Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

CyberArk Privileged Access Manager vs Microsoft Entra ID comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 12, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
7.1
CyberArk Privileged Access Manager enhances security, streamlines workflows, and reduces risks and costs for managing privileged accounts in organizations.
Sentiment score
7.6
Microsoft Entra ID reduces costs and enhances security by streamlining authentication and integrating seamlessly with Azure for improved efficiency.
During our quantitative analysis, we estimated potential savings of one to ten million dollars a year by using a PAM solution.
We leverage existing licensing, like Windows Server or SQL, and hybrid benefits, and our sales and marketing teams benefit from co-selling and partnership advantages.
We get a return from not needing to pay other vendors to do what we already had from Microsoft, which was better than the competition.
The return on investment comes from not needing as many IT staff to manage and verify user identity and ensuring seamless device connection without needing to administer device compliance manually.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.5
CyberArk Privileged Access Manager's support is competent and improving, but faces challenges in response times and initial escalation processes.
Sentiment score
6.7
Microsoft Entra ID support varies, with mixed satisfaction due to expertise inconsistency, but premier support and response times praised.
CyberArk has been exceptional in coming back to us with immediate responses.
They are helpful, but complex issues can take a long time to resolve, which can delay solutions for urgent customer issues.
Response times seem to correlate with the strength of the relationship with the CyberArk account manager, with quicker responses when rapport is strong.
The actual support when you get to that level is a ten out of ten.
There are immediate answers to any issues that arise with great knowledge and a deep understanding of the product and business needs.
It's not timely or professional.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
CyberArk Privileged Access Manager efficiently scales across environments, with a modular architecture and streamlined cloud flexibility enhancing adaptability.
Sentiment score
7.9
Microsoft Entra ID provides seamless scalability and reliability, effortlessly managing vast user numbers with flexible, automated resource adjustments.
The CPM can reportedly handle up to 50,000 accounts independently without issue.
I would rate it a ten out of ten for scalability.
I would rate it a nine out of ten for scalability.
We experienced no scalability issues with Microsoft Entra ID.
Its scalability is impressive, aided by Microsoft's efforts to expand its data centers.
When dealing with tens of thousands of objects, it requires proper management and best practices to retrieve only necessary data.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
CyberArk Privileged Access Manager is stable and reliable, with manageable issues, strong support, and effective version upgrades.
Sentiment score
7.9
Microsoft Entra ID offers high reliability with minimal outages, swift issue resolution, and strong stability, earning user trust.
Proper fine-tuning and expertise ensure the product performs well.
Overall, the stability of the solution is high.
It has a large customer base and positive feedback within my network.
It's a critical solution that we can't do without.
The stability of the solution is very high at 99.999%.
We rarely had significant problems or crashes.
 

Room For Improvement

CyberArk needs user interface, integration, support, and feature enhancements, focusing on usability, costs, documentation, and advanced automation options.
Users urge improvements in Entra ID documentation, integration, price transparency, support, user interface, authentication, and licensing clarity.
They want everything to be on the cloud, but even in the SaaS version of CyberArk Privileged Access Manager, they need to deploy some servers on-premises.
We cannot generate a plug-in for web-based applications.
If they want clients to move to the cloud, they need to support them in real-time.
A recent incident we dealt with took four months to resolve with a seven-day deadline, which was quite frustrating.
There is a need for better transformation support from on-premises Active Directory policies to the cloud, as Entra ID doesn't cover this sufficiently yet.
The frequent changes in branding cause confusion among customers who struggle to keep track of product names and functions.
 

Setup Cost

CyberArk Privileged Access Manager is costly but valued for robust security features, ideal for mid to large-size enterprises.
Microsoft Entra ID offers affordable tiered pricing with discounts, featuring user-based costs tailored for enterprises with various security levels.
CyberArk is expensive compared to other products I know.
CyberArk is comparatively expensive compared to other PAM solutions, such as Delinea, especially during renewal.
CyberArk's SaaS solution is particularly expensive.
We are getting our money's worth.
Most features of Entra ID are part of Microsoft's ecosystem and included in Microsoft 365 bundles, which means there are no additional costs associated with pricing and licensing.
Compared to other Microsoft products, the cost is not too expensive.
 

Valuable Features

CyberArk Privileged Access Manager excels in password rotation, session management, and seamless integration, offering advanced security and customization.
Microsoft Entra ID excels in user identity management with secure features, scalability, and seamless integration into the Microsoft ecosystem.
CyberArk Privileged Access Manager helps ensure data privacy because we now know who is using which credentials and at what time.
It keeps a record of activities, allowing me to easily fetch screen recordings to detect any misuse and see who did what and what happened.
As a security professional, I have real-time visibility into ongoing sessions.
We can secure the applications that we are building and make sure that if the application were to be compromised, there is no full access to a customer's environment causing issues and other security concerns.
It's integrated with Microsoft technologies like Authenticator, SSO, and MFA, streamlining operations and creating a seamless environment.
The granular control, such as preventing logins from specific locations, enhances security significantly.
 

Categories and Ranking

CyberArk Privileged Access ...
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
203
Ranking in other categories
User Activity Monitoring (1st), Enterprise Password Managers (3rd), Privileged Access Management (PAM) (1st), Mainframe Security (2nd), Operational Technology (OT) Security (3rd)
Microsoft Entra ID
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
218
Ranking in other categories
Single Sign-On (SSO) (1st), Authentication Systems (1st), Identity Management (IM) (1st), Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) (1st), Access Management (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (4th)
 

Featured Reviews

Lasantha Wijesinghe - PeerSpot reviewer
We have visibility and control through real-time user behavior analytics
It took us some time to realize its benefits because there was a learning curve for us. It took us about a year to get our heads around this product and start effectively using it. It is a journey. It takes at least five years for any company to make this product very useful and reach maturity. It is not only the product's fault. The company needs to have a vision, and the company culture needs to go with it. Senior leadership needs to support the vision. You need to have lots of ingredients for success. If everything is in place, you will see success after one year. In the first year, it is a struggle for everybody. My company was bought by a bigger company, and they were very new to privileged access management. Everybody was struggling. The advice I would give is to have a good vision for privileged access management. You need dedicated teams, senior management support, and proper company policies and standards before implementing the solution. Start building knowledge slowly and avoid jumping into the deep end without preparation. I would rate CyberArk Privileged Access Manager a nine out of ten.
Aaron Liang - PeerSpot reviewer
Has significantly improved secure access to applications and resources in our environment
Microsoft Entra ID has helped by simplifying our management of permissions for APIs. We are not directly exposing credentials, as we use tokens instead. It has made management easier and more secure, especially in a multi-user environment. The implementation of Microsoft Entra ID significantly improved secure access to applications and resources in our environment, primarily through the widespread use of single-sign-on. Managing API permissions became much easier, as application registration often involves calling an API to utilize services without directly exposing credentials, relying instead on token-based authentication. This streamlined approach benefits end-users by simplifying access while remaining transparent to them. Ultimately, my role focuses on ensuring a smooth and user-friendly experience, even if the underlying technology remains unseen by the end-users. Our company strongly emphasizes passwordless authentication, primarily through device-bound passkeys in Microsoft Authenticator. While administrators with high-privileged accounts utilize YubiKeys and passwords for tasks like accessing Microsoft Graph, we are actively transitioning all other users towards passwordless methods such as Windows Hello biometrics. This approach streamlines authentication and enhances security. Though initial deployment in 2022 presented challenges due to hardware limitations and the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the technology has significantly improved and provides a simple and effective user experience.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Access Management solutions are best for your needs.
831,020 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
33%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Educational Organization
32%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

How does Sailpoint IdentityIQ compare with CyberArk PAM?
We evaluated Sailpoint IdentityIQ before ultimately choosing CyberArk. Sailpoint Identity Platform is a solution to manage risks in cloud enterprise environments. It automates and streamlines the m...
What do you like most about CyberArk Privileged Access Manager?
The most valuable features of the solution are control and analytics.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for CyberArk Privileged Access Manager?
CyberArk Privileged Access Manager is more expensive than its competitors, such as BeyondTrust, Delinea, and ManageEngine PAM360. While ManageEngine PAM360 offers similar flexibility and support at...
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...
What do you like most about Azure Active Directory?
It is very simple. The Active Directory functions are very easy for us. Its integration with anything is very easy. We can easily do third-party multifactor authentication.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Active Directory?
We are an enterprise customer with an enterprise agreement in place with many of our partner companies, so there are no special questions or issues about pricing, setup cost, or licensing.
 

Also Known As

CyberArk Privileged Access Security, CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault
Azure AD, Azure Active Directory, Azure Active Directory, Microsoft Authenticator
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Rockwell Automation
Microsoft Entre ID is trusted by companies of all sizes and industries including Walmart, Zscaler, Uniper, Amtrak, monday.com, and more.
Find out what your peers are saying about CyberArk Privileged Access Manager vs. Microsoft Entra ID and other solutions. Updated: December 2024.
831,020 professionals have used our research since 2012.