# Customer identity and access management for small business buyers: 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 small B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/identity/customer-identity-and-access-management/2026-09/smb

This is the permanent record of the September 2026 Edition, published September 17, 2026 and superseded since.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/smb/index.md

**Standing:** Clerk leads with 27% of first choices; verdict contested. 48 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Clerk](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/clerk/index.md) | 27% | 5% | 38 |
| 2 | [Auth0](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/auth0/index.md) | 25% | 51% | 61 |
| 3 | [Frontegg](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/frontegg/index.md) | 15% | 5% | 19 |
| 4 | [WorkOS AuthKit](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/workos-authkit/index.md) | 10% | 6% | 31 |
| 6 | [LoginRadius](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/loginradius/index.md) | 4% | 11% | 18 |
| 7 | [Amazon Cognito](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/amazon-cognito/index.md) | 4% | 50% | 20 |
| 8 | [Descope](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/descope/index.md) | 2% | 5% | 20 |
| 9 | [Firebase Authentication](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/firebase-authentication/index.md) | 2% | 22% | 18 |
| 12 | [Stytch](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/stytch/index.md) | 0% | 0% | 26 |
| 13 | [FusionAuth](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/fusionauth/index.md) | 0% | 6% | 16 |
| 14 | [Supabase Auth](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/supabase-auth/index.md) | 0% | 11% | 18 |
| 18 | [Keycloak](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/keycloak/index.md) | 0% | 36% | 14 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 50 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 SSOJet, WorkOS AuthKit
- GPT-5.4 mini: Auth0; alternatives Clerk, Descope, WorkOS AuthKit
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Kinde; alternatives PropelAuth, WorkOS AuthKit
- Perplexity Sonar: WorkOS AuthKit; alternatives Clerk, Descope, Frontegg
- Grok 4.20: Clerk, Frontegg; alternatives Stytch, Supabase Auth, WorkOS AuthKit
- Mistral Small: Frontegg; alternatives Microsoft Entra External ID, MojoAuth
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: SSOJet, WorkOS AuthKit; alternatives Stytch
- Llama 4 Maverick: Frontegg
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Clerk; alternatives Auth0, SuperTokens
- Kimi K2: Frontegg; alternatives Auth0, Clerk, FusionAuth, Kinde
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Frontegg; alternatives Amazon Cognito, Auth0, Descope, LoginRadius
- MiniMax M2.5: Clerk; alternatives Auth0, Supabase Auth, WorkOS AuthKit

## Sources the answers cite

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

- loginradius.com: 47 answers, 69 citations
- startwithidentity.com: 38 answers, 61 citations
- expertinsights.com: 29 answers, 31 citations
- descope.com: 25 answers, 30 citations
- workos.com: 23 answers, 46 citations
- guideflow.com: 18 answers, 18 citations
- ibtimes.com: 18 answers, 18 citations
- worldmetrics.org: 18 answers, 18 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://loginradius.com/blog/identity/top-ciam-for-small-and-medium-businesses (39 answers)
- https://expertinsights.com/identity-and-access-management/top-customer-identity-and-access-management-ciam-solutions (29 answers)
- https://guideflow.com/blog/ciam-software (18 answers)
- https://ibtimes.com/top-5-best-customer-identity-access-management-ciam-solutions-2026-3800878 (18 answers)
- https://startwithidentity.com/articles/top-7-ciam-platforms-b2b-saas (17 answers)
- https://descope.com/blog/post/ciam-solutions (17 answers)
- https://worldmetrics.org/best/customer-identity-management-software (17 answers)
- https://miniorange.com/blog/ciam-vendors (14 answers)
- https://startwithidentity.com/rankings/best-ciam-for-startups (14 answers)
- https://workos.com/blog/top-ciam-providers-in-2026 (13 answers)

## Warned against

- Auth0: 31 of 61 labels negative. "What to Avoid for a Small Business ... Auth0 ... too expensive and complex for a small business" (GLM 4.7 FlashX, paraphrase prompt)
- Okta: 11 of 14 labels negative. "small businesses should be cautious about or avoid the following types of customer identity platforms: Enterprise-focused CIAM platforms ... such as Okta (for customer use cases)" (Mistral Small, negative prompt)
- Amazon Cognito: 10 of 20 labels negative. "Only suitable if your entire application is already deeply embedded in AWS ... Otherwise, avoid." (DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt)
- ForgeRock Identity Platform: 5 of 5 labels negative. "ForgeRock can be a significant investment, potentially making it less accessible for smaller businesses or startups with limited budgets." (Claude Haiku 4.5, 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.