Google Cloud Identity vs Microsoft Entra ID comparison

Google and Microsoft are both solutions in the Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) category. Google is ranked #4 with an average rating of 7.5, while Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.7. Google holds a 11.2% mindshare in IAMS, compared to Microsoft’s 28.7% mindshare. Additionally, 90% of Google users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Google Cloud Identity

Read 23 Google Cloud Identity reviews

4,209 Views
3,665 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

Microsoft Entra ID

Read 219 Microsoft Entra ID reviews

10,938 Views
8,050 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Google Cloud Identity

Microsoft Entra ID

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 12, 2025

Microsoft Entra ID and Google Cloud Identity compete in the identity and access management category. Based on the comparison, Microsoft Entra ID appears to have the upper hand due to its comprehensive security features.

Features: Microsoft Entra ID offers seamless integration with Microsoft products, multifactor authentication, and robust conditional access. Google Cloud Identity emphasizes simplicity and ease of use with strong integration within Google Workspace and basic security features.

Room for Improvement: Microsoft Entra ID needs improvements in user interface complexity, third-party app integration, and better synchronization between on-premise and cloud environments. Google Cloud Identity could enhance its security features, including more monitoring and advanced user management, while also reducing costs and improving integration with non-Google products.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft Entra ID is praised for its deployment, especially in hybrid environments, but customer support experiences vary by region. Google Cloud Identity has a straightforward deployment process with fewer customer service complaints, although users wish for more support options.

Pricing and ROI: Microsoft Entra ID provides flexible pricing with multiple licensing tiers, viewed as costly but justified due to its features. Google Cloud Identity, packaged with Google Workspace, is seen as cost-effective for small to medium enterprises, though some users feel Microsoft's solution offers better ROI through stronger features.

To learn more, read our detailed Google Cloud Identity vs. Microsoft Entra ID Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Google Cloud Identity vs. Microsoft Entra ID

March 2025

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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

Google Cloud Identity

Ranking in Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS)

4th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) (8th)

Microsoft Entra ID

Ranking in Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS)

1st

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

219

Ranking in other categories

Single Sign-On (SSO) (1st), Authentication Systems (1st), Identity Management (IM) (1st), Access Management (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) category, the mindshare of Google Cloud Identity is 11.2%, down from 14.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Entra ID is 28.7%, down from 29.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS)

Q&A Highlights

Iain Dall

Owner at Brains

May 12, 2020

What are the biggest differences between Google Cloud Identity and Microsoft Azure Active Directory?

Both identity providers have their own pros and cons. Google doesn't have a road map for device management though they have recently announced support for windows 10 & Ubuntu. I would recommend Microsoft Azure Directory for its access control management features. I would like to know your requirement for further inputs.

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Featured Reviews

EkoNugroho

Cloud Support Manager at PointStar

Enhanced security and simplicity in deployment for a holistic protection

The most valuable feature of Google Cloud Identity is its simplicity in deployment. You only need to purchase and assign licenses to users, and there's no need for extensive setup. Another valuable feature is its integration with Google Workspace, which enhances security through context-aware access and allows for geographic and IP-specific restrictions. This ensures secure access to applications and data.

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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

"It's easy to set up."

"It is a stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."

"Cloud Identity is scalable enough for our needs. It's serving more than 3,000 users in our organization."

"The most valuable feature of Google Cloud Identity is its stability."

"The initial setup is easy."

"Although we have not looked at the whole product and explored it completely, we find that all the authentication features that we are using now are valuable."

"The solution is moderate to difficult to use. I found the approach was practical. Following the steps made it very easy to use."

"The most valuable feature of Google Cloud Identity is its simplicity in deployment."

More Google Cloud Identity pros

"Two very important features in terms of security are governance and compliance through the Conditional Access policies and Azure Log Analytics."

"Single sign-on, license management, and role management are the most valuable features. Integration with Microsoft 365 is also very valuable."

"The cloud security part is very valuable. Security is the most important thing in today's world. With Azure Active Directory, there are some features that tell you how you need to improve your security level. It informs you if you set up certain policies, e.g., this is where my users sign in. It tends to let you know if your organization has been breached with this security set up. Therefore, it is easier to know when you have been breached, especially if you set up a Conditional Access policy for your organization."

"It's pretty easy to implement."

"With Azure Active Directory we were able to manage with different options the access for different users."

"The solution offers business to business and client to business support."

"Entra's conditional access policies allow us to fine-tune how we allow people into the environments and secure them."

"The two-step authentication is the most valuable."

More Microsoft Entra ID pros

Cons

"The pricing for this solution is a little bit higher than AWS and others, which is something that should be improved."

"Technical support is slow."

"The interface could be improved by simplifying it further."

"The interface could be more user-friendly."

"In the next release, I would like to see integration with different systems, mainly wireless SIEMS and other analytical systems that we want to introduce."

"If you want to set up some alerts, you don't have much control over the configuration. You have to use their default alerts. And they only provide alerts for certain activities, so you cannot customize those. Monitoring isn't very helpful either."

"The one place it could be improved is the password vaulting. The password vaulting does not prevent the admins from reading users' passwords, and that's a debate."

"Overall, I would give a zero out of 10 for Google's support. There is no easy way to navigate issues without paid consultation, making it quite frustrating."

More Google Cloud Identity cons

"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."

"The downside of using a single password to access the entire system is that if those credentials are compromised, the hacker will have full access."

"Microsoft's technical support has shortcomings where improvements are required."

"The frequent changes in branding cause confusion among customers who struggle to keep track of product names and functions."

"In my opinion, Microsoft sometimes releases products too early without providing enough documentation."

"Maybe there could be a dashboard view for Active Directory with some pie or bar charts on who is logged in, who is not logged in, and on the activity of each user for the past few days: whether they're active or not active."

"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."

"The area that needs improvement is integrating IDs between multiple environments and forests. In our case, it's hard to get the identities from multiple forests into one location. This is probably our biggest challenge."

More Microsoft Entra ID cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I rate the product price a seven on a scale of one to ten, where one is a low price, and ten is a high price."

"The licensing cost depends on the partners and the relationship between the company and the partners."

"We probably spend about $50,000 a year on licensing."

"The fees are paid monthly and there are no additional costs other than the licensing fees."

"The product is billed on a monthly basis depending on the number of users."

"Licensing fees are on a yearly basis."

"The pricing is a bit expensive."

"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a three out of ten."

More Google Cloud Identity pricing and cost advice

"The pricing depends on the use case and can be negotiated based on volume."

"As a nonprofit, we have A5 licenses for nonprofits in education, so we at least have some reduced costs."

"We make sure that we only enable the licenses that are needed for the users, rather than enabling licenses in a blanket fashion."

"The licensing costs are yearly. There is a standard fee per user."

"Licensing is easy."

"The price of the solution's license is good."

"I think we're on the E3 — I think it was about 35 dollars per user."

"For you to make use of some of the security features, you need to upgrade your licenses. If it is possible, could they just make some features free? For instance, for the Condition Access policy, you need to set that up and be on Azure AD P2 licensing. So if they could make it free or reduce the licensing for small businesses, that would be cool, as I believe security is for everyone."

More Microsoft Entra ID pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Educational Organization

33%

Computer Software Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

How does Google Cloud Identity compare with Microsoft Intune?

Microsoft Intune offers not only an easy-to-deploy data protection and productivity management solution, but also access to both Microsoft’s user community as well as around-the-clock customer s...

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What do you like most about Google Cloud Identity?

The most valuable feature of Google Cloud Identity is its stability.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Cloud Identity?

It's crucial to monitor costs carefully, as there can be unexpected charges. I have been charged even when there was supposed to be free credit.

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

Okta Workforce Identity vs Google Cloud Identity

Compared 15% of the time

Microsoft Intune vs Google Cloud Identity

Compared 8% of the time

JumpCloud vs Google Cloud Identity

Compared 3% of the time

SailPoint Identity Security Cloud vs Google Cloud Identity

Compared 2% of the time

Workspace ONE UEM vs Google Cloud Identity

Compared 1% of the time

More Google Cloud Identity Competitors

Microsoft Intune vs Microsoft Entra ID

Compared 11% 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

CyberArk Privileged Access Manager vs Microsoft Entra ID

Compared 5% of the time

Amazon Cognito vs Microsoft Entra ID

Compared 4% of the time

More Microsoft Entra ID Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Google Cloud Identity

March 2025

Download Google Cloud Identity product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Entra ID

March 2025

Download Microsoft Entra ID product report

Also Known As

Cloud Identity, Cloud Identity Premium

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

Interactive Demo

Demo not available

Google

Microsoft

Overview

Cloud Identity is an Identity as a Service (IDaaS) and enterprise mobility management (EMM) product. It offers the identity services and endpoint administration that are available in G Suite as a stand-alone product. As an administrator, you can use Cloud Identity to manage your users, apps, and devices from a central location - the Google Admin console.

Google

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

ExtraHop Networks, HealthChannels

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

Buyer's Guide

Google Cloud Identity vs. Microsoft Entra ID

March 2025

Free Report: Google Cloud Identity vs. Microsoft Entra ID

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