DigiCert PKI Platform vs Microsoft Entra ID comparison

Digicert and Microsoft are both solutions in the Authentication Systems category. Digicert is ranked #11 with an average rating of 10.0, while Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.7. Digicert holds a 1.3% mindshare in AS, compared to Microsoft’s 16.2% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Digicert users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

DigiCert PKI Platform

Read 2 DigiCert PKI Platform reviews

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592 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Microsoft Entra ID

Read 219 Microsoft Entra ID reviews

10,865 Views
8,066 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

DigiCert PKI Platform

Microsoft Entra ID

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 11, 2024

Microsoft Entra ID and DigiCert PKI Platform are both prominent identity management and security solutions. Microsoft Entra ID offers competitive pricing and excellent customer support, while DigiCert PKI Platform is recognized for its rich feature set and robust security, making it a superior choice for enterprise-level security needs despite a higher price point.

What features are offered by Microsoft Entra ID in comparison to DigiCert PKI Platform?

Microsoft Entra ID is valued for seamless integration with other Microsoft products, strong multi-factor authentication capabilities, and competitive pricing. DigiCert PKI Platform is praised for its comprehensive certificate management, automated workflows, and robust security features that address diverse security concerns.

What areas of improvement can be found in Microsoft Entra ID in comparison to DigiCert PKI Platform?

Microsoft Entra ID reviews highlight complexity in initial setup, integration with non-Microsoft ecosystems, and the need for improved user interfaces. Users of DigiCert PKI Platform mention the need for better documentation, user education, and a more intuitive interface. These reflect different user experience challenges faced by each product.

How is the ease of deployment and customer service of Microsoft Entra ID in comparison to DigiCert PKI Platform?

Microsoft Entra ID is noted for straightforward implementation within Microsoft environments and responsive customer support. DigiCert PKI Platform, while having a more complex setup process, provides detailed support and dedicated account management. Ease of deployment favors Entra ID, but DigiCert’s dedicated support services receive positive user feedback.

What setup costs and ROI can be seen with Microsoft Entra ID in comparison to DigiCert PKI Platform?

Microsoft Entra ID stands out for cost-effectiveness and better-managed long-term costs. DigiCert PKI Platform, though initially more expensive, has a perceived higher ROI due to its comprehensive security solutions. Users feel the investment in DigiCert is justified by its robust capabilities, reflecting the higher initial price point in its ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed DigiCert PKI Platform vs. Microsoft Entra ID Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

DigiCert PKI Platform vs. Microsoft Entra ID

March 2025

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Helped 842,767 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

DigiCert PKI Platform

Ranking in Authentication Systems

11th

Average Rating

9.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Microsoft Entra ID

Ranking in Authentication Systems

1st

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

219

Ranking in other categories

Single Sign-On (SSO) (1st), Identity Management (IM) (1st), Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) (1st), Access Management (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Authentication Systems category, the mindshare of DigiCert PKI Platform is 1.3%, down from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Entra ID is 16.2%, down from 22.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Authentication Systems

Featured Reviews

Indra Maulana

Business Solution and Development Manager at PT ADPS

Tailored to the lifecycle management needs of banks

The customer finds value in adopting a platform from Jira, particularly for the ease it brings to their processes, both for on-premises operations and batch processing. Their objective is to create a new customized server specifically designed for generating certificates. This server is intended for the generation of certificates, emphasizing that it is not meant for free domain replacement. The platform of choice for this purpose is Digital One, a product that offers full customization and aligns well with the customer's preference for tailored solutions. The process of certificate issuance from Microsoft's AB involves renewal or replacement every five years. However, an issue arises in that this particular certificate requires renewal annually instead of the standard five-year cycle. The challenge is attributed to personnel changes, where an administrator responsible for the process resigns within the five-year period. To address this, we seek an automated solution that operates seamlessly with a single sign-on approach, eliminating the need for user IDs or passwords. The automation involves approval and subsequent deployment without complexities. Being a partner of DigiSet, we rely on the implementer for support in service deployment, installation, and resolution of any issues that may arise.

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Aaron Liang

System engineer at a energy/utilities company with 501-1,000 employees

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.

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

"I emphasize the importance of automation in Wi-Fi management, particularly in tasks such as certificate renewal. The requirement extends to the ability to generate new certificates from a local server within the data center. There is a need to establish a new server for local certificate issuance and highlights the desire for automation in the deployment process. The emphasis lies in leveraging automated solutions to streamline these operations effectively."

"The most valuable feature is the communication based on PKI certificates."

"Microsoft Entra ID has simplified central management, including administration and an overview of all logins and user profiles."

"It's something we have to deal with every day. It is present. If you're in a domain environment, you'll need it to log in. If you work in a Microsoft-centric environment, you can't avoid it."

"The solution has come a long way. Now, with the Azure AD B2C offering integrated as well, we've got a full IAM-type solution for our customer-facing identity management. In addition, when it comes to user journeys we now can hook in custom flows for different credential checking and authorizations for specific conditional access."

"Microsoft Entra ID has also massively improved secure access to apps or resources compared to our previous setup."

"The solution's ease of use is one of its most valuable features."

"Microsoft Entra ID has helped us defend against token theft and nation-state attacks."

"All of the features are amazing, such as identity governance and privileged identity management."

"Entra ID provides an excellent overview of the applications and the options applied to them."

More Microsoft Entra ID pros

Cons

"The customer finds value in adopting a platform from Jira, particularly for the ease it brings to their processes, both for on-premises operations and batch processing. Their objective is to create a new customized server specifically designed for generating certificates. This server is intended for the generation of certificates, emphasizing that it is not meant for free domain replacement. The platform of choice for this purpose is Digital One, a product that offers full customization and aligns well with the customer's preference for tailored solutions.The process of certificate issuance from Microsoft's AB involves renewal or replacement every five years. However, an issue arises in that this particular certificate requires renewal annually instead of the standard five-year cycle. The challenge is attributed to personnel changes, where an administrator responsible for the process resigns within the five-year period. To address this, we seeks an automated solution that operates seamlessly with a single sign-on approach, eliminating the need for user IDs or passwords. The automation involves approval and subsequent deployment without complexities. Us, being a partner of DigiSet, relies on their implementer for support in service deployment, installation, and resolution of any issues that may arise."

"From an automation perspective, PKI is a bit of a debatable topic and can be improved as time demands."

"Sometimes, what one customer may like, another may not like it. We have had customers asking, "Why is Microsoft forcing us to do this?" For example, when you use Exchange Server on-premise, then you can customize it for your company and these customizations are unlimited. However, if you use Exchange Online or with Microsoft 365, then your ability to make modifications is limited. So, only the cloud versus is limited."

"The conditional access rules are a little limiting. There's greater scope for the variety of rules and conditions you could put in that rules around a more factual authentication for other users. If you have an Azure AD setup, you can then connect to other people's Azure AD, but you don't have a huge amount of control in terms of what you can do. Greater control over guest users and guest access would be better. It's pretty good as it is but that could be improved."

"The pricing is okay, however, it could always be better in the future."

"Certain aspects of the user interface can be rather clunky and slow. It can sometimes be circular in terms of clicking a link for a risky user sign-in and seeing what the risky login attempts were. It takes you in a circle back to where you started, so drilling down into details, especially if you are not in it every day and it is one of many tools that you use, can be difficult. It can be difficult to track down the source of an issue."

"From time to time it takes a little bit of time to replicate, with some of the applications—something like five to 10 minutes. I know that the design is not supposed to enable real-time replication with some of the applications. But, as an administrator, I would like to run a specific change or modification in Azure Active Directory and see it replicated almost immediately."

"There is no documentation about how Microsoft will scale Azure AD for customers. It only mentions that it will scale out if you have a lot of requests but does not mention how in detail."

"I would like to see some additional attributes for user objects in Microsoft Entra, especially for tasks such as users and account validation, including guest users and guest accounts."

"It would be good to have more clarity around licensing."

More Microsoft Entra ID cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"This solution won't cost much, as this would be free with the licensing from Microsoft."

"I would rate it seven for the price."

"The solution has three types of tiers: E1 has very basic features. You get limited stuff in E2 and cannot have Office 360 associated with it. E3 is on the costly side and has all the features."

"Microsoft Entra ID service can be quite costly due to its hidden expenses linked to usage."

"I give the cost a three out of ten."

"We don't really have a choice. It's the one shop in town. If you want this, you have to pay for it."

"From a pricing standpoint, with all the services that we get, we are okay. I do not see a problem with the pricing structure. We are getting our money's worth."

"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."

"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."

"The P1 version costs $6 per user per month."

More Microsoft Entra ID pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Educational Organization

14%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

33%

Computer Software Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about DigiCert PKI Platform?

I emphasize the importance of automation in Wi-Fi management, particularly in tasks such as certificate renewal. The requirement extends to the ability to generate new certificates from a local ser...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for DigiCert PKI Platform?

I would rate the price a seven out of ten.

See all answers

What needs improvement with DigiCert PKI Platform?

See all answers

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 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.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

Comparisons

Venafi vs DigiCert PKI Platform

Compared 36% of the time

Fortinet FortiAuthenticator vs DigiCert PKI Platform

Compared 21% of the time

Entrust Identity Enterprise vs DigiCert PKI Platform

Compared 11% of the time

AppViewX CERT+ vs DigiCert PKI Platform

Compared 11% of the time

Yubico YubiKey vs DigiCert PKI Platform

Compared 9% of the time

More DigiCert PKI Platform Competitors

Microsoft Intune vs Microsoft Entra ID

Compared 11% of the time

Google Cloud Identity vs Microsoft Entra ID

Compared 10% of the time

Okta Workforce Identity vs Microsoft Entra ID

Compared 9% of the time

Auth0 vs Microsoft Entra ID

Compared 6% of the time

Amazon Cognito vs Microsoft Entra ID

Compared 5% of the time

More Microsoft Entra ID Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Authentication Systems

March 2025

Download DigiCert PKI Platform product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Entra ID

March 2025

Download Microsoft Entra ID product report

Also Known As

DigiCert PKI, Symantec Managed PKI Service

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

Interactive Demo

Demo not available

Digicert

Microsoft

Overview

The smartest solution for simplifying user identity management for existing network access, directory services and business applications. DigiCert PKI Platform is the industry-leading solution that allows you to secure and manage all of your PKI applications from one place — no matter what solutions you have in place. Take control of and automate the certificate lifecycle for: Email, WiFi access points, Secure VPN, Mobile device management, Document Signing, Smart card login, Internet of things.

Digicert

Microsoft Entra ID is used for extending on-premises Active Directory to the cloud, managing application access, enabling multi-factor authentication, and single sign-on. It facilitates policy enforcement and secure access, ensuring centralized identity management across cloud and on-premises resources.

Organizations utilize Microsoft Entra ID for robust user and group management, identity synchronization, and conditional access. Its seamless integration with third-party apps, scalability, and support for remote work make it a preferred choice. The admin center streamlines identity and access tasks, enhancing efficiency and security with features like privileged identity management and audit logs.

What are the key features of Microsoft Entra ID?

Single Sign-On: Simplifies user access to multiple applications with one login.
Multifactor Authentication: Enhances security by requiring additional verification.
Conditional Access: Establishes policies that determine how users' access cloud apps.
Integration: Easily integrates with various third-party applications.
User Identity Protection: Safeguards user identities from threats.
Privileged Identity Management: Manages elevated access to sensitive resources.
Audit Logs: Provides thorough activity logs for oversight and compliance.

What benefits should users look for in Microsoft Entra ID reviews?

Enhanced Security: Offers strong multifactor authentication and identity protection.
Administrative Efficiency: Simplifies identity and access management tasks.
Scalability: Supports growing user bases and remote work environments.
Integration Capabilities: Compatible with numerous third-party applications.
User-Friendly Interface: Makes managing user identities straightforward.

Microsoft Entra ID implementation varies across industries. Tech firms leverage it for secure, scalable access management, while healthcare organizations utilize its identity protection features to safeguard patient data. Educational institutions adopt Entra ID for streamlined user management and policy enforcement, ensuring secure access for students and staff across on-premises and cloud resources.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

paypal, verizon, cloudflare

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

Buyer's Guide

DigiCert PKI Platform vs. Microsoft Entra ID

March 2025

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