Microsoft Entra ID vs Symantec Siteminder comparison

Microsoft and Broadcom are both solutions in the Single Sign-On (SSO) category. Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.7, while Broadcom is ranked #12 with an average rating of 6.6. Microsoft holds a 29.7% mindshare in SSO, compared to Broadcom’s 1.9% mindshare. Additionally, 94% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of Broadcom users who would recommend it.

Microsoft Entra ID

Read 218 Microsoft Entra ID reviews

12,415 Views
9,201 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Symantec Siteminder

Read 73 Symantec Siteminder reviews

1,462 Views
1,098 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

Microsoft Entra ID

Symantec Siteminder

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 11, 2024

Symantec Siteminder and Microsoft Entra ID provide distinct solutions for identity and access management. Microsoft Entra ID seems to have the upper hand due to advanced capabilities and perceived value.

Features: Symantec Siteminder is known for its comprehensive security policies, integration flexibility, and robust support features. Microsoft Entra ID is recognized for seamless cloud integration, multifactor authentication, and advanced user management features.

Room for Improvement: Symantec Siteminder faces challenges in user experience, complexity in configuration, and could simplify configurations. Microsoft Entra ID has occasional difficulty in initial setup, desires more detailed documentation, and could enhance user onboarding experiences.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Symantec Siteminder has a complex deployment process but a comprehensive support team. Microsoft Entra ID's deployment is relatively straightforward, although customer service experiences vary, with some users wishing for faster response times.

Pricing and ROI: Symantec Siteminder is perceived as more expensive but delivers high ROI with secure and reliable services. Microsoft Entra ID is considered more cost-effective and is valued for extensive features and integration capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Entra ID vs. Symantec Siteminder Report (Updated: November 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Entra ID vs. Symantec Siteminder

November 2024

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Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Entra ID

Ranking in Single Sign-On (SSO)

1st

Ranking in Access Management

1st

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

218

Ranking in other categories

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

Symantec Siteminder

Ranking in Single Sign-On (SSO)

12th

Ranking in Access Management

12th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Web Access Management (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the Single Sign-On (SSO) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Entra ID is 29.7%, up from 28.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Siteminder is 1.9%, down from 2.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Single Sign-On (SSO)

Featured Reviews

Vinod Survase

M365 Senior Consultant at Capgemini

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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Siva Chalamarla

Senior Software Engineer at HCLTech

Good access control and SSO but needs modernization

The access control and the SSO are the two most valuable features. Siteminder allows users to authenticate once and gain access to multiple applications without needing to reauthenticate for each application separately. For example, if you access one application in one tab, you do not need to provide it again if you are trying to access the same application. The portal has different applications built into it. It's similar to Google. If you open Google and try to access the maps in that Google, you do not need to authenticate in maps. You just need to authenticate in the starting phase. Only a particular group of people have access. Our guys will give an error called access denied or unauthorized access. It depends on the application. It is pretty easy to learn.

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 definitely both stable and scalable."

"We have a complex scenario with several applications, and we're trying to achieve SSO for most of our applications, but some of our legacy applications don't support SSO or modern protocols. Our core applications are ready for SSO or to be federated. We've centralized our authentication process using Entra ID, so we can collect sign-offs from the users and filter using conditional access."

"It's something we have to deal with every day. It is present. If you're in a domain environment, you'll need it to log in. If you work in a Microsoft-centric environment, you can't avoid it."

"The portal version of the Azure active directory is pretty robust."

"https://www.itcentralstation.com/product_reviews/microsoft-bi-review-52460-by-amanda-zhou"

"User and device management is the most valuable feature."

"Multi-factor authentication really secures our environments and gives us the flexibility to use location-based policies. Azure AD also gives us a lot of flexibility in our scope of integration."

"We like the ease of app registrations and single sign-on with Entra ID. It offers an easy way to add multi-factor authentication to nearly any application and system."

More Microsoft Entra ID pros

"We almost never have outages nor see slowdowns."

"A valuable feature of Siteminder is the way it handles bulk traffic. The features it has, in terms of routing the traffic and load balancing, are good."

"It has considerably reduced the amount of time that new users would take to join into the organization. Previously, it was a lengthy, manual process because it's a very secure environment, where they need to verify the user before they can actually grant him a user-ID and password. Integrating with the built-in custom application, and exposing CA Single Sign On to the internet, we were able to get the employees onboard. The time that we gained was: previously it would generally take from four to eight weeks for each employee, we brought it to one to two days."

"Symantec Siteminder Is both scalable and stable."

"Right now, federation that comes out-of-the-box with single sign-on is the most valuable feature that we have, and also scalability."

"It provides the breadth and the width to provide solutions for the different kinds of technologies which we have."

"Ease of use is very good, for administrating it. It's very well known."

"It is pretty easy to learn."

More Symantec Siteminder pros

Cons

"I would like to see improvements made when it comes to viewing audit logs, sign-in logs, and resource tags."

"The synchronization with the local Active Directory and synchronization with all of the users on the local and cloud could be better."

"There is no great solution in the cloud for Conditional Access authentication and RADIUS-type authentication."

"Microsoft support has some room for improvement. I avoid contacting them because it can be time-consuming. They don't necessarily find the solution, but you have to be on call for them to connect and do things on your system remotely. You have to schedule a time to meet with them, and it's somewhat inconvenient."

"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."

"The permission management is a mess."

"I think the solution can improve by making the consumption of that data easier for our customers."

"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."

More Microsoft Entra ID cons

"The tech support has not been very good for us so we don't use them anymore. We have had some issues. Nobody is perfect."

"To add more value to this solution it needs to be more user-friendly."

"I think they need to integrate some of the newer types of authentication into the product. I'm not seeing the innovation when it comes to biometrics in the product."

"Symantec SiteMinder is not easy to set up and maintain at an infrastructure level."

"The support team could work on their response time and overall competence."

"I'd like to see a rework of the user directory configuration."

"CA has reporting at the moment. With the reporting, every particular segmented product has a reporting engine. I would like to see centralized reporting for all of them together."

"In future releases, I would like to see maybe more capabilities with some more modern authentication."

More Symantec Siteminder cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Microsoft has a free version of Azure AD. So, if you don't do a lot of advanced features, then you can use the free version, which is no cost at all because it is underpinning Office 365. Because Microsoft gives it to you as a SaaS, so there are no infrastructure costs whatsoever that you need to incur. If you use the free version, then it is free. If you use the advanced features (that we use), it is a license fee per user."

"The product's price is in the midrange."

"Microsoft Entra ID's pricing is reasonable."

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

"Licensing costs for Microsoft Entra ID remain a concern, especially with the price increases in 2023."

"If you're on Azure, it can be free or it's incorporated, at no extra cost, or it can become extremely complicated."

"The price of Azure Active Directory and Amazon AWS, are almost the same, but most people prefer Amazon AWS because they find it's a little cheaper to some extent and an easier platform to use."

"It can be a bit expensive for organizations, but they do have different pricing models. Their free tier can be used on a personal level, but for an organization, the licenses might be a bit expensive. In general, the licenses can become cheaper, which will make it accessible for more people."

More Microsoft Entra ID pricing and cost advice

"I recommend conducting a PoC on every available product before choose one."

"The licensing is fair for this solution."

"CA solutions are generally expensive but for the customer the ROI is big."

"Siteminder is a little costly. You pay for licensing, and they offer packages, so if you have less users, then you have to buy different products at different prices. If you have more of a user base, then the package is different. They also include other features—for example, if you have a database and you're using Siteminder, then it's good to use a Semantic-specific database, but if you are using less, then you have to purchase the database separately. Whereas if you are going for a bigger license, then it comes within the package. It depends on which plan you are using."

"The pricing is reasonable."

"The solution's pricing is competitive."

"The price is quite comparable to the other enterprise-level solutions in that market."

"Symantec Siteminder is expensive; they could definitely do better on the price."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

32%

Computer Software Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

34%

Insurance Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

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...

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?

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.

See all answers

What do you like most about Symantec Siteminder?

It's agent-based. It's convenient to deploy and integrate.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Symantec Siteminder?

The maintenance fee has increased, raising concerns about the overall cost to customers.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Symantec Siteminder?

The maintenance cost has increased significantly, and we are concerned about this. We also need to consider the customization or development required for web authentication when using Active Direct...

See all answers

Comparisons

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

Auth0 vs Microsoft Entra ID

Compared 5% of the time

CyberArk Privileged Access Manager vs Microsoft Entra ID

Compared 5% of the time

More Microsoft Entra ID Competitors

Ping Identity Platform vs Symantec Siteminder

Compared 47% of the time

ForgeRock vs Symantec Siteminder

Compared 24% of the time

Okta Workforce Identity vs Symantec Siteminder

Compared 9% of the time

Auth0 vs Symantec Siteminder

Compared 4% of the time

Red Hat Single Sign On vs Symantec Siteminder

Compared 4% of the time

More Symantec Siteminder Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Entra ID

December 2024

Download Microsoft Entra ID product report

Buyer's Guide

Symantec Siteminder

November 2024

Download Symantec Siteminder product report

Also Known As

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

Single Sign-On, SiteMinder, CA SSO, Layer7 SiteMinder

Learn More

Microsoft

Broadcom

Interactive Demo

Microsoft

Demo not available

Broadcom

Overview

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.

Symantec® SiteMinder is designed to secure the modern enterprise through a unified access management platform that applies the appropriate authentication mechanism to positively identify users; provides single sign-on and identity federation for seamless access to any application; enforces granular security policies to stop unauthorized access to sensitive resources; and monitors and manages the entire user session to prevent session hijacking. Finally, Symantec SiteMinder is battle-tested and has been deployed in the largest IT environments in the world.

Sample Customers

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

British Telecom, CoreBlox, DBS, HMS, Itera ASA and Simeo

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Entra ID vs. Symantec Siteminder

November 2024

Free Report: Microsoft Entra ID vs. Symantec Siteminder

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Entra ID vs. Symantec Siteminder and other solutions. Updated: November 2024.

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