The best multi-factor authentication (MFA) solutions for Active Directory

Threat actors often target Active Directory (AD) user login credentials, making security measures like multi factor authentication (MFA) critical. Here's a guide to the best on premise MFA solutions for Active Directory environments, and how to choose the right fit for your team.

Active Directory MFA adds a layer of security to system access. Usually, that’s on top of a username and password. MFA boosts security with additional authentication factors to make sure users are who they say they are. Many cybersecurity compliance standards, industry-specific regulations, and cyber insurance providers now require MFA.

Here's how we see most MFA evaluation processes get started:

1. Look at your environment. Are your systems mostly on-premises, hybrid or full Entra ID? Pick a solution that will fit your environment for the next 1-3 years.

2. Narrow down solutions that integrate easily with your existing AD setup.

3. Evaluate granular MFA solutions for Active Directory that allow you to balance security and productivity.

4. Consider how the solution will scale across your user base. The best MFA providers allow you to configure MFA granularly. This can look like being able to set different MFA and access policies based on user risk level, logon context, and more.

How do the best MFA solutions for Active Directory stack up against each other?

UserLock is one of few MFA solutions that allows you to keep everything on-premises. More than just MFA, UserLock also makes it easy for IT to manage user friendly access and session-based controls.

You can apply UserLock broadly for MFA on IIS, RDP and RD Gateway, VPN, Windows login, and SaaS connections. Plus, prevent lateral movement and privilege abuse with MFA on user access control (UAC) prompts.

UserLock supports multiple MFA methods including push notifications, authenticator apps, and security keys such as YubiKey and Token2.

• Integration with on-premises AD is native. Unlike cloud-based MFA solutions, UserLock’s integration with AD is close by design.

• Quick installation. UserLock is easy to set up and follows the AD logic your team already knows to manage policies for users, groups, and OUs. 

• Automatic sync with AD every 5 minutes. Get visibility on user access events, while updates to AD user or group policies reflect quickly in UserLock policies. 

• Extend on-prem AD authentication with single sign-on (SSO) to cloud resources and SaaS apps.

• Session-based access controls allow IT to enforce policies for session duration, concurrent sessions, and more.

• Granular MFA application doesn’t frustrate end users, prevents authentication fatigue, and allows users and IT to stay productive. UserLock allows IT to apply MFA based on:

  1. Connection type: Apply MFA differently for connections inside the network, outside the network, or both.

  2. Session type: Apply MFA by workstation, server, IIS, VPN, SaaS, or UAC.

  3. Frequency: For each connection and session type, apply MFA every n days/hours/minutes.

• Add an extra layer of security with contextual access controls. Conditional access factors can include geolocation, IP address, device, number of concurrent logons, working hours, and more. UserLock automatically blocks authentication attempts that don’t meet your requirements.

• Offline MFA is always on. Maintain offline MFA even when user devices don’t have an internet connection. With UserLock Anywhere, you also can enforce off-domain MFA when the user doesn’t connect to the network via VPN. You can also enforce MFA in airgapped environments.

• Smooth MFA onboarding with self-enrollment and recovery codes. IT can allow users to skip MFA enrollment for a limited time. They can also enable backup recovery codes in case enrolled users can’t use their regular MFA method.

Duo is a cloud-based multi-factor authentication platform that can help protect on-premise Windows logins. 

• Integration with on-premises AD is an add-on rather than a native feature. Users must import users, groups, and administrators into Duo with directory sync. The directory sync is fairly low friction, but can add management overhead on top of managing your existing AD.

• Limited visibility on real-time user access events since scheduled user syncs with AD run twice a day.

• Updates to AD user or group policies automatically sync twice a day. This may mean you need to manually sync to ensure MFA and access policies for those groups update immediately.

• Reporting and auditing is available, but may not offer as many capabilities as other Duo MFA alternatives.

• Offline MFA mode is a temporary setting that only the user can turn on. This can be a problem for organizations that have to meet compliance requirements for MFA “all the time, in all conditions.”

• User experience is simple with Duo’s mobile app. End users often adopt push notifications more easily than other MFA methods.

• No session-based controls. Admins cannot set different MFA policies and frequency across different session types. For example, once per day for workstation logins and at every connection for remote RDP access. 

• Limitations for RDP and RemoteApp MFA, since MFA sits at the RD Gateway connection.

AuthLite works as a plugin with Active Directory. Alongside UserLock and Duo, the software is one of the most common MFA solutions for Active Directory. 

• The tool shines for administrative users, but the solution can be complex and costly to scale across a large user base.

• Part of that cost is the cost for YubiKeys, required for users to authenticate with AuthLite.

• Installation on the domain controller (DC) can pose a problem for organizations concerned about changes to Active Directory schema.

• Offline capabilities can be limited, potentially affecting productivity for remote or disconnected users.

• No single sign-on (SSO) makes Authlite a best fit for fully on-prem systems. While it doesn’t work with SSO, Authlite does enable MFA on Microsoft 365 access by linking AD to Microsoft 365 with AD Connect.

ManageEngine offers several IT management solutions, including password management. Once installed, ManageEngine admins can link MFA policies to their password controls at the group or organizational unit level. 

• Blanket MFA application doesn’t allow organizations to fine-tune policies for different contexts or risk levels.

• Built-in reporting on denied passwords and user login status can improve visibility and oversight.

• Session control beyond MFA might be lacking for admins who need more rigorous monitoring and regulation.

Silverfort's platform extends identity security across complex, multi-platform environments. Targeting large enterprises, Silverfort can unify MFA policies across legacy on-premises and cloud systems under one centralized console.

• Broad security coverage bridges on-premises systems, cloud apps, non-human identities, and more. 

• Integrators usually need to set up the solution. This can add complexity and cost during deployment.

• Unified management helps maintain consistent authentication policies across legacy systems, cloud-based resources, and non-Windows systems.

• Key identity protection features such as Universal MFA or adaptive MFA are only available on upper pricing tiers. Privileged Access Security (PAS) is an add-on priced per protected privileged user.

• Cost is high, but organizations with large, complex, multi-platform environments may be able to justify the investment. Organizations primarily operating in Windows environments may not fully experience the added value needed to justify the cost.

See an in-depth comparison of UserLock as a Silverfort alternative.

Okta provides a platform for identity and access management (IAM) and MFA aimed at larger enterprises. It gives admins some granular options for configuring access controls, with context-based policies to reduce end-user frustration.

• Wide integration capabilities with many cloud apps, though certain on-premises applications may require additional setup.

• High costs may be a blocking point for smaller organizations. Some organizations also may not need advanced features such as risk based authentication, which help justify the price.

• Complex setup can demand specialized expertise to configure and maintain.

• Scalability allows support for organizations of various sizes and industries.

Shift Technologies was looking for a two-factor authentication (2FA) system to deploy for multiple clients. The clients needed to comply with cyber insurance MFA requirements. To meet the policy requirements, the 2FA solution had to maintain MFA without an internet connection, manage all access attempts within the network, and allow for customization of individual user access.

Since the clients needed an on-premise solution that directly integrated with Active Directory, UserLock came up in a Google search as an obvious choice. The insurance company approved the use of UserLock, and the Shift Technologies team quickly saw it was easy to deploy, user-friendly, and effective.

A European Ministry of Defense was looking for an on-premise MFA solution that aligned with their national and NATO requirements. The solution had to be easy to configure with their existing AD infrastructure and allow remote enrollment to integrate with their automated mission deployments.

Ultimately, the Ministry of Defense chose UserLock to provide robust security for their many classified networks and admin accounts. UserLock’s capabilities meets the Ministry of Defense’s national and NATO security standards and performs well in their dynamic mission environment. As a result, the Ministry of Defense relies on UserLock to deliver strong MFA to safeguard their networks.

The Quebec Police Services must have MFA in place to meet local compliance regulations. Since the City of Trois-Rivières already had 250 YubiKey tokens, they wanted to find an MFA platform that was compatible with YubiKeys. UserLock came up as an ideal solution, especially since it supports YubiKey to apply MFA on RDP and Windows domain connections.

After installing UserLock MFA, the Quebec Police Services now meets MFA requirements. They also simplify their daily work. UserLock’s centralized console and logon reports helps the City of Trois-Rivières to better manage and monitor user access.