Microsoft Active Directory vs Microsoft Entra ID comparison

Microsoft Active Directory and Microsoft Entra ID are both solutions in the Single Sign-On (SSO) category. Microsoft Active Directory is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.6, while Microsoft Entra ID is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.7. Microsoft Active Directory holds a 4.0% mindshare in SSO, compared to Microsoft Entra ID’s 28.1% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of Microsoft Active Directory users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Microsoft Entra ID users who would recommend it.

Microsoft Active Directory

Read 39 Microsoft Active Directory reviews

949 Views
671 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

Microsoft Entra ID

Read 195 Microsoft Entra ID reviews

13,427 Views
9,754 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Microsoft Active Directory

Microsoft Entra ID

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 18, 2024

Microsoft Entra ID and Microsoft Active Directory compete in the identity management category. Microsoft Entra ID has the upper hand in cloud integration, while Microsoft Active Directory excels in on-premise security.

Features: Microsoft Entra ID integrates seamlessly with cloud services, offers multi-factor authentication, and provides strong cloud-native capabilities. Microsoft Active Directory is known for comprehensive device management, advanced group policies, and robust on-premise security features.

Room for Improvement: Microsoft Entra ID needs better hybrid deployment capabilities, more detailed auditing tools, and stronger on-premise integrations. Microsoft Active Directory requires enhanced cloud integration, improved user activity logging, and more cloud-compatible features.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft Entra ID is straightforward to deploy in cloud environments, with extensive documentation and prompt customer service. Microsoft Active Directory is more complex to deploy, especially in hybrid environments, but still offers solid customer support.

Pricing and ROI: Microsoft Entra ID offers competitive pricing with a quicker return on investment due to lower setup costs and faster deployment. Microsoft Active Directory involves higher initial setup costs but delivers long-term benefits with its extensive feature set.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Active Directory vs. Microsoft Entra ID Report (Updated: October 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Active Directory vs. Microsoft Entra ID

October 2024

Download the complete report

Helped 814,649 peers since 2012

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Active Directory

Ranking in Single Sign-On (SSO)

7th

Average Rating

8.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Active Directory Management (6th)

Microsoft Entra ID

Ranking in Single Sign-On (SSO)

1st

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

195

Ranking in other categories

Authentication Systems (1st), Identity Management (IM) (1st), Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) (1st), Access Management (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (4th)

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the Single Sign-On (SSO) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Active Directory is 4.0%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Entra ID is 28.1%, down from 30.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Single Sign-On (SSO)

Featured Reviews

Rajitha Abhisheka

Senior Systems Engineer at Virtual IT Group - Australia

Sep 29, 2022

A solution that easily merges with cloud-based ADs and provides superior data security

The interface for logs should be user-friendly and allow for enhanced filtering to drill down to incidents. It is time consuming to get a clear picture and review deviations in conditional policies because you have to check each and every log to find information on malicious attacks, a compromised end-user's account, or phishing emails. The logs for sign-ins and auditing should be available for more than a 30-90 day window. Most logs are displayed in UTC but it would be helpful to include time conversions for tenant regions. Currently, we must do time conversions manually before we contact users to share information and troubleshoot issues.

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Vinod Survase

M365 Senior Consultant at Capgemini

Oct 31, 2022

Saves us time and money and features Conditional Access policies, SSPR, and MFA

I want better integration between Azure AD and the on-prem environment because there are currently limitations that can hamper employee experience. We use a feature called password writeback, that can be challenging to implement in a hybrid environment. Employees can change their passwords using a self-service password reset (SSPR) feature, which reflects from the cloud to the on-prem identity, but not the other way around. Currently, there is no way to reflect passwords from on-prem identities to the cloud. There are other similar limitations, such as a cap on the number of identities that can be synchronized in a particular time frame, which can be an issue for large enterprises with 300,000 employees or more.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We use the tool for FSMO, policies, and customized user registrations."

"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Active Directory is the group policies."

"The most valuable features are it is easy to use, manage, create a repository, and create the OM."

"It is a stable solution."

"One advantage of Active Directory is that you can sync it with Microsoft Office 365, so you can manage on-premise and cloud operations, which can have different requirements. The flexibility of a hybrid management solution is valuable."

"The password policy helps enforce security protocols by requiring complex passwords and frequent password changes."

"It is easy to understand all the components."

"It is a scalable solution."

More Microsoft Active Directory pros

"It has made our work easier in that it’s simplified everything for us."

"The way the laptops are joined is valuable. We can take advantage of that in terms of being able to log in and do things. It is easier to change passwords or set things up."

"We have the ability to define the email user in the designated field."

"It is a central point where we provide the cloud lock-in for our company. We focus the multi-factor authentication within Azure AD before jumping to other clouds or software as a service offerings. So, it is the central point when you need to access something for our company within the cloud. You go to Azure AD and can authenticate there, then you move from there to the target destination or the single sign-on."

"Privilege identity management is the most valuable feature."

"Privileged Identity Management and Privileged Identity Management make controlling access considerably easier and ensure that authorized access is achieved."

"The solution scales well."

"We have about 80 users in the Azure Active Directory right now, however, we know that if it was necessary to scale it for hundreds or thousands of users, it wouldn't be a problem."

More Microsoft Entra ID pros

Cons

"It could be more stable."

"The challenges everyone now has in mind is how to really migrate fully to the cloud. Many companies face both technical and cost-related challenges when moving from on-premise Active Directory to Microsoft Intra."

"The solution needs to be simplified to navigate."

"The security features could be improved."

"The interface for logs should be user-friendly and allow for enhanced filtering to drill down to incidents."

"There could be enough material to learn about the product."

"The solution should maintain the infrastructure according to the period you are in and the security changes."

"There is room for improvement in the support."

More Microsoft Active Directory cons

"From an admin perspective, I would like to see improvement in the Microsoft Graph API."

"Microsoft Entra ID should improve workload identities. It should set conditional access."

"When it comes to Azure, creating certain things or getting different resources isn't very clear. You need a certain level of knowledge of the system. It could be a little bit more friendly so that some of the things can be done easily, but after everything is created, it's easy to use."

"Generally, everything works pretty well, but sometimes, Azure Active Directory has outages on the Microsoft side of things. These outages really have a very big impact on the users, applications, and everything else because they are closely tied to the Azure AD ecosystem. So, whenever there is an outage, it is really difficult because all things start failing. This happens very rarely, but when it happens, there is a big impact."

"I want to be able to identify the audiences effectively and manage them."

"The Azure AD Application Proxy, which helps you publish applications in a secure way, has room for improvement. We are moving from another solution into the Application Proxy and it's quite detailed. Depending on the role you're signing in as, you can end up at different websites, which wasn't an issue with our old solution."

"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."

"The permission management is a mess."

More Microsoft Entra ID cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Active Directory is built-in into Microsoft Windows 10. I'm not an administrator and would not be involved in purchasing decisions for new versions of the software. I have only used the client portion of it, I do not know if there is a cost to using the solution."

"Its price is reasonable."

"The license is perpetual and the cost is minimal. If you purchase Microsoft Windows then Microsoft Active Directory comes with the package."

"We purchase the license for the solution on a yearly basis."

"It's not overly expensive. It's considered a base function by Microsoft."

"The price of Microsoft Active Directory could improve. We pay annually for the solution."

"Microsoft Active Directory is not an expensive solution."

"The version of Microsoft Active Directory I was using was expensive because it was used for large companies."

More Microsoft Active Directory pricing and cost advice

"The process for buying licenses from Microsoft is somewhat messy and really hard to do. We have to talk to someone because it's hard to find out how many licenses we need. If I'm applying for 2,000 users, how many Windows licenses do we need? They could also charge less for support."

"We pay about $35 per user."

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

"It is worth the money."

"The licensing model makes it difficult to understand the real cost of the solution, especially because it changes all the time."

"It comes free with the Microsoft account. We have a yearly agreement, and all products are covered under it."

"Azure Active Directory is more expensive than Google, but the capabilities they provide are superior."

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

More Microsoft Entra ID pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

21%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

10%

Educational Organization

30%

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft Active Directory?

The solution is easy to install and has good reliability.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Microsoft Active Directory?

The challenges everyone now has in mind is how to really migrate fully to the cloud. Many companies face both technical and cost-related challenges when moving from on-premise Active Directory to M...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Microsoft Active Directory?

We are still on a hybrid environment where we have Azure Directory on-premises, and sync it up to Microsoft.

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?

Initially, customers can get good prices for a three-year package, but renewal prices tend to increase significantly. If a customer looks for an alternative solution after three years, we often fin...

See all answers

Comparisons

ManageEngine ADManager Plus vs Microsoft Active Directory

Compared 28% of the time

Ping Identity Platform vs Microsoft Active Directory

Compared 24% of the time

Fortinet FortiAuthenticator vs Microsoft Active Directory

Compared 15% of the time

CyberArk Identity vs Microsoft Active Directory

Compared 6% of the time

JumpCloud vs Microsoft Active Directory

Compared 4% of the time

More Microsoft Active Directory 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 8% of the time

CyberArk Privileged Access Manager vs Microsoft Entra ID

Compared 6% of the time

Auth0 vs Microsoft Entra ID

Compared 5% of the time

More Microsoft Entra ID Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Active Directory

October 2024

Download Microsoft Active Directory product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Entra ID

October 2024

Download Microsoft Entra ID product report

Also Known As

No data available

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

Learn More

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Microsoft

Interactive Demo

Demo not available

Microsoft

Overview

Active Directory stores information about objects on the network and makes this information easy for administrators and users to find and use. Active Directory uses a structured data store as the basis for a logical, hierarchical organization of directory information.

This data store, also known as the directory, contains information about Active Directory objects. These objects typically include shared resources such as servers, volumes, printers, and the network user and computer accounts.

Security is integrated with Active Directory through logon authentication and access control to objects in the directory. With a single network logon, administrators can manage directory data and organization throughout their network, and authorized network users can access resources anywhere on the network. Policy-based administration eases the management of even the most complex network.

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.

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

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

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Active Directory vs. Microsoft Entra ID

October 2024

Free Report: Microsoft Active Directory vs. Microsoft Entra ID

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Active Directory vs. Microsoft Entra ID and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.

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