# Customer identity and access management: what AI models recommend, September 2026

Gane Index, September 2026 Edition. Asked as "customer identity platform" and as "CIAM solution for a product's users", six framings each, to twelve models with search on, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/identity/customer-identity-and-access-management/2026-09

This is the permanent record of the September 2026 Edition, published September 17, 2026 and superseded since. The current standing: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/identity/customer-identity-and-access-management/index.md

**Standing:** Auth0 (tied with WorkOS AuthKit) leads with 22% of first choices; verdict contested. 54 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Auth0](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/auth0/index.md) | 22% | 22% | 67 |
| 2 | [WorkOS AuthKit](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/workos-authkit/index.md) | 22% | 7% | 30 |
| 3 | [Frontegg](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/frontegg/index.md) | 17% | 0% | 32 |
| 4 | [Clerk](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/clerk/index.md) | 7% | 10% | 21 |
| 6 | [Microsoft Entra External ID](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/microsoft-entra-external-id/index.md) | 4% | 9% | 32 |
| 7 | [Ping Identity](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/ping-identity/index.md) | 4% | 14% | 22 |
| 8 | [FusionAuth](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/fusionauth/index.md) | 4% | 13% | 15 |
| 9 | [Amazon Cognito](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/amazon-cognito/index.md) | 4% | 28% | 25 |
| 10 | [LoginRadius](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/loginradius/index.md) | 2% | 7% | 14 |
| 16 | [Descope](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/descope/index.md) | 0% | 8% | 26 |
| 17 | [Stytch](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/stytch/index.md) | 0% | 0% | 19 |
| 18 | [ForgeRock Identity Platform](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/forgerock-identity-platform/index.md) | 0% | 10% | 10 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 72 products named; products with the same share are tied, and the order among them carries no meaning. The table lists those with at least 10 labels.

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: Frontegg; alternatives Stytch, Thales OneWelcome
- GPT-5.4 mini: Auth0; alternatives FusionAuth, WorkOS AuthKit
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: WorkOS AuthKit; alternatives Frontegg, PropelAuth
- Perplexity Sonar: WorkOS AuthKit; alternatives Auth0, Clerk, Frontegg
- Grok 4.20: Frontegg, WorkOS AuthKit; alternatives Auth0, Descope, Microsoft Entra External ID
- Mistral Small: Auth0, Ping Identity; alternatives Frontegg, Tealium
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: WorkOS AuthKit; alternatives Auth0, Frontegg, Stytch
- Llama 4 Maverick: Auth0, Frontegg, Ping Identity; alternatives Hightouch, Tealium, Twilio Segment
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Auth0, Clerk; alternatives Microsoft Entra, SuperTokens
- Kimi K2: Frontegg; alternatives Auth0, Stytch, WorkOS AuthKit
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: WorkOS AuthKit; alternatives Auth0, Frontegg
- MiniMax M2.5: Auth0, Frontegg

## Sources the answers cite

65 of 72 answers came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- expertinsights.com: 36 answers, 36 citations
- loginradius.com: 29 answers, 37 citations
- startwithidentity.com: 28 answers, 43 citations
- guideflow.com: 26 answers, 26 citations
- guptadeepak.com: 23 answers, 36 citations
- securityboulevard.com: 23 answers, 29 citations
- descope.com: 20 answers, 21 citations
- workos.com: 19 answers, 27 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://expertinsights.com/identity-and-access-management/top-customer-identity-and-access-management-ciam-solutions (34 answers)
- https://guideflow.com/blog/ciam-software (26 answers)
- https://descope.com/blog/post/ciam-solutions (18 answers)
- https://loginradius.com/blog/identity/top-ciam-for-small-and-medium-businesses (17 answers)
- https://peerspot.com/categories/customer-identity-and-access-management-ciam (14 answers)
- https://worldmetrics.org/best/customer-identity-management-software (14 answers)
- https://guptadeepak.com/top-5-enterprise-ciam-platforms-in-depth-comparison (13 answers)
- https://idsync.com/compare/best-ciam-tools (12 answers)
- https://miniorange.com/blog/ciam-vendors (12 answers)
- https://workos.com/blog/top-ciam-providers-in-2026 (12 answers)

## Warned against

- Auth0: 15 of 67 labels negative. "Developers report massive price increases of 300% to 1,500% on renewal" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt)
- Amazon Cognito: 7 of 25 labels negative. "generally not recommended for highly regulated industries or enterprise-grade governance without significant customization" (GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt)
- Keycloak: 5 of 15 labels negative. "Avoid self-hosting Keycloak unless you have a dedicated, experienced DevOps and Security team" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt)
- IDMerit: 3 of 3 labels negative. "IDmerit: MongoDB exposure of ~1 billion KYC records (November 2025)" (Kimi K2, negative prompt)

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, September 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/it.