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Microsoft Entra ID vs SAP Access Control comparison

 

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
Ranking in Access Management
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), Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (2nd)
SAP Access Control
Ranking in Access Management
18th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
3.5
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Access Management category, the mindshare of Microsoft Entra ID is 15.8%, down from 26.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP Access Control is 0.8%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Access Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Entra ID15.8%
SAP Access Control0.8%
Other83.4%
Access Management
 

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.
reviewer2129061 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sap Its Workstream Manager at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
Centralized access control has improved risk detection and streamlined multi-system user provisioning
Having one tool to populate many systems for one user is one of the most beneficial aspects of the product, along with the audit part. When using Firefighter, we could have information about what a user modified or did in production because we sometimes have to use an SU01 transaction, so in that case, we use Firefighter. The main benefit for me is that it is a global system to manage the user in many systems, and also the assessment of risk with GRC. We are using Access Request to onboard people. I see some potential improvements for stability because sometimes we do not know why the approval workflow of GRC stops in the middle. When we have a look in GRC, we see that the validation is finished, but that is not the case. Sometimes, we have to check and relaunch GRC. It helps in risk detection. The benefits of SAP Access Control's user permissions management are measured through the reports in GRC. Time savings are obvious. In one request, we are able to create a user in a different system, so it is a time saving. It is a money saving as well because the access manager spends less time creating a user in a different system.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I primarily use this solution for hybrid deployment, security, securing resources and for integration purposes. In terms of security, we have been using the B2B/B2C hybrid integration with the certificate authentication."
"The best thing about Microsoft Entra ID is the ease of setup."
"Microsoft Entra ID has provided my company with a centralized place to establish a source of truth for the attributes of our personnel."
"The single sign-on of the solution is the most valuable aspect."
"The features around permissions are excellent."
"Overall the solution functions very well, such as the ability to access it from the cloud."
"We do not have to deploy lots of machines all over the place to run things as a service, which is how we like to deploy things, just as a service."
"We can centralize and manage everything much more effectively with this tool."
"It is an SAP product, so it integrates very well with other SAP products."
"Having one tool to populate many systems for one user is one of the most beneficial aspects of the product, along with the audit part."
 

Cons

"Microsoft should work on enhancing its machine-learning algorithm to prevent unnecessary lockouts of users."
"Documentation I think is always the worst part with what Azure's doing right now across the board."
"Allowing for more customization would be very useful. There is a limited metadata capability. When you look at a user, there are only six pieces of information you can see, but organizations are way more complex, so having that metadata available and being able to use that for dynamic user groups and other policies would be very helpful."
"Microsoft plans to move away from SMS authentication for Multi-Factor Authentication and only implement application-based authenticator, which will be challenging for retail outlets reliant on Microsoft Active Directory."
"The monitoring dashboard could be a bit better."
"Private access and internet access should be available in a less expensive licensing model."
"The Cloud Provisioning Agent cannot provision a lot of the information that AD Connect does. For starters, the lightweight version cannot synchronize device information. If you have computers on-premises, the information about them will not be synchronized by the Cloud Provisioning Agent. In addition, if you have a user on the cloud and he changes his password, that information should be written back to the on-premises instance. But that workflow cannot be done with the lightweight agent. It can only be done with the more robust version."
"I think the solution can improve by making the consumption of that data easier for our customers."
"Because it took time to get advice on a tricky issue, the support from SAP could be better."
"It would be better if we could also manage other systems with it. Currently, you have to purchase plugins for it to work with other non-SAP systems. It would be good if there is an easy way to integrate SAP Access Control with other non-SAP systems."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Make sure that you get the most out of your Office 365 licenses for Azure AD. If you have additional concerns for users who don't have an Office 365 license, consider Azure AD Premium P1 and P2. Be aware that you have to evaluate your license usage beforehand."
"The price is fine. It's a good value for the money compared with other solutions."
"The licensing cost is a bit prohibitive."
"Licensing costs for Microsoft Entra ID remain a concern, especially with the price increases in 2023."
"We are working with the Premium P2 licenses, which are reasonable. If you invest in the on-premises environment setup, then it costs so much. However, on-prem AD gives you the ability to manage your organization in a very organized manner, where you can create a group policy."
"The pricing for companies and businesses is okay, it's fair. But if you are trying to teach someone about Azure AD, there is no licensing option for that... It would be nice to have a 'learning' license, one that is cheaper for a single person."
"It is worth the money."
"It is good. We have Office 365 E3, and then that is tied in with Azure Active Directory. I believe that we only have to pay for our technician-level access or IT department access for Azure Active Directory Premium, which I am sure they call Entra Premium P2 licensing, so it is not a very large cost. We just adopted that, and that gives us a lot of insights into user security that we would not otherwise have."
"It is a part of our package with SAP. There is no extra cost in addition to the license."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business85
Midsize Enterprise38
Large Enterprise155
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?
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 needs improvement with SAP Access Control?
SAP Access Control is quite complex. The complexity arises because we need a GRC specialist to set up the connection between GRC and the other system. We also spend time doing some specific configu...
What is your primary use case for SAP Access Control?
The major use case for SAP Access Control is to create an end-user account, and the second purpose is to check the Separation of Duties risk and the risk on our roles and authorizations. Having one...
What advice do you have for others considering SAP Access Control?
We do work with some other SAP products. We are using SAP Access Control with the GRC Access Control product. We are also using the module for Separation of Duties and the Firefighter module. It is...
 

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, Okta, Ping Identity and others in Access Management. Updated: January 2026.
881,733 professionals have used our research since 2012.