Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Azure Firewall vs Microsoft Entra ID Protection comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
1.0
Azure Firewall offers cost-effective security, appealing to smaller businesses; larger enterprises might prefer alternatives like Fortinet or Palo Alto.
Sentiment score
5.4
Microsoft Entra ID Protection offers full ROI in three years, with immediate efficiency, satisfaction, and time-saving benefits.
There is a return on investment in terms of time-saving, control, and ease of manageability of the environment.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
4.4
Azure Firewall support receives mixed reviews, with praise for expertise but criticism for inconsistent response times and delays.
Sentiment score
6.3
Microsoft Entra ID Protection support receives mixed reviews, with varied satisfaction based on response times, support quality, and subscription level.
Microsoft provides excellent customer support, especially with premium support plans.
Nevertheless, the final support from Microsoft remains effective.
With Azure products, customer support is really good.
They often refer to internal blogs, which doesn't offer much new information and can limit our capabilities in troubleshooting.
Tickets often bounce from person to person, requiring the sharing of information multiple times.
The response time can be affected based on the type of Azure subscription tier.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
Azure Firewall offers strong scalability with automatic scaling, but some users note limitations in handling high bandwidth demands.
Sentiment score
8.0
Microsoft Entra ID Protection effortlessly scales with customer needs, supported by licenses and cloud-native features, ensuring minimal scaling issues.
Based on my experience, I would rate it nine out of ten for scalability.
Azure Firewall is highly scalable, and I would give it a scalability rating of nine out of ten.
When we started deploying the solution, it was not a mature product at times.
Since it is a cloud computing product, it can accommodate a range of company sizes, from a few users to large businesses.
There are no issues with scalability up to your license limitations.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.6
Azure Firewall is praised for its reliability and stability, generally receiving high ratings despite minor past incidents.
Sentiment score
7.6
Microsoft Entra ID Protection is reliable, with occasional minor issues, but overall supports large-scale implementations smoothly.
 

Room For Improvement

Azure Firewall needs enhanced security, usability, flexibility, better pricing, support, threat intelligence, documentation, and improved Azure integration.
Microsoft Entra ID Protection requires enhancements in identity management, scalability, documentation, pricing clarity, and third-party integration.
Improvement in reporting and better visibility into network traffic would also be beneficial.
Azure Firewall could improve its reporting capabilities.
It lacks some functionalities when compared to competitors like Check Point and Fortinet, such as WAF or load balancing.
If there was some level of backup mechanism available with quick restore functionality, that would be beneficial.
Microsoft has not offered control over how they calculate high or low-risk scenarios.
There is no write-back feature from the cloud to local, which would allow me to use my own credentials from the cloud tenant securely.
 

Setup Cost

Azure Firewall offers flexible pricing appealing to enterprises, balancing cost-efficiency with seamless Azure ecosystem integration despite potential premium costs.
Microsoft Entra ID Protection's pricing is competitive but confusing, with added value for enterprises using Azure subscriptions.
Azure Firewall is quite expensive, with a high cost.
Azure Firewall is subscription-based, which is advantageous as there is no need for upfront payment.
Prices have increased recently
Entra ID Protection is not badly priced, but some clients, especially in medium to smaller scale companies in third-world countries, find it quite expensive.
Microsoft Entra ID requires additional licensing components.
The pricing for Microsoft Entra ID protection is not expensive.
 

Valuable Features

Azure Firewall provides scalable security with IPS, threat intelligence, malware protection, automation, and integrates with Azure Monitor for management.
Microsoft Entra ID Protection enhances security with multifactor authentication, seamless Azure integration, and advanced threat detection for businesses.
We have to combine multiple features and multiple products, and then we can say that this is more cost-effective and works properly to ensure the security posture of our cloud deployments.
The premium version includes all traditional firewall features, reducing the need for separate compute resources.
We created rules in the firewall to ensure that the traffic would be diverted to the right endpoint and made sure only specific application VMs could reach the database server.
Having a single sign-on feature with Entra ID ensures seamless access to various applications, even those with significant security constraints.
These features ease the job of security analysts, providing a better vision of user activities and potential risks.
We use automated remediation for logon purposes and error purposes. It remediates issues and provides just-in-time access when applicable.
 

Categories and Ranking

Azure Firewall
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
11th
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
42
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (11th)
Microsoft Entra ID Protection
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
9th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
Identity Management (IM) (7th), Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Microsoft Security Suite category, the mindshare of Azure Firewall is 3.5%, down from 5.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Entra ID Protection is 3.7%, down from 5.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Microsoft Security Suite Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Entra ID Protection3.7%
Azure Firewall3.5%
Other92.8%
Microsoft Security Suite
 

Featured Reviews

Rashedul Khan - PeerSpot reviewer
Seamless integration enhances security while reducing manual effort
We didn't use TLS termination or malware filtering extensively because those are part of the premium features for Azure Firewall. At this point, I cannot see much improvement needed for Azure Firewall, because it served my purpose; having used it for four months, I am satisfied with the features and performance that I needed for my project. Features that integrate AI functionalities into Azure Firewall could be added, which can also address costing issues. We have features that we require, but they are in the premium offerings. If some features with limitations, for example, limited users, could be made available in the standard Azure Firewall, it would be easier for beginners choosing Azure Firewall at a very first level to test those features without needing to upgrade to premium.
Ankit Gupta. - PeerSpot reviewer
Comprehensive identity management enhances security and access controls with advanced integration
The monitoring from Microsoft Entra ID Protection provides great visibility at a granular level. It provides all the details, including IP address, username, and permission or error logs. This information is available in both the audit log and regular log. The alert functionality supports general day-to-day monitoring and any violation or trigger for errors. Microsoft Entra ID Protection's features are suitable for all sizes of companies. It's a must-have product because traditionally Active Directory was used for identity and authentication on computers. Now, with hybrid capabilities, every company of any size needs these features and tools. I rate Microsoft Entra ID Protection ten out of ten.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Microsoft Security Suite solutions are best for your needs.
867,370 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Government
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise11
Large Enterprise21
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business14
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise4
 

Questions from the Community

What is a better choice, Azure Firewall or Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls?
Azure Firewall Vs. Palo Alto Network NG Firewalls Both solutions provide stellar stability and security. Azure Firewall is easy to use and provides excellent support. Valuable features include int...
How does Azure Firewall compare with Palo Alto Networks VM Series?
Both products are very stable and easily scalable. The setup of Azure Firewall is easy and very user-friendly and the overall cost is reasonable. Azure Firewall offers a solid threat awareness, can...
Which would you recommend - FortiGate VM or Azure Firewall?
Both of these solutions are excellent options that provide flexible scalability and solid security. Fortinet Fortigate VM integrates well and has excellent centralized reporting. It is very easy to...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Active Directory Identity Protection?
The pricing for Microsoft Entra ID protection is not expensive. It varies based on the company's size and quality.
What needs improvement with Azure Active Directory Identity Protection?
A potential area of improvement in Microsoft Entra ID Protection could include backup-level capability or snapshot capability. Currently, we are required to use third-party backups for the overall ...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Azure Active Directory Identity Protection, Azure AD Identity Protection
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Azure Firewall vs. Microsoft Entra ID Protection and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
867,370 professionals have used our research since 2012.