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IBM Cloud Identity Connect vs Microsoft Entra ID comparison

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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:
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM Cloud Identity Connect
Ranking in Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS)
37th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
8.3
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Microsoft Entra ID
Ranking in Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS)
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), Access Management (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) category, the mindshare of IBM Cloud Identity Connect is 0.7%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Entra ID is 16.6%, down from 24.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Entra ID16.6%
IBM Cloud Identity Connect0.7%
Other82.7%
Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS)
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer1054431 - PeerSpot reviewer
Chief Technology Officer at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Straightforward installation, complete solution, and good support
Everyone in my organization is using the solution. The solution is scalable. IBM Cloud Identity Connect, generally speaking, it's an enterprise solution, you want to find something that's going to cover all your requirements. You don't want to select something that you then find has gaps. You need to have a very clear, well-defined list of requirements upfront, because, otherwise, you will find that you're trying to patch together a lot of different technologies to make it work. You want to find a single solution that does all of the things that you need.
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

"IBM Cloud Identity Connect is a complete solution with all the pieces that are needed are there."
"What I like most about Azure Active Directory is its SSO (single sign-on) feature, as we have a community of users with different IDs and passwords, and this feature helps integrate all these."
"To summarize, the big advantages of this platform are the reliability, cost-effectiveness, and security."
"One of the most important is the Conditional Access. It helps affect a Zero Trust strategy positively."
"I like the way it communicates to the cloud."
"The security and compliance features are very helpful. The online information on the site is well documented."
"It has been very instrumental towards a lot of services we run, especially on the single sign-on side. For example, we have 160 countries that all run their own IT but we still are able to provide users with a single sign-on experience towards global applications. So, they have a certain set of accounts that they get from their local IT department, then they use exactly the same account and credentials to sign into global services. For the user, it has been quite instrumental in that space. It is about efficiency, but also about users not having to remember multiple accounts and passwords since it is all single sign-on. Therefore, the single sign-on experience for us has been the most instrumental for the end user experience."
"I rate Microsoft Entra ID ten out of ten."
"Configuring the domain and setting it up in the Azure portal is just three clicks to be honest."
 

Cons

"IBM Cloud Identity Connect is more expensive than other solutions."
"I want to see new functionalities for the active directory."
"The transition from on-prem Active Directory to the Azure Cloud was difficult because there aren't group policy objectives. This is handled differently in the Azure cloud environment."
"Microsoft Entra ID can be improved by having more resources for learning how to best use the tool and understanding best use case scenarios. The learning curve is challenging, so I would appreciate seeing a training portal that is easier to use."
"On a scale from one being the worst and ten being the best, I would rate my customer service and technical support from Microsoft a three."
"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."
"In my opinion, Microsoft sometimes releases products too early without providing enough documentation."
"Our users sometimes experience issues from having multiple Microsoft accounts, which can cause some confusion and hassle."
"We would like to have more granularity in the Azure conditional access in order to be able to manage more groups for devices and for applications."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"IBM Cloud Identity Connect is more expensive than other solutions."
"The product is relatively affordable, especially compared to Okta, a pricey solution."
"It is a really nice tool and we have a license for the more complex model."
"Microsoft Authenticator is included in the package when we purchase a license from Microsoft."
"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."
"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."
"The pricing is good; it's not cheap but very reasonable."
"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."
"We got a good deal. If you get rid of all the products providing features that Azure Suite can provide, then it makes sense cost-wise."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
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

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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

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

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
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 Microsoft, Okta, One Identity and others in Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS). Updated: August 2026.
914,109 professionals have used our research since 2012.