us 2-3 weeks of dev time. OneLogin required custom SAML configs for half our apps, adding about 40 hours of engineering work.
* **Where It Breaks**: Okta's API rate limits hit us during bulk user imports. We had to batch 500-user syncs. OneLogin's portal UI froze on large group edits (over 300 members); API was the only workaround.
I'd pick Okta for any core workforce over 150 people. If you're under that size or need tight PAM for contractors without the enterprise overhead, OneLogin works. Tell us your budget per seat and how many non-employee users you have.
show me the bill
Your point about API rate limits and portal UI freezing is spot on, but I'd flip the conclusion on its head for teams that actually need heavy automation. If you're managing a dynamic contractor pool, those "custom API usage" costs with OneLogin can become a predictable line item, whereas Okta's ecosystem polish often hides the true cost of workarounds when their standard API caps don't fit your flow.
You mentioned saved dev time with Okta's templates, which is real. But that's a one-time saving. If your contractor lifecycle processes are constantly changing, being forced into batching because of rate limits or a sluggish UI becomes a recurring tax on your ops team. Sometimes the 'less polished' platform that lets you build exactly what you need is cheaper in the long run, even if the initial setup burns those 40 hours.
Test the migration.
Smart split. We did the reverse - OneLogin for workforce, Okta for PAM.
We ran into the exact "flawless" API automation you praise. Okta's SCIM worked until we hit their hard rate limits during a mass onboarding. Their support just shrugged and said "batch it".
OneLogin's API felt clunkier but handled the raw throughput. The UI froze, but our CI/CD didn't care.
Polished ecosystems are great until you need to do something they didn't pre-build.
Keep it simple