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Azure Front Door vs Microsoft Entra External ID comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

Azure Front Door
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
15th
Average Rating
8.8
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
CDN (2nd), Web Application Firewall (WAF) (10th)
Microsoft Entra External ID
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
32nd
Average Rating
7.4
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) (19th), Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) (11th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the Microsoft Security Suite category, the mindshare of Azure Front Door is 2.8%, down from 3.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Entra External ID is 0.4%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Microsoft Security Suite
 

Featured Reviews

Thomas Zebar - PeerSpot reviewer
May 4, 2023
Provides great security with a good application firewall
The initial setup is straightforward. If you want to use the portal, CLI, or PowerShare, or you want to use automation data for one month, it's straightforward. Even when it comes to operational maintenance, it's pretty easy and straightforward. Microsoft has done a great job on that front. Maintenance generally requires someone who is a cloud administrator or similar to maintain services in general, with Front Door a small piece of a larger maintenance requirement. There's not a lot to manage, the configuration is simple. I encourage people to document the configuration and infrastructure as well as disaster recovery in case anything happens.
Oluwakorede Oladipo - PeerSpot reviewer
Aug 20, 2024
Promotes centralized user management and easy to setup
The most beneficial feature for us is the ease of setup. With about five clicks, we can generate unique IDs and keys and set up in less than 30 minutes. We can also generate these for multiple years simultaneously, which is convenient. In Azure, you can set up access rules. Just because an app is linked to Active Directory doesn’t mean everyone can access it automatically. You can make it so users have to give consent before getting access. You can also control which apps can connect to Active Directory. For Microsoft Exchange, we use multi-factor authentication to protect our information, which helps keep it secure by requiring more than just a password to log in. Centralizing user management has positively impacted our operational costs and efficiency. We no longer need multiple systems to manage users, especially in our SaaS applications. This has improved turnaround time for user management tasks and streamlined our processes, making things more efficient. We use the SaaS version, so there's no on-premises infrastructure. The integration is mainly done through setup, linking it to our domain and Active Directory.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Rules Engine is a valuable feature."
"You can assign as many web application firewall policies as you want to the same instance of Front Door."
"I am impressed with the tool's integrations."
"It inspects the traffic at the network level before it comes into Azure. We can do SSL offloading, and it can detect abnormalities before the traffic comes into the application. It can be used globally and is easy to set up. It is also quite stable and scalable."
"Has a great application firewall and we like the security."
"The most valuable feature is that you can implement resources globally. It does not depend on location and ability or something like that. This is to connect clients around the world."
"The solution is good."
"The most valuable feature is that I can have CDN and load-balancing capabilities in a single service instead of managing two separate tools."
"The most beneficial feature for us is the ease of setup. With about five clicks, we can generate unique IDs and keys and set up in less than 30 minutes. We can also generate these for multiple years simultaneously, which is convenient."
"It's similar to using a Microsoft account to create accounts on other websites. We are also using Microsoft Entra to monitor which applications our guests are using. This allows us to filter, block, or adjust permissions for these applications as needed for our collaborators."
"It's quite easy to manage and monitor."
 

Cons

"The product needs to improve its latency."
"I'm responsible for the governance and cost control of Azure. I'm not a specialist in any products and therefore I couldn't really speak effectively to features that are lacking or missing."
"The product's features are limited compared to Cloudflare. The tool also doesn't work well in a hybrid environment. I would like to see a way to add personalized APIs in the system."
"My suggestion for improvement would be to enhance the Data Export feature to include specific tables, particularly the Azure Diagnostics table."
"There's a limitation on the amount of global rules we can add."
"The tool should improve its cost."
"The user interface needs improvement as it is difficult to create the mapping to link the problem with your private address sources."
"We should be able to use Front Door defenders with multiple cloud vendors. Currently, they can be used only with the Azure cloud. Azure Front Door should also be able to do global load balancing and provide internal front door services. Microsoft should clearly define what Traffic Manager, Application Gateway, and Azure Front Door products do. These are similar products, and people get confused between these products."
"The problem with Microsoft products is that they often cater to enterprise-level needs, which can be too costly for medium-sized businesses."
"I would like to see faster synchronization."
"Technical support needs improvement."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is expensive."
"The solution is a bit expensive."
"It is on a pay-as-you-go basis."
"The pricing of the solution is good."
"The transition to the premium tier has led to increased costs, making it more expensive than the classic tier."
"Considering the standard licensing of the tool, even though we have not checked the billing as of now, it might not be very costly."
"We don't pay separately for Microsoft Entra External ID as it's part of our Microsoft Exchange subscription."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Healthcare Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What's the difference between Azure Front Door and Application Gateway?
We found Azure Front Door to be easily scaled and very stable. The implementation is very fast and Microsoft provides excellent support. Azure Front Door can quickly detect abnormalities before the...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Front Door?
It's a matter of value versus price. If we add more features and raise the price, it must remain justifiable. If we maintain the current set of reasonable features and keep the pricing competitive,...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Entra External ID?
It's quite expensive, especially as you grow and add more users. Initially, with a small number of people, the costs were manageable.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Entra External ID?
The problem with Microsoft products is that they often cater to enterprise-level needs, which can be too costly for medium-sized businesses. When you move beyond a small team and start growing, the...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Entra External ID?
We had a project to integrate our Active Directory, which was running on our site, and invite external collaborators, such as freelancers, to connect to our domain via an invitation. Additionally, ...
 

Also Known As

Azure Front-Door
Azure Active Directory External Identities
 

Learn More

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Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Azure Front Door vs. Microsoft Entra External ID and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.
814,763 professionals have used our research since 2012.