Microsoft Entra External ID vs Okta Customer Identity comparison

Microsoft Entra External ID vs. Okta Customer Identity

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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

Microsoft Entra External ID

Ranking in Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM)

4th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

5.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) (8th), Microsoft Security Suite (21st)

Okta Customer Identity

Ranking in Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM)

5th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Entra External ID is 8.4%, up from 4.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Okta Customer Identity is 8.4%, up from 7.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Microsoft Entra External ID	8.4%
Okta Customer Identity	8.4%
Other	83.2%

Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM)

Featured Reviews

Suresh Kumar Subramaniyan

Manager, Identity & Access Management at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Has supported secure access but still lacks full coverage for external identity challenges

The user experience is acceptable, but Microsoft Entra External ID is not a full-fledged IGA solution. We use different products for complete Identity Governance Administration. Microsoft Entra External ID is suitable for small-scale enterprises implementing identity lifecycle management since most have Active Directory. However, there are several challenges. The out-of-the-box connector has limited features for applications, requiring us to build scheme connectors. While small-scale enterprises can benefit from Microsoft Entra External ID's Identity Governance solution, large-scale enterprises might need different tools from leading market vendors such as SailPoint or Saviynt. Customers face particular challenges with contractor and B2B accounts. Microsoft Entra External ID isn't a complete cloud-based account solution, as it must handle internal employees and collaborate with internal Active Directory. There are delays in the identity lifecycle process, especially for contract partners during onboarding and off-boarding. This might be due to back-end syncing with Active Directory. B2B account removal and provisioning take considerable time. Access governance, particularly access certification for guest users, is time-consuming. Multi-factor authentication enforcement also presents challenges for external users.

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MiguelPurizaca

IT Manager at Clear Channel

Focus on seamless integration and advanced security management enhances application usage and threat detection across multiple countries

Okta Customer Identity focuses on providing top-notch identity management solutions. One of its most valuable features is its easy integration with various applications through its extensive application directory, offering hundreds or thousands of applications ready to configure. This integration is significantly easier compared to Microsoft Entra ID, where we encountered numerous issues. We particularly value its real-time reporting capabilities. For example, we detected cyberattacks from countries like Russia and Asia and were able to block those IP addresses and configure our system for more security. These advanced security features and reporting capabilities make it easy to manage.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The fact that it is quite integrated into the entire Microsoft environment makes it quite easy to use."

"The single sign-on access is the most useful feature we use."

"Primarily Microsoft Entra External ID SSO is valuable as it works with everything when it comes to integration."

"The experience has been rather good; there are other possibilities, but we made the choice to go with Microsoft, and we have a good experience with that."

"The positive impact of Microsoft Entra External ID on my organization is that it enhances ease of use for the administrative side."

"When it comes to Microsoft Entra External ID, Microsoft itself is the best distributor."

"The best features of Microsoft Entra External ID include its unification of B2C functionality and B2E features."

"The impact of having multiple authentication types available significantly helps with security practices using Microsoft Entra External ID."

More Microsoft Entra External ID pros

"The main benefits Okta Customer Identity provides to users include single point of login for all applications and single authentication, which saves time and reduces frustration."

"There is no password hash saved on the cloud, which is the part that I like the most."

"The end user's ease of use is the most valuable feature."

"Okta has more when it comes to the policy level. It has distinctive features where you can do a mix and combination to have users access applications for various business cases."

"We can integrate two-factor authentication with the applications."

"As far as our security team is concerned, the ease of implementing multifactor authentication is definitely the biggest value for our organization."

"It is very seamless."

"The most valuable feature of this solution for most customers is access management."

More Okta Customer Identity pros

Cons

"Technical support needs improvement."

"Microsoft's pricing is complex and difficult to fathom due to a range of different licensing options."

"The cost is very high."

"Microsoft Entra External ID isn't a complete cloud-based account solution, as it must handle internal employees and collaborate with internal Active Directory."

"I would like to see faster synchronization."

"The quality of Microsoft customer support varies. With an enterprise contract, good resources are usually provided, especially in regions like Saudi Arabia or UAE. However, we have faced challenges with support quality, especially in some subcontinent areas where the resources might not be as experienced."

"Single sign-on for external applications such as Oracle could be improved to be a little bit cheaper."

"There is room for improvement in AI technology for Microsoft Entra External ID, particularly in providing detailed alerts."

More Microsoft Entra External ID cons

"I would like to see the provisioning simplified."

"The only issue with Okta Customer Identity is after the upgrade process; we have some issues with the integration between Okta Customer Identity and Jamf."

"In Okta Identity Governance and Okta Privileged Access, some features are still being developed. Integration with Active Directory servers, Cisco routers, and switches is not currently available."

"All of the governance functionality and privileged account management could be improved."

"The product must be provided for free."

"Users sometimes have difficulty getting verification codes."

"The integration process takes a bit longer than we would want it to."

"There is an access request system that is very limited access to the systems available for end-users. The access request should improve in Okta Customer Identity."

More Okta Customer Identity cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We don't pay separately for Microsoft Entra External ID as it's part of our Microsoft Exchange subscription."

"The price of the solution is fair for what it offers."

"Okta Customer Identity is not an expensive solution."

"The solution is really expensive."

"Okta's pricing is right where it needs to be and right in the middle of the market."

"Pricing might be high, but it comes down when the number of people using the product goes up."

"We pay 23 pence (approximately $0.30 USD) per user, annually, for 150,000 users."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) solutions are best for your needs.

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868,759 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

13%

Marketing Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Energy/Utilities Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	6

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	9

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Entra External ID?

The only problem that you might face with Microsoft now is their complex licensing model.

What needs improvement with Microsoft Entra External ID?

For the last four or five years, I have been in an IT manager function, focusing on making things happen and having technical persons execute tasks. In the last three months, I have transitioned to...

What is your primary use case for Microsoft Entra External ID?

I am looking for a new solution and investigating existing products. We are already working with Microsoft Intune and SOTI. I have been working in the past with a Kaseya product, specifically Datto...

What do you like most about Okta Customer Identity?

Okta has more when it comes to the policy level. It has distinctive features where you can do a mix and combination to have users access applications for various business cases.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Okta Customer Identity?

Okta Customer Identity is considered cheaper compared to other tools in the market, such as IBM and CyberArk products. Further details on costs would require consultation with our sales team.

What needs improvement with Okta Customer Identity?

In Okta Identity Governance ( /categories/identity-management-im ) and Okta Privileged Access, some features are still being developed. Integration with Active Directory servers, Cisco routers, and...

Auth0 vs Microsoft Entra External ID

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Compared 4% of the time

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Compared 4% of the time

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Compared 9% of the time

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Compared 8% of the time

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Product Reports

Microsoft Entra External ID

Download Microsoft Entra External ID product report

Okta Customer Identity

Download Okta Customer Identity product report

Also Known As

Azure Active Directory External Identities

No data available

Overview

Microsoft Entra External ID, part of Microsoft Entra, provides highly secure digital experiences for partners, customers, citizens, patients, or any users outside your organization with customization controls. Combine external identities and user directories in one portal to seamlessly manage access across the organization.

Microsoft Entra External ID refers to all the ways you can securely interact with users outside of your organization. If you want to collaborate with partners, distributors, suppliers, or vendors, you can share your resources and define how your internal users can access external organizations. If you're a developer creating consumer-facing apps, you can manage your customers' identity experiences.

With External ID, external users can "bring their own identities." Whether they have a corporate or government-issued digital identity, or an unmanaged social identity like Google or Facebook, they can use their own credentials to sign in. The external user’s identity provider manages their identity, and you manage access to your apps with Entra ID or Entra External ID to keep your resources protected.

The following capabilities make up External ID:

B2B collaboration - Collaborate with external users by letting them use their preferred identity to sign in to your Microsoft applications or other enterprise applications (SaaS apps, custom-developed apps, etc.). B2B collaboration users are represented in your directory, typically as guest users.
B2B direct connect - Establish a mutual, two-way trust with another Azure AD organization for seamless collaboration. B2B direct connect currently supports Teams shared channels, enabling external users to access your resources from within their home instances of Teams. B2B direct connect users aren't represented in your directory, but they're visible from within the Teams shared channel and can be monitored in Teams admin center reports.
Azure AD B2C - Publish modern SaaS apps or custom-developed apps (excluding Microsoft apps) to consumers and customers, while using Azure AD B2C for identity and access management.

Microsoft

Okta Customer Identity is an identity service that enables frictionless experience, speed-to-market, centralized management, and internet-scale security. Okta Customer Identity is developer friendly and secure with minimal custom code.

Okta

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

FedEx, Adobe, National Geographic, Tyson, Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Microsoft Entra External ID vs. Okta Customer Identity