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IBM Verify
Your SaaS apps have single sign-on. Your VPN and the old claims portal still don’t — IBM Verify gives your workforce one sign-in, a second factor and a risk check on every attempt, and two gateways bring legacy web apps and RADIUS-based VPNs under the same policy.
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Same software. Better outcome — at a lower cost.
How it’s rated
Full scoreboard ↓Quick answer
The IBM platform family
This page covers IBM Verify — Workforce Identity: single sign-on, MFA and adaptive access. Governance and privileged access are separate Verify products. The rest:
Quick facts
30-second orientation- Product
- Workforce identity: single sign-on, MFA, adaptive access, passwordless, orchestration and lifecycle
- Maker
- IBM; Chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna, quoted as CEO in the Q2 2026 results of 22 July 2026
- Name
- Sold as IBM Verify; IBM has dropped the old “IBM Security” prefix from the product line
- Scope
- IBM says it secures both human and non-human identities from one identity-first platform
- Deploy
- SaaS, with an on-premises option; Application Gateway is a container reverse proxy you host
- Legacy reach
- Verify Gateway for RADIUS handles first and second factor and can use an external LDAP
- Price
- Usage-based on total active monthly users per use case; estimator on ibm.com, no public rate
- Analysts
- IBM says it was named a Leader in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Access Management
- India
- No Indian Verify SaaS tenant documented; IBM India & South Asia is led by MD Sandip Patel
- In India via
- TechBag — app inventory, use-case sizing, quote in INR with GST, pilot on one user group
Understand workforce identity before you buy it
Most product pages skip this. We start here — so you buy a capability, not a buzzword.
What is workforce identity?
One sign-in for staff, a second factor when it matters, and a risk check that decides when to ask.
A password per system and a bare VPN login vs IBM Verify — the honest table
What consolidation actually replaces, dimension by dimension.
| Dimension | A password per system, a bare VPN login | IBM Verify |
|---|---|---|
| Passwords per employee | One for each system, reset by the help desk | One Verify sign-in reaching the entitled apps |
| The VPN login | A password alone at the concentrator | First and second factor via the RADIUS gateway |
| The old web app | Its own login page, left out of SSO | Behind Application Gateway, no rewrite |
| When to challenge | Every time, or never | Contextual and behavioural risk per sign-in |
| Service and machine logins | Shared secrets nobody owns | In scope: IBM covers non-human identities |
| What it is NOT | — | Governance, PAM, or a published price list |
The cheapest test is the free trial: connect three SaaS apps, enrol one team in MFA, and ask IBM to prove FIDO2 on your own devices.
The five pieces of the platform
Vendors love diagrams; buyers need to know what they’re actually operating. Here’s the whole platform, demystified.
Tenant
An IBM-hosted tenant brokers single sign-on to your applications, runs the MFA and passwordless prompts, and holds the lifecycle and orchestration logic for the workforce.
Risk
Every attempt is weighed on contextual and behavioural risk signals, and the policy decides whether to allow it, ask for a stronger factor or refuse it outright.
Gateway
A container reverse proxy you run in front of older web applications, so they sit behind Verify sign-in without code changes to the applications themselves.
RADIUS
A RADIUS bridge that checks the first factor and the second, optionally against an external LDAP, so VPN concentrators and network devices get Verify MFA.
One IBM-hosted tenant for sign-in and risk — with gateways that carry it to legacy web apps and RADIUS-based VPNs.
Nine capabilities. Sign in, decide, reach.
IBM Verify signs your workforce in once, judges each attempt on risk, and reaches the apps and VPNs most identity products leave out.
One sign-in for the workforce
Staff authenticate once to the Verify tenant and reach the applications they are entitled to, instead of a password per system.
A second factor where it counts
Multi-factor prompts can be required per application or per risk level, priced as their own use case on active monthly users.
Sign-in without a password
IBM lists passwordless sign-in for Verify; ask IBM to demonstrate FIDO2 keys and passkeys on your devices before you plan around them.
Risk read at every attempt
Contextual and behavioural signals score each sign-in, so a familiar device passes quietly and an odd one is challenged or stopped.
Identity flows stitched together
IBM lists identity orchestration among Verify’s jobs; have the sales engineer build one of your real sign-in journeys in the trial.
Joiners, movers and leavers
Lifecycle sits on the Workforce Identity page; deeper certification and segregation of duties belong to Verify Identity Governance.
Old web apps behind new sign-in
IBM Application Gateway is a container reverse proxy that puts legacy web applications behind Verify without rewriting them.
MFA on the VPN
Verify Gateway for RADIUS checks first and second factors for VPNs and network devices, and can look users up in an external LDAP.
Machines as well as people
IBM positions Verify as securing both human and non-human identities; confirm which service and workload cases your tenant covers.
Watch the ideas behind IBM Verify
Four IBM Technology topic explainers — single sign-on, multi-factor authentication, FIDO and identity fabrics. IBM’s channels carry no Verify product demo, so treat these as background, not a walkthrough.
Identity Fabric: How AI Enhances IAM & Modern Cybersecurity
An IBM Technology explainer on joining identity tools into one fabric — the idea behind Verify’s orchestration, not a product demo.
What is Single Sign On (SSO)
How one authenticated session opens many applications, explained on a whiteboard by IBM’s technology channel.
What is Multi-Factor Authentication
The three kinds of factor and why combining them matters, in a short IBM Technology lesson rather than a Verify walkthrough.
FIDO Promises a Life Without Passwords
Why FIDO keys and passkeys resist phishing; a general explainer, so confirm Verify’s own FIDO2 support in a trial.
Want a live, India-context walkthrough for your environment?
Book a guided demo →Most identity products stop at the app nobody can rewrite. Verify brings its own gateways for it.
Here’s what genuinely sets it apart — and exactly where it stops.
One identity layer for the old estate too
Most identity products shine on SaaS and stall at the app nobody can rewrite. Verify brings two bridges: Application Gateway, a container reverse proxy for legacy web apps, and Verify Gateway for RADIUS, which puts first and second factors on VPNs.
Risk decides when to ask, not a fixed rule
Adaptive access scores each sign-in on contextual and behavioural risk: a known laptop passes, an odd attempt meets a stronger factor or a refusal. IBM sells it as a separate use case on the active-user meter, so you buy it for the people who need it.
A family to grow into, under one vendor
IBM lists nine Verify products. Workforce Identity is the front door; Identity Governance handles certification and segregation of duties, CIAM and Verify Directory are sold apart, and Verify Privileged Identity is powered by Delinea, not built by IBM.
Where it stops
No public per-user rate, only an estimator, so every comparison starts with a quote. IBM documents Verify SaaS in the US, Canada, Europe, Japan and China, not India. Its FIDO2 docs would not open for TechBag, and IBM’s channels carry explainers, not a Verify demo.
The numbers behind the platform
What your IBM Verify rollout looks like
List every way people sign in
Inventory SaaS apps, legacy web apps, VPNs and network kit, and mark which can federate and which need a gateway.
Size the use cases, not the seats
Count active monthly users for SSO, MFA and adaptive access separately, run IBM’s estimator, and ask for the quote in INR.
Pilot on one user group
Start the free trial, connect a handful of SaaS apps, enrol one department in MFA, and ask IBM to prove FIDO2 on your devices.
Bring in the legacy estate
Stand up Application Gateway for one old web app and the RADIUS gateway for the VPN, then time each sign-in end to end.
Tune risk, then roll out
Set adaptive-access policies for administrators and remote staff first, review the challenge rate, then widen to everyone.
The review scoreboard
Modelled on Gartner Peer Insights structure. *Counts and breakdowns are illustrative pending verified review collection.
Quick poll — what’s driving your evaluation?
Talk to an advisor“The RADIUS gateway gave our branch VPN a second factor in a week, and the concentrator never knew Verify was there.”
“Our claims portal is fifteen years old. Application Gateway put it behind the same sign-in as our SaaS without a code change.”
“Adaptive access stopped prompting plant engineers on known kiosks and started challenging the odd night-time login.”
“Sizing by active users per use case took two calls with IBM; model which groups need adaptive access before you ask.”
“Ask where your tenant lives on day one. Our auditors wanted India, and the documented regions did not include it.”
“Strong once running, but the gateway containers needed our own Kubernetes skills. Budget for that, not just licences.”
Where everyone sits — the grids
Analyst firms bury this view behind paywalls, and G2 retired its Grid. So here’s TechBag’s synthesis of the workforce identity market — tap any vendor to see why it sits where it does.
TechBag Workforce Identity Grid
Execution strength vs product vision — the classic market map, minus the paywall.
Metered per active user and use case; no public rate.
Legacy Reach × Policy Depth
The grid nobody publishes — how far a product reaches into legacy apps, VPNs and on-premises deployment vs how deeply it judges each sign-in.
App Gateway, RADIUS gateway, on-prem option; adaptive access.
Positions are TechBag’s illustrative synthesis of public review-platform data and vendor documentation — not a reproduction of any analyst graphic. Verify before relying on it.
IBM Verify vs the workforce identity field
Against Okta Single Sign-On, Cisco Duo, miniOrange SSO, OpenText NetIQ Access Manager and Symantec SiteMinder — on deployment, legacy reach, factors, risk, price, scale, India and exit.
| Dimension | IBM Verify | Okta Single Sign-On | Cisco Duo | miniOrange SSO | OpenText NetIQ Access Manager | Symantec SiteMinder |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Workforce IAM SaaS | Hosted identity provider | MFA layer, now with SSO | Pune-built SSO and MFA | Self-hosted SSO + proxy | Web access management |
| Deployment | SaaS, plus on-prem | Okta-run cloud only | Cloud, gateway extra | Cloud or on-premise | Containers or appliance | Your Kubernetes |
| Apps without federation | App + RADIUS gateways | Gateway at Enterprise | RADIUS; web gateway $9 | Widest legacy list | Reverse-proxy gateway | Agents, header SSO |
| Factors and passwordless | FIDO2 to confirm | Keys and passkeys | FIDO2 from Essentials | WebAuthn at $3 | Separate licence | Passkeys via WebAuthn |
| Adaptive and conditional access | Contextual + behavioural | Tier-gated depth | Risk-based at Advantage | Adaptive at Premium | In-session re-scoring | Via VIP Auth Hub |
| Pricing model | Per active user, per use | Per user, five suites | Per user, four editions | Per user; quoted on-prem | Two quotes | Partner quote only |
| Published entry price | No public rate | $6/user/month | Free to 10 users | $2/user/month | Not published | No figure anywhere |
| Included vs add-on | Each use case metered | Lifecycle from Core | Gateway in Premier | SCIM at Premium | Factors cost extra | MFA hub extra |
| Scale and references | Gartner AM Leader 2025 | 19,000+ organisations | Only Free is capped | 5,000+ integrations | 500+ connectors | Anonymised customers |
| Directories and lifecycle | Lifecycle, own directory | Universal Directory | Duo Directory, 2025 | AD, LDAP, SCIM | M365 and REST APIs | Uses your directory |
| India data location | No India tenant shown | Indian tenants, 2026 | India region unconfirmed | On-prem; Pune maker | Your Indian DC | Your own cluster |
| Support and trial | Free trial | 30-day trial | 30 days, quick start | 30-day trial, every plan | No self-serve trial | No trial listed |
| Lock-in and exit | Policies in IBM tooling | Rented directory | Removable MFA layer | Same plans, either form | Gateway rules stay put | Agents to unwind |
| Best fit | Mixed old and new apps | SaaS-heavy, cloud-first | MFA in front of all | Price-led Indian buyers | Self-run federation | Legacy web portals |
Which approach fits you?
Honest fit signals — because the fastest way to lose your trust is to pretend one product wins every scenario.
Choose IBM Verify if…
- ✓Your estate mixes SaaS with legacy web apps and VPNs, and you want IBM’s Application Gateway and RADIUS gateway to bring them under one sign-in
- ✓You want risk-based challenges priced as their own use case, bought only for the populations that need them
- ✓You expect to add governance or privileged access later and would rather grow inside one vendor’s Verify family
Compare alternatives if…
- ✓You want a price before the first call — Okta, Cisco Duo and miniOrange all publish per-user rates
- ✓Identity data must sit in India today — Okta offers in-country tenants, and miniOrange, NetIQ and SiteMinder can run on your own servers
- ✓You only need MFA in front of an identity provider you already own — Cisco Duo is built for exactly that
Do not expect…
- ✓A per-user list price, or a rupee price on IBM’s site
- ✓A documented Indian Verify SaaS tenant — IBM Cloud’s Chennai and Mumbai regions are not Verify regions
- ✓A product demo on IBM’s channels — the videos here are topic explainers
IBM Verify is one of 26 iam, sso & mfa products TechBag carries. The IAM, SSO & MFA guide narrows them to a shortlist and shows the reasoning. →
What do passwords and help-desk resets cost you?
Drag the sliders (workforce users; staff-hour cost). Estimates model the time lost to password resets, repeated logins and help-desk calls at an assumed 1.5 hours per user a year, with 70% of it removed by single sign-on and self-service MFA. Both figures are assumptions. Illustrative.
Loaded cost = salary + overheads per productive hour. Illustrative only — your TechBag quote models your actual environment and modules.
Three ways to consume it
Quote only. IBM prices Verify on actual usage: single sign-on, MFA and adaptive access are each charged on the total active monthly users of that use case, and ibm.com offers an estimator and a free trial but no per-user rate. Governance (Verify Identity Governance) and privileged access (Verify Privileged Identity, powered by Delinea) are separate products. IBM shows no rupee price. TechBag counts your users per use case first, then quotes in INR with GST.
SSO and MFA
Best for getting the workforce onto one sign-in
- Metered on active monthly users
- SSO and MFA priced as separate use cases
- Free trial; estimator on ibm.com
+ Platform add-ons
Best for a broader rollout
- Scoped to your estate
- Add-on modules as needed
- Phased, right-sized deployment
Adaptive access
Best for the users an attacker would target
- Contextual and behavioural risk per sign-in
- Its own use case on the same meter
- Buy it for admins and remote staff first
Buy it for less — TechBag pricing beats list
Whatever the list prices above, TechBag negotiates a significantly better deal — with GST-compliant INR invoicing and local support. Ask us for your discounted quote.
Get an India-ready quote
Tell us your requirements and current tools — we’ll model it against what you spend today.
The 8 questions to ask every vendor
Take this into your next vendor call — including ours.
What does your Entra ID or Google tier already cover, and which specific gap is Verify meant to fill?
Which web apps cannot federate, and will Application Gateway containers run on infrastructure you already operate?
Which VPNs and network devices need a second factor through the RADIUS gateway, and against which LDAP?
Has IBM shown FIDO2 keys or passkeys working on your devices, or only push and one-time codes?
How many active monthly users need SSO, MFA and adaptive access each? The three are metered apart.
Which region will hold your tenant? IBM documents none in India, so get the location in the contract.
Will certification and segregation of duties come from Verify Identity Governance, and is it in the same quote?
Is the quote itemised per use case, in INR with GST, with support terms and the trial-to-production steps?
Questions buyers ask
Ready to evaluate IBM Verify?
Count your active users per use case first, or let a TechBag advisor map your legacy apps and VPNs, size the quote and run a pilot on one department.
Stats, ratings, review counts and pricing are illustrative and sourced from public materials; verify before purchase.