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Axiad Conductor vs Microsoft Entra External ID comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 22, 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
7.4
Axiad Conductor reduces help desk interactions by 35%, saves labor hours, and cuts user costs by up to 15%.
Sentiment score
3.6
Users faced challenges with Microsoft Entra External ID but saved costs and time compared to traditional, on-premises solutions.
It has led to cost savings as well as time savings because I can use a single solution for all applications.
Companies can leverage it for setting up external identities without needing to develop their own solutions.
In terms of return on investment, prior to using this product, our company managed our own mail server with all internal authentication happening on premises, resulting in a ROI in the thousands every year.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
8.3
Axiad Conductor's customer service is praised for responsiveness, expertise, and successful feature integration, though occasional delays occur.
Sentiment score
4.6
Microsoft Entra External ID support varies; response times, documentation, and regional differences affect user satisfaction and solution accessibility.
Companies without a Microsoft license for Entra ID or Azure portal cannot add Azure AD B2C, creating logistical issues for some of my clients who are unable to evaluate the platform.
The support for business applications, infrastructure support, and Entra has been mostly positive with highly skilled technicians.
The documentation is very thorough, reducing the need for support.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
Axiad Conductor scales well up to 100,000 users but faces cost challenges beyond, maintaining robust and seamless integration.
Sentiment score
6.0
Microsoft Entra External ID offers scalable security for large enterprises, with distinct policies and strong performance despite some latency issues.
This is one of EID's weak points compared to Azure AD B2C, which offers customizable authentication options, including attribute and password combinations.
End-user workloads experience increased latency in a cloud environment compared to on-premises resources.
Microsoft Entra External ID is quite scalable, and I would rate its scalability between eight and nine out of ten.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
Axiad Conductor is praised for its flawless, stable performance in credential management, with minimal downtime and no unplanned outages.
Sentiment score
4.8
Microsoft Entra External ID is highly stable, reliable, and smooth, with minor rare issues, and positive user feedback.
I'd rate the stability of the Microsoft Entra External ID as a 10.
The stability of this solution is very good.
I have not encountered any stability issues with Microsoft Entra External ID.
 

Room For Improvement

Users seek Axiad Conductor enhancements, including modern design, Canadian hosting, and FIDO U2F support, amidst macOS update challenges.
Microsoft Entra External ID needs improved support, integration, pricing, security, UI, and customization for medium-sized businesses.
This is particularly challenging during enterprise agreement renewals, as it's difficult for customers to review costs leading to lengthy negotiations.
Enhanced customizable login options and the ability to use attribute password logins are critical features that are required for Microsoft Entra External ID to gain dominance in the authentication market.
I would like to see a more detailed alert system that provides a summary of why alerts are generated, who is generating them, and the reasons behind it.
 

Setup Cost

Axiad Conductor offers affordable annual pricing with low-cost per-user licensing and efficient management, ensuring lower total ownership costs.
Microsoft Entra External ID pricing is complex, potentially costly, but scalable, benefiting from Azure expertise and existing subscriptions.
Regarding pricing, the cost seems high for single sign-on, especially for external applications like Oracle.
Microsoft's pricing is complex and difficult to fathom due to a range of different licensing options.
The cost can be a factor for Microsoft Entra External ID, but in general, it offers a scalable and efficient solution compared to deploying individual solutions.
 

Valuable Features

Axiad Conductor simplifies authentication management with user-friendly features, efficient onboarding, and seamless integration, crucial for security compliance.
Microsoft Entra External ID enhances security, management, and user experience through integration, single sign-on, and adaptive authentication features.
It is crucial for hybrid environments, especially for integrating existing on-site infrastructures with cloud-based Active Directory, such as in Office 365 implementations.
EID unifies workforce users with external business partners, which is a very strong feature.
The detailed monitoring and reporting in Microsoft Entra External ID support compliance efforts effectively.
 

Categories and Ranking

Axiad Conductor
Ranking in Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS)
27th
Average Rating
9.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
Authentication Systems (23rd), Identity Management (IM) (59th), Privileged Access Management (PAM) (40th), Passwordless Authentication (9th), Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) (41st), Insider Risk Management (25th), Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) (8th), Non-Human Identity Management (NHIM) (15th)
Microsoft Entra External ID
Ranking in Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS)
8th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.5
Number of Reviews
16
Ranking in other categories
Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) (4th), Microsoft Security Suite (21st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) category, the mindshare of Axiad Conductor is 0.4%, down from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Entra External ID is 2.4%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Entra External ID2.4%
Axiad Conductor0.4%
Other97.2%
Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS)
 

Featured Reviews

Eric Brown - PeerSpot reviewer
The day-to-day tasks, running the servers, and making sure that everything is patched is all handled by the platform
The most valuable feature is the overhead management of the platform. There is less for my team to worry about. The day-to-day tasks, running the servers, and making sure that everything is patched is all handled by the platform. We just consume the service and work with them to refine it, making it even more valuable. Aside from Active Directory, anything that is a multi-factor platform is handled through Axiad Cloud. It is critical for helping to enforce usage of authentication devices across our organization. One of our requirements to continue some of our contracts is to have multi-factor authentication across all devices accessing the network. It is extremely easy to enroll a user with “One Click Issuance”. I have had very few calls to the service desk regarding enrollment. It takes a couple of minutes to enroll a user with "One Click Issuance". Deploying and managing authenticators is very easy, either done by a mobile application or enrollment of an OTP token. It is very simple. This is important to my userbase, which makes it important to me. Functionality-wise, it is pretty solid.
Suresh Kumar Subramaniyan - PeerSpot reviewer
Has supported secure access but still lacks full coverage for external identity challenges
The user experience is acceptable, but Microsoft Entra External ID is not a full-fledged IGA solution. We use different products for complete Identity Governance Administration. Microsoft Entra External ID is suitable for small-scale enterprises implementing identity lifecycle management since most have Active Directory. However, there are several challenges. The out-of-the-box connector has limited features for applications, requiring us to build scheme connectors. While small-scale enterprises can benefit from Microsoft Entra External ID's Identity Governance solution, large-scale enterprises might need different tools from leading market vendors such as SailPoint or Saviynt. Customers face particular challenges with contractor and B2B accounts. Microsoft Entra External ID isn't a complete cloud-based account solution, as it must handle internal employees and collaborate with internal Active Directory. There are delays in the identity lifecycle process, especially for contract partners during onboarding and off-boarding. This might be due to back-end syncing with Active Directory. B2B account removal and provisioning take considerable time. Access governance, particularly access certification for guest users, is time-consuming. Multi-factor authentication enforcement also presents challenges for external users.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Government
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise6
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Entra External ID?
The only problem that you might face with Microsoft now is their complex licensing model.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Entra External ID?
For the last four or five years, I have been in an IT manager function, focusing on making things happen and having technical persons execute tasks. In the last three months, I have transitioned to...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Entra External ID?
I am looking for a new solution and investigating existing products. We are already working with Microsoft Intune and SOTI. I have been working in the past with a Kaseya product, specifically Datto...
 

Also Known As

Axiad Cloud
Azure Active Directory External Identities
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Axiad Conductor vs. Microsoft Entra External ID and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
869,202 professionals have used our research since 2012.