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Auth0 Platform vs Microsoft Active Directory comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 15, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.1
Auth0 offers high ROI with time savings and efficiency but faces scalability cost concerns and licensing flexibility issues.
Sentiment score
4.4
Microsoft Active Directory enhances efficiency and access control, providing value through centralized management despite lacking direct ROI calculation.
The solution is really time-saving since I don't need to create users in each server or system manually, and user access control is streamlined.
Senior Consutant at HCLSoftware
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.5
Auth0 users appreciate responsive support, but smaller accounts struggle with accessing community forums and feature support consistency.
Sentiment score
5.5
Microsoft Active Directory support is inconsistent, with varying response quality, reliance on online resources, and better service via premium options.
The support staff are engineers, not just frontline personnel, ensuring expert assistance.
Manager, Customer Success at Cloudworks
Their support is excellent.
CTO at Lambda-X Ophthalmics
Support documents are available on the internet in every language.
Owner at a computer software company with 1-10 employees
If you purchase retail, the support will be more difficult because they will assess the priority or rating from the customer.
IT Operations & Security at veris
Sometimes support takes long to engage and resolve, extending over weeks or even months.
Senior Consutant at HCLSoftware
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.9
Auth0 effectively scales, overcoming MongoDB bottlenecks, with users rating scalability highly for diverse customer needs and performance.
Sentiment score
6.2
Microsoft Active Directory is scalable and integrates well, but faces challenges at larger scales, suggesting hybrid solutions.
The tool is very scalable and meets our customers' needs.
Manager, Customer Success at Cloudworks
Microsoft Active Directory scales effectively; I don't foresee any issues with that at all.
Network Security Administrator at a retailer with 51-200 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.7
Auth0 Platform is highly stable and dependable, with excellent performance and integration, garnering top ratings for reliability.
Sentiment score
6.4
Microsoft Active Directory is praised for its stability and reliability, with minor issues not significantly affecting performance.
If you meet the installation requirements from Microsoft, it will be very stable.
IT Operations & Security at veris
With multiple domain controllers, stability is ensured.
Senior Consutant at HCLSoftware
I've been working with Microsoft Active Directory for over 3 years, and we've had no problems.
Network Security Administrator at a retailer with 51-200 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Auth0 needs better authorization, clearer pricing, improved documentation, and enhanced user management and administration for a better user experience.
Microsoft Active Directory needs improvements in usability, integration, security updates, synchronization, setup, reporting, support, scalability, and email group sync.
By default, the user profile does not contain the name, first name, or address, which I would expect.
CTO at Lambda-X Ophthalmics
Auth0 could be made more accessible to beginners.
Senior Software Engineer at Charter Communications
A reduction of 20-25% would be great.
Manager, Customer Success at Cloudworks
Exporting and verifying group memberships require command line scripts, which isn't simple.
Senior Consutant at HCLSoftware
There are some features that need improvements in terms of ease of use and frequency of updates.
Information Technology Specialist at stelios@biolandenergy.com
Sometimes, it can be overly complicated, and when you apply Group Policy in an Active Directory environment, sometimes those settings apply and sometimes they don't.
Network Security Administrator at a retailer with 51-200 employees
 

Setup Cost

Auth0's pricing is seen as clear and cost-effective by some, but expensive and confusing with high integration costs by others.
Microsoft Active Directory pricing varies by region and model; Azure offers cost-effective solutions for large enterprises despite perceived expense.
The cost of the solution itself was cost-effective enough that I didn't even need to compare it with EntraID.
CTO at Lambda-X Ophthalmics
For the cloud solution in our region, the pricing of Microsoft Active Directory is very high.
Network & Security Section Head/Digital Transformation at City Edge
I consider Microsoft Active Directory expensive because if you buy this thing bundled with the Windows Directory Server, you get five user licenses for about a thousand euros, or a little bit less than this.
Owner at Syntlogo GmbH
The pricing, setup cost, and licensing with Microsoft Active Directory is straightforward; you just buy the server and then have to buy the user CALs.
Network Security Administrator at a retailer with 51-200 employees
 

Valuable Features

Auth0 offers seamless integration, strong security, scalability, compliance, and flexibility, providing a unified cloud solution for authentication management.
Microsoft Active Directory simplifies management with integration, group policies, and scalable operations across on-premises and cloud environments.
The most important feature for me was the ease of use, as it needed to be easy to integrate into my platform.
CTO at Lambda-X Ophthalmics
The most valuable feature of Auth0 is its customizability.
Manager, Customer Success at Cloudworks
The best features Auth0 offers are its scalability and it is a better way of authenticating a user compared to just a tokenized version of authentication where the token is static and does not offer dynamic authentication compared to how Auth0 offers it.
Senior Software Engineer at Charter Communications
To assess the impact of Microsoft Active Directory's centralized domain management on security protocols and access permissions, Microsoft Active Directory itself has constraints with security because when we have a solution such as SSO or Single Sign-On, which makes it easier for users to log in, some parts have security openings.
IT Operations & Security at veris
One valuable feature is the centralized creation of IDs.
Senior Consutant at HCLSoftware
I can control all the devices in my domain by just changing the group policies in one place.
Information Technology Specialist at stelios@biolandenergy.com
 

Categories and Ranking

Auth0 Platform
Ranking in Single Sign-On (SSO)
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
Access Management (5th), Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) (2nd), AI IT Support (6th)
Microsoft Active Directory
Ranking in Single Sign-On (SSO)
8th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
47
Ranking in other categories
Active Directory Management (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2025, in the Single Sign-On (SSO) category, the mindshare of Auth0 Platform is 6.8%, down from 9.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Active Directory is 3.0%, up from 2.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Single Sign-On (SSO) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Auth06.8%
Microsoft Active Directory3.0%
Other90.2%
Single Sign-On (SSO)
 

Featured Reviews

VC
Senior Software Engineer at Charter Communications
Secure API access for enterprises has improved and provides dynamic authentication for users
The best features Auth0 offers are its scalability and it is a better way of authenticating a user compared to just a tokenized version of authentication where the token is static and does not offer dynamic authentication compared to how Auth0 offers it. While working in a dynamic environment where there are many enterprises involved in the service, you need a tool that can authenticate them on the go, which is why I like it. Auth0 has positively impacted my organization. Previously we used the tokenized version of authentication. The work was simple, but when you push this code to deployment and enterprises are involved, it makes much more sense to authenticate them through Auth0 so that you can just get a login for yourself when you are authenticated, which helps to dynamically scale depending on the product and its viability. The specific outcomes since I started using Auth0 include time-saving, more security, and scalability, which are the three things I would emphasize.
Eko Kurniawan - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Operations & Security at veris
Has simplified credential management and improved secure access control across departments
The features I find most useful in Microsoft Active Directory are especially for the Single Sign-On. This is very useful for users, particularly if they have plenty of applications, such as tablet applications. When they log in to their computer, the application will automatically log in with their credentials. They don't need to remember another user and password to log in to the application because it's already maintained with Microsoft Active Directory using Single Sign-On. To assess the impact of Microsoft Active Directory's centralized domain management on security protocols and access permissions, Microsoft Active Directory itself has constraints with security because when we have a solution such as SSO or Single Sign-On, which makes it easier for users to log in, some parts have security openings. When their computer is compromised with a threat, malware, or other cyber threats, it becomes easier to enter the application without login permission.
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Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Single Sign-On (SSO) solutions are best for your needs.
879,259 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Healthcare Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise8
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business20
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise20
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Auth0?
It is very scalable because it provides a new environment for companies based on their number of users and other factors. The tool can take a lot of users.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Auth0?
The cost of the solution itself was cost-effective enough that I didn't even need to compare it with EntraID.
What needs improvement with Auth0?
I do not think there are any improvements needed for Auth0, other than maybe making it more visible to beginners. Auth0 could be made more accessible to beginners.
What do you like most about Microsoft Active Directory?
The solution is easy to install and has good reliability.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Active Directory?
The best way to protect this is to use Microsoft Defender. For Microsoft support for Microsoft Active Directory, I would rate it as eight. If I give it 10, it would be too perfect. Eight is fair. M...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Active Directory?
My main use cases for Microsoft Active Directory are to manage user access and credentials.
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

1. Airbnb 2. Accenture 3. Adidas 4. Atlassian 5. Audi 6. Baidu 7. BlackRock 8. Cisco 9. CocaCola 10. Dell 11. eBay 12. FedEx 13. Fiat Chrysler 14. Ford 15. Google 16. Groupon 17. Hewlett Packard Enterprise 18. IBM 19. Intel 20. LinkedIn 21. Mastercard 22. Mercedes Benz23. Microsoft 24. Nike 25. Oracle 26. PayPal 27. Pinterest 28. Qualcomm 29. SAP 30. Spotify 31. Tesla 32. Toyota
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Find out what your peers are saying about Auth0 Platform vs. Microsoft Active Directory and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,259 professionals have used our research since 2012.