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JumpCloud vs Microsoft Active Directory comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 6, 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) (7th), Internet Security (3rd), Web Content Filtering (1st), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (7th), ZTNA as a Service (8th), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (8th)
JumpCloud
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
Single Sign-On (SSO) (12th), Identity Management (IM) (19th), Enterprise Password Managers (12th), Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) (13th), ZTNA as a Service (16th), Active Directory Bridge (5th), Cyber Asset Attack Surface Management (CAASM) (6th)
Microsoft Active Directory
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
44
Ranking in other categories
Single Sign-On (SSO) (7th), Active Directory Management (4th)
 

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

"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."
"Because of iboss, I did not have to assign web filtering tasks to my techs on a daily basis."
"Technical support is pretty sharp and very responsive."
"From a use-case scenario, what I like the most is the plug-in. I like the fact that we can do the filtering of these devices offsite independent of the network they are connected to, and we do not have to have traffic coming back inside our network."
"iboss is among the few products providing inline filtering where no application is needed on the device. It operates on the network side and is not device-based. This feature was one of the main reasons why we stayed with them for so long."
"I would definitely recommend iboss for web filtering purposes to other organizations or individuals."
"iboss is pretty scalable. They provide good support. The case managers you work with to coordinate what you need are pretty good."
"iboss is easy to use despite its complexity. Multiple engineers manage it, but it's significantly more straightforward to administer than traditional VPNs and web proxies."
"As a cloud-based directory, JumpCloud allows me to integrate nearly every system I have come across that supports SAML 2.0. That's a specific technology that allows different services to integrate for user authentication and identification purposes. That means that with JumpCloud, I can then have one single password. Single sign-on for a particular user that works with VPN, radius authentication for WiFi, logging into Office 365, and their email. Their individual computers use that same password. It's extensible which allows us to tie in customers' security systems. We don't have to provision a new user, 12 different places with 12 different passwords. I only have to create them once and assign them privileges."
"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 usual authentication and authorization, which were all controlled into one portal, are very convenient."
"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."
"Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"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."
"I rate the stability of JumpCloud ten out of ten."
"The solution is stable."
"Active Directory makes managing user policies easier, like when a user wants to share files. We also use it to create and manage our email accounts."
"The product is very stable and flexible. You can also integrate the solution with other products like mail solutions."
"The most valuable features are it is easy to use, manage, create a repository, and create the OM."
"One valuable feature is the centralized creation of IDs."
"The most valuable features of Microsoft Active Directory are the management of user and group policies."
"Active Directory plays a focal point in security management, encompassing aspects like credential management, lifecycle, dynamic provisioning, and the network infrastructure of customers."
"The solution is stable."
"Active Directory is more flexible and feature-rich than Apache."
 

Cons

"If they could implement an extra security layer preventing access to iboss from the open internet, it would be great."
"Sometimes, obviously, there are bugs."
"Our iboss subscription access should be more secure with an OTP or VPN etc. It is easy to gain access if, for example, hackers obtain my username and password."
"One thing I would like to see differently with their Zero Trust platform is that some of the AI aspects related to high-risk activities have more false positives."
"Sometimes the agent stops working in iboss, and we have to reinstall the agent."
"Its pricing could be better."
"Our biggest problem with their service was it did not recognize the device and filtering did not always work correctly."
"The area I would like to see improvement in is the ability with in the reporter to navigate directly to the content the user is traversing. It is kind of there, but it's not perfect. Quite frequently, I receive links that lead me to pages with error messages."
"The product needs to create its own self-service feature which has been requested by all the admins in the community."
"There are a few aspects that could be improved. Their API was a little spotty when I last used it, and some of those use cases were around removing systems from our environment."
"JumpCloud can improve in its synchronization of identities. More specifically, groups with Office 365. They've been working on it, but it's not where I would necessarily like it to be."
"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 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."
"The querying for users in Jumpcloud could be improved, it is sometimes difficult to use. When you're trying to query a user and you spell out their name, you don't receive that person. Sometimes you receive a list of people with the same first name or last name. This could be better."
"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."
"The scalability of the solution needs improvement."
"In the solution, assigning permissions is complex, making it difficult to grant them at a granular level or to multiple users without templates or alternative tools."
"Short-term fixes are like band-aids."
"The cloud service of Microsoft Active Directory is an area with certain shortcomings that need improvement."
"Sometimes support takes long to engage and resolve, extending over weeks or even months."
"I would like to see the integration with Mac and IOS products improved."
"Could use more structure in the cloud version."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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 probably in line with other solutions, but I do not deal with the financial side."
"We have not priced the solution recently, but they were competitive with other vendors in the past."
"It is expensive compared to one of its competitors."
"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."
"Licensing cost can be anywhere between $2 and $18 a month depending on what you want to do."
"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 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."
"The cost was around $5 per user per month."
"I rate the product's pricing a five on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive."
"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."
"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's monthly license costs around $25 for the complete solution."
"My company makes payments every quarter towards the licensing costs of the product."
"We purchase the license for the solution on a yearly basis."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a four out of ten."
"The price of Microsoft Active Directory could improve. We pay annually for the solution."
"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."
"Its price is reasonable."
"The license is perpetual and the cost is minimal. If you purchase Microsoft Windows then Microsoft Active Directory comes with the package."
"I rate the product’s pricing a five out of ten."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
6%
Comms Service Provider
17%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Retailer
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for iboss?
Regarding pricing, setup costs, and licensing, iboss is not cheap, and that's my only concern. There are cheaper alte...
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?
There are a few areas that could be improved with Microsoft Active Directory, along similar lines as Intune. Not too ...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Active Directory?
The use cases for Microsoft Active Directory are managing all users on-premises. We have over 200 employees and multi...
 

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: August 2025.
865,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.