Okta alternatives for small teams
Okta is the default answer to “how do we manage who has access to what.” But for
a small team the real problem isn’t Okta’s price — it’s that Okta
effectively isn’t sold to you. The Starter tier lists at $6 per user per month; the
same pricing page requires a $1,500 annual contract minimum.
Do the math at a small team’s size and the sticker price disappears. At $6/user/month,
the minimum doesn’t stop binding until you have about 21 people. A 5-person team
paying the $1,500 minimum is really paying
$25 per user per month — four times the listed price — for
seats it doesn’t have.
The effect is a floor that filters out companies below a certain size. Which is fine for
Okta, but it leaves small teams doing access management the manual way: adding and removing
people from each app by hand, and hoping nobody forgets a step when someone leaves.
Here’s what the realistic alternatives cost. Every number below comes from the
vendor’s own pricing page, checked August 2026 — not from a comparison-site
roundup.
The alternatives
JumpCloud
The most established option below Okta’s floor. JumpCloud sells à la carte
modules — Cloud Directory, SSO, User Lifecycle Management, MFA and more at
$3/user/month each — and bundles from $9 to $13/user/month, billed annually (the SSO
bundle is $11). There’s a 30-day trial but no free plan
(comparison sites still say “free for 10 users”; there’s no such plan on
JumpCloud’s pricing page today).
Good fit if: you also need device management — it’s the strongest
part of their lineup.
Watch out for: the à la carte model. Each capability is a separate module,
so the real monthly number depends on how many boxes you tick, and it climbs quickly.
Rippling IT
Rippling’s identity and device products are genuinely strong — and part of a
platform whose center of gravity is HR and payroll. Their small-business page lists a
starting price of $8/user/month plus a $40/month base fee, but that’s the platform
entry point: the IT and identity products have no published pricing, and every buying path
we could find on their site ends at a quote request.
Good fit if: you want payroll, benefits, HR and IT from one vendor and
you’re ready to have that sales conversation.
Watch out for: buying an HR platform to get identity management. If you
don’t need the HR side, you’re paying for their center of gravity, not yours.
Doing it by hand in Google Workspace
The honest default, because it’s what most small teams actually do. Google Workspace
gives you company email and groups; every app beyond Google — chat, code hosting,
docs, password manager — is still a manual invite when someone joins and a manual
removal when they leave, times every app, every time.
Good fit if: you’re 2 or 3 people and headcount isn’t changing soon.
At that size, a checklist honestly works.
Watch out for: the failure mode being invisible. Nothing tells you an
ex-contractor still has repo access; you find out when it matters.
Rostid (yes, that’s us)
Rostid is what we’re building for exactly the team Okta’s minimum filters out:
one roster for your company — add someone and their access follows; remove them and
it’s gone. The pricing is public and flat:
$5 per user per month, no minimum, no annual contract, no sales call
— the same product at 2 people or 200.
We’re in early access. Join the waitlist and we’ll send one
email when it opens.