Microsoft 365 vs. Microsoft Entra ID

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
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 Entra ID
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Microsoft Azure Active Directory or Azure AD) is a cloud-based identity and access management (IAM) solution supporting restricted access to applications with Azure Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) built-in, single sign-on (SSO), B2B collaboration controls, self-service password, and integration with Microsoft productivity and cloud storage (Office 365, OneDrive, etc) as well as 3rd party services.
$6
per user/per month
Pricing
Microsoft 365Microsoft Entra ID
Editions & Modules
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
Premium P1
$6.00
per user/per month
Premium P2
$9.00
per user/per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Microsoft 365Microsoft Entra ID
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details*When billed annually.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Microsoft 365Microsoft Entra ID
Considered Both Products
Microsoft 365
Chose Microsoft 365
We've only used Microsoft 365 products. Now that Microsoft 365 is cloud-based it's made remote access manageable. It has made us as a company evaluate physical office space now and in the future.
Chose Microsoft 365
Using Dynamics as a business application was the best decision I ever made. Between all its functionalities we are able to connect any Office 365 tools into your personalized app and you do not have to leave your page, it’s all right there.
Microsoft Entra ID
Chose Microsoft Entra ID
Microsoft Entra ID seemed to be a better fit for our organization since we were already using Microsoft 365 and a local active directory.
Chose Microsoft Entra ID
We adopted both the endpoint security platforms and of course the cloud security platform. So when we sell Iku for our products, we also sell the licenses both for defender, for endpoint, and of course Microsoft 365 Premier. And we work for integrating the security model of the …
Chose Microsoft Entra ID
It is a lot easier to administer Microsoft Entra ID compare to Ping. Microsoft Entra ID is a lot more intuitive and easy to understand. Microsoft Entra ID is more flexible when integrating SaaS solutions. Implementing passwordless and conditional access policies to add an …
Chose Microsoft Entra ID
Microsoft Login ID was chosen for its ease of use and availability of access via any device. Unlike the old Active Directory, it has a low learning curve and is very intuitive for analysts who are using it for the first time.
Chose Microsoft Entra ID
Microsoft is much better in terms of features and functionality. End user experience is also better with Microsoft Entra ID.
Chose Microsoft Entra ID
User experience (user friendly) is easy then google workspace.Licensing cost management also easier then google platform. SSO and MFA work much better and easier then GCP. Integration with third party software we can do using online video learning in Intra id. apps are work …
Chose Microsoft Entra ID
We haven't really tried any other modern directory services, with the exception of on-prem AD, so not really got a comparison. Although Okta (SSO) was tested a couple of years ago by another department but it didn't gain traction. And we used to use SecureAuth (MFA) but it …
Chose Microsoft Entra ID
We evaluated RSA SecurID and Okta as alternative authentication options before choosing Microsoft Entra ID. The combination of biometric authentication and MFA with Microsoft Entra ID's identity management boosted our financial security compared to other options with similar …
Chose Microsoft Entra ID
Entra ID is more intuitive than G-Suite mainly because Windows Server users and admins will already find the UI and workflows familiar. API access and management is easier to access and work with. Documentation is more comprehensive too, in my experience. Entra ID also appears …
Chose Microsoft Entra ID
In our particular scenario, we chose [Microsoft] Azure Active Directory because it has integration with tools and applications we use on a day to day basis, such as inTune, Autopilot, Office 365, Exchange Online, Dynamics 365, just to named a few.
Chose Microsoft Entra ID
I've worked with both Okta and Auth0 at various clients. Consistently, we find that Azure Active Directory provides a more seamless experience, better integration with IT tooling, and a more developer-friendly experience. In the past Azure AD has lacked some of the …
Chose Microsoft Entra ID
We never evaluate other types of products. Since Windows 2000 we have been using Active Directory for the administration and management of our users, devices, and policies. We could certainly see the advances that are produced version by version and I firmly believe that Azure …
Features
Microsoft 365Microsoft Entra ID
Identity Management
Comparison of Identity Management features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft 365
-
Ratings
Microsoft Entra ID
8.5
114 Ratings
3% above category average
ID-Management Access Control00 Ratings8.9112 Ratings
ID Management Single-Sign On (SSO)00 Ratings9.1112 Ratings
Multi-Factor Authentication00 Ratings9.1113 Ratings
Password Management00 Ratings8.2107 Ratings
Account Provisioning and De-provisioning00 Ratings8.4106 Ratings
ID Management Workflow Automation00 Ratings7.785 Ratings
ID Risk Management00 Ratings7.989 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Microsoft 365Microsoft Entra ID
Small Businesses
Google Workspace
Google Workspace
Score 9.1 out of 10
Dashlane Password Manager
Dashlane Password Manager
Score 9.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Google Workspace
Google Workspace
Score 9.1 out of 10
RSA Access Manager (Discontinued)
RSA Access Manager (Discontinued)
Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Microsoft 365 Business Premium
Microsoft 365 Business Premium
Score 8.9 out of 10
RSA Access Manager (Discontinued)
RSA Access Manager (Discontinued)
Score 10.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Microsoft 365Microsoft Entra ID
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(242 ratings)
8.9
(170 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.5
(6 ratings)
9.6
(16 ratings)
Usability
7.7
(13 ratings)
8.8
(28 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
8.9
(54 ratings)
7.1
(21 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
5.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.0
(2 ratings)
9.6
(3 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
-
(0 ratings)
7.4
(2 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Professional Services
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Microsoft 365Microsoft Entra ID
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
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Microsoft
Microsoft Entra ID provides powerful and reliable identity and access management capabilities that enhance secure authentication and authorization for cloud systems. Offer modern security features, including MFA, conditional access, and threat intelligence, to protect identities and prevent unauthorized access. Single Sign-On allows us to access multiple apps with just a single login.
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Pros
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.
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Microsoft
  • Single Sign-on helps ease the user experience, allowing users to avoid typing multiple passwords.
  • The identity and management are straightforward to use and easy to connect to other applications, as well as third-party applications.
  • The support of remote work. Nowadays, many people work from home and need to access their accounts. Microsoft Enterprise ID gives secure access to the company data.
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Cons
Microsoft
  • Forms lack comprehensive features and parameters for detailed questioning for example cannot be directly linked with Power BI
  • Outlook email filters are not handy to use and require more detailing in terms of location past emails
  • Teams requires substantially large amounts of system resources which could be finetuned
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Microsoft
  • For larger organizations the policy management user interface gets complex
  • Security group nesting limitations - you cannot always nest groups within groups depending on the group types and use case
  • Price gets high if you need the enterprise or P2 premium licenses
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Likelihood to Renew
Microsoft
So far the Microsoft 365 platform provides features and tools that can cater to 100% of present organizations needs considering both technical and business necessities, however most features are not been effectively utilised at present. The current featureset is able to cover for most of the future needs of the business and technical functions.
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Microsoft
MSFT Entra ID has been essential for managing our geographically dispersed team. We're confident that it will scale with us as grow, and we'll be able to take advantage of additional security and ID management features as they become necessary. Being able to centrally manage our user access from anywhere with a small support team is such a relief.
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Usability
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.
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Microsoft
Simply because of what I mentioned earlier, the feature set sort of keeps changing and they do a lot of, they integrated with a lot of the other tools and so for users who are not as well seasoned, it may be a little bit more complicated for them to begin working within the tool.
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Reliability and Availability
Microsoft
To-date Microsoft 365 platform has offered an amazing uptime and availability percentage per year compared to all other products which provide the stability and overall business resilience of their ecosystem which is a great relief for information technology service entitites which heavy rely on Microsoft offerings as a whole to redeliver their own custom products
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Microsoft
There has been a handful of outages but they have been either minimal or rarely severe
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Performance
Microsoft
The Microsoft 365 tools expects and demands a substantial amount of system resources to operate at optimal level and even more when integrated with other applications which is a downside, however given that external supporting tech factors such as fibre/broadband speed bandwidth, high speed RAM and ample storage resources are allocated the tools work error free providing robust communication
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Microsoft
I could probably rate this a 10 but I'm always conservative on giving out perfect scored bt performance has not been a problem for us using Entra ID.
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Support Rating
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.
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Microsoft
I have not needed to engage support for anything at this time. I have been able to find the answers either online or in a knowledgebase. I tried to skip the question but it would not let me, so I rated a 9 based on other interactions with Microsoft support I have had
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In-Person Training
Microsoft
The resellers involved with selling Microsoft products are reluctant to provide in person specialist trainings to consumers due to the fact of costs of economies of scale and is not provided free of charge most of the time. In Person trainings needs to be agreed to at the initiation of projects and implementations for better ROI.
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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Online Training
Microsoft
The standard training offered with 3rd part resellers are fairly standard and covers the basic workability however the trainings needs to be specifically customised according to unique requirements of the organizations. for example an MSP would need to master specific communications verticals within Microsoft 365 whereas and online store using Microsoft 365 would needs to master a different set of tools within the suite to get the best ROI post implementation.
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Microsoft
Most training was internally produced
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Implementation Rating
Microsoft
The Microsoft support partners are more than capable of handling implementations and dealing with unprecedented errors during the implementations. Not part of the implementation though the setup was done with minimum misconfigurations which is evident with present live setup which works fine without any bugs and gaps at present context.
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Microsoft
Make sure you use a good partner. Our implementation was a bit longer and more problematic than we expected. Our partner got it done, but, in my opinion, some of their inexperience and staffing issues were evident.
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Alternatives Considered
Microsoft
Typically I prefer working with companies with Microsoft 365 as their main tool because they're usually a fast growing company with a global presence. I like using it for work because it's easy to collaborate, share, review, comment, reply in any of the tools. The mobile app for Outlook and Teams are lifesavers when we're constantly traveling and you can join meetings on the mobile Teams to never miss a beat.
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Microsoft
Yeah, so basically that product to be honest, was more of a getting comfortable with cloud identification management. So that was a product I used. It has all the policies for desktops and doing updates and all that central directory identity provisioning stuff for users. Users and I will have an advantage because right now you get it from the time you get email, you get it, it is there, right? I mean you don't have to pay for anything. And then Microsoft, depending on your interest file license you have Access to Defender and all of those other nice products that compliment Entra ID. So I think that Entra ID is more rich. There's more potential as the business scales if that other product, you can't really scale as much as it was good because I deal with a lot of small medium size enterprises. I do a lot of more consulting type firms. They don't have more than 20 consultants and they just need a system whether it's for their legal activities, finance activities, et cetera. But in terms of having an email is very important to so many companies. So it's so easy to use the Entra ID and easy to expand more value for money for clients.
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Microsoft
Microsoft pricing is not very expensive and yet not very cheap as well, and it hovers in between the baseline. The charges are mostly based on the tier level partners who charge based on their individual reputation in the market. Power negotiation will lead to cost effective and attractive pricing
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Microsoft
The features are getting addresses per requirements and their value for Money. The proposed ROI and actual ROI build confidence.
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Scalability
Microsoft
Multiple tools within the same platform have been deployed successfully within different functional technical and non technical teams such as Devops, SOC, NOC, Shared services, Managed services, Global Information technology, Cloud operations, Finance, Administration, human resources and all these teams collaborate while maintaining central uniformity in terms of global standards who are dispersed in different geographical locations with ease
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Microsoft
Scalability is pretty trival for Entra ID. It's not difficult to manage a few or many accounts.
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Professional Services
Microsoft
Have not directly obtained professional services from Microsoft but rather obtained specialized services such as implementations and configurations, setting up and integration support with Microsoft authorized suppliers, 3rd parties, and resellers, which has been a pleasant experience. Again the level of delivery quality on professional services is based on the level of hands on exposure of the 3rd party
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Microsoft
Microsoft Professional Services' technical knowledge is appreciable as consultants design the solution as per customer requirements. Mapping of features per user specifications and assisting Customer IT engineers to implement so they can manage and administer the services.
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Return on Investment
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!)
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Microsoft
  • I think it's had positive. It's enabled us to make authentication easier and more streamlined across the organization from frontline workers to back office workers.
  • It's allowed us to really adopt authentication policies and methods that suit that user and their work environment.
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