Active Directory can be useful as an identity provider and management solution. It helps network managers with the entire user lifecycle, from creation to termination. This includes the provisioning process, the accounting process, and the authorization process. By centralizing user management, Active Directory can help improve security.
Security Manager at Yarix S.r.l.
Manages credentials, lifecycle, dynamic provisioning, and network infrastructure and supports network management and security
Pros and Cons
- "Active Directory plays a focal point in security management, encompassing aspects like credential management, lifecycle, dynamic provisioning, and the network infrastructure of customers."
- "I would like to see more integration with cloud-based applications. This would make it easier to manage users and devices across multiple platforms."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
Active Directory plays a focal point in security management, encompassing aspects like credential management, lifecycle, dynamic provisioning, and the network infrastructure of customers.
Our work pertains to security applications, not system management. In essence, it's about Microsoft's Active Directory, not Microsoft System. We are all collectively interested in its potential.
What is most valuable?
I like the integration with the Microsoft suite of products. This makes it easy to create a unified and centrally managed network.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see more integration with cloud-based applications. This would make it easier to manage users and devices across multiple platforms.
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Active Directory
June 2025

Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Active Directory. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Active Directory for more than ten years. We consistently upgrade our server system to incorporate the new version, ensuring that we operate with the most recent release.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
There were no problems with scalability. We could manage networks of hundreds and thousands of users.
Everyone in our organization is using this solution. We use this solution regularly.
How are customer service and support?
The support is quite good, but usually, we don't need to reach out to Microsoft's support directly because most issues can be resolved through our integrator. It's one of the standout aspects of this solution in the world. We easily find the solutions.
How was the initial setup?
The setup is not as straightforward as I would like it to be. It was a lot more complex to configure the console in Active Directory.
What about the implementation team?
The deployment process depends on the features you want to implement and the size of the network. In general, it can take a few days to a few weeks to deploy Active Directory.
We deploy and manage Active Directory in-house, but we do use a system integrator for some specific tasks, such as designing the Active Directory infrastructure. While we provide recommendations and implement certain functionalities, our customers are responsible for direct management, sometimes with the support of an integrator for tasks beyond their expertise.
To activate the Active Directory feature, you need to establish a controlled system. This involves creating a forest and distinguishing between various active directory instances and different forests.
Additionally, user insertion is essential, along with segmenting users and resources into distinct groups. Configuration is necessary for each parameter, from account metering to endpoint management. Ultimately, consolidation must be achieved. This process is complex and time-consuming.
Therefore, the number of people required for maintenance and deployment depends on the complexity and the size. It requires us to map out the architecture accurately. The infrastructure includes both managerial and technical roles.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It's not overly expensive. It's considered a base function by Microsoft. We're required to pay for the license, which is based on the frequency of service usage. It's on a yearly basis.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I would rate the solution a ten out of ten.
I suggest managing security aspects since it serves as a focal point for managing credentials and financial operations. A keen focus is essential.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

IT Manager at Groupement Berkine
Easy-to-configure product with efficient scalability
Pros and Cons
- "It is easy to understand all the components."
- "The product's premium support services could be less expensive."
What is our primary use case?
We use Microsoft Active Directory to manage users, computers, servers, and group policies.
What is most valuable?
It is easy to use and configure. It is easy to understand all the components as well.
What needs improvement?
The product's premium support services are expensive. It could be better.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Microsoft Active Directory since 2008.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We didn’t encounter stability-related issues with architecture.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is a scalable product. We have 20 administrators to manage multiple sites and 3000 users for Microsoft Active Directory.
How are customer service and support?
We used Microsoft premium support earlier. It was expensive, and we had to pay extra for a complex issue. Now, we take help from local support partners with access to different areas.
What about the implementation team?
We receive help from Microsoft partners for installation.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Microsoft Active Directory is the product that is most used around the world. So we follow that. We are a joint venture between national companies and international companies. They already use Microsoft; thus, we opted for the product.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend Microsoft Active Directory to others and rate it an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Active Directory
June 2025

Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Active Directory. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Senior Data Archirect at Yettel
Offers a user-friendly UI to help identify and authorize users
Pros and Cons
- "The user-friendliness of Microsoft Active Directory is a valuable feature."
- "We may occasionally experience difficulty integrating some solutions with Microsoft Active Directory, but I am unsure whether the issue lies with Microsoft Active Directory or the other solution."
What is our primary use case?
In our company, Microsoft Active Directory serves as the central component for registering users, storing them in different groups, and defining the type of access for various parts of the company. Additionally, we have rights associated with these groups, which allows us to use them for other tools to assess the permissions in specific areas. Essentially, we use authentication to determine a user's identity and authorization to decide which rights should be applied to them. This process helps us manage access to company resources effectively.
What is most valuable?
The user-friendliness of Microsoft Active Directory is a valuable feature.
What needs improvement?
We may occasionally experience difficulty integrating some solutions with Microsoft Active Directory, but I am unsure whether the issue lies with Microsoft Active Directory or the other solution.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Microsoft Active Directory for several years.
What other advice do I have?
I give Microsoft Active Directory a nine out of ten.
We have thousands of end users who utilize Microsoft Active Directory.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Technical Analyst at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
A cost-efficient tool which is a must for those using Windows-based operating systems
Pros and Cons
- "The scalability of the solution is high...The initial setup of the solution is easy, and I would rate it an eight or nine out of ten on a scale of one to ten, where one being difficult and ten being easy."
- "In the solution, assigning permissions is complex, making it difficult to grant them at a granular level or to multiple users without templates or alternative tools."
What is our primary use case?
Microsoft Active Directory is used to centrally manage all objects and provide access. It also serves as the authentication mechanism for most of our Windows and non-Windows applications using Kerberos. User and device management are also handled through Active Directory.
What is most valuable?
One of the most valuable features of the solution that I like is that it allows our company to apply GPOs properly to many users.
What needs improvement?
The GUI of Microsoft Active Directory is very basic. At our company, we can go for automation since we don't have many tasks. In the solution, assigning permissions is complex, making it difficult to grant them at a granular level or to multiple users without templates or alternative tools. Although achieving the RBAC or Zero Trust model is challenging due to the same limitations in Microsoft Active Directory, third-party tools are available to assist with this task. Even the Native Azure AD does not have these capabilities.
For how long have I used the solution?
I do have experience with Microsoft Active Directory. Our company is a customer of the solution. Also, I have been using this solution for maybe eight to ten years. I am using the solution's latest version.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
For stability, on a scale where one is not stable and ten is very stable, I rate this solution a seven since there are issues. The solution has its own set of issues concerning patches, compatibility issues, and a few more things. The few other issues are something that actually depends, in a sense, that every month, they roll out the patches, and then they try to close the vulnerabilities, creating issues. So, maybe encryption, and also there are many things.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of the solution is high. Scalability-wise, I rate this solution may be above eight out of ten. There are around 4,00,000 users of this solution.
The solution is used very often, daily, since it serves as a primary tool for various tasks, including authentication and other functions. At present, we do not plan to increase the number of users using the solution, as we are trying to reduce the footprint.
How are customer service and support?
I rate the technical support for the solution between six to seven out of ten. While technical support is proactive, there are times when we cannot get through a call and don't always receive the support we expect from Microsoft's technical support team.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of the solution is easy, and I would rate it an eight or nine out of ten on a scale of one to ten, where one being difficult and ten being easy.
The deployment time of the solution varies depending on the team responsible for it. Since it's not primarily our team's responsibility, I'm unsure of the exact time required for deployment. I don't think more than one person is required for the entire deployment process. The number of people required to maintain the solution depends on the company's size.
What was our ROI?
The solution is worth the money paid for it.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I'm unsure about the cost of the solution, as I was never involved in that aspect. However, I don't think it would be expensive. It might be average, around four or five out of ten. I believe the licensing costs are volume licensing for on-premises, so it shouldn't be monthly. I think it's a one-time purchase for the server, and it comes with the necessary licenses. We don't have to buy any additional licenses.
What other advice do I have?
My advice for those planning to use Microsoft Active Directory as a solution is that it is a scalable and stable platform that has been used for many years. It is a necessary tool for companies using Windows-based operating systems to manage their objects. Overall, I rate this solution an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
IT Enterprise System Administrator at Nafeza
We can delegate the administration of Active Directory objects and apply group policies, manage replication between sites, and is straightforward to set up
Pros and Cons
- "We can also have separate domain controllers in different Active Directory sites based on their location."
- "If Microsoft is going to add anything to the on-prem solution, it should be an updated GUI."
What is our primary use case?
Active Directory has been a valuable tool throughout my career in IT. We have not found anything that can compete with it in terms of functionality or solutions. With Active Directory, we can manage users, groups, and machines, add domains and forests and create trust relationships between domains. This is just a small sampling of what Active Directory can do. Windows Server is a great platform on which Active Directory is built.
How has it helped my organization?
The solution helped us create and modify objects for each user in our environment. We gave them the delegation and permission they needed based on their function. It was very helpful, especially in managing these users on each site. We were able to implement domain controllers as a primary and additional domain controller as a redundancy for each other. We were also able to create users and additional UUs. It depends on the departments, the business need, and the group policies that we are going to apply.
What is most valuable?
We can delegate the administration of Active Directory objects and apply group policies to groups of OUs. This is the best way to manage Active Directory. We can also have separate domain controllers in different Active Directory sites based on their location. We manage replication between sites through Active Directory sites and services. We can provide insight into what is being done, which will replicate across these domain controllers in just a few seconds. This will ensure that our data or any modifications, any creations have been replicated successfully to the other domain controllers.
What needs improvement?
There is no room for improvement because Microsoft's solutions have moved from on-prem to the cloud. We won't see any improvement or enhancement in these on-prem solutions because, according to the Microsoft websites, all the information related to Active Directory and Windows Server has been retired and there is no more information about it. Microsoft has discontinued the solution and moved on. Microsoft has verified that all on-prem solutions will stop receiving support by 2030.
The GUI has been the same from 2012 to 2016, and from 2019 to 2022. If Microsoft is going to add anything to the on-prem solution, it should be an updated GUI.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I give the stability a nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I give the scalability a nine out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
The Microsoft Support team often lacks the ability to provide timely support. Their response time is often slow, which can be frustrating for customers.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward. I am very familiar with the solution and the setup is a piece of cake.
I give the ease of setup a ten out of ten.
What was our ROI?
I have seen a return on investment with the solution.
What other advice do I have?
I give the solution a ten out of ten.
We need to know how many domain controllers we require in our environment in order to create a primary and redundant domain controller. Additionally, we need to follow a naming convention to avoid duplicate users and misspellings. The number and size of RAMs needed for our Active Directory will depend on our workload. We need to design our Active Directory well to ensure a good experience.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
IT Manager at PSPC
Easy to use, reliable deployment options, with minimal cost
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features are it is easy to use, manage, create a repository, and create the OM."
- "I would like to see the integration with Mac and IOS products improved."
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use case is to inform the user of access and single sign-on support to the internet.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features are it is easy to use, manage, create a repository, and create the OM.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see the integration with Mac and IOS products improved. I would also like to have some similar functionalities in the on-premise solution that they have on the cloud solution.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Microsoft Active Directory for the past six to seven years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Microsoft Active Directory is a stable solution and there are patches available when there are issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
There is definitely scalability, we currently have around one thousand six hundred users.
How are customer service and support?
Customer support is available however going directly to a technician is not our primary support option. We are able to use online forums and documentation before we involve a customer service technician.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
In most cases the initial setup is straightforward. If you work in a greenfield environment, then it is easy to perform. But if you are using any previous products like the earlier versions of Microsoft Active Directory, then it is actually difficult to take the downtime and then reconfigure the Microsoft Active Directory on the new server and then re-implement the users in it. The initial migration is complex and challenging, but the greenfield implementation is okay.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The license is perpetual and the cost is minimal. If you purchase Microsoft Windows then Microsoft Active Directory comes with the package.
What other advice do I have?
I think it is highly recommended to use Microsoft Active Directory knowing how it operates. I would rate Microsoft Active Directory an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Senior System Administrator at Mongolian Mining Corporation
An easy-to-use tool that allows one to control multiple users while offering a good scalability option
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is an easy-to-use tool."
- "The cloud service of Microsoft Active Directory is an area with certain shortcomings that need improvement."
What is our primary use case?
My company uses Microsoft Active Directory to control multiple users.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is an easy-to-use tool.
What needs improvement?
The cloud service of Microsoft Active Directory is an area with certain shortcomings that need improvement.
Microsoft Active Directory's stability can be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have experience with Microsoft Active Directory. I use the solution's basic version.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Stability-wise, I rate the solution an eight or nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is a scalable solution.
Microsoft Active Directory is used by 150 employees in our company.
My company does plan to increase the use of Microsoft Active Directory in the future.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Microsoft Active Directory is complex.
The deployment of Microsoft Active Directory took maybe half a year.
Including managers, engineers, and developers, there is a need for ten people to manage the solution's deployment and maintenance.
What about the implementation team?
The installation phase of Microsoft Active Directory was carried out with the help of a consultant.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
My company makes payments every quarter towards the licensing costs of the product. I feel Microsoft Active Directory is an affordable product.
What other advice do I have?
I would tell those planning to use the solution that it is a very easy-to-use product.
I rate the overall solution a ten out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Systems and Infrastructures - IT Dept. at TWINSET
I like that you can sync cloud and on-prem users and groups
Pros and Cons
- "One advantage of Active Directory is that you can sync it with Microsoft Office 365, so you can manage on-premise and cloud operations, which can have different requirements. The flexibility of a hybrid management solution is valuable."
- "Active Directory's user experience is a little dated. Group policy management should be more customizable."
What is our primary use case?
We use Active Directory for domain and infrastructure management.
What is most valuable?
One advantage of Active Directory is that you can sync it with Microsoft Office 365, so you can manage on-premise and cloud operations, which can have different requirements. The flexibility of a hybrid management solution is valuable.
What needs improvement?
Active Directory's user experience is a little dated. Group policy management should be more customizable.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used Active Directory for a year and a half.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate Active Directory nine out of 10 for stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I rate Active Directory eight out of 10 for scalability.
How are customer service and support?
I primarily go to the Microsoft knowledge base for support. It's fairly comprehensive.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I rate Active Directory seven out of 10 for affordability.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Microsoft Active Directory nine out of 10.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

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Updated: June 2025
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