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Akamai Enterprise Application Access vs Microsoft Entra ID comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 2026

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

Akamai Enterprise Applicati...
Ranking in Access Management
19th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (15th), ZTNA as a Service (20th), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (18th)
Microsoft Entra ID
Ranking in Access Management
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
278
Ranking in other categories
Single Sign-On (SSO) (2nd), Authentication Systems (1st), Identity Management (IM) (2nd), Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Access Management category, the mindshare of Akamai Enterprise Application Access is 1.3%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Entra ID is 10.7%, down from 23.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Access Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Entra ID10.7%
Akamai Enterprise Application Access1.3%
Other88.0%
Access Management
 

Featured Reviews

DE
Platform Manager at Globe Telecom
Centralized authentication streamlines global access with single sign-on and auto-scaling for seamless user experience
We use Akamai Enterprise Application Access for centralized authentication for our global customers. It provides a solution for consolidated authentication on our platform. We use the service to manage access for our global consumers, not for remote access for our employees My favorite part of…
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution is very convenient and stable because you don't have to worry about attacks to public IPs or public networks."
"My favorite part of the Akamai Enterprise Application Access service is its SSO and auto-scaling capabilities."
"Application Access's most valuable feature is the accessibility of enterprise tech protection."
"The cost and the capability are great."
"The capability of Akamai Enterprise Application Access is what you're looking for, it's giving you the service that you're looking for. It's simple and doesn't use an agent. It uses LCSD responders, and they have a lot of services around the globe. That's the reason that we were very interested in using it because it has a lot of coverage. This is because it's under the GDS umbrella."
"We've had a good ROI from Application Access."
"The premier services we have are very good."
"Microsoft Entra ID works well for scalability in my organization, as we have grown from 150 employees to 700 employees."
"After implementing Conditional Access policies in Microsoft Entra ID, we observed significant improvements in our security metrics, with unauthorized access attempts reduced by approximately 60 to 80% due to strict policy enforcement, MFA adoption rate increasing to nearly 100% for critical applications, and the ability to automatically block or challenge a higher number of risky sign-ins detected by the system while also seeing a significant decrease in security incidents related to identity compromise after implementation."
"The two-factor authentication provides an additional layer of security for our organizational data, so Microsoft Authenticator plays a crucial role in making our confidential data more secure."
"Single sign-on is the reason we use AD."
"It has features that have definitely helped to improve our security posture."
"The features of Microsoft Entra ID that I appreciate the most include the incredible value we have found in the MFA piece along with Conditional Access."
"I would say that Azure AD's pricing is very reasonable because of the structure and in terms of the solution."
 

Cons

"If you provide enterprise services we have to stop telling the customers it's going to be per users or the transactions. That's not good for the customers, it's good for the vendors."
"The pricing could be lower for Akamai Enterprise Application Access."
"We need another approach to bring the solution to the cloud. In addition to Access Management, we would like to see if we can jump into Directories. I think ADs are going to go away and everything is going to be cloud-based and minimize the use of ADs because of the cost and some other dependencies to the cloud. Every time you buy AD it is more hardware, and everything's changing to software. The network's changing, the applications are changing, and for IT it is hard to keep up with it."
"The solution has two agents so should combine its enterprise application and security access into one agent."
"The technical enablement sessions are quite limited, and Akamai could help by providing more of them."
"The custom role creation function could be improved as it's somewhat tricky to use."
"Many of the features are outdated, so the UI and UX could be improved."
"An additional improvement I see for Microsoft Entra ID is the need for frequent re-indexing, as I experience several stale records that persist even after those objects have been deleted, leading to authentication issues."
"One area where it can improve is connectivity with other systems. Not all systems are connected and you have to do coding to establish a point of connectivity. It supports certain vendors and it supports certain protocols. It is limited in many other aspects at the attribute level."
"We have a lot of freedom in using the Group Policy Objects and, although Group Policy Objects are part of Azure Active Directory, there are still a lot of things that can be improved, such as providing local admin rights to a user. There are various, easy ways that I can do that in the on-premises version, but in the cloud version, it is a bit difficult. You have to create a bunch of policies to make it work."
"Everything should be in one package. There are so many different packages."
"The technical support has room for improvement."
"I give it a five because it depends on who you get; some people are awesome, and some people, I can find answers through Google before I get a response from them, so it just all depends on the engineer."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Licensing is based on user count."
"The license can be shared based on the number of active users."
"The price is great it is all-inclusive, they use an enterprise cost model. That's what we like compared to other users. This is one of the main attractions of Akamai Enterprise Application Access. It's already an enterprise cost model established with us for services."
"The price of the solution's license is good."
"The solution has three types of tiers: E1 has very basic features. You get limited stuff in E2 and cannot have Office 360 associated with it. E3 is on the costly side and has all the features."
"The licensing cost is a bit prohibitive."
"We have a yearly license."
"The basic tier of Azure Active Directory is free, so many users use the service for free. For a small company having the security and compliance that Azure offers is a great benefit. For small companies that are using the basic services, not having to pay for Azure Active Directory is the main asset because they can manage their users and have authentications tools and security."
"We have an agreement with Microsoft, and my company pays yearly."
"We are always looking for better pricing."
"The pricing of Azure Active Directory is competitive. By default, the product exists in almost every Microsoft cloud product. But it then depends on the features that a customer really wants to make use of."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Healthcare Company
7%
Outsourcing Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business90
Midsize Enterprise42
Large Enterprise162
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Akamai Enterprise Application Access?
The pricing is a bit expensive for our market. Although it is cheaper compared to alternatives, Akamai Enterprise Application Access offers a more robust solution overall, particularly for authenti...
What is your primary use case for Akamai Enterprise Application Access?
We use Akamai Enterprise Application Access ( /products/akamai-enterprise-application-access-reviews ) for centralized authentication for our global customers. It provides a solution for consolidat...
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?
I would rate the pricing of the product as four out of five. The product is definitely good, and I see it as part of the future roadmap for managing all endpoints.
What needs improvement with Azure Active Directory?
I believe instead of putting everything in a single form under Microsoft Entra ID, it would be best for Microsoft to segregate these features. For example, if someone wants to design the Conditiona...
 

Also Known As

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

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Bugcrowd, InPowered, Spirent Communications
Microsoft Entre ID is trusted by companies of all sizes and industries including Walmart, Zscaler, Uniper, Amtrak, monday.com, and more.
Find out what your peers are saying about Akamai Enterprise Application Access vs. Microsoft Entra ID and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
914,109 professionals have used our research since 2012.