Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD) and Okta are leading IAM solutions with different strengths. Entra ID is praised for its seamless integration with Microsoft products like Office 365 and Azure, focusing on Active Directory integration, user lifecycle management and conditional access. Entra ID's customizable options and reliable performance are highly valued. Okta is platform-agnostic, streamlining access management processes, praised for its user-friendly interface, competitive pricing and exceptional customer service.
The summary above is based on 141 interviews we conducted recently with Okta Workforce Identity and Microsoft Entra ID users. To access the review's full transcripts, download our report.
"The most valuable features in Active Directory are the password writeback product and the MDM technology."
"Two very important features in terms of security are governance and compliance through the Conditional Access policies and Azure Log Analytics."
"Very stable and scalable IAM service with good SSO and authentication features."
"The ability to see and control PCs and mobile devices is the most valuable. I can see where they are and how many we have. I can also see the age and retention of PCs."
"Azure AD has features that have helped improve our security posture."
"The security features are great. They will report in advance to you in the case of suspicious activity."
"The user management groups are valuable. It is a pretty basic product, but user management, in general, is valuable with the ability to differentiate between business lines and add different policies, group-based management, and dynamic user groups."
"Don't delay implementing this solution, it's the best thing you can do for your identity protection."
"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"The most valuable feature in Okta Workforce Identity is the single sign-on, universal directory, and lifecycle management."
"Okta Workforce Identity is easy to use and has a lot of components."
"The most valuable features depend on a customer's needs. Our customers generally find multi-factor authentication very useful."
"The solution so far has been very stable."
"The provisioning functionality has been the most valuable. This solution has good performance, fast integration and is very responsive."
"Workforce Identity's best features include its user-friendliness and easy setup."
"First of all, the solution is very simple."
"The security policy of Azure Active Directory should be based on a matrix so that we can easily visualize which users have access to what."
"Better deployment management and visibility functionality would be helpful."
"Some systems do not integrate very well with Azure AD. We thought of going for Okta, but later on we were able to achieve it, but not the way we wanted. It was not as easy as we thought it would be. The integration was not very seamless."
"I would like to see Microsoft communicate how they intend to manage legacy applications. Right now, you still have to deploy a hosted domain server (which comes at an extra cost) if you have a legacy application that cannot sync properly with the enterprise applications and the modern applications."
"At first, it was a bit challenging to come up with a workaround that would get authentication to work."
"The onboarding process for new users can be improved. It can be made simpler for people who have never registered to Azure AD previously and need to create an account and enable the MFA. The initial setup can be made simpler for non-IT people. It should be a bit simpler to use. Unless you get certifications, such as AZ-300 and AZ-301, it is not a simple thing to use at the enterprise scale."
"They can improve how people manage their accounts. They can simplify and provide more information about adding or updating a phone number or email id in the MSA account. A lot of time users do get confused about where to go. For example, if I've changed my mobile number, where do I go and change my mobile number in the MSA account? A lot of time, employees think if they change the phone number in the HR database, it'll automatically get changed on the MSA account, which is not the case. Microsoft can simplify that and add these questions in the FAQ documents as well."
"One thing that bothers me about Azure AD is that I can't specify login hours. I have to use an on-premises instance of Active Directory if I want to specify the hours during which a user can log in. For example, if I want to restrict login to only be possible during working hours, to prevent overtime payments or to prevent lawsuits, I can't do this using only Azure AD."
"The product is expensive compared to other tools."
"The solution lacks an on-premises deployment model so it can't offer a hybrid solution. It would be ideal if clients had options that weren't just cloud-based."
"We had some implementation issues."
"Okta doesn't have a partial push. It pushes down the full profile schema for lifecycle management or provisioning."
"The solution's user interface needs to be improved and made easy."
"It's not compatible with on-premises installations, unless you host it as a SaaS. We were not able to do that. For example, imagine a scenario where the cloud is not available. Then, Okta will not work for you. That use case will readily fail because it doesn't have an on-premises installation that you can use to authenticate or provide identity and access management. If you have a purely on-premises solution that is not connected to the internet, then this will not work. This is one area that can be improved."
"The only area of concern in the solution stems from the fact that my company needs some help regarding the setup phase from a partner."
"The only aspect in which it can be improved is that the interface could be cleaner. I found this even when I was trying to do my certification exam because the certification is hands-on. You find yourself fumbling around a little bit to find simple things. This happens even when you start to get familiar with the product."
Microsoft Entra ID is ranked 1st in Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) with 190 reviews while Okta Workforce Identity is ranked 2nd in Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) with 59 reviews. Microsoft Entra ID is rated 8.6, while Okta Workforce Identity is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Microsoft Entra ID writes "Saves us time and money and features Conditional Access policies, SSPR, and MFA". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Okta Workforce Identity writes "Extremely easy to work with, simple to set up, and reasonably priced ". Microsoft Entra ID is most compared with Microsoft Intune, Google Cloud Identity, CyberArk Privileged Access Manager, Ping Identity Platform and Cisco Duo, whereas Okta Workforce Identity is most compared with Google Cloud Identity, SailPoint Identity Security Cloud, Saviynt, Auth0 and IBM Security Verify Access. See our Microsoft Entra ID vs. Okta Workforce Identity report.
See our list of best Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) vendors, best Single Sign-On (SSO) vendors, and best Authentication Systems vendors.
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