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Microsoft Entra ID vs One Identity Active Roles comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
7.6
Microsoft Entra ID offers cost-efficiency, enhanced security, and scalability, reducing IT workload and optimizing resources for companies.
Sentiment score
7.0
Automation enhanced productivity, cut resource usage by 20%, improved satisfaction, and provided quick ROI with notable cost savings.
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
6.8
Microsoft Entra ID support is mixed; premier praised, non-premium slow, reliant on scripts, but documentation is helpful.
Sentiment score
9.0
One Identity Active Roles support is praised for responsiveness and expertise, despite occasional delays in complex cases.
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.
One Identity's support is great.
I rate customer service and support as a seven because, although they are helpful when needed, there can be delays in responding to tickets and finding necessary fixes.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
Microsoft Entra ID offers scalable, cloud-based user management for businesses, adapting to diverse sizes and configurations globally.
Sentiment score
7.5
One Identity Active Roles excels in scalability, effectively supporting automation and management in complex, large-scale environments despite Azure challenges.
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.
It is very beneficial for large and complex environments.
The solution is highly scalable, with a scalability rating of nine.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
Microsoft Entra ID is praised for its reliability, minimal downtime, and quick issue resolution despite occasional minor outages.
Sentiment score
7.6
One Identity Active Roles is highly stable with minimal issues, though some experience web interface lags potentially infrastructure-related.
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.
I would rate the stability as a seven because there are sometimes performance issues, which require restarting the services.
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Entra ID needs better integration, improved user management, clearer communication, and enhancements in stability, documentation, and support.
One Identity Active Roles needs better customization, multi-language scripting, and improved Azure integration, documentation, and user interface.
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.
A way to connect to various directories and integrate with cloud directories would be beneficial.
Enhancements to the console are also necessary because it is more confusing than the web interface.
Creating an API accessible from the web.
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Entra ID provides flexible, scalable pricing with various tiers and offers discounts for nonprofits, despite complex cost structures.
Enterprise buyers view One Identity Active Roles pricing as high but competitive, with flexible licensing and fair value for functionality.
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.
The pricing is high.
The pricing of One Identity Active Roles is expensive, but the return on investment justifies the cost, allowing for savings in other areas.
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Entra ID provides advanced security features, seamless integration, and centralized management for enhanced identity protection and access governance.
One Identity Active Roles offers robust access control, AD management, and cloud integration, enhancing security and compliance through customizable features.
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.
It is very intuitive and close to the native tools.
The most valuable features are the access templates, which allow for granular permissions, and the policies that provide a framework for usage and standardization across entities.
It is an easier way for me to manage Active Directory with more advanced features.
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Entra ID
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), Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) (1st), Access Management (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (2nd)
One Identity Active Roles
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
User Provisioning Software (5th), Active Directory Management (5th), Non-Human Identity Management (NHIM) (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Identity and Access Management solutions, they serve different purposes. Microsoft Entra ID is designed for Single Sign-On (SSO) and holds a mindshare of 27.5%, up 26.4% compared to last year.
One Identity Active Roles, on the other hand, focuses on User Provisioning Software, holds 4.2% mindshare, down 4.4% since last year.
Single Sign-On (SSO)
User Provisioning Software
 

Featured Reviews

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.
Neera Jain - PeerSpot reviewer
Requires minimal training and provides granular control
The granular control has been very helpful for us. We want to be able to control what level users have access to. It is possible to control access levels at the organizational unit or even the attribute level, making it helpful for us. Active Roles helped increase operational efficiency in our organization. We have delegated user provisioning to the help desk so they can create users or manage accounts. We have delegated group management to identified group owners who can manage their groups. Some of them just need read-only access to AD; they do not need to download the native tools. They can just do it via a browser. Active Roles has helped our organization reduce the number of erroneous privileged accounts. We have set the templates, and we have set the standards. It helps standardize all the naming conventions and how they are provisioned with the rules. That is definitely very helpful. We use the change history to see who might have modified what object. We have that tracking, but we use a tool from Quest called Change Auditor that can do the auditing to figure out who did what type of thing for auditing.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
33%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Government
8%
Healthcare Company
8%
 

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?
Microsoft Entra ID is reportedly quite expensive for each user regarding security features. The renewal cost is particularly high according to the teams managing purchases.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for One Identity Active Roles?
The pricing is high. I have not been involved with the renewal or cost aspect, but I know it is not cheap by any means. However, it is very useful for our environment.
What needs improvement with One Identity Active Roles?
There is always room to improve the user interface for increased clarity. I believe enhancements to the console are also necessary because it is more confusing than the web interface.
 

Also Known As

Azure AD, Azure Active Directory, Azure Active Directory, Microsoft Authenticator
Quest Active Roles
 

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.
City of Frankfurt, Moore Public Schools, George Washington University, Transavia Airlines, Howard County, MD. See all stories at OneIdentity.com/casestudies
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Entra ID vs. One Identity Active Roles and other solutions. Updated: March 2020.
845,040 professionals have used our research since 2012.