6 best user management services for 2024

Are you struggling to manage user accounts and access permissions? The best user management services for 2024 offer advanced solutions to streamline these essential tasks. 

With tools designed to ease onboarding, enforce security through role-based access, and handle offboarding seamlessly, businesses can focus on growth without the administrative burden. 

Notable user management contenders for 2024 include WorkOS, Okta, Zluri, SailPoint IdentityIQ, Oracle, and Microsoft Entra ID. 

Discover how each service can enhance your user management strategy and support your business goals.

The need for modern user management services

 Here’s a breakdown of why user management services are indispensable:

• Manage user access: You can easily handle user accounts, access rights, and permissions from a centralized platform, making user provisioning, de-provisioning, and access management much more efficient.
  
  Without a central system, managing users across various applications and systems can be a hassle and prone to errors.
• Ensure security: Features like multi-factor authentication (MFA), single sign-on (SSO), and detailed access controls ensure that only authorized users access sensitive resources. Plus, user management services monitor and audit user activities, quickly spotting and responding to suspicious behavior or security breaches.
• Streamline admin tasks: Automating user management processes reduces the workload on IT departments and eliminates human errors associated with manual processes. This automation speeds up operations and ensures consistency and accuracy in user data across different systems.
• Group users and define access policies: You can easily create and manage user groups based on roles, departments, or other criteria, simplifying the assignment and management of access rights.
• Handle user onboarding/offboarding: These services streamline onboarding by automating user account creation, permission assignment, and resource provisioning.
• Role-based access control (RBAC): These services support role-based access control (RBAC), which allows organizations to assign permissions based on user roles rather than managing individual user permissions.
• Profile management: These services maintain detailed user profiles that include information such as roles, permissions, and activity logs.

Key user management functions in 2024

User onboarding and offboarding

Onboarding often involves automated workflows that trigger upon receipt of user details, typically from HR systems. This may include account creation, enrollment in security protocols (like MFA), and access assignments based on predefined roles. 

Offboarding automatically revokes access, archives user data where necessary, and can trigger notifications to relevant departments to complete the process.

In 2024, you'll want a system that automates the entire process.

Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

RBAC manages user permissions based on their role within an organization. Admins use the user management service to define roles with specific permissions across systems and resources. When a user is assigned a role, they inherit these permissions.

User management helps prevent accidental and malicious breaches of sensitive data by ensuring users have access to the resources necessary for their roles. 

Profile management

Through user interfaces, users can update their information, such as contact details or passwords, within boundaries set by administrators. Backend synchronization ensures that these changes are reflected across all integrated systems.

Audit trails and monitoring

Modern user management systems will offer detailed audit trails and real-time monitoring. They capture detailed information about who did what and when. This data is stored securely and can be analyzed through monitoring tools to detect anomalies or unauthorized actions.

You'll receive instant alerts if something suspicious happens, which will help you prevent security issues.

Automated workflows

User management services can automatically handle user provisioning, de-provisioning, and access reviews. These workflows are triggered by specific events, such as a new hire or a transfer, and are designed to operate without manual intervention unless exceptions occur.

Integration with other systems

Your user management system should integrate nicely with enterprise tools and platforms like email services, HR systems, or customer relationship management (CRM) software. Integration also allows for single sign-on capabilities and centralized management.

Password policies

User management services allow administrators to set policies that force users to create strong passwords, including restricted characters, minimum lengths, and expiration timelines. Systems can prompt users for password changes and lock accounts after several failed login attempts to prevent unauthorized access.

Notification and alerts

User management services are configured to send alerts via email, SMS, or in-app notifications about critical events like suspicious activities, upcoming password expirations, or system updates. These alerts can be tailored to the audience and their specific organizational roles.

Top 6 user management services in 2024

Here are the top 6 user management services:

1. WorkOS
2. Okta
3. Zluri
4. Sailpoint IdentityIQ
5. Oracle Identity & Access Management
6. Microsoft Entra ID

1. WorkOS

WorkOS is a cloud-based platform that simplifies identity and access management (IAM) for developers, aiming to make applications enterprise-ready with minimal effort.

Key features

• Single sign-on (SSO): This feature supports single sign-on capabilities for applications using standard protocols such as SAML and OAuth.
• Directory sync: This feature enables synchronization with corporate directories like Microsoft Active Directory and Google Workspace, facilitating automatic provisioning, user updates, and de-provisioning throughout a user’s lifecycle.
• Multi-factor authentication (MFA): This feature provides an additional layer of security by requiring multiple forms of verification.
• Admin portal: An admin dashboard allows customers to configure their SSO and SCIM connections.
• Integration: WorkOS offers API-driven integration for SCIM and SSO, facilitating seamless synchronization with identity providers and HRIS systems.
• Audit logs: It maintains comprehensive logs for monitoring and auditing purposes, which are crucial for maintaining security and compliance.

• Role-based access control (RBAC): This feature allows administrators to define roles and assign permissions based on those roles.
• Authentication: It supports various authentication methods, including social logins, email/password combinations, and magic links. It also allows for customizable password configurations to meet different security standards.
• Security features: It includes built-in automatic spam and bot detection, password strength validation, and leaked password protection.
• Organization-level policies: It enables customization of authorization levels per organization, allowing for tailored access control.

2. Okta

Okta is a cloud-based identity and access management (IAM) solution that provides tools for managing users across an organization.

Key features

• Centralized directory: Okta maintains a centralized cloud directory that stores and manages user identities. This directory acts as a single source of truth for user information, enabling centralized management of identities across all applications and services.
• Single sign-on: Okta supports OpenID Connect (OIDC) and Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) based single sign-on.
• Lifecycle management: It automates user lifecycle management from onboarding to offboarding. It integrates with HR systems to automatically create, update, or deactivate user accounts based on HR events.
• Role-based access control (RBAC): It allows administrators to define roles and assign permissions based on those roles.
• API access management: This feature manages API access with policies that define who can access which services under specific conditions.
• Integration with enterprise apps: Okta integrates with a wide range of enterprise applications, from Office 365 and Salesforce to Google Apps and AWS. 
• Analytics and reporting: Okta provides comprehensive analytics and reporting capabilities that help organizations monitor authentication activities, usage patterns and identify potential security threats. 

3. Zluri

Zluri is a SaaS management platform that manages user access across various applications, including federated and non-federated environments.

Key features

• SaaS management: Zluri provides visibility into an organization's SaaS apps and centralizes contracts, licenses, and overall spending.
• Audit logs: It monitors app-specific threats, tracks data shared with third parties and records global security events.

• Integration capabilities: It directly integrates with over 800 applications.
• Centralized access control: It offers visibility into user access and allows for the central definition and enforcement of access policies.

• Automated user lifecycle: It simplifies managing access requests by automating approvals and provisioning through integrations with communication tools like Slack.
• No-code workflows: It supports creating and managing access workflows with more than 2000 workflow actions available.

4. SailPoint IdentityIQ

SailPoint IdentityIQ automates identity governance and lifecycle management, ensuring secure access and compliance across various systems and applications.

Key features

• Lifecycle management: The platform's Lifecycle Manager component manages the entire user lifecycle, from onboarding to offboarding. It automates the provisioning of access based on user activities such as joining, moving within, or leaving the organization.
• Compliance management: The platform includes tools like Access Certification and Audit Reporting that automate compliance processes. 
• Provisioning: IdentityIQ supports automated provisioning and de-provisioning of users.
• Centralized access control: It allows you to manage access policies from a centralized platform.
• Privileged account management: It extends the identity governance processes to highly privileged accounts, ensuring that these sensitive accesses are managed and monitored with the same rigor as regular user access.​ 
• Integration with cloud and on-premises systems: SailPoint offers extensive connectors and integration modules that help connect and govern access across on-premises, hybrid, and cloud environments.

5. Oracle Identity & Access Management

Oracle Identity and Access Management offers robust tools to secure and manage identity and access for enterprise apps across cloud and on-premises deployments.

Key features

• Lifecycle management: Oracle's Identity Governance allows for efficient management of the entire user lifecycle, from provisioning to de-provisioning. 
• Compliance management: It supports automation of compliance processes like access certifications and entitlement reviews, which are crucial for meeting regulatory requirements like SOX and GDPR.
• RBAC support: The system’s intelligent role-mining capabilities help optimize RBAC by identifying and assigning roles based on user behavior and attributes.
• Access management: Oracle Access Management provides a unified solution to manage secure access across enterprise and cloud environments. It includes risk-aware multi-factor authentication (MFA), single sign-on (SSO), and adaptive authentication.

6. Microsoft Entra ID

Microsoft Entra ID, formerly Azure Active Directory, is a comprehensive identity and access management solution designed to manage and secure user identities and control access across your applications, data, and resources.

Key features

• Unified identity management: Microsoft Entra ID enables centralized management of identities and access across all cloud-based or on-premises applications. 

• Single sign-on (SSO): It simplifies the user experience by allowing single sign-on across various applications. 
• Conditional access and risk-based policies: Microsoft Entra ID supports conditional access policies that enforce access controls based on user, location, device, and other conditions.
• Privileged identity management: It manages and monitors privileged accounts with features like time-limited access, approval workflows, and access reviews.
• Provisioning and deprovisioning: This automates user account provisioning, updating, and de-provisioning across various platforms and applications.
• Entitlement management: This allows users to configure access packages to streamline permissions for applications, groups, and SharePoint sites.
• Group management: This feature automates the creation and management of groups. It allows for dynamic group memberships based on user attributes, simplifying the assignment of access rights across multiple resources.
• Delegated administration: This allows designated users or departments to manage certain aspects of identity and access management for their area of responsibility without granting them full administrative rights.
• Audit logs and reporting: This provides detailed tracking and reports of user activities and system changes for security audits and compliance.

Next steps

When picking a user management service, it all boils down to the needed features. If enterprise-grade user management features are what you're after, pick WorkOS.

WorkOS user management offers enterprise-grade authentication, automated user provisioning, RBAC, organization-level policies, and complete visibility of your app’s user sessions through a centralized dashboard.

It also offers a single API that integrates with dozens of identity providers and HRIS systems — including services mentioned in this list, like Okta, Microsoft Entra ID, and Sailpoint.

Ready to dive in? Getting started is easy. Use the customizable hosted AuthKit UI, or connect your front end to WorkOS using one of the many SDKs provided.

Sign up for WorkOS today, and start selling to enterprise customers tomorrow.