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

Gane Index, October 2026 Edition. Asked as "customer identity platform" and as "CIAM solution for a product's users", six framings each, to fourteen 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/2026-10

This is the permanent record of the October 2026 Edition, published October 1, 2026 and superseded since. The current standing: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/identity/customer-identity-and-access-management/index.md

**Standing:** Frontegg leads with 21% of first choices; verdict contested. 57 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Frontegg](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/frontegg/index.md) | 21% | 0% | 30 |
| 2 | [Auth0](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/auth0/index.md) | 18% | 22% | 60 |
| 3 | [Clerk](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/clerk/index.md) | 18% | 3% | 31 |
| 4 | [LoginRadius](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/loginradius/index.md) | 12% | 5% | 22 |
| 5 | [WorkOS AuthKit](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/workos-authkit/index.md) | 7% | 0% | 22 |
| 6 | [Descope](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/descope/index.md) | 5% | 0% | 20 |
| 7 | [FusionAuth](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/fusionauth/index.md) | 5% | 5% | 22 |
| 8 | [Microsoft Entra External ID](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/microsoft-entra-external-id/index.md) | 4% | 23% | 39 |
| 9 | [Keycloak](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/keycloak/index.md) | 4% | 18% | 17 |
| 11 | [Firebase Authentication](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/firebase-authentication/index.md) | 2% | 36% | 11 |
| 13 | [Stytch](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/stytch/index.md) | 0% | 0% | 13 |
| 14 | [Ping Identity](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/ping-identity/index.md) | 0% | 24% | 29 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 70 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: Descope, Frontegg; alternatives OneWelcome Identity Platform, SSOJet, WorkOS AuthKit
- GPT-5.4 mini: Frontegg; alternatives Auth0/Okta Customer Identity Cloud, FusionAuth, Okta
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: WorkOS AuthKit; alternatives Clerk, Frontegg, Kinde
- Perplexity Sonar: LoginRadius; alternatives Clerk, Frontegg, Microsoft Entra External ID
- Grok 4.20: Auth0; alternatives Clerk, Frontegg, FusionAuth, Microsoft Entra External ID
- Mistral Small: LoginRadius; alternatives Thales OneWelcome
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Auth0, Frontegg; alternatives Clerk, Microsoft Entra External ID, Stytch
- Llama 4 Maverick: LoginRadius; alternatives Clerk, OneWelcome Identity Platform
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Auth0, Clerk; alternatives Microsoft Entra ID
- Kimi K2: Clerk, Frontegg; alternatives FusionAuth, WorkOS AuthKit
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Auth0; alternatives Clerk, Descope, LoginRadius, Microsoft Entra External ID
- MiniMax M2.5: Auth0, Clerk; alternatives Descope, LoginRadius
- GPT-6 Luna: WorkOS AuthKit; alternatives Auth0, Microsoft Entra External ID, Stytch
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Frontegg, LoginRadius; alternatives Auth0, Ping Identity

## Sources the answers cite

78 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- cybersecuritynews.com: 39 answers, 54 citations
- guptadeepak.com: 36 answers, 61 citations
- workos.com: 31 answers, 43 citations
- expertinsights.com: 30 answers, 30 citations
- checkthat.ai: 29 answers, 32 citations
- securityboulevard.com: 28 answers, 50 citations
- guideflow.com: 27 answers, 27 citations
- descope.com: 25 answers, 30 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://expertinsights.com/identity-and-access-management/top-customer-identity-and-access-management-ciam-solutions (30 answers)
- https://cybersecuritynews.com/best-ciam-solutions/amp (28 answers)
- https://guideflow.com/blog/ciam-software (27 answers)
- https://checkthat.ai/answers/what-are-the-best-customer-identity-and-access-management-solutions (23 answers)
- https://workos.com/blog/top-ciam-providers-in-2026 (22 answers)
- https://descope.com/blog/post/ciam-solutions (20 answers)
- https://cybersecuritynews.com/best-ciam-solutions (15 answers)
- https://guptadeepak.com/comprehensive-ciam-providers-directory-top-identity-authentication-solutions (15 answers)
- https://cyberpress.org/ciam-solutions-by-use-case (14 answers)
- https://ibtimes.com/top-5-best-customer-identity-access-management-ciam-solutions-2026-3800878 (12 answers)

## Warned against

- Auth0: 13 of 60 labels negative. "Budget Trap to Avoid: Auth0 (Okta) ... it is not recommended for companies on a limited budget" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, budget prompt)
- Okta: 10 of 20 labels negative. "many models advise small businesses to be cautious or avoid Okta for customer identity use cases due to complexity and cost" (Mistral Small, negative prompt)
- Microsoft Entra External ID: 9 of 39 labels negative. "Azure AD B2C if you need a broad, flexible CIAM platform... limited to single-app external use cases... limited customization" (Perplexity Sonar, negative prompt)
- Amazon Cognito: 11 of 31 labels negative. "Avoid Cognito if your development team wants to move fast with modern, out-of-the-box UI components and smooth SDKs." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt)

## Movement since September 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: Auth0 at 20%.

- WorkOS AuthKit: 22% to 4%, −18. Cleared the floor by 7 points · rank 2 → 7 of 62.
- Clerk: 7% to 18%, +11. Inside the floor by 0 points · rank 4 → 3 of 62.
- LoginRadius: 2% to 12%, +10. Inside the floor by 1 point · rank 10 → 4 of 62.
- Descope: 0% to 6%, +6. Inside the floor by 5 points · rank 16 → 5 of 62.
- Keycloak: 0% to 4%, +4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 22 → 8 of 62.
- Ping Identity: 4% to 0%, −4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 7 → 14 of 62.
- Amazon Cognito: 4% to 0%, −4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 9 → 24 of 62.
- Frontegg: 17% to 20%, +3. Inside the floor by 8 points · rank 3 → 2 of 62.
- Auth0: 22% to 20%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 1 of 62, unchanged.
- FusionAuth: 4% to 6%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 8 → 6 of 62.
- Microsoft Entra External ID: 4% to 2%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 6 → 10 of 62.
- Stytch: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 17 → 13 of 62.

## Record

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