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Cybersecurity · head to head

Entrust Identity as a Service vs Hookdeck

Entrust Identity as a Service logo

Entrust Identity as a Service

Cybersecurity

Workforce and customer authentication from a certificate authority

From
$2/month
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite
Hookdeck logo

Hookdeck

Developer Tools

Event gateway that receives, queues, retries and replays inbound webhooks

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Hookdeck has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Entrust Identity as a Service the application integration catalogue is smaller than that of the dedicated identity vendors, so uncommon SaaS applications more often need custom SAML configuration rather than a template.; Hookdeck pricing meters delivered events, so fan-out multiplies the bill: one inbound event routed to four services counts as four deliveries.
  • They diverge on capability: Entrust Identity as a Service covers Multi-factor authentication, Hookdeck covers Ingest and persist.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Entrust Identity as a Service and Hookdeck actually diverge.

Attributes where Entrust Identity as a Service and Hookdeck differ
AttributeEntrust Identity as a ServiceHookdeck
Starting price$2/monthFree
Pricing modelPer user per monthPer month by delivered event count
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, iOS, Android, Windows, LinuxWeb, Linux, macOS, Windows
CategoryCybersecurityDeveloper Tools

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Entrust Identity as a Service

  • Multi-factor authentication
  • Single sign-on
  • Adaptive authentication
  • Passwordless login
  • Credential lifecycle
  • Derived PIV credentials
  • Directory integration

Only in Hookdeck

  • Ingest and persist
  • Automatic retries
  • Filters and fan-out
  • Transformations
  • Local development CLI
  • Rate limiting

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Entrust Identity as a Service

  • A government agency needing derived mobile credentials from an existing PIV smart card estatenot Hookdeck
  • A bank that must support hardware tokens for corporate treasury users alongside push authentication for staffnot Hookdeck
  • An organisation already buying Entrust certificates that wants credential issuance and authentication from one vendornot Hookdeck
  • A defence supplier required to use certificate-based authentication that mainstream cloud identity products handle poorlynot Hookdeck

Hookdeck

  • A payments integration where losing a Stripe event during a deploy causes an order to go unfulfillednot Entrust Identity as a Service
  • Fanning one provider webhook out to several internal services without each subscribing separatelynot Entrust Identity as a Service
  • Debugging a partner integration by replaying the exact failing payload after shipping a fixnot Entrust Identity as a Service
  • Receiving production-shaped webhooks on a developer laptop without running a public tunnelnot Entrust Identity as a Service

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Entrust Identity as a Service

  • The application integration catalogue is smaller than that of the dedicated identity vendors, so uncommon SaaS applications more often need custom SAML configuration rather than a template.
  • Developer experience for customer identity use cases is behind the specialists, and teams building consumer signup flows will find the APIs and documentation less complete.
  • Advanced capabilities including adaptive authentication and credential management sit above the published entry price, so the two dollar figure rarely reflects what a regulated buyer actually spends.
  • There are two overlapping products, Identity as a Service and Identity Enterprise, and choosing wrongly at the start means a migration later rather than a licence change.
  • Identity governance, access certification and privileged access are not covered, so an organisation with audit-driven access review requirements needs a second vendor alongside it.

Hookdeck

  • Pricing meters delivered events, so fan-out multiplies the bill: one inbound event routed to four services counts as four deliveries.
  • Free-tier retention is three days, which is shorter than the time it typically takes to notice a failing integration, so the payloads needed for a replay are often already gone.
  • It becomes a single point of failure in front of every third-party integration, and an outage there means every provider webhook queues or fails at once.
  • The transformation layer runs JavaScript in a constrained environment, so anything that needs a database lookup or an external call has to happen downstream instead.
  • For a team already running Kafka or SQS the value is mostly the console and the replay UI, which is a hard cost to justify against infrastructure they already operate.

Pricing, plan by plan

Entrust Identity as a Service

$2/month
  • Workforce Standard$2/month
    • Multi-factor authentication
    • Single sign-on
    • Directory integration
  • Higher tiers$undefined/month
    • Adaptive risk-based authentication
    • Certificate and smart card credential management
    • Derived PIV credentials

Hookdeck

Free
  • DeveloperFree
    • Up to ten thousand events per month
    • Three-day retention
    • One user
  • Team$39/month
    • Ten thousand events included
    • Unlimited users
    • Pay as you go metering above the included events
  • Growth$499/month
    • Ten thousand events included plus metered usage
    • Thirty-day retention
    • Uptime and latency SLAs
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Negotiated event volume
    • Custom retention
    • Dedicated support

Which should you pick?

Choose Entrust Identity as a Service if

  • You need multi-factor authentication.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android, Windows, Linux.
  • You also want single sign-on.
Entrust Identity as a Service review

Choose Hookdeck if

  • You need ingest and persist.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Linux, macOS, Windows.
  • You also want automatic retries.
Hookdeck review

Questions people ask

Is Entrust Identity as a Service or Hookdeck better?
Neither clearly leads. Entrust Identity as a Service starts at $2/month and Hookdeck at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Entrust Identity as a Service or Hookdeck?
Hookdeck has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $2/month for Entrust Identity as a Service and Free for Hookdeck.
Does Entrust Identity as a Service or Hookdeck run on more platforms?
Entrust Identity as a Service runs on Web, iOS, Android, Windows, Linux. Hookdeck runs on Web, Linux, macOS, Windows.
Can I use Hookdeck for free?
Yes. Hookdeck has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Entrust Identity as a Service starts at $2/month.
What is Entrust Identity as a Service best used for?
Entrust Identity as a Service is most often used for a government agency needing derived mobile credentials from an existing piv smart card estate, a bank that must support hardware tokens for corporate treasury users alongside push authentication for staff, an organisation already buying entrust certificates that wants credential issuance and authentication from one vendor, a defence supplier required to use certificate-based authentication that mainstream cloud identity products handle poorly. Of those, a government agency needing derived mobile credentials from an existing piv smart card estate and a bank that must support hardware tokens for corporate treasury users alongside push authentication for staff are not what Hookdeck is typically brought in for.
What can Entrust Identity as a Service do that Hookdeck cannot?
Entrust Identity as a Service covers Multi-factor authentication, Single sign-on, Adaptive authentication, Passwordless login. Hookdeck covers Ingest and persist, Automatic retries, Filters and fan-out, Transformations.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Entrust Identity as a Service: Is MFA included or extra?

Multi-factor authentication is included in the workforce bundles rather than sold separately, which is not true of every competitor. Adaptive risk-based authentication sits in higher tiers.

Hookdeck: Is there a free plan?

Yes, ten thousand events a month with three-day retention and one user.

Entrust Identity as a Service: Does it do identity governance?

No. Access certification, role mining and joiner-mover-leaver governance require a separate product such as SailPoint or Saviynt.

Hookdeck: How is usage counted?

By delivered events, so a single inbound webhook fanned out to three destinations counts as three.

Entrust Identity as a Service: Why choose this over Okta or Entra ID?

Almost always because of PKI, smart cards or derived credentials. Without that requirement the mainstream platforms are the stronger general purpose choice.

Hookdeck: Can I replay a failed webhook?

Yes, individually or in bulk from the console, with the original payload.

Hookdeck: Does it work for outbound webhooks too?

Yes, the same queueing, retry and observability applies to webhooks you send.

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