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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Microsoft Entra ID

    Score8.8 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft 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

    Windows Server

    Score8.6 out of 10
    N/AN/AN/A
    Pricing
    Microsoft Entra IDWindows Server
    Editions & Modules
    Premium P1
    $6.00
    per user/per month
    Premium P2
    $9.00
    per user/per month
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Microsoft Entra IDWindows Server
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Microsoft Entra IDWindows Server
    Considered Both Products
    Microsoft
    Chose Microsoft Entra ID
    As much as its easy to compare AzureAD to others, as much as it gets complicated.
    AzureAD is a direct choice for business relying on the Microsoft ecosystem of products and services, the integration between AzureAD, Windows and Windows Server is phenomenal, and Microsoft keeps …
    Incentivized
    Microsoft
    Chose Windows Server
    There are plenty of other server solutions out there which may be better suited for certain tasks, but Windows Server is the way to get a Windows environment going. For simple setups, there are many alternatives, but often there are key features lacking, or a restriction on …
    Incentivized
    Chose Windows Server
    Windows Server is the most Enterprise/Business server around, easy to deploy and configure and to co-exist with other servers. Most if not every other server technology is usually very good for a very specific purpose but fail in the coexistence and integration when compared …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    227 Answers
    98%
    Would buy again
    44 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    99%
    Delivers good value for the price
    206 Answers
    95%
    Delivers good value for the price
    42 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    99%
    Happy with the feature set
    225 Answers
    98%
    Happy with the feature set
    44 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    94%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    155 Answers
    93%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    38 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    95%
    Implementation went as expected
    183 Answers
    93%
    Implementation went as expected
    42 Answers
    Features
    Microsoft Entra IDWindows Server
    Identity Management
    Comparison of Identity Management features of Microsoft Entra ID and Windows Server
    Feature
    Microsoft Entra ID
    8.6
    123 Ratings
    5% above category average
    Windows Server
    -
    Ratings
    ID-Management Access Control9.1122 Ratings00 Ratings
    ID Management Single-Sign On (SSO)9.5119 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multi-Factor Authentication9.2121 Ratings00 Ratings
    Password Management8.2113 Ratings00 Ratings
    Account Provisioning and De-provisioning8.5114 Ratings00 Ratings
    ID Management Workflow Automation8.290 Ratings00 Ratings
    ID Risk Management7.797 Ratings00 Ratings
    Operating System
    Comparison of Operating System features of Microsoft Entra ID and Windows Server
    Feature
    Microsoft Entra ID
    -
    Ratings
    Windows Server
    7.8
    5 Ratings
    11% below category average
    File Management00 Ratings9.05 Ratings
    Software Application Management00 Ratings8.05 Ratings
    System Update Frequency00 Ratings6.65 Ratings
    Operating System Security00 Ratings7.65 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Microsoft Entra IDWindows Server
    Small Businesses
    JumpCloud
    Score9.3 out of 10
    CentOS Linux
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    OneLogin by One Identity
    Score9.4 out of 10
    IBM AIX
    Score9.4 out of 10
    Enterprises
    RSA Access Manager (Discontinued)
    Score10 out of 10
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
    Score9.1 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Microsoft Entra IDWindows Server
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.9
    (241 ratings)
    9.2
    (68 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.8
    (16 ratings)
    9.0
    (7 ratings)
    Usability
    8.6
    (57 ratings)
    9.2
    (12 ratings)
    Availability
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    5.5
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.1
    (21 ratings)
    6.4
    (19 ratings)
    Online Training
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.7
    (3 ratings)
    9.1
    (4 ratings)
    Configurability
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    7.4
    (2 ratings)
    4.5
    (1 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Professional Services
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    6.4
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Microsoft Entra IDWindows Server
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Microsoft
    Overall, the Microsoft Entra ID platform is best utilized by people looking to have one platform that manages all interactions between other platforms. The Microsoft Entra ID platform allows for a seemless SSO integration, and can also integrate with Intune for MDM. Additionally, and probably the most easy to understand integration, is the integration with Active Directory, and controls associated with that.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Windows Server and Active Directory is very robust and stable, it has been a staple in every IT environment I have worked in during my career. Junior to Intermediate admins can learn Windows Server easily, the user interfaces make administration tasks very easy as well as the documentation available through a vast amount of resources. There are other Operating Systems available with no GUI which has a smaller attack surface, faster update installation and reboot time. Windows Server does have the ability to remove the desktop experience, however it is not something I have had experience with and I believe most administrators choose not to remove it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Microsoft
    • Application integration is really good for single sign-on and managing identity overall. The correlation with Active Directory on-prem is really good, so we can manage it in a single place. It's easy to manage the users and integrate other Microsoft products. It is the base of everything else.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Backup of workstations & itself - reliably, consistently, with Bare-Metal Restore and deduplication
    • File management and Security on a per file/folder/user basis is simple and fully done through an easy GUI
    • DNS, DHCP server functions are easy to configure using the built-in GUI
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Microsoft
    • I would like more risk policy suggestions. I guess that situation where we had outsourced employees in a country where somehow their location was changing too often, that we would have room to go, “Hey, this needs to be a lower risk.” Or maybe having easier options to let people log in when they're deemed high risk. It’s tricky because I feel like it’s really easy to do that wrong, but it’s the main area that I think could be improved. I guess also a little bit tighter administrative integration with other Microsoft products.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Microsoft needs to minimize the update frequency by making the product more secure. It can become very exhausting trying to keep updated if you don't have a dedicated support team. It can become challenging where the business is unable to allow downtime for reboots as part of the update process.
    • Prone to security and audit vulnerabilities.
    • The operating system needs more CPU and memory resources compared to other options such as Linux.
    • Understanding the licensing model can be abit confusing.
    • Comes with a standard firewall, but not the most secured one available. Would suggest using a more secured firewall as part of your antivirus software.
    • Due to the number of vulnerabilities and the operating system being a target for hackers, anti-virus software is a must.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    I've carefully reviewed the servers and services currently running on Windows Server 2012, and given the opportunity would renew them as is going forward. There are two systems I currently have in place, one is a very large Linux implementation for a large ecommerce site, and one is a very large backup solution front ended by FTP servers running Linux. Neither are well suited for Windows, but the overall network infrastructure is and will be Windows Server for the foreseeable future.
    Read full review
    Usability
    Microsoft
    From a user perspective, 10. From an admin perspective, 7 or 8. From the user perspective, it's very easy to use, but from the admin perspective, there's a lot of things that are not easily clear, testable, or verifiable without just trying a whole bunch of scenarios.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Anyone new to IT could easily use the familiar Desktop Experience (GUI) version because we all know how to use Windows, whether a client or server version. Once an IT user is more comfortable with the operating system, they can move on to the Core version, which is the way to go in almost all situations.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Microsoft
    There has been a handful of outages but they have been either minimal or rarely severe
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    some times server hungs and user sessions were busy to connect
    Read full review
    Performance
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    need to improve the performance more
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Microsoft's support is hugely wide-ranging from articles online to having to contact them directly for the more serious issues. In recent years when I have contacted them directly, I have found the support o be excellent as I have found myself connected to very knowledgeable people in the field in which I needed the support. The online support available is vast and I tend to find most of the time that there is always someone out there who has had the same issue as me in the past and knows something about how to resolve it! This is the advantage of using industry standard and long-established systems such as Windows Server.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    it was my senior who trained Windows Server features and i was satisfied
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Microsoft
    Most training was internally produced
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    it was recorded session and useful
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Make sure that you have detailed processes in place for every server instance you plan to install/upgrade, if possible get the base OS loaded and Windows Updates applied ahead of time, and if using a VM take a snapshot prior to installing each role, as well as along the way.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Microsoft
    We've done stuff with Okta for Identity and Duo. Those would probably be the two big ones that I would say that people would recognize and stuff. There's some other smaller players we've talked to, but those are the two big ones that we play with. We're still using it. So, because it was integrated into everything we've already done, it just made it almost indispensable.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    They are different experiences, and while the other solutions offer enterprise-grade stability and, in some cases, address Windows server shortcomings (such as patching), they all do the trick, but the other solutions require a deeper technical background/configuration of items at the command line, which some people are not fully comfortable with.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    Microsoft
    The features are getting addresses per requirements and their value for Money. The proposed ROI and actual ROI build confidence.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    need to reduce a lot
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Microsoft
    Scalability is pretty trival for Entra ID. It's not difficult to manage a few or many accounts.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    yes i completely agree multi deployment
    Read full review
    Professional Services
    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.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    i like the professional service but need to improve
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Microsoft
    • We are doing a lot of sign-ins and working on it, and it worked quite well. We do have Microsoft support, so yes, we can handle all of the small issues we are sometimes having. But if you want to define it, I would say yes, we like it. Overall positive.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Ability to keep all files in one place and give access to users makes file management easy to control.
    • VPN Access to off-site users is a plus.
    • Secure access to on-site SQL data from our accounting and estimating data is a plus.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
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