# Customer identity and access management for small business buyers: what AI models recommend, November 2026

Gane Index, November 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 small B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/identity/customer-identity-and-access-management/smb

**Standing:** Clerk leads with 23% of first choices; verdict contested. 64 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) | 23% | 0% | 44 |
| 2 | [WorkOS AuthKit](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/workos-authkit/index.md) | 17% | 0% | 32 |
| 3 | [Kinde](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/kinde/index.md) | 16% | 0% | 31 |
| 4 | [Auth0](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/auth0/index.md) | 11% | 47% | 72 |
| 5 | [Frontegg](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/frontegg/index.md) | 9% | 4% | 27 |
| 6 | [Descope](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/descope/index.md) | 5% | 3% | 31 |
| 7 | [FusionAuth](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/fusionauth/index.md) | 3% | 7% | 27 |
| 8 | [Supabase Auth](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/supabase-auth/index.md) | 3% | 9% | 22 |
| 9 | [LoginRadius](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/loginradius/index.md) | 3% | 14% | 14 |
| 11 | [Stytch](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/stytch/index.md) | 2% | 4% | 23 |
| 12 | [miniOrange](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/miniorange/index.md) | 2% | 0% | 10 |
| 15 | [Firebase Authentication](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/firebase-authentication/index.md) | 0% | 19% | 31 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 76 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: no first choice
- GPT-5.4 mini: WorkOS AuthKit; alternatives Clerk
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Clerk; alternatives Frontegg, Kinde, PropelAuth, WorkOS AuthKit
- Perplexity Sonar: WorkOS AuthKit; alternatives Clerk, Frontegg, Stytch
- Grok 4.20: WorkOS AuthKit; alternatives Amazon Cognito, Auth0, Clerk, Stytch
- Mistral Small: Clerk, Frontegg; alternatives Kinde, LoginRadius
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Clerk; alternatives Frontegg, FusionAuth, WorkOS AuthKit
- Llama 4 Maverick: Clerk; alternatives Auth0, Frontegg, Kinde, LoginRadius
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Clerk, PropelAuth; alternatives Frontegg, Kinde
- Kimi K2: Frontegg, Kinde; alternatives Descope, SSOJet
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Stytch, WorkOS AuthKit; alternatives LoginRadius, SSOJet
- MiniMax M2.5: Kinde, PropelAuth; alternatives Clerk, Frontegg, LoginRadius
- GPT-6 Luna: WorkOS AuthKit; alternatives Auth0, Clerk
- Muse Glimmer 30B: WorkOS AuthKit; alternatives Auth0, Frontegg, Kinde, LoginRadius

## Sources the answers cite

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

- securityboulevard.com: 35 answers, 55 citations
- g2.com: 30 answers, 41 citations
- spotsaas.com: 29 answers, 45 citations
- startupstash.com: 22 answers, 24 citations
- okta.com: 21 answers, 32 citations
- kinde.com: 19 answers, 31 citations
- capterra.com: 19 answers, 27 citations
- auth0.com: 18 answers, 25 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://g2.com/categories/customer-identity-and-access-management-ciam/small-business (25 answers)
- https://securityboulevard.com/2025/12/top-ciam-for-smbs-secure-affordable-options (23 answers)
- https://spotsaas.com/list/customer-identity-and-access-management--ciam--software/for-small-business (20 answers)
- https://expertinsights.com/identity-and-access-management/top-customer-identity-and-access-management-ciam-solutions (16 answers)
- https://startupstash.com/customer-identity-and-access-management-ciam-tools (16 answers)
- https://ibtimes.com/top-5-best-customer-identity-access-management-ciam-solutions-2026-3800878 (14 answers)
- https://softwareadvice.com/ciam (14 answers)
- https://capterra.com/ciam-software (11 answers)
- https://gane.ai/index/it/identity/customer-identity-and-access-management/smb (11 answers)
- https://auth0.com/pricing (10 answers)

## Warned against

- Auth0: 34 of 72 labels negative. "Avoid Auth0 initially unless you specifically need enterprise features—it becomes expensive as you scale B2B." (MiniMax M2.5, paraphrase prompt)
- Amazon Cognito: 15 of 35 labels negative. "AWS Cognito: Too basic, requires significant custom development for B2B features" (MiniMax M2.5, direct prompt)
- Okta: 14 of 19 labels negative. "Okta and Ping Identity are routinely rated as enterprise-only first choices for SMB CIAM buyers... both sit at 0% first choices with high negative rates" (Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt)
- Ping Identity: 9 of 9 labels negative. "routinely rated as enterprise-only first choices for SMB CIAM buyers... 0% first choices with high negative rates" (Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt)

## Movement since October 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: Clerk at 23%.

- Kinde: 3% to 16%, +13. Cleared the floor by 2 points · rank 9 → 3 of 76.
- Frontegg: 19% to 9%, −10. Inside the floor by 1 point · rank 2 → 5 of 76.
- Clerk: 30% to 23%, −7. Inside the floor by 4 points · rank 1 of 76, unchanged.
- WorkOS AuthKit: 10% to 17%, +7. Inside the floor by 4 points · rank 4 → 2 of 76.
- Amazon Cognito: 5% to 0%, −5. Inside the floor by 6 points · rank 8 → 34 of 76.
- LoginRadius: 0% to 3%, +3. Inside the floor by 8 points · rank 16 → 9 of 76.
- Auth0: 13% to 11%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 3 → 4 of 76.
- FusionAuth: 5% to 3%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 6 → 7 of 76.
- Supabase Auth: 5% to 3%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 7 → 8 of 76.
- Stytch: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 13 → 11 of 76.
- miniOrange: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 19 → 12 of 76.
- Descope: 6% to 5%, −1. Inside the floor by 10 points · rank 5 → 6 of 76.

## Record

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