startwithidentity.com

What It Is

Start with Identity positions itself as an independent reference community for identity professionals. It covers topics such as IAM, CIAM, PAM, IGA, Zero Trust, machine identities, authorization, and identity threat detection, offering vendor profiles, comparisons, expert interviews, practical guides, and industry analysis. It is not a security product that can be deployed directly into an enterprise environment; rather, it is more of a knowledge base for identity security evaluation and implementation.

Core Evaluation Dimensions

In terms of protection coverage, the site spans multiple identity security areas, including workforce identity, customer identity, privileged access, governance, cloud permissions, machine identities, Secrets, ZTNA, and open-source IAM. It also lists representative tools such as Microsoft Entra ID, Okta, CyberArk, SailPoint, HashiCorp Vault, and Cloudflare Zero Trust. For deployment, the available content only presents it as an online website, community, and Newsletter; there is no mention of on-premise deployment, a SaaS console, or API integration. Compliance-related content is relatively rich, with articles covering GDPR, CCPA, SOX, SOC 2, HIPAA, KYC/AML, and more, but these are content topics rather than certifications held by the platform itself.

Pricing and Management Capabilities

Pricing information is limited. The content explicitly states that the Newsletter is free and sales-free, but there is no visible information about subscription fees, consulting fees, or enterprise pricing. In terms of management and alerting, it does not provide identity lifecycle management, access approvals, log alerts, or threat detection execution capabilities, and therefore cannot replace IAM, PAM, ITDR, or ZTNA products. Its management value mainly lies in public methodologies, a 30-capability matrix, vendor scoring, and reassessments every 90 days.

Pros and Cons

Its strengths are its strong vertical focus, clear mapping of the identity security landscape, and content that includes implementation guides, trends, compliance topics, and vendor shortlists. It also emphasizes transparency around authorship, dates, confidence levels, disclosures, and methodology. Its weaknesses are that the collected content does not disclose the operator’s location, business model, support SLA, or payment methods, and there is no indication of Chinese-language support. Some community channels such as Discord and Reddit are still marked as Soon.

Who It Is For and Access from China

It is suitable as a reference for IAM architects, security leaders, compliance teams, product security teams, and enterprises evaluating identity security solutions. Access from China is not discussed in the content, and there is no payment information. If access or language becomes a limitation, it can be cross-checked against Gartner, Forrester, KuppingerCole, G2, PeerSpot, as well as identity security materials from domestic security vendors and cloud providers.