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Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD) vs Okta

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 3, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.7
Microsoft Entra ID support is knowledgeable but inconsistent, with quicker responses for premier users and delays for others.
Sentiment score
8.1
Okta Workforce Identity support is praised for responsiveness and professionalism, though some users note improvement areas like response times.
The actual support when you get to that level is a ten out of ten.
I would rate Microsoft technical support as a seven out of ten.
 

Room For Improvement

Sentiment score
5.4
Microsoft Entra ID requires improvements in marketing, licensing, documentation, integration, interface, security, stability, and training resources.
Sentiment score
4.3
Okta Workforce Identity struggles with integration, user provisioning, and user experience, while high pricing hinders broader adoption.
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.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
Microsoft Entra ID offers scalable, flexible identity management, accommodating various organization sizes with reliable performance and user-friendly expansion.
Sentiment score
7.8
Okta Workforce Identity is praised for its scalability and flexibility across environments, despite some business scalability challenges.
 

Setup Cost

Sentiment score
7.0
Microsoft Entra ID offers flexible, tiered pricing with discounts for nonprofits, included in Microsoft service packages, but opinions on cost vary.
Sentiment score
3.9
Okta Workforce Identity pricing is competitive but costly for large firms due to yearly per-user subscriptions and additional fees.
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.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Microsoft Entra ID is praised for its reliability and performance, with improved stability and strong uptime despite occasional regional variation.
Sentiment score
8.4
Okta Workforce Identity boasts 99.9% uptime, high reliability, and minimal downtime, with efficient issue resolution and strong user trust.
The stability of the solution is very high at 99.999%.
The stability of the solution is good with a rating of eight out of ten.
 

Valuable Features

Sentiment score
8.4
Microsoft Entra ID enhances security and simplifies management with features like single sign-on, multi-factor authentication, and role-based access.
Sentiment score
8.2
Okta Workforce Identity offers secure authentication, centralized management, and seamless integration, enhancing productivity and simplifying user access control.
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.
The main valuable feature is the integration into a single console, which includes authentication service and endpoint security.
You can only log in if you have the access, which protects the applications by avoiding cross-site scripting.
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Entra ID
Ranking in Single Sign-On (SSO)
1st
Ranking in Authentication Systems
1st
Ranking in Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS)
1st
Ranking in Access Management
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
197
Ranking in other categories
Identity Management (IM) (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (4th)
Okta Workforce Identity
Ranking in Single Sign-On (SSO)
5th
Ranking in Authentication Systems
6th
Ranking in Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS)
2nd
Ranking in Access Management
4th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
64
Ranking in other categories
Privileged Access Management (PAM) (5th), ZTNA as a Service (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Entra ID is 33.1%, up from 28.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Okta Workforce Identity is 18.3%, up from 18.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS)
 

Featured Reviews

Vinod Survase - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Tor Nordhagen - PeerSpot reviewer
Extremely easy to work with, simple to set up, and reasonably priced
The drawback of this solution is that in our shops, many staff members sometimes have to be borrowed from one shop to another and the solution does not really support having multiple roles. The user experience we would like to have when a person works in shop A which pays their salary is that they should have access to pretty much everything. Maybe you have somebody who is a manager in that shop A, he should be able to order new wear, he should be able to change the pricing, he should be able to empty the cash registry, and ship it to the bank. But when for instance, in COVID, people had to fill in for people in shops where a lot of people were sick, then they had to actually use user accounts of people that work in shop B. If you were employed in shop A, you could not work in shop B without borrowing somebody else's user ID and password. Which is really bad. We haven't been able to work around that and Okta Workforce Identity does not have a solution for it. We are now piloting their identity governance solution. Obviously, it's easy to give somebody access, give them an account, and give them roles, but it's hard to maintain that. For example, if you moved from, say working in a shop to working in a warehouse. But why do you still have all this shop access? The solution has until now not had anything to really support the process of taking away access. But now we are in a better release program of Okta's identity governance solution. Although it's very basic, the solution has started on a journey, but identity governance is something that Okta Workforce Identity really needs to improve. The ability or the options in the solution for changing the look and feel are not good enough because in our partner portal, essentially what they have is an ugly admin interface. The admin interface is good enough for us technical people because that's all we need. We work with the product and we're able to see the data but when it comes to presenting the service portal, Okta Workforce Identity does not have any capabilities really for making it look pretty. To add branding and different graphical user interface elements than Okta basic for essentially delegated admin for the business-to-business portal is horrifying because you're essentially using the tech admin. The only option we had and used, was to take the tech admin console and strip it. so that a vendor that has some goods that are sold in the shops, when they want to add a user on their side, say a driver or a packer on their side who should know how much they've packed in a truck to come to our warehouse, then the user interface that this vendor is using, these functional people will then have to use an extremely basic user interface.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
31%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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?
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...
What do you like most about Okta Workforce Identity?
Okta has introduced the Universal Directory. It has custom attribute capability and user permissions to read/write on their profiles or hide them. Profile sources and identity profile sourcing are ...
What needs improvement with Okta Workforce Identity?
There is a need for Okta to provide an end-to-end solution without needing a separate product like Zscaler for multifactor authentication. Additionally, Okta should enhance its endpoint defensive c...
 

Also Known As

Azure AD, Azure Active Directory, Azure Active Directory, Microsoft Authenticator
No data available
 

Learn More

 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Microsoft Entre ID is trusted by companies of all sizes and industries including Walmart, Zscaler, Uniper, Amtrak, monday.com, and more.
FedEx, Zoom, Takeda, Lululemon Athletica, GrunHub, jetBlue, McKensson, Bain & Company, Engie, Peloton, Sonos, T-Mobile, Hewlett Packard, MGM Resorts, Ally Financial, Priceline, Albertsons, Itercom, Classy, FICO, Kensho, Live Nation, Drata, Rotary, and others.
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Entra ID vs. Okta Workforce Identity and other solutions. Updated: November 2024.
816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.