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Microsoft Entra ID vs SAP Identity Management comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 1, 2024

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

Microsoft Entra ID
Ranking in Identity Management (IM)
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
275
Ranking in other categories
Single Sign-On (SSO) (1st), Authentication Systems (1st), Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) (1st), Access Management (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (2nd)
SAP Identity Management
Ranking in Identity Management (IM)
16th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.9
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
User Provisioning Software (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Identity Management (IM) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Entra ID is 7.4%, down from 13.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP Identity Management is 2.3%, down from 2.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Identity Management (IM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Entra ID7.4%
SAP Identity Management2.3%
Other90.3%
Identity Management (IM)
 

Featured Reviews

Stafin Jacob - PeerSpot reviewer
Microsoft 365 Security & Compliance Practice Lead at Invoke
Identity has become our central gatekeeper and has provided secure single sign-on for all users
Microsoft Entra ID can improve by focusing more on new passwordless methods and becoming a primary adopter. One feature we would like to see is the ability to have security questions for password resets. I know the current capability is phasing out, so we do not have an alternative method yet. Customers who already use security questions require a smoother transition for that capability to be available. My experience with the deployment has had some challenges, particularly around the Microsoft MFA campaigns. The hardest part is moving users from a different MFA provider to the Microsoft MFA provider, as it ultimately depends on user activity. In large enterprises with numerous users across various geographies, this transition takes time. If there are ways to exert more control around that process, it would improve the situation.
FM
Sales Executive at Minsait
Identity management enhances connectivity and productivity with streamlined access and robust security, offering time-saving processes and facilitating seamless integration with other BI tools
One area that could be improved with SAP Identity Management, other than support, is user engagement from an implementation perspective. It would be beneficial for SAP to extend their events and workshops that are currently performed for partners to their final customers, as many customers want to know what's new and what else they can do without solely depending on the partners. For SAP support in Brazil, everything is in English, which poses a difficulty for many customers. The support could be improved for the specific needs in Brazil, as many customers have difficulty accessing the support center due to the language barrier. This feedback is specific to Brazil, though it's unclear if SAP receives similar feedback from other countries. It could certainly be enhanced with Portuguese documents, among other improvements.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable features of Microsoft Entra ID are the login and the conditional access pieces."
"The access control aspect of the authentication is the solution's most valuable aspect."
"Microsoft Entra ID has provided my company with a centralized place to establish a source of truth for the attributes of our personnel."
"Azure AD makes our work a lot easier."
"It helps us with maintaining enterprise identities."
"Within Azure Active Directory, the single sign-on feature is the best aspect."
"It is a really nice tool and we have a license for the more complex model."
"What I like is that I can go anywhere, at any time, and to any client premise, and I can simply log in to the admin panel and can serve any of my clients."
"With SAP IDM we have stopped manually managing all changes in user accounts after his/her transferring between organizational units."
"What's most valuable in SAP Identity Management is that it's easily an out-of-the-box solution for connectivity with SAP applications. We do not have to do any customizations, and this makes the solution very compatible with most SAP applications. SAP Identity Management is also very user-friendly."
"The most valuable feature is the user experience for managing information."
"What I like about SAP Identity Management is that it's stable for experienced users and suitable for access management, not just for SAP accounts, but for Active Directory, including file sharing and process sharing."
"What I found most valuable in SAP Identity Management is process automation."
"The most valuable feature is the user experience for managing information."
"Rather than implement a basic SSO, this solution assisted us with setting up two-factor authentication."
"What I like about SAP Identity Management is that it's stable for experienced users and suitable for access management, not just for SAP accounts, but for Active Directory, including file sharing and process sharing."
 

Cons

"The onboarding process for new users can be improved. It can be made simpler for people who have never registered to Azure AD previously and need to create an account and enable the MFA."
"I would rate my customer service and technical support as six out of ten, noting that level two support is really poor while everything else above that is good."
"My experience with the pricing, setup costs, and licensing has been that it is pretty complex."
"If your organization requires additional security then the subscription will be more expensive."
"The technical support can be confusing - if you're looking for something very specific, it can be hard to get the right answer or a solution."
"Over the past year, syncs have occasionally taken longer than expected to complete between on-premises and cloud environments."
"One thing that bothers me about Azure AD is that I can't specify login hours."
"I think Microsoft Entra ID could be improved by assigning permissions to nested groups in the next release."
"The product needs better UI customization and the administration console is outdated in this version."
"Research and marketing need to be improved."
"One of the areas for improvement in the solution is its user interface which needs to be up-to-date and fancier, in particular, have better visualization in terms of the tabs and buttons. The user interface of SAP Identity Management should be improved based on the latest trends."
"The pricing could be better."
"There are also some issues with the UI, the ACLs and performance - depending on the configuration and Identity DB size."
"A lack of startup connectors to different systems, and could have better connectors for SAP IDM."
"It needs to have the SSO for the HANA modules that SAP is releasing."
"SAP Identity Management can improve risk analysis and authority checks."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Pricing could always be better. You pay the premium for Microsoft. Sometimes, it is worth it, and at other times, you wish to have more licensing options, especially for smaller companies."
"It is good. We have Office 365 E3, and then that is tied in with Azure Active Directory. I believe that we only have to pay for our technician-level access or IT department access for Azure Active Directory Premium, which I am sure they call Entra Premium P2 licensing, so it is not a very large cost. We just adopted that, and that gives us a lot of insights into user security that we would not otherwise have."
"I'm not sure about the specific costs or how they're calculated, but essentially, the costs go up based on the level of security that is required by the organization."
"Pricing-wise, they offer a stepladder approach. You can start with the lowest level features, then start increasing based on new requirements."
"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."
"I'm not totally aware of the pricing and licensing, but I do know that the pricing and licensing must be quite balanced. We are a pretty old client of Microsoft, and MSA is just one of the services we use from Microsoft. There's a whole Microsoft 365 suite that's implemented as well. I'm sure it is something that is acceptable to both parties."
"As a nonprofit, we have A5 licenses for nonprofits in education, so we at least have some reduced costs."
"The price is fair. It's not very expensive given what they offer."
"When evaluating the price of any product, I first look at how it meets my business requirements and if it meets requirements adequately and predictively. Currently, I don't see this from SAP Identity Management, so pricing for it is expensive, in my opinion."
"I rate the solution's pricing a four out of ten."
"The licensing cost varies depending on the specific requirements and deployment size."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Energy/Utilities Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business88
Midsize Enterprise39
Large Enterprise160
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise6
 

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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Active Directory?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that going through and being able to use these things is always part of delivering an M365 bundle, so I don't think the experience is great ...
What needs improvement with Azure Active Directory?
I believe Microsoft Entra ID can be improved, and I think it's already on the roadmap. We value the selective sync where Microsoft Entra ID is actually the authoritative source and then will provis...
What needs improvement with SAP Identity Management?
One area that could be improved with SAP Identity Management, other than support, is user engagement from an implementation perspective. It would be beneficial for SAP to extend their events and wo...
What is your primary use case for SAP Identity Management?
The use cases for SAP Identity Management include the logistics company, and we also have a beverage company that is using SAP Identity Management. We did not make the migration for them, but we im...
What advice do you have for others considering SAP Identity Management?
My clients use SAP Identity Management for managing access rights efficiently based on user roles. I have experience with other IAM tools, having worked for Oracle three or four years ago, but I ca...
 

Also Known As

Azure AD, Azure Active Directory, Azure Active Directory, Microsoft Authenticator
SAP NetWeaver Identity Management, NetWeaver Identity Management
 

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.
State of Indiana, Automotive Resources International (ARI), Alliander N.V., Chemion Logistik GmbH, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital (SNUBH)
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Entra ID vs. SAP Identity Management and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
886,719 professionals have used our research since 2012.