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Microsoft Entra ID vs Salesforce Identity 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

Microsoft Entra ID
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) (3rd), Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) (1st), Access Management (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (2nd)
Salesforce Identity
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.0
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
Mobile Identity (2nd), Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) (10th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Identity and Access Management solutions, they serve different purposes. Microsoft Entra ID is designed for Single Sign-On (SSO) and holds a mindshare of 8.4%, down 16.6% compared to last year.
Salesforce Identity, on the other hand, focuses on Mobile Identity, holds 21.5% mindshare, up 20.7% since last year.
Single Sign-On (SSO) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Entra ID8.4%
Okta Platform10.9%
Auth0 Platform6.5%
Other74.2%
Single Sign-On (SSO)
Mobile Identity Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Salesforce Identity21.5%
Oracle Identity Governance25.9%
MicroStrategy Usher18.2%
Other34.400000000000006%
Mobile Identity
 

Featured Reviews

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.
NavinJacob - PeerSpot reviewer
Chief Digital Officer at Cipher7
Structured operations and analytics have transformed how my teams manage customers and sales
I see room for improvement regarding financial operations and FinOps. If they are not being controlled correctly, Salesforce billings can get huge. They charge for everything: license costs, storage costs, and transaction costs, and it can really end up blowing budgets if it is not controlled. Those controls should be something that is easy to manage. With Salesforce, it is pretty difficult to manage unless you are a very advanced user. Normal regular users may not be able to keep the costs in control. This ends up resulting in bill shocks where you suddenly receive a bill which you may not be expecting.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The advantage of Azure Active Directory is that it's a cloud environment, so just about anybody can get to it."
"The visibility and control for permission management are excellent."
"Microsoft Entra ID acts as our core directory."
"Azure Active Directory provides us with identity-based authentication, which secures access at the user level and also integrates with conditional access policies and multi-factor authentication helping to increase the identity security for that person. So, the hacking and leaking of passwords is a secondary problem because you will not authenticate a person with one factor. There is a second factor of authentication available to increase the security premise for your company."
"Having access to Azure Active Directory on the cloud gives us speed and use of the latest technology. The application services are very good, such as GitHub."
"The tool's most valuable feature is auto logs. It helps with user activity and monitoring. It also assists us with GLBA policies and procedures. Microsoft Entra ID gives a 360 view of what the user has access to, what applications are available to them, when they are logging in and out, etc. It makes knowing what is happening to our tenants incredibly powerful."
"Entra ID provides an excellent overview of the applications and the options applied to them."
"This is a highly reliable solution and we plan to continue using it."
"The solution is very easy to understand."
"The best features of Salesforce Platform that I appreciate are that it is very configurable and easy for both developers as well as customers to use."
"Salesforce Identity is a very user-friendly solution."
"The single sign-on feature of Salesforce Identity enhances our organization's security posture overall."
"The user experience was great because it had all the features that the client needed, it was fully customized for the client, and it was very simple, making it the best solution at that time."
"The most valuable features are the pipeline management, being able to track the pipeline anytime, and the ability to get in touch with our high management team or board members."
 

Cons

"I think Microsoft Entra ID could be improved by assigning permissions to nested groups in the next release."
"Whatever business requirements we needed in the past three years, users were created, with the name of the user and they were not connected with the Active Directory. We were trying to in house in three years and with directory, but we were not able to achieve it."
"One area where it can improve is connectivity with other systems. Not all systems are connected and you have to do coding to establish a point of connectivity. It supports certain vendors and it supports certain protocols. It is limited in many other aspects at the attribute level."
"I suggest improving the connector part. For technical users like me, it is manageable, but having comprehensive documentation for those who aren't familiar with the system would be beneficial."
"My experience with the pricing, setup costs, and licensing of Microsoft Entra ID indicates that we need to make it simple. It's way too complicated."
"We would like to see more system updates. They should happen more frequently."
"In the compliance area, the granulation of access to storage accounts or Kubernetes could be improved."
"There is a concept of cross-tenant trust relationships, which I believe Microsoft is actively pursuing. That is something which in the coming days and years to come by will be very key to the success of Azure Active Directory, because many organizations are going into mergers and acquisitions or spinning off new companies. They will still have to access the old tenant information because of multiple legal reasons, compliance reasons, and all those things. So, there should be some level of tenant-level trust functionality, where you can bring people from other tenants to access some part of your tenant application. So, that is an area which is growing. I believe Microsoft is actively pursuing this, and it will be an interesting piece."
"The product is slow."
"The interface should be simplified and the dashboard has a lot of options but could be improved."
"The most wanted feature on such platforms nowadays is artificial intelligence, especially for marketing activities. This is also my area of expertise, so it would be very interesting to see AI in these platforms."
"Salesforce Identity needs more expertise in the application."
"Salesforce could make it more user-friendly and easier to implement. Currently, there's a lot of coding and technical work required. I would appreciate a more plug-and-play approach where you could set it up without needing a dedicated technical person."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"The price of the solution was reasonable."
"Azure Active Directory is expensive."
"I'm not totally aware of the pricing and licensing, but I do know that the pricing and licensing must be quite balanced. We are a pretty old client of Microsoft, and MSA is just one of the services we use from Microsoft. There's a whole Microsoft 365 suite that's implemented as well. I'm sure it is something that is acceptable to both parties."
"Expensive solution, but if you look at the technical benefits it provides, the price for it is decent."
"The process for buying licenses from Microsoft is somewhat messy and really hard to do. We have to talk to someone because it's hard to find out how many licenses we need. If I'm applying for 2,000 users, how many Windows licenses do we need? They could also charge less for support."
"Entra has P1 and P2 licenses that are bundled with lots of applications."
"Its price is okay. It is easy to go from P1 to P2 license. It is not exactly a bargain, but I would recommend the P2 license."
"I'd recommend Salesforce for larger products where you really need a robust CRM. It's expensive, so for smaller websites or products, it might not be the most cost-effective solution."
"On a scale of one to ten, where one is a very low price and ten is a very high price, I rate Salesforce Identity's pricing a six out of ten."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
6%
Financial Services Firm
19%
Manufacturing Company
15%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Outsourcing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business91
Midsize Enterprise42
Large Enterprise162
No data available
 

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?
I primarily use Microsoft Entra ID's free tier, so I have not faced any issues with pricing; I hope this free tier remains available for some time.
What needs improvement with Azure Active Directory?
To improve Microsoft Entra ID, I believe it should be openable with third-party applications to use Microsoft Authenticator, which is currently tied to Entra. There should definitely be a way to re...
What needs improvement with Salesforce Identity?
I see room for improvement regarding financial operations and FinOps. If they are not being controlled correctly, Salesforce billings can get huge. They charge for everything: license costs, storag...
What is your primary use case for Salesforce Identity?
My overall experience in this current field I am working spans different areas. One area is for service management, contact centers, BPOs, and customer relationship management. Others are for sales...
What advice do you have for others considering Salesforce Identity?
I have extensive experience with Salesforce Identity, although I have been in the middle of something about Salesforce Identity and cannot speak more about it currently due to customer confidential...
 

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.
SAP, Microsoft, Workday, Servicenow, ADP, Google Apps, box, Oracle
Find out what your peers are saying about Okta, Microsoft, One Identity and others in Single Sign-On (SSO). Updated: October 2026.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.