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JumpCloud vs Microsoft Active Directory comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 30, 2025

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

iboss
Sponsored
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (6th), Internet Security (3rd), Web Content Filtering (1st), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (7th), ZTNA as a Service (10th), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (9th)
JumpCloud
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
Single Sign-On (SSO) (10th), Identity Management (IM) (12th), Enterprise Password Managers (9th), Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) (9th), ZTNA as a Service (13th), Active Directory Bridge (3rd), Cyber Asset Attack Surface Management (CAASM) (5th)
Microsoft Active Directory
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
43
Ranking in other categories
Single Sign-On (SSO) (7th), Active Directory Management (5th)
 

Featured Reviews

Matt Crockford - PeerSpot reviewer
It's easy to roll out, and their understanding of our business made it seamless
One aspect we value about iboss is its simplicity. Their customer service is brilliant, and they are super responsive and knowledgeable. It's easy to roll out, and their understanding of our business made it seamless. We were impressed by the solution's mental health function, which can detect if someone needs help. It scans what users are browsing and flags warning signs so we can check to see if they are okay. We've had to use it a couple of times. The user interface is highly intuitive. Our IT team picked it up with minimal training. It's arranged so that it's easy to find where things are. Another advantage is the single pane of glass console, which gives you visibility into what's happening. We're not fully there yet because we haven't implemented zero trust, but we're excited about the possibilities from the demos we've seen. We launched a POC of iboss' ChatGPT Risk Protection feature two weeks ago. AI is a great tool, but you need to be careful what you put into it. My biggest fear is employees inputting sensitive corporate information or customer PII data into one of these chatbots. I was impressed by our trial of the feature. It's exactly what we wanted. Now, when a user goes to ChatGPT, there's a banner warning them not to share information, and we can block conversations containing customer data like bank details and email addresses. I don't want to stop people from using it, but we need visibility. We've only tried it on a test group of 15 people. You can configure it to look for specific keywords or integrate it with your DLP policy if you have that configured
MuhammadAzhar Khan - PeerSpot reviewer
Manage multiple cloud platforms seamlessly with unified credentials
The most impactful feature of JumpCloud is that it allows me to use one credential for all platforms or accounts, reducing the need to remember multiple credentials. This feature is highly beneficial for user management, particularly for clients with multiple cloud accounts. Additionally, JumpCloud simplifies the workflow when I work with different cloud platforms, such as AWS, Azure, and GCP, by integrating directory and credential management.
Roberta Politano - PeerSpot reviewer
Has good authentication features
The solution's group policy is a normal way to deploy configuration and helps deploy to a wider environment. The solution is deployed both on-premises and on the cloud. I would recommend the solution to other users based on their infrastructure. Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Valuable features: Within the filter: Controls (Web categories, applications, and Allow/Block list) and Network (local Subnets). Within the reporter: Logs (Event Log) and Reports."
"iboss is among the few products providing inline filtering where no application is needed on the device."
"We were impressed by the solution's mental health function, which can detect if someone needs help. It scans what users are browsing and flags warning signs so we can check to see if they are okay. We've had to use it a couple of times."
"We chose iboss for both zero trust and proxy (SWG) because their SWG was superior."
"Its initial setup was straightforward."
"Content filtering is the most useful feature of iboss."
"Technical support is pretty sharp and very responsive."
"The solution has massively improved our security posture, giving us full visibility into what our staff does online."
"The most valuable features of JumpCloud are flexibility, policy management for devices, and device patch management. For example, we can limit access to devices only in Chile or send a number of commands to the devices to manage them."
"Ability to integrate all applications."
"JumpCloud enables different kinds of connections and enables employees or subcontractors not within the company to connect to our network securely."
"Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"The most valuable feature of JumpCloud, it provides a convenient and streamlined solution for me to access and manage all of the features I require in one centralized location. This eliminates the need for me to worry about hiring individuals to manage these tasks, as well as eliminating concerns surrounding hardware, updates, and licenses. With JumpCloud, I am able to receive the services I need in a timely and efficient manner, which has significantly reduced my stress and alleviated a great deal of the issues I once faced. This is especially important as I am often bound by laws, regulations, contracts, and customer demands to keep up with various tasks. With JumpCloud, I am able to manage everything I need in one place, giving me visibility and control over aspects that I previously had to manage through multiple systems."
"The whole product is great. The device management is amazing. The fact that you can basically set up an entire machine without having the machine in front of you is most valuable."
"Some of the most valuable features of Jumpcloud have been the use of the policies. They have been very helpful. There are modules in there for policies where you can create your own which indirectly are GPOs similar to what you have for Microsoft environments, however, they are only doing registry changes. They are very powerful and useful. Additionally, having your directory and SSO in one spot is another thing that they provide in application management. Adding, removing, and updating applications are in one place for desktop administration."
"The product enables device management."
"The user-friendliness of Microsoft Active Directory is a valuable feature."
"The solution is user-friendly, and I like using Microsoft products. I think there is no other choice for Active Directory. Microsoft Windows Server Active Directory is the best."
"We can also have separate domain controllers in different Active Directory sites based on their location."
"The Solution's most important feature is that it can merge with a cloud-based active directory via Azure AD Connect."
"Technical support is helpful."
"Active Directory plays a focal point in security management, encompassing aspects like credential management, lifecycle, dynamic provisioning, and the network infrastructure of customers."
"We use the tool for FSMO, policies, and customized user registrations."
"The most valuable features of Microsoft Active Directory are the management of user and group policies."
 

Cons

"File integrity monitoring would be very advantageous as an additional feature."
"The reporting feature needs improvement."
"Our biggest problem with their service was it did not recognize the device and filtering did not always work correctly."
"Our biggest problem with their service was it did not recognize the device and filtering did not always work correctly."
"The dashboards for local use could be better."
"For zero trust implementation, we encountered complexity issues, especially with a large infrastructure company ExxonMobil."
"SSL decryption: We had issues with learners using apps instead of using web browsers. This type of encryption is tough for any appliance in a BYOD environment."
"Their on-premise hardware's network interface is capped at one gigabit, which is sort of a problem. If you stand a filter up where all traffic flows through that, according to them, in order to go above a gigabit, you have to have multiple devices, which in today's IT seems a little bit silly. They could easily put in an SFP port into their device that could accommodate 10 gigs or at least offer a box."
"Lacks the ability to have various VPN applications."
"I would like AWS to integrate more cloud platforms with JumpCloud, such as Alibaba or Oracle."
"Support is not good enough."
"A nice feature called patch management with different kinds of licensing is not included in JumpCloud."
"JumpCloud could improve the user interface. While it has certainly come a long way, there is still room for improvement in terms of simplifying and making it more intuitive for the user. In my opinion, the UI/UE could benefit from some modifications to enhance the overall user experience. I have suggested some changes to JumpCloud regarding this matter as I believe that they have the potential to further enhance the platform and make it even more user-friendly. There are certain small features within the system that users may not be familiar with, as they may have previously used different systems with different user interfaces."
"JumpCloud could improve the compatibility with other devices and operating systems. For example, the solution only works well with Mac and some Linux devices. It does not work for mobile devices, such as Android."
"For improvement, the tool should introduce more customization options."
"JumpCloud could improve by providing more features. They are only giving the three standard features, such as SSO radius. I would like there to be multi-tenant features. For example, my colleague is from a different organization, and he's using different applications and I'm using different applications, I wanted to access his applications and database with my JumpCloud credentials. However, since it is a multi-tenant instance. I would like it to be open-ended where we can gather all these multi-level organizations to put in a single domain to access one authentication for all the different applications."
"Microsoft Active Directory fails to provide MFA. MFA, which is also known as multi-factor authentication on top of the password and username, is what I would like to see in the product's future releases."
"Typically, it depends on the customer's situation. If the customer operates in smaller locations where most PCs are in a common location, we usually aim to consolidate the directory infrastructure for easier maintenance. However, for distributed setups spanning multiple countries, configuring multiple sites becomes necessary and more intricate to handle. Our objective is to minimize the number of sites, simplifying operations for IT administrators and reducing errors. Mistakes in Active Directory can be costly for organizations, as disruptions can occur rapidly. Moreover, when it comes to hybrid single sign-on across various applications, Microsoft hasn't put forth significant effort. Single sign-on has become a challenge for many customers who utilize diverse solutions beyond Microsoft products. While implementing single sign-on is relatively straightforward in the Azure cloud, it's considerably more complex when dealing with the local Active Directory. This presents a big challenge for many of our customers."
"UI is not very user-friendly."
"The challenges everyone now has in mind is how to really migrate fully to the cloud. Many companies face both technical and cost-related challenges when moving from on-premise Active Directory to Microsoft Intra."
"It could be more scalable. We still need another software solution to monitor the network in addition to Active Directory and OpManager, our domain controller. We use SolarWinds."
"There are no reporting features."
"Perhaps the synchronization could be simpler and more controllable."
"Sometimes, it can be overly complicated, and when you apply Group Policy in an Active Directory environment, sometimes those settings apply and sometimes they don't."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We had the cost of purchasing a new appliance along with the implementation and licensing costs. However, the following year, the cost of just licensing was similar to what was paid the previous year for a new appliance along with the implementation and licensing costs."
"The overall pricing for iboss is very competitive and transparent."
"We have not priced the solution recently, but they were competitive with other vendors in the past."
"It is not expensive, and it is also not cheap. iboss is priced right in the sweet spot for the number of features it offers."
"It is expensive compared to one of its competitors."
"It is probably in line with other solutions, but I do not deal with the financial side."
"I am pretty sure that the cost to acquire JumpCloud is less. They have à la carte or per-user pricing. The pricing is there on their webpage. I am not sure if they have any enterprise pricing or discounts if you have more users. But the overall pricing is less than Okta."
"JumpCloud offers several subscription plans as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider. The pricing is based on the number of users and the services that are required, meaning that you only pay for what you consume and don't have to pay for services that you don't need. When compared to other solutions, JumpCloud can actually be more cost-effective, as it eliminates the need to hire a team, purchase hardware, pay for licenses and software, and worry about updates, security, and backups. Thus, it offers a more efficient and cost-effective solution for managing your needs."
"Licensing cost can be anywhere between $2 and $18 a month depending on what you want to do."
"The cost of the solution is approximately $12 per user. However, the cost depends on what modules you're using. They have an all-in-one package and they do have tiers. For example, the more users you have, the cheaper it ends up being in the end too. I know they've done some changes to the pricing model and I haven't been involved in a lot of the licensing lately. I don't know the exact cost at this time."
"The pricing is all on the JumpCloud website. It's not hidden, you don't have to go through a show me a quote type procedure. The pricing is straightforward to understand."
"We are using an enterprise license for JumpCloud. We have purchased a license for approximately $3,000 a year, but we are charged more than $135,000 annually."
"The pricing model changed about 18 months ago. It used to be that you got 10 users free, and then you paid for any user above 10 users. Now, when you go above 10 users, you pay for every user. It has become a bit more expensive, but it's such a good product. When you take into account Microsoft licenses, if you were to run Active Directory, you'd need a server to put it on, or you would need a couple of servers, backup, etc. It's a no-brainer. JumpCloud is so much easier to manage from my perspective, regardless of the cost increase. It's just brilliant."
"JumpCloud's monthly license costs around $25 for the complete solution."
"Microsoft Active Directory is not an expensive solution."
"Its price is reasonable."
"I rate the product’s pricing a five out of ten."
"Active Directory is an expensive solution, primarily due to Microsoft's licensing model. This licensing approach includes paying for server licenses as well as for each computer that connects to it. However, when working with the Azure cloud, there is no cost for the server. This is profitable and one of the main reasons why Azure Cloud and other cloud-based solutions are being used more."
"The pricing is not very expensive. I rate the pricing a five out of ten."
"My company makes payments every quarter towards the licensing costs of the product."
"I'm unsure about the cost of the solution, as I was never involved in that aspect. However, I don't think it would be expensive. It might be average, around four or five out of ten."
"The license per user can probably be reduced."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
6%
Comms Service Provider
16%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Educational Organization
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about iboss?
Content filtering is the most useful feature of iboss.
What needs improvement with iboss?
For zero trust implementation, we encountered complexity issues, especially with a large infrastructure company Exxon...
What is your primary use case for iboss?
Previously when I used iboss, we did the POC for iboss for ExxonMobil. Four or five people wanted to move from our ol...
What do you like most about JumpCloud?
The product enables device management.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for JumpCloud?
AWS charges per user, which can be costly if I have more than ten users. Third-party platforms tend to be cheaper tha...
What needs improvement with JumpCloud?
I would like AWS to integrate more cloud platforms with JumpCloud, such as Alibaba or Oracle. This would be helpful, ...
What do you like most about Microsoft Active Directory?
The solution is easy to install and has good reliability.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Active Directory?
Technology is evolving. AI is offering solutions. However, short-term fixes are like band-aids.
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Active Directory?
I utilize it in almost every scenario. I use the Hazer database and meet daily needs across every industry, every time.
 

Also Known As

iBoss Cloud Platform
Resmo
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

More than 4,000 global enterprises trust the iboss Cloud Platform to support their modern workforces, including a large number of Fortune 50 companies.
Cars.com, GoFundMe, Grab, ClassPass, Uplight, Beyond Finance, Foursquare
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about JumpCloud vs. Microsoft Active Directory and other solutions. Updated: May 2025.
860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.