Microsoft Entra ID vs Symantec Siteminder comparison

Microsoft and Broadcom are both solutions in the Single Sign-On (SSO) category. Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.7, while Broadcom is ranked #12 with an average rating of 6.6. Microsoft holds a 27.2% mindshare in SSO, compared to Broadcom’s 2.6% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of Broadcom users who would recommend it.

Microsoft Entra ID

Read 234 Microsoft Entra ID reviews

8,667 Views
6,558 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Symantec Siteminder

Read 75 Symantec Siteminder reviews

1,148 Views
837 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

Microsoft Entra ID

Symantec Siteminder

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 11, 2024

Symantec Siteminder and Microsoft Entra ID provide distinct solutions for identity and access management. Microsoft Entra ID seems to have the upper hand due to advanced capabilities and perceived value.

Features: Symantec Siteminder is known for its comprehensive security policies, integration flexibility, and robust support features. Microsoft Entra ID is recognized for seamless cloud integration, multifactor authentication, and advanced user management features.

Room for Improvement: Symantec Siteminder faces challenges in user experience, complexity in configuration, and could simplify configurations. Microsoft Entra ID has occasional difficulty in initial setup, desires more detailed documentation, and could enhance user onboarding experiences.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Symantec Siteminder has a complex deployment process but a comprehensive support team. Microsoft Entra ID's deployment is relatively straightforward, although customer service experiences vary, with some users wishing for faster response times.

Pricing and ROI: Symantec Siteminder is perceived as more expensive but delivers high ROI with secure and reliable services. Microsoft Entra ID is considered more cost-effective and is valued for extensive features and integration capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Entra ID vs. Symantec Siteminder Report (Updated: May 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Entra ID vs. Symantec Siteminder

May 2025

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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 ID

Ranking in Single Sign-On (SSO)

1st

Ranking in Access Management

1st

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

234

Ranking in other categories

Authentication Systems (1st), Identity Management (IM) (1st), Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (2nd)

Symantec Siteminder

Ranking in Single Sign-On (SSO)

12th

Ranking in Access Management

11th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Web Access Management (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Single Sign-On (SSO) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Entra ID is 27.2%, up from 25.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Siteminder is 2.6%, down from 3.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Single Sign-On (SSO)

Featured Reviews

Bahram Piri

Chief Executive Officer & Founder at IDmelon Technologies

Security focus and seamless implementation increase platform productivity

Microsoft Entra ID can be improved in many ways, and there's a big wish list.If we're focusing on security, something that I definitely expect is improvement in the UI and UX for frontline workers. This is important, especially for non-tech savvy individuals. It is something Microsoft Entra ID could do to improve for a wider audience. It's important to focus on the frontline workers since they are non-tech savvy individuals. They are not like those back-office engineering C-level employees who are constantly dealing with computers, and we need to build a specific user experience and user interface for them to handle this stuff. That's something I expect Microsoft to focus on more for Microsoft Entra ID.

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Muzi Lubisi

Senior technical Consultant at CA Africa

Improved user experience with seamless integration and easy installation

The feature that I mostly valued is the ease of installation on different systems, especially on Windows. Additionally, it is very beneficial for deploying single sign-on sessions between different windows on a web browser, provided I am connected to the right identity provider. That seamless integration significantly improves user experience and efficiency.

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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

"Microsoft Entra ID has streamlined and centralized our device management and threat response processes."

"The solution has come a long way. Now, with the Azure AD B2C offering integrated as well, we've got a full IAM-type solution for our customer-facing identity management. In addition, when it comes to user journeys we now can hook in custom flows for different credential checking and authorizations for specific conditional access."

"Many of its features are valuable, including: facilitating application authentication, privileged access management, processes for attestation, and access reviews."

"Microsoft Entra ID's valuable features include integration capabilities, a simplified Active Directory approach, scalability, conditional access, and privileged identity management."

"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."

"It certainly centralizes usernames, and it certainly centralizes credentials. Companies have different tolerances for synchronizing those credentials versus redirecting to on-prem. The use case of maturing into the cloud helps from a SaaS adoption standpoint, and it also tends to be the jumping-off point for larger organizations to start doing PaaS and infrastructure as a service. So, platform as a service and infrastructure as a service kind of dovetail off the Active Directory synchronization piece and the email and SharePoint. It becomes a natural step for people, who wouldn't normally do infrastructure as a service, because they're already exposed to this, and they have already set up their email and SharePoint there. All of the components are there."

"I like that you can run it on-premises. I also like that I can use Azure at any time as the main one."

"The features around permissions are excellent."

More Microsoft Entra ID pros

"As our identity model continues to mature, probably the Federation is most valueable."

"It has considerably reduced the amount of time that new users would take to join into the organization. Previously, it was a lengthy, manual process because it's a very secure environment, where they need to verify the user before they can actually grant him a user-ID and password. Integrating with the built-in custom application, and exposing CA Single Sign On to the internet, we were able to get the employees onboard. The time that we gained was: previously it would generally take from four to eight weeks for each employee, we brought it to one to two days."

"It's quite scalable."

"Siteminder allows us to manage identity and portability control efficiently."

"The authentication and single sign-on features of Symantec Siteminder are valuable."

"Siteminder allows us to manage identity and portability control efficiently."

"It has the ability to authenticate and authorize users. It is the main feature for our security."

"The Directory is secure. It's our user store, and it's important to keep our members safe. The product does well with that."

More Symantec Siteminder pros

Cons

"The solution was difficult to scale because the group's configuration was complex. I would rate the scalability level of Azure Active Directory a five out of ten."

"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."

"When it comes to Azure, creating certain things or getting different resources isn't very clear. You need a certain level of knowledge of the system. It could be a little bit more friendly so that some of the things can be done easily, but after everything is created, it's easy to use."

"It doesn't function the same way as an Active Directory inside of an infrastructure, that is, a physical infrastructure. In the cloud, it is all flat. That's one of the disadvantages."

"Entra could be improved by enhancing self-service options for end users, such as making password reset options more accessible."

"Currently, Microsoft Entra ID is a pretty service. It could benefit from implementing a specific large language model instead of LDAP queries to find resources and implementation details in one comprehensive scoop."

"Customers want to know exactly where they are spending their money, allowing them to assess and potentially save money in those specific areas."

"Microsoft has so many different requirements and priorities that sometimes they don't invest all their energy into the products that you have expectations to investigate."

More Microsoft Entra ID cons

"CA has reporting at the moment. With the reporting, every particular segmented product has a reporting engine. I would like to see centralized reporting for all of them together."

"Symantec Siteminder needs to have adaptive authentication and multi-factor authentication as integrated features."

"As we are moving in to the mobility space, this is where we really see SiteMinder and their other product really come together to provide a solution base to a different area where the IoT is coming, the different business communications are happening. All of those things require authentication and we really want to see this product grow into that role."

"The support team could work on their response time and overall competence."

"If the reporting feature can be integrated into SSO itself that will be an icing on the cake."

"An area Siteminder could improve on is that there are a few limitations, in terms of new protocols for OpenID. If I want to have different scopes, the features are limited. They also do not have APIs exposed, which is a major drawback. API is a feature I would like to see included in the next release."

"We are finding some compatibility issues. We're still working with CA on them."

"The support could be faster."

More Symantec Siteminder cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"From a pricing standpoint, with all the services that we get, we are okay. I do not see a problem with the pricing structure. We are getting our money's worth."

"The price of Azure Active Directory and Amazon AWS, are almost the same, but most people prefer Amazon AWS because they find it's a little cheaper to some extent and an easier platform to use."

"It is bundled with other services and the pricing is quite reasonable."

"Entra's pricing is somewhat higher compared to AWS."

"Expensive solution, but if you look at the technical benefits it provides, the price for it is decent."

"The subscription should be categorized by business size. For example, small companies should have a discounted price, this would help small companies and the organization to be automated."

"MFA and P2 licenses for two Azures for fully-enabled scenarios and features cost a lot of money. This is where Okta is trying to get the prices down."

"The licensing is really not clear unless you are a premium client."

More Microsoft Entra ID pricing and cost advice

"Symantec Siteminder is expensive; they could definitely do better on the price."

"Siteminder is a little costly. You pay for licensing, and they offer packages, so if you have less users, then you have to buy different products at different prices. If you have more of a user base, then the package is different. They also include other features—for example, if you have a database and you're using Siteminder, then it's good to use a Semantic-specific database, but if you are using less, then you have to purchase the database separately. Whereas if you are going for a bigger license, then it comes within the package. It depends on which plan you are using."

"The pricing is reasonable."

"CA solutions are generally expensive but for the customer the ROI is big."

"I recommend conducting a PoC on every available product before choose one."

"The price is quite comparable to the other enterprise-level solutions in that market."

"The solution's pricing is competitive."

"The licensing is fair for this solution."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

28%

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

35%

Insurance Company

13%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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...

See all answers

What do you like most about Azure Active Directory?

It is very simple. The Active Directory functions are very easy for us. Its integration with anything is very easy. We can easily do third-party multifactor authentication.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Active Directory?

Regarding pricing, for the services we receive, it seems within the market range and about average.

See all answers

What do you like most about Symantec Siteminder?

It's agent-based. It's convenient to deploy and integrate.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Symantec Siteminder?

My experience with pricing is that it is all good.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Symantec Siteminder?

Symantec Siteminder needs to have adaptive authentication and multi-factor authentication as integrated features. Currently, multi-factor authentication is available as a separate solution, and it ...

See all answers

Comparisons

Google Cloud Identity vs Microsoft Entra ID

Compared 11% of the time

Microsoft Intune vs Microsoft Entra ID

Compared 10% of the time

Okta Workforce Identity vs Microsoft Entra ID

Compared 8% of the time

Auth0 vs Microsoft Entra ID

Compared 6% of the time

Amazon Cognito vs Microsoft Entra ID

Compared 5% of the time

More Microsoft Entra ID Competitors

Ping Identity Platform vs Symantec Siteminder

Compared 45% of the time

ForgeRock vs Symantec Siteminder

Compared 31% of the time

Okta Workforce Identity vs Symantec Siteminder

Compared 9% of the time

More Symantec Siteminder Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Entra ID

May 2025

Download Microsoft Entra ID product report

Buyer's Guide

Symantec Siteminder

April 2025

Download Symantec Siteminder product report

Also Known As

Azure AD, Azure Active Directory, Azure Active Directory, Microsoft Authenticator

SiteMinder, CA SSO, Layer7 SiteMinder

Interactive Demo

Microsoft

Demo not available

Broadcom

Overview

Microsoft Entra ID is used for extending on-premises Active Directory to the cloud, managing application access, enabling multi-factor authentication, and single sign-on. It facilitates policy enforcement and secure access, ensuring centralized identity management across cloud and on-premises resources.

Organizations utilize Microsoft Entra ID for robust user and group management, identity synchronization, and conditional access. Its seamless integration with third-party apps, scalability, and support for remote work make it a preferred choice. The admin center streamlines identity and access tasks, enhancing efficiency and security with features like privileged identity management and audit logs.

What are the key features of Microsoft Entra ID?

Single Sign-On: Simplifies user access to multiple applications with one login.
Multifactor Authentication: Enhances security by requiring additional verification.
Conditional Access: Establishes policies that determine how users' access cloud apps.
Integration: Easily integrates with various third-party applications.
User Identity Protection: Safeguards user identities from threats.
Privileged Identity Management: Manages elevated access to sensitive resources.
Audit Logs: Provides thorough activity logs for oversight and compliance.

What benefits should users look for in Microsoft Entra ID reviews?

Enhanced Security: Offers strong multifactor authentication and identity protection.
Administrative Efficiency: Simplifies identity and access management tasks.
Scalability: Supports growing user bases and remote work environments.
Integration Capabilities: Compatible with numerous third-party applications.
User-Friendly Interface: Makes managing user identities straightforward.

Microsoft Entra ID implementation varies across industries. Tech firms leverage it for secure, scalable access management, while healthcare organizations utilize its identity protection features to safeguard patient data. Educational institutions adopt Entra ID for streamlined user management and policy enforcement, ensuring secure access for students and staff across on-premises and cloud resources.

Microsoft

Symantec® SiteMinder is designed to secure the modern enterprise through a unified access management platform that applies the appropriate authentication mechanism to positively identify users; provides single sign-on and identity federation for seamless access to any application; enforces granular security policies to stop unauthorized access to sensitive resources; and monitors and manages the entire user session to prevent session hijacking. Finally, Symantec SiteMinder is battle-tested and has been deployed in the largest IT environments in the world.

Broadcom

Sample Customers

Microsoft Entre ID is trusted by companies of all sizes and industries including Walmart, Zscaler, Uniper, Amtrak, monday.com, and more.

British Telecom, CoreBlox, DBS, HMS, Itera ASA and Simeo

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Entra ID vs. Symantec Siteminder

May 2025

Free Report: Microsoft Entra ID vs. Symantec Siteminder

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