Okta Identity Cloud

Okta is the dominant vendor in the Identity-as-a-Service market, with over 18,000 customers as of fiscal year 2025. Its core value proposition is the breadth of its application catalog: Okta integrates with over 7,000 pre-built connectors covering SaaS apps, on-premise systems, cloud providers, and custom applications through SAML, OIDC, and SCIM protocols.

For workforce identity, Okta provides single sign-on that lets employees authenticate once and access all their approved applications. Adaptive MFA adds risk-based step-up authentication — users on recognized devices in expected locations can sign in with just a password, while anomalous logins trigger additional verification. The MFA options include Okta Verify (push notification), FIDO2/WebAuthn hardware keys, SMS, TOTP, and biometrics.

Lifecycle Management automates the provisioning and de-provisioning workflow: when an employee is added to an HR system like Workday or BambooHR, Okta automatically creates accounts and grants appropriate application access based on role. When they leave, a single action triggers de-provisioning across all connected apps — eliminating orphaned accounts that represent a significant security risk.

Okta also offers Customer Identity (CIAM) for building authentication into customer-facing applications, though Auth0 (now an Okta subsidiary) is typically preferred for developer use cases. Workforce SSO starts at $2/user/month; the full enterprise suite with lifecycle management and governance runs significantly higher on custom quotes.