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12/06/2026 12:46 am
TL;DR: Identity governance tools solve different sides of access management, with one focused on SaaS access control and the other on authentication, MFA, and contextual policies, while both still require careful fit analysis for access review, provisioning, and compliance workflows, according to Zluri. The deeper issue is that IGA selection is about governance scope, not feature count, especially when SaaS sprawl and lifecycle automation are involved.
NHIMG editorial — based on content published by Zluri: BetterCloud vs Okta and the IGA capabilities each covers
By the numbers:
- Only 20% have formal processes for offboarding and revoking API keys, and even fewer have procedures for rotating them.
- 70% of organisations grant AI systems more access than they would give a human employee performing the exact same job.
- Only 44% of organisations have implemented any policies to manage their AI agents, despite 92% agreeing that governing AI agents is critical to enterprise security.
Questions worth separating out
Q: How should security teams choose between authentication controls and IGA controls?
A: Security teams should choose them as complementary layers, not substitutes.
Q: When does access automation create more risk than manual review?
A: Access automation creates more risk when the target applications cannot reliably revoke access, when source events are poor quality, or when exceptions are too complex for a standard workflow.
Q: What do security teams get wrong about access reviews?
A: They often treat completed certifications as proof of control.
Practitioner guidance
- Separate authentication from entitlement governance Create a control map that assigns MFA, sign-on policy, and contextual risk decisions to the authentication layer while reserving app access, role cleanup, and certification for the governance layer.
- Tie lifecycle automation to authoritative events Use HR or identity source changes to drive provisioning and deprovisioning for SaaS apps, then validate that each target application can actually revoke access cleanly.
- Require review evidence beyond entitlement lists Build access reviews around last-login signals, role data, admin exceptions, and audit logs so reviewers can judge whether access is still appropriate.
What's in the full article
Zluri's full comparison covers the operational detail this post intentionally leaves for the source:
- Feature-by-feature comparison of BetterCloud and Okta across access governance, authentication, and SaaS administration
- Workflow detail on provisioning, deprovisioning, and automated access review execution
- Customer review and rating context that may help with vendor shortlisting
- Expanded discussion of Zluri as an alternative for access discovery and certification workflows
👉 Read Zluri's comparison of BetterCloud and Okta for IGA selection →
BetterCloud vs Okta: what this comparison means for IAM teams?
Explore further
12/06/2026 10:13 am
BetterCloud versus Okta is not a product choice problem, it is a control boundary problem. One platform is positioned around SaaS entitlement governance and automated access operations, while the other is centred on authentication, MFA, and contextual sign-on. That split matters because identity programmes fail when they assume authentication strength can substitute for lifecycle control or when they assume entitlement review alone can secure session entry. Practitioners should treat the comparison as a map of governance layers, not as a feature race.
A few things that frame the scale:
- 70% of organisations grant AI systems more access than they would give a human employee performing the exact same job, according to The 2026 Infrastructure Identity Survey.
- 59% of infrastructure leaders cite "confidently wrong" AI configuration as their top fear, showing that access decisions and configuration trust are now linked.
A question worth separating out:
Q: What is the difference between entitlement governance and sign-on policy?
A: Entitlement governance determines which applications, files, roles, and privileges a user can hold. Sign-on policy determines the conditions under which a user can enter the environment in the first place. Both are necessary, but they answer different governance questions and should be measured separately.
👉 Read our full editorial: BetterCloud vs Okta exposes the limits of modern IGA choices
