IBM Verify vs. Microsoft 365 vs. Microsoft Office 2016 (discontinued)

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
IBM Verify
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
IBM Verify, formerly known as IBM Cloud Identity, is an identity-as-a-service (IDaaS) offering that aggregates dynamic user, device and environmental context to automate risk protection and continuously authenticate any user to any resource.
$1.81
per month per user
Microsoft 365
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) is a Microsoft Cloud subscription service that includes Microsoft Office products (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, and Access). The software can be installed across multiple devices and ensures that users always have the most up-to-date version of the included Office applications.
$5
Per User Per Month
Microsoft Office 2016 (discontinued)
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft Office 2016 is the familiar suite of Office products including applications such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for use on a single PC or Mac. The 2016 is no longer available for sale from Microsoft, and support is at an end since 2020.N/A
Pricing
IBM VerifyMicrosoft 365Microsoft Office 2016 (discontinued)
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Business Basic
$5.00
Per User Per Month
Individual
$5.84
*Per Month
Business - Apps
$8.25
Per User Per Month
Enterprise - F3
$10.00
Per User Per Month
Business Standard
$12.50
Per User Per Month
Business Premium
$20.00
Per User Per Month
Enterprise - E3
$32.00
Per User Per Month
Enterprise - E5
$57.00
Per User Per Month
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
IBM VerifyMicrosoft 365Microsoft Office 2016 (discontinued)
Free Trial
YesNoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsSample Pricing Breakdown (NOTE: for competitive pricing per contract, please consult with your IBM Security Account Rep) Users: 5,000 SSO* -- USD 1.71 per user per month MFA* -- USD 1.71 per user per month Adaptive Access* -- USD 1.71 per user per month Lifecycle and provisioning** -- USD 2.01 per user per month Identity analytics** -- USD 2.13 per user per month * Single sign-on (SSO), multifactor authentication (MFA) and adaptive access pricing based on total active monthly users per use case. Costs decrease if users are active less than once per month. ** Lifecycle and provisioning and identity analytics pricing based on total users per use case.*When billed annually.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
IBM VerifyMicrosoft 365Microsoft Office 2016 (discontinued)
Considered Multiple Products
IBM Verify
Chose IBM Verify
Owing to the general findings formulated in this paper, comparing Okta and Microsoft Entra ID to IBM Verify, the latter appears to be the only tool that delivers a number of features for integrating with legacy systems. However, since IBM Verify has the upper hand in terms of …
Chose IBM Verify
We conducted a comparison study between IBM Verify and Okta as well as Duo Security before making our selection. IBM Verify emerged as the perfect fit because its superior capability to integrate with our current system environment surpassed competitor security solutions. IBM …
Microsoft 365
Chose Microsoft 365
Microsoft Office 365 is more complete than Microsoft Office 2016. It is cloud-based, and this is a great advantage. Furthermore, now updates and upgrades are automatic and can be scheduled or accepted, really saving time compared to Office 2016.
Chose Microsoft 365
No comparison, we can do more with Microsoft 365 and we are more efficient. The pricing model is very fair. We don't have to worry about updating the software on each machine, the updates are handled by Microsoft directly and the Microsoft 365 programs seem much more stable and …
Chose Microsoft 365
We had been using Microsoft Office for a long time, but moving to Microsoft 365 [(formerly Office 365)] was a game changer because it is a cloud based system. Having the ability to access your email, files, or whatever you need wherever you are from any device is what really …
Chose Microsoft 365
In our company we have both Office 365 and regular Office 2016. We are transitioning more to 365 for the ease of managing the licensing. We don't have to keep license cards or numbers stored anywhere because 365 uses your microsoft login which you are using anyway.
Compared to …
Chose Microsoft 365
We were looking to stay in the Microsoft Office 365 family, so it was either the cloud or a current desktop version. Ultimately the lower startup cost of refreshing all licenses at once, it was decided by the board to go with the new subscription-based Microsoft Office 365. At …
Chose Microsoft 365
Microsoft Office 365 simply drives through the cloud platform allowing to set a huge variety of options that can be set from custom to standard software in a single package or just to set an specific range of options enabled to the end users, and given the chance to the company …
Chose Microsoft 365
Microsoft Office 365 is the easiest to access on the go and is always up to date. It is also affordable given all of the features it offers. Being able to use most of Microsoft's products for one price is convenient and allows our organization to store and sort information over …
Chose Microsoft 365
Having all of the offerings and services in one easy to use administrative interface makes administration of our Microsoft suite of applications much easier. We are not able to get that same integration with separated applications. Gmail is not very intuitive if you're coming …
Chose Microsoft 365
Google Apps made famous real-time collaborative editing in Google Docs. Now that Office 365 offers Word Online, there is no competition. Google Apps have always been "Microsoft Office-Lite" products, giving very basic functionality. With Office Online apps, it's hard not to see …
Microsoft Office 2016 (discontinued)
Chose Microsoft Office 2016 (discontinued)
For certain situations there is a benefit to the "standalone" package of Office 2106, vs. a subscription-based product like Office 365. Especially in the case where there are shared computers, or computers that are used as a kiosk, Microsoft Office 2016 would be one of the few …
Chose Microsoft Office 2016 (discontinued)
We have not tried to use an alternate. Office is the way to go.
Chose Microsoft Office 2016 (discontinued)
Not as robust and feature filled as office 2016. Also missing a mail client like outlook that can be integrated with exchange. have not used any further applications besides this.
Chose Microsoft Office 2016 (discontinued)
Microsoft Office provides the complete package. Everyone else is just a piece to the puzzle. Sure Microsoft Office costs more, but they give you all the software you need to have in one package. I don't want or need to find replacements for 5 different purposes.
Chose Microsoft Office 2016 (discontinued)
Microsoft Office 365 brings the same tools of Office 2016, but renewed. Office 2016 was sold for a one time, up front fee, on the other hand, Microsoft Office 365 is the new way Microsoft wants you to buy Office, you pay a monthly or yearly fee and get access to its latest …
Features
IBM VerifyMicrosoft 365Microsoft Office 2016 (discontinued)
Identity Management
Comparison of Identity Management features of Product A and Product B
IBM Verify
9.2
54 Ratings
11% above category average
Microsoft 365
-
Ratings
Microsoft Office 2016 (discontinued)
-
Ratings
ID-Management Access Control8.949 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
ID Management Single-Sign On (SSO)9.351 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
Multi-Factor Authentication9.850 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
Password Management9.347 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
Account Provisioning and De-provisioning9.346 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
ID Management Workflow Automation9.349 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
ID Risk Management8.947 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
IBM VerifyMicrosoft 365Microsoft Office 2016 (discontinued)
Small Businesses
Dashlane Password Manager
Dashlane Password Manager
Score 9.1 out of 10
Zoho WorkDrive
Zoho WorkDrive
Score 9.2 out of 10
Zoho WorkDrive
Zoho WorkDrive
Score 9.2 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
OneLogin by One Identity
OneLogin by One Identity
Score 9.4 out of 10
Google Workspace
Google Workspace
Score 9.1 out of 10
Google Workspace
Google Workspace
Score 9.1 out of 10
Enterprises
RSA Access Manager (Discontinued)
RSA Access Manager (Discontinued)
Score 10.0 out of 10
Microsoft 365 Business Premium
Microsoft 365 Business Premium
Score 8.9 out of 10
Microsoft 365 Business Premium
Microsoft 365 Business Premium
Score 8.9 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
IBM VerifyMicrosoft 365Microsoft Office 2016 (discontinued)
Likelihood to Recommend
8.9
(53 ratings)
8.4
(262 ratings)
7.5
(64 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.1
(2 ratings)
9.5
(6 ratings)
5.0
(3 ratings)
Usability
7.3
(16 ratings)
8.7
(30 ratings)
7.0
(3 ratings)
Availability
7.7
(20 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.2
(16 ratings)
8.9
(54 ratings)
8.0
(45 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
7.1
(20 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
7.3
(8 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Professional Services
8.3
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
IBM VerifyMicrosoft 365Microsoft Office 2016 (discontinued)
Likelihood to Recommend
IBM
It is well-suited for managing different users and roles and assigning permissions based on their defined roles. It is well-suited when one needs to add extra layers of authentication for certain roles or users, create custom rules for some users, and so on.
Read full review
Microsoft
Microsoft 365 would be well suited for medium to large enterprises. This is where there are several hundreds or thousands of people. Since most everyone has used one of the applications the learning curve would be reduced. Another reason would be the ability to implement security measures to prevent access to sensitive data. This could justify the cost of an Enterprise license.
Read full review
Discontinued Products
I'd recommend [Microsoft] Office2016 for any business that has more than a couple of users, as the software is very scalable from just a small business to a large enterprise corporation. I don't know of any case where it might not be appropriate, as even home users and students use the software suite as well.
Read full review
Pros
IBM
  • IBM Security Verify provides comprehensive identity and access management (IAM) capabilities.
  • IBM Security Verify provides multi-factor authentication (MFA) capabilities.
  • IBM Security Verify provides robust identity and access governance capabilities.
  • IBM Security Verify provides comprehensive auditing capabilities.
  • IBM Security Verify provides a comprehensive platform for managing and protecting privileged accounts.
Read full review
Microsoft
  • Chat with teams and the integrations with the other apps, and many more smaller ones, like to-dos, news, and the recent Outlook integration.
  • Easy embedding on SharePoint to broadcast all the content created in the different tools.
  • The office package is still robust with the good things from the past and new additions.
Read full review
Discontinued Products
  • Data manipulation. Excel takes the raw data we receive and allows us to digest it in ways that are useful to our business processes.
  • Communication. Outlook serves as our primary means of communication and setting up appointments.
  • Documentation. Word is the default standard when it comes to using a word processor and we are no different in this regard. Nearly every user has to use the application on a regular basis in order to accomplish their work.
Read full review
Cons
IBM
  • The mobile app can be a bit buggy at times if it gets fixed it would be great.
  • UI seems a bit old compared to modern tools out there.
  • There is a bit of a learning curve; if the developers can make it more intuitive it would be awesome.
Read full review
Microsoft
  • Slack is 1000x better than teams. Why put a 250 limit on a chat? Our company hasn't moved fully to channels and it's making us lose transparency. Plus, the teams channels we do have nobody is going to. 90% loss in visibility and engagement.
  • Teams for web meetings. I think the UI/UX should match Zoom which is the standard for all our customers. They don't like it when we use Teams.
  • Chats and Channels need to somehow be on one screen automatically without having to choose that view because majority of our company hasn't opened Teams Channels and only stays in chats.
Read full review
Discontinued Products
  • Office 2016 professional edition can be priced for a single user license, it would be nice to see a drop in the pricing.
  • Office 2016 home edition is a better price but does not include outlook 2016, so it is not a good fit for the workplace environments.
  • Office 2016 can run slowly on older systems, so you need to make sure you have a machine that is 4 years old or less for it to run smoothly.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
IBM
It works flawlessly, i have never faced any major issues with this. It has all the features such as Iam and security management. I think its a good investment and the benefits we reap from this software are worth the price.
Read full review
Microsoft
There are many features of Office that we cannot replicate in any other tool. Plus people know it already. It's not going away anytime soon.
Read full review
Discontinued Products
We believe that office 2016 offers the best value when it comes to features included out of the box. The software is used in its entirety by our organization and is easily supported by our staff of IT technicians. Users find this software to be easy to learn and easy to use with minimal learning curve.
Read full review
Usability
IBM
While setup and implementation takes work and time, the flexibility and possibilities make up for that in the long run. This is not a product you can just install and run, but if you design and implement your ruleset well, it will save you a lot of work afterwards. Just make sure that the systems you want to use it for have an existing and proven connector.
Read full review
Microsoft
Microsoft 365 is the gold standard for performing project tasks in a professional environment, enabling the quick transfer and exchange of files and ideas for team members who work locally and remotely. Its suite of tools is familiar and has evolved to being cloud based, allowing for files to be updated in real time from near and far.
Read full review
Discontinued Products
It's fairly easy to use, but the automatic formatting or capturing of formatting when pasting is wonky - especially when there are outlines or other bullets/numbered lists. Fixing and sizing up tables can be annoying, and there are sometimes formatting issues that we just absolutely cannot fix for some reason
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
IBM
It has never let us down since its inception and installation. User credentials and secure access have always been guaranteed. Ironclad security (through single sign-on, MFA, etc.) has ensured that our user credential details are safe as is our information/data. The correct access is given to users, based on role-based access with segregation of duty and the principle of least privilege being deployed. The IBM support has also been first class and they have proactively resolved any minor issues we have encountered.
Read full review
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Discontinued Products
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
IBM
The support team has always been the primary consultation base when we are faced by performance problems. From the deployment stage the team has managed to monitor the operation lifecycle and give best insights based on their observation. It works 24/7 to enhance productive service delivery to clients. The IBM Security Verify Support team has been the main player in the successful performance of this software.
Read full review
Microsoft
Over the past 8 years of using Microsoft 365, I have noticed that they change vendors often. This always leads to a poor experience in the beginning, then levels out after some time for the company to get things worked out. As a customer, it is really frustrating because I don't have time when something isn't working to have them "look into my issue" and get back with me. They have even closed a ticket I specifically told them to keep open. Your applications are only as good as the support.
Read full review
Discontinued Products
I am an MS feedback hub participant and they certainly don't pay enough attention to several bugs several people raise it in the portal. For the enterprise, it seems to me based on my prior experience that yes, they have a dedicated team to support operations. For mid to small companies or single users, it has been a struggle. So, you are pretty much with MS Blogs and others.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
IBM
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
Everything works and I use it all the time.
Read full review
Discontinued Products
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
IBM
We conducted a comparison study between IBM Verify and Okta as well as Duo Security before making our selection. IBM Verify emerged as the perfect fit because its superior capability to integrate with our current system environment surpassed competitor security solutions. IBM Verify demonstrated superior reliability through its enterprise-class scalability and fully transparent auditing mechanisms.
Read full review
Microsoft
Its very user-friendly, collaborative and efficient that boosts productivity using cloud tools. their security is strong and it provides data protection. There are regular updates that shields us from attackers too. It offers a wealth of learning resources, including tutorials, help articles and video guide to help users make the most of the application and personally upgrade their skills.
Read full review
Discontinued Products
We use Microsoft Office 2016 because at the time it was the best tool for us, but now with full attention to cloud products, we may be thinking of migrating our solution to a cloud service.
Read full review
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
IBM
The licensing terms were favourable due to their flexibility based on the size and purpose of implementation. The billing frequency is done on quarterly basis. The vendor team has enacted best user policies that gives the company the full control of this platform. It is cost-effective as compared to most security verification tools in the market.
Read full review
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Discontinued Products
No answers on this topic
Professional Services
IBM
In the case of adjustments, we were often able to carry them out completely on our own and only used professional services for new requirements. Particularly in the case of access management, it is very positive that we usually needed IBM for a task in less than an hour and then developed the solution further on our own.
Read full review
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Discontinued Products
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
IBM
  • Use of the software has enabled us to track access to our premises and systems, which has, in turn, reduced unauthorised access.
  • The software has enabled us to centralize identify and access management.
  • IBM Verify use in our organisation has reduced security risks by ensuring compliance, streamlining, and automating all critical identity management processes.
Read full review
Microsoft
  • We have a lot of nonprofit users, so they have a good ROI.
  • I like the constant updates without having to purchase the software repeatedly.
  • I used to purchase each Office (insert year here) often, so the software was up to date and had the newest options and connectors. I think my return on investment would have been much better if Microsoft had updated those versions to keep them current; after all, we did pay for them.
  • Microsoft 365's offering a monthly fee or a discount for a year helps, and you can look at it as a free backup if you have everything set to back up to One Drive. (Cloud-based document filing you can access anywhere ( with an internet connection)—you Can't beat that!)
Read full review
Discontinued Products
  • Microsoft Office 2016 saves me a lot of time daily. I have functions and macros set up that calculate and show me a lot of things just from a couple of my inputs. This would take full days sometimes if not for that.
  • Apart from time, it saves me money, I manage data in Excel, I don't have to buy software specifically for that.
  • Sooner or later my company will have to switch to new edition, which will hurt revenues because of a subscription model.
Read full review
ScreenShots

IBM Verify Screenshots

Screenshot of IBM Verify (for CIAM) - Privacy and ConsentScreenshot of IBM Verify - Custom Application TemplateScreenshot of IBM Verify - Select Application TypeScreenshot of IBM Verify - Privacy Policy