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Microsoft Entra ID vs Microsoft Entra ID Governance comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 2, 2024

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 ID
Ranking in Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS)
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
266
Ranking in other categories
Single Sign-On (SSO) (1st), Authentication Systems (1st), Identity Management (IM) (2nd), Access Management (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (2nd)
Microsoft Entra ID Governance
Ranking in Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS)
10th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Entra ID is 18.4%, down from 29.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Entra ID Governance is 2.8%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Entra ID18.4%
Microsoft Entra ID Governance2.8%
Other78.8%
Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS)
 

Featured Reviews

JP
Senior Information Security Engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Implementing seamless integration boosts secure access and supports Zero Trust
What I appreciate the most about Microsoft Entra ID is that it integrates seamlessly with all the Defender products and is easy to use. Microsoft Entra ID's integration capabilities influence our Zero Trust model by allowing us to enforce our Zero Trust model. Conditional access policies allow us to leverage Microsoft Entra ID to verify that devices signing in to our cloud services are coming from registered devices, and that people are passing all the other requirements we have in order to complete sign-on or conditional access policies. Since implementing Microsoft Entra ID, I've observed changes in the frequency and nature of identity-related security incidents. The organization already had it implemented when I arrived, and I've been working to enhance it. Better configuration of Microsoft Entra ID has allowed us to better protect our organization from threats. Having it alone isn't a solution, but ensuring proper configuration goes a long way in preventing future compromises. My company's approach to defending against token theft and nation-state attacks has evolved since implementing Microsoft Entra ID. We haven't experienced any known compromises from nation-state attacks, and implementing newer features gives me more confidence in our protection. Regarding device-bound passkeys in Microsoft Authenticator and our approach to phishing-resistant authentication, we are currently implementing Microsoft Entra ID certificate-based authentication. Adding a strong form of MFA is important as we found it to be the most cost-effective way. While other solutions might be equally or more secure, they are significantly more expensive. Having worked as an IT consultant mainly with the Microsoft stack across various industries, I have experience with different identity management solutions. Microsoft Entra ID remains the best option. The major advantages when comparing it to Okta include integration with Defender products, Defender for Identities' integration with conditional access policies, and insider threat management integration for blocking sign-ins based on risk factors. The enhancement of Microsoft Entra ID's implementation is relatively straightforward. My main concern is the occasional lack of documentation and the frequency of changes, which can make feature location challenging.
JG
Lead Cloud Systems Architect at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Access reviews and lifecycle policies have streamlined privileged account oversight and onboarding automation
I am not using the access review agent feature in Microsoft Entra ID Governance because that is in preview right now, and I do not know if that is available. My perception of Microsoft Entra ID Governance's ability to handle large volumes of users access and management tasks is good. There is a slight delay from creation of the actual access review to how long it takes to complete the actual review. For us, we are a large organization with over ten thousand employees. If we are doing a review on a larger group that has thousands of employees inside of it, it takes a while to actually complete, and then it becomes a headache for managers. If there were a way to condense that or decrease the amount of time it takes to do it, that would be better. We inspect thousands of people. Microsoft Entra ID Governance can be improved, and I actually have two tickets in with you now about improvements. I would have to dig it up because I do not know off the top of my head, but you can find it. We have two tickets that have been put in by the FastTrack team that I work with for identity governance. I think it was something about the ability to stop reviews early. When you create an access review now, and you put a time gate on it, say it is the end of this week, once the access review is finished, the managers went in there and finished the access review, you cannot finish it until the end of the week. That is a slight problem because we do not get a notification for people that are on the identity side that they have actually finished that, and I think there are two tickets in for that right now.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution allows users to authenticate from home, and the Office 360 integration is advantageous."
"The security features, such as attack surface rules and conditional access rules, are the most valuable aspects of Azure AD."
"The most valuable feature of Entra ID is having a cloud-based identity, similar to Google's single sign-on."
"Being able to use Azure AD means that you can use some of the Azure AD security features like Advanced Password Protection. As well as querying your normal password requirements like lengths and complexity, Azure AD has a feature in which you can put specific words. It can be words to do with your company, words to do with your company location, or words that a lot of your employees would otherwise use. You can disallow them. It's very good at making more obvious passwords, ones they're not allowed to use anymore. That's a good feature."
"Microsoft Entra ID acts as our core directory."
"Microsoft Entra ID deserves a ten out of ten rating."
"It has been stable, and we haven't had any issues since we started to use it."
"The security and compliance features are very helpful. The online information on the site is well documented."
"The platform's most valuable feature is the single sign-on service."
"The solution gives me the capability to automatically move guest accounts from the tenant without any manual intervention."
"The product's most valuable features are the robust audit trail capabilities."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Entra ID Governance for identity management is multi-factor authentication."
"The most valuable functions in Microsoft Entra ID Governance are ease of use, conducting access reviews, and tighter platform coupling."
"The features of Microsoft Entra ID Governance have benefited our organization because we have ServiceNow in our organization and we have been able to create integrations through Lifecycle Management to do onboarding and offboarding easier."
"Regarding Microsoft Entra ID Governance integration with Microsoft services, there is automated identity lifecycle management in the product."
"The solution is fully scalable, supporting everything from small companies to large enterprises."
 

Cons

"Better user sign-in logging is needed. We work with Okta, and the two of them do not always work well together. We can have more insight into some of the user information and how it interacts."
"The thing that is a bit annoying is the inability to nest groups. Because we run an Azure hybrid model, we have nested groups on-premise which does not translate well. So, we have written some scripts to kind of work around that. This is a feature request that we have put in previously to be able to use a group that is nested in Active Directory on-premise and have it handled the same way in Azure."
"I want to be able to identify the audiences effectively and manage them."
"There is a lot of room for improvement in terms of its integration with the local Active Directory. There are some gaps in terms of the local Active Directory through which Microsoft is syncing our environment from our data center. There should be the availability of custom attributes on Azure Active Directory. In addition, there should be the availability of security groups and distribution groups that are residing on the local Active Directory. Currently, they are not replicated on Azure Active Directory by default."
"I rate Microsoft support four out of 10. Tier 1 and Tier 2 support could be better. It's not timely or professional."
"The technical support can be confusing - if you're looking for something very specific, it can be hard to get the right answer or a solution."
"I would like to see some additional attributes for user objects in Microsoft Entra, especially for tasks such as users and account validation, including guest users and guest accounts."
"From time to time it takes a little bit of time to replicate, with some of the applications—something like five to 10 minutes. I know that the design is not supposed to enable real-time replication with some of the applications. But, as an administrator, I would like to run a specific change or modification in Azure Active Directory and see it replicated almost immediately."
"The solution lacks the feature to work well with third-party applications."
"Bridging between on-premises and cloud services has the potential for improvement. For instance, it would be beneficial to be able to synchronize traditional directory schemas with Azure. I need to maintain an on-premises Active Directory server for certain required services."
"There is a slight delay from creation of the actual access review to how long it takes to complete the actual review. For us, we are a large organization with over ten thousand employees... it takes a while to actually complete, and then it becomes a headache for managers."
"Sometimes, the solution is not super reliable."
"There are some areas where improvements are necessary. Even though we have almost the full package, there are some bugs."
"Microsoft has done a commendable job with RPAX. However, Microsoft should prioritize enhancing its ABAC (Attribute-Based Access Control) capabilities. Currently, Microsoft's ABAC offering falls behind AWS in comparison."
"Microsoft Entra ID Governance should improve its capability to manage identities and access from a single console."
"Even though we have almost the full package, there are some bugs."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"If you have a different IDP today, I would take a close look at what your licensing looks like, then reevaluate the licensing that you have with Microsoft 365, and see if you're covered for some of this other stuff. Folks sometimes don't realize that, "Oh, I'm licensed for that service in Azure." This becomes one of those situations where you have the "aha" moment, "Oh, I didn't know we can do that. Alright, let's go down this road." Then, they start to have conversations with Microsoft to see what they can gain. I would recommend that they work closely with their TAM, just to make sure that they are getting the right level of service. They may just not be aware of what is available to them."
"It is costly."
"Most features of Entra ID are part of Microsoft's ecosystem and included in Microsoft 365 bundles, which means there are no additional costs associated with pricing and licensing."
"I feel Microsoft is very costly compared to other products. That is also what management is thinking. But when we consider security and support, Microsoft is better than any other product."
"I don't pay for it. Going by how I feel, I see the prices for any MFA solution going down because the more different alternatives there are, the cheaper things should be. Microsoft Authenticator app would be the preferred application, but there are too many ways to implement MFA. I don't know how much it cost, but the price should go down."
"I give the cost a three out of ten."
"The cost of Azure AD is one of the biggest benefits, as it is available for use free of charge when you start with Office 365."
"We are a non-profit organization, so we get good prices from Microsoft for their products. It is working well, but it could be cheaper. For the type of organization we are, it would be good if they could give a little bit more and be more generous like Google, which has completely free services. Microsoft has free versions or web services called Office 365 E1, which is free for use, but we want to have it with more qualified clients."
"The solution's pricing is not low but reasonable."
"While other products give the pricing for their application, Microsoft Entra ID Governance has a per-user-based license model."
"In the education sector where I work, the annual cost for my Google and Microsoft environments is approximately $35,000. This covers the needs of 3,400 students and 800 faculty and staff members."
"There are no additional costs besides the standard licensing fees."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Healthcare Company
7%
Energy/Utilities Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business85
Midsize Enterprise38
Large Enterprise155
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise9
 

Questions from the Community

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?
My experience with the pricing, setup costs, and licensing of Microsoft Entra ID is that it is decent.
What needs improvement with Azure Active Directory?
I think Microsoft Entra ID could be improved by assigning permissions to nested groups in the next release.
What do you like most about Microsoft Entra ID Governance?
The most valuable feature of Microsoft Entra ID Governance is access reviews.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Entra ID Governance?
I am not using the access review agent feature in Microsoft Entra ID Governance because that is in preview right now, and I do not know if that is available. My perception of Microsoft Entra ID Gov...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Entra ID Governance?
My main use cases for Microsoft Entra ID Governance are access reviews, but specifically Privileged Identity Management access reviews. I am utilizing the user-centric access reviews in Microsoft E...
 

Also Known As

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

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Microsoft Entre ID is trusted by companies of all sizes and industries including Walmart, Zscaler, Uniper, Amtrak, monday.com, and more.
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Entra ID vs. Microsoft Entra ID Governance and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,757 professionals have used our research since 2012.