Atlassian Crowd vs Microsoft Entra ID comparison

Atlassian and Microsoft are both solutions in the Single Sign-On (SSO) category. Atlassian is ranked #24, while Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.6. Atlassian holds a 1.3% mindshare in SSO, compared to Microsoft’s 11.6% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Atlassian users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Atlassian Crowd

Read 4 Atlassian Crowd reviews

487 Views
443 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Microsoft Entra ID

Read 266 Microsoft Entra ID reviews

25,586 Views
6,652 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Atlassian Crowd

Microsoft Entra ID

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 18, 2024

Atlassian Crowd and Microsoft Entra ID are both identity management solutions. Based on the comparisons, Microsoft Entra ID has the upper hand due to its comprehensive security features and advanced integrations.

Features: Atlassian Crowd offers powerful integration with other Atlassian products, ease of management, and simple centralized user management. Microsoft Entra ID provides advanced security features, seamless integration with Microsoft services, and robust single sign-on capabilities.

Room for Improvement: Atlassian Crowd could improve documentation, UI consistency, and reporting features. Microsoft Entra ID may benefit from more integration flexibility, quicker customer support, and fewer downtime issues.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Atlassian Crowd is noted for its straightforward deployment and responsive customer service. Microsoft Entra ID has a smooth deployment experience but requires more comprehensive customer support.

Pricing and ROI: Atlassian Crowd is cost-effective with clear ROI due to its integration capabilities. Microsoft Entra ID, though higher priced, justifies its cost with superior features and security benefits.

To learn more, read our detailed Atlassian Crowd vs. Microsoft Entra ID Report (Updated: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Atlassian Crowd vs. Microsoft Entra ID

February 2026

Download the complete report

Helped 882,180 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Atlassian Crowd

Ranking in Single Sign-On (SSO)

24th

Average Rating

9.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Microsoft Entra ID

Ranking in Single Sign-On (SSO)

1st

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

266

Ranking in other categories

Authentication Systems (1st), Identity Management (IM) (2nd), Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) (1st), Access Management (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Single Sign-On (SSO) category, the mindshare of Atlassian Crowd is 1.3%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Entra ID is 11.6%, down from 27.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Single Sign-On (SSO) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Microsoft Entra ID	11.6%
Atlassian Crowd	1.3%
Other	87.1%

Single Sign-On (SSO)

Featured Reviews

Grigoriy Kneller

General Manager at HDI Systeme AG

Enhanced user management offering seamless single sign-on, scalability for large enterprises, and improved configurability through integration with various user sources and directories

For organizations using various Atlassian products and dealing with multiple user sources or directories, implementing Atlassian Crowd for single sign-on proves highly beneficial. This is especially true for companies that have instances of Atlassian product installations across different entities, each with its own Active Directory and user directory. Crowd significantly streamlines user and directory management, making it more efficient for larger enterprises. It is particularly advisable and recommended for big companies, especially those that have undergone acquisitions or mergers, as it enhances user management, transparency, and configurability. While it's incredibly useful for enterprise-level businesses, it may also be suitable for mid-sized companies with a substantial user base. Overall, I would rate it nine out of ten.

Read full review

Dewey Phillips

Senior Information Security Engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Implementing seamless integration boosts secure access and supports Zero Trust

What I appreciate the most about Microsoft Entra ID is that it integrates seamlessly with all the Defender products and is easy to use. Microsoft Entra ID's integration capabilities influence our Zero Trust model by allowing us to enforce our Zero Trust model. Conditional access policies allow us to leverage Microsoft Entra ID to verify that devices signing in to our cloud services are coming from registered devices, and that people are passing all the other requirements we have in order to complete sign-on or conditional access policies. Since implementing Microsoft Entra ID, I've observed changes in the frequency and nature of identity-related security incidents. The organization already had it implemented when I arrived, and I've been working to enhance it. Better configuration of Microsoft Entra ID has allowed us to better protect our organization from threats. Having it alone isn't a solution, but ensuring proper configuration goes a long way in preventing future compromises. My company's approach to defending against token theft and nation-state attacks has evolved since implementing Microsoft Entra ID. We haven't experienced any known compromises from nation-state attacks, and implementing newer features gives me more confidence in our protection. Regarding device-bound passkeys in Microsoft Authenticator and our approach to phishing-resistant authentication, we are currently implementing Microsoft Entra ID certificate-based authentication. Adding a strong form of MFA is important as we found it to be the most cost-effective way. While other solutions might be equally or more secure, they are significantly more expensive. Having worked as an IT consultant mainly with the Microsoft stack across various industries, I have experience with different identity management solutions. Microsoft Entra ID remains the best option. The major advantages when comparing it to Okta include integration with Defender products, Defender for Identities' integration with conditional access policies, and insider threat management integration for blocking sign-ins based on risk factors. The enhancement of Microsoft Entra ID's implementation is relatively straightforward. My main concern is the occasional lack of documentation and the frequency of changes, which can make feature location challenging.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The most valuable features are predominantly in the directory and development spaces."

"One standout feature is the capability to configure various authentication and authorization methods from diverse user directories."

"It's very good at not disrupting the user experience."

"Application integration is easy. MFA and password self-service have reduced most of the supportive work of IT. We use multi-factor authentication. Every access from a user is through multi-factor authentication. There is no legacy authentication. We have blocked legacy authentication methods. For people who use the MDM on mobile, we push our application through Intune. In a hybrid environment, users can work from anywhere. With Intune, we can push policies and secure the data."

"It's not intuitive and we use it mainly for our Office 365 files. The integration between the two is interesting. However, the learning curve is high."

"The most valuable feature is the conditional access policies. This gives us the ability to restrict who can access which applications or the portal in specific ways."

"The most valuable feature is the factor identification. I find that it is natural integration, and it is just a natural step. I do not need to do anything else."

"When logging on to Azure AD it's pretty quick."

"We like the ease of app registrations and single sign-on with Entra ID. It offers an easy way to add multi-factor authentication to nearly any application and system."

"Its ability to provide secure connections to people at all locations is the most valuable. It is mostly used by enterprises."

More Microsoft Entra ID pros

Cons

"There's a need for effective group membership management, especially for corporate programs."

"It makes you more efficient, but you have to optimize what you're doing before you get into the software."

"I would like to dive into some of the things that we saw today around the workflows at this Microsoft event. I cannot say that they need to make it better because I do not have much experience with it, but something that is always applicable to Microsoft is that they need to be able to integrate with their competitors. If you look at IDP, they do not integrate with Okta."

"A nice feature that is not currently present, would be if they had some visualization tools."

"Technical support could be better."

"Compared to what we can do on-prem, Azure AD lacks a feature for multiple hierarchical groups. For example, Group A is part of group B. Group B is part of group C. Then, if I put someone into group A, which is part of already B, they get access to any system that group B has access to, and that provisioning is automatically there."

"I haven't had any issues with the product."

"The robustness of the conditional access feature of the zero trust strategy to verify users is adequate but not comprehensive."

"The product needs to improve its support."

"There should be a clearer separation between objects held in Entra and Azure, so we don't need to approach the Entra ID team to create rules, policies, and app registrations."

More Microsoft Entra ID cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's pretty cheap. I would rate the price as three out of five."

"While it may seem affordable for larger enterprises, it tends to become more expensive as you move up the scale."

"Licensing fees are paid on a monthly basis and the cost depends on the number of users."

"The licensing cost is a bit prohibitive."

"I work for an academic medical center, where there is a watch kept over every dollar spent. I do have concerns about the micro charges for different levels or features of the product."

"It is in line. Because we are so early, we have not had to come back on a cycle where we are having to negotiate again."

"The licensing is really not clear unless you are a premium client."

"MFA and P2 licenses for two Azures for fully-enabled scenarios and features cost a lot of money. This is where Okta is trying to get the prices down."

"The E5 plan we are using contains the premium plans for Azure Active Directory. We are not paying only for the Azure Active Directory Premium licenses. We have it already included within our E5 plan."

"Entra ID is not too bad, but Microsoft licensing generally is insane. Most customers normally buy a bundle license with Microsoft 365, E3, or E5. Out of our 2,000 customers, for 99.9% of our customers, the Entra ID license that they are getting through the part of that would be sufficient. There are some more advanced ones that give you a bit more functionality, but we probably have not had a customer for that. We do not even internally use that ourselves. When you buy the Entra ID license on its own, it is probably three or four pounds. You just get it included in the license."

More Microsoft Entra ID pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Single Sign-On (SSO) solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

882,180 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	85
Midsize Enterprise	38
Large Enterprise	155

Questions from the Community

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

How does Duo Security compare with Microsoft Authenticator?

We switched to Duo Security for identity verification. We’d been using a competitor but got the chance to evaluate Duo for 30 days, and we could not be happier. Duo Security is easy to configure a...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Active Directory?

My experience with the pricing, setup costs, and licensing of Microsoft Entra ID is that it is decent.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Azure Active Directory?

I think Microsoft Entra ID could be improved by assigning permissions to nested groups in the next release.

See all answers

Comparisons

Okta Platform vs Atlassian Crowd

Compared 30% of the time

Keeper Enterprise Password Manager vs Atlassian Crowd

Compared 26% of the time

Auth0 Platform vs Atlassian Crowd

Compared 25% of the time

More Atlassian Crowd Competitors

Google Cloud Identity vs Microsoft Entra ID

Compared 24% of the time

Okta Platform vs Microsoft Entra ID

Compared 5% of the time

Microsoft Intune vs Microsoft Entra ID

Compared 5% of the time

SailPoint Identity Security Cloud vs Microsoft Entra ID

Compared 4% of the time

Amazon Cognito vs Microsoft Entra ID

Compared 3% of the time

More Microsoft Entra ID Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Single Sign-On (SSO)

January 2026

Download Atlassian Crowd product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Entra ID

January 2026

Download Microsoft Entra ID product report

Also Known As

Crowd

Azure AD, Azure Active Directory, Azure Active Directory, Microsoft Authenticator

Interactive Demo

Demo not available

Atlassian

Microsoft

Overview

Atlassian Crowd is a single sign-on and user identity tool that's easy to use, administer, and integrate. Users can come from anywhere: Active Directory, LDAP, Crowd itself, or any mix thereof. Control permissions to all your applications in one place Ð Atlassian, Subversion, Google Apps, or your own apps.

Atlassian

Microsoft Entra ID is an advanced identity and access management service offering seamless single sign-on, multifactor authentication, and centralized user access across applications, enhancing security and efficiency for organizations transitioning to cloud-based environments.

Recognized for its centralized management, Microsoft Entra ID significantly boosts organizational security by integrating features such as conditional access and identity protection. It supports a wide array of applications, facilitating a secure transition from on-premises to scalable cloud environments. By adopting robust security measures and flexible identity management, organizations can streamline operations and ensure consistent user experiences. However, challenges like confusing licensing costs, outdated documentation, and limited integration with non-Microsoft applications persist. Enhancements in technical support, interface design, and more granular permissions are needed to address these issues effectively.

What are the key features of Microsoft Entra ID?

Seamless Single Sign-On: Allows users to access multiple applications with one set of credentials.
Multifactor Authentication: Adds an extra layer of security by requiring multiple forms of verification.
Conditional Access: Provides adaptive policies to ensure the right access under the right conditions.
Identity Protection: Detects and responds to potential vulnerabilities and threats.
Privileged Identity Management: Controls and monitors access to critical resources.

What benefits should users expect when evaluating Microsoft Entra ID?

Enhanced Security: Protects against unauthorized access and data breaches.
Operational Efficiency: Centralizes identity management to reduce administrative tasks.
Scalability: Supports growth by accommodating evolving IT environments.
Cost Management: Facilitates cost control through centralized systems and automated processes.

In healthcare, Microsoft Entra ID facilitates secure patient record access and compliance with industry regulations. Financial institutions rely on it for robust security measures in safeguarding client data. In the education sector, it streamlines access to online resources for students and faculty. Global enterprises benefit from its ability to manage complex identity frameworks across multiple regions, ensuring reliable security amidst increasing cyber threats.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

NHL, Interspire, Appfire

Microsoft Entre ID is trusted by companies of all sizes and industries including Walmart, Zscaler, Uniper, Amtrak, monday.com, and more.

Buyer's Guide

Atlassian Crowd vs. Microsoft Entra ID

February 2026

Free Report: Atlassian Crowd vs. Microsoft Entra ID

Find out what your peers are saying about Atlassian Crowd vs. Microsoft Entra ID and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.

DOWNLOAD NOW

882,180 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Atlassian Crowd vs. Microsoft Entra ID report.

See our list of best Single Sign-On (SSO) vendors.

We monitor all Single Sign-On (SSO) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.