AD FS is winding down.
Your Active Directory isn’t.
Microsoft’s investment has moved to Entra ID, leaving AD FS in maintenance mode, but not every organization can or wants to move identity to a cloud-only IdP. Monosign layers modern SAML 2.0, OIDC, and WS-Fed federation on top of the Active Directory you already run, adds the MFA, conditional access, and lifecycle AD FS never had, and deploys in minutes.
AD stays the source of truth
AD FS’s whole appeal was being native to Active Directory. Moving to a cloud-only IdP shifts identity’s center of gravity out of your directory. Monosign federates on top of the AD you already run: users, groups, and passwords stay where they are; you gain the modern protocols.
Everything AD FS did, and what it never could
WS-Fed for the legacy relying parties, SAML 2.0 and OIDC for everything modern, Kerberos for integrated Windows sign-on. Then the parts AD FS left to add-ons or never had: MFA up to passkeys, conditional access policies, SCIM provisioning, and a 7,000+ app catalog.
Your infrastructure or ours
Monosign runs self-hosted on your infrastructure or as SaaS: same product, same price. Teams that cannot or will not go all-in on a cloud IdP keep full control of where identity lives, without staying on software that is no longer moving forward.
Monofor vs AD FS,
feature by feature.
At the federation core the two overlap; that is the point, migration is low-risk. The difference is everything AD FS never grew: MFA, conditional access, lifecycle, and a product that is still being invested in.
Compare product coverage. “Supported” does not mean included in the entry price. Read each value alongside its plan, additional-product, and deployment conditions.
| Capability / scope | Monofor | AD FS |
|---|---|---|
| Actively developed product Roadmap, releases, new capabilities | Supported | Maintenance mode |
| SAML 2.0 federation | Supported | Supported |
| OpenID Connect / OAuth 2.0 Modern app and API flows | Supported | Partial; verify scope |
| WS-Fed for legacy relying parties | Supported | Supported |
| Kerberos / integrated Windows authentication | Supported | Supported |
| Active Directory as source of truth No directory migration required | Supported | Supported |
| MFA built in TOTP, push, FIDO2 passkeys, adaptive step-up | Supported | Via add-ons |
| Conditional access policies Risk, network, device, and time conditions | Supported | Basic claim rules |
| User lifecycle & SCIM provisioning Joiner-mover-leaver automation | Supported | Not offered |
| Pre-built app catalog 7,000+ SAML / OIDC integrations | Supported | Manual relying-party setup |
| Self-hosted or cloud Same product, same price | Supported | Self-hosted only (Windows Server) |
| Deploy in minutes | Supported | Farm + proxy topology |
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Common questions.
- Can we keep Active Directory as the source of truth?
- Yes. Monosign is designed to federate on top of your existing directory. Users, groups, and passwords stay in AD; Monosign synchronizes continuously and layers modern federation, MFA, and conditional access on top (no directory migration required).
- Does Monosign support the WS-Fed applications our AD FS farm serves today?
- Yes. Monosign speaks WS-Fed alongside SAML 2.0 and OIDC/OAuth 2.0, so relying parties built for AD FS (including older Microsoft-stack applications) can be re-pointed without code changes.
- Can we migrate gradually, or is it a cutover weekend?
- Gradually. Federation migrations are naturally incremental: each relying party is re-pointed from AD FS to Monosign one at a time. Users keep signing in with their AD credentials throughout, and both systems can run side by side until the last app moves.
- Do we have to move to the cloud?
- No. Monosign deploys self-hosted on your infrastructure or as SaaS: same product, same price. That is exactly the gap this migration usually exposes: Microsoft’s successor to AD FS is cloud-only, and Monofor is not.
- What do we gain beyond replacing AD FS?
- MFA from TOTP to passkeys, conditional access policies, SCIM provisioning and lifecycle automation, a 7,000+ app catalog, and audit reporting: capabilities that in the AD FS world required add-ons or simply did not exist.
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