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CyberArk Secrets Management vs Microsoft Entra ID comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 9, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

CyberArk Secrets Management
Ranking in Access Management
17th
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
8.0
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Password Managers (15th)
Microsoft Entra ID
Ranking in Access Management
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
229
Ranking in other categories
Single Sign-On (SSO) (1st), Authentication Systems (1st), Identity Management (IM) (1st), Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (2nd)
 

Featured Reviews

RJ
Helps with compliance and improves operational flexibility
We have had both on-premises and SaaS models. The on-premise setup was a little difficult, but now that it has been moved to the SaaS model, everything is controlled by CyberArk. We just go and do our work. The initial on-premises setup took two weeks because it was an integrated effort. I had to spin up the servers and bring in the CyberArk Secrets Management resource to deploy the scripts. I then had to open networks and firewalls between CyberArk Secrets Management's on-premise servers and the application server. In the initial phase, it took two to three weeks, but it became easier when moving to the SaaS model. In terms of maintenance, it requires patching or upgrades, which happens one day in a month. If there is a failure, we have to roll back and try once again, which takes more time, but if everything goes smoothly, there is three to five hours of downtime.
Aaron Liang - PeerSpot reviewer
Has significantly improved secure access to applications and resources in our environment
Microsoft Entra ID has helped by simplifying our management of permissions for APIs. We are not directly exposing credentials, as we use tokens instead. It has made management easier and more secure, especially in a multi-user environment. The implementation of Microsoft Entra ID significantly improved secure access to applications and resources in our environment, primarily through the widespread use of single-sign-on. Managing API permissions became much easier, as application registration often involves calling an API to utilize services without directly exposing credentials, relying instead on token-based authentication. This streamlined approach benefits end-users by simplifying access while remaining transparent to them. Ultimately, my role focuses on ensuring a smooth and user-friendly experience, even if the underlying technology remains unseen by the end-users. Our company strongly emphasizes passwordless authentication, primarily through device-bound passkeys in Microsoft Authenticator. While administrators with high-privileged accounts utilize YubiKeys and passwords for tasks like accessing Microsoft Graph, we are actively transitioning all other users towards passwordless methods such as Windows Hello biometrics. This approach streamlines authentication and enhances security. Though initial deployment in 2022 presented challenges due to hardware limitations and the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the technology has significantly improved and provides a simple and effective user experience.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It's vital for effectively managing and securing my credentials."
"One of the most important features for us is the system's performance, particularly its speed of retrieving secrets."
"The automatic rotation of the password is the top feature."
"CyberArk's support team is knowledgeable and helpful, consistently responding on time."
"With CyberArk Secrets Management, we were able to resolve the automatic change of the passwords based on timelines. We were also able to retrieve the passwords in an encrypted format by utilizing the CyberArk platform, which was not provided to us by UiPath."
"CyberArk Secrets Management is a critical solution for strengthening our security posture."
"The cloud security part is very valuable. Security is the most important thing in today's world. With Azure Active Directory, there are some features that tell you how you need to improve your security level. It informs you if you set up certain policies, e.g., this is where my users sign in. It tends to let you know if your organization has been breached with this security set up. Therefore, it is easier to know when you have been breached, especially if you set up a Conditional Access policy for your organization."
"The solution has some great features, such as identity governance, and user self-service. The Outlook application is very good and is used by a lot of people even if they are using Google services."
"We have the ability to define the email user in the designated field."
"The single sign-on is very convenient for us."
"The ability to grant access to other organizations is helpful."
"The solution allows users to authenticate from home, and the Office 360 integration is advantageous."
"It's very good at not disrupting the user experience."
"Just because I've been in the Azure space since it started out and in the Microsoft Cloud AD since the BPOS days in the early 2000s, and it's just a product that made life simpler for my clients to be able to integrate everything."
 

Cons

"Improvements for CyberArk Secrets Management include enhanced documentation with more use cases and step-by-step integration guides."
"Implementing it and ensuring seamless password rotations present challenges."
"Implementation was complex and required professional services."
"We did not have a good experience with technical support because their numerous processes caused delays in engaging, leading to project delays or issues with production."
"We occasionally experience incidents that delay password injection back into the script."
"The password search feature and integration between different vaults could be enhanced. For instance, when updating passwords in both lower and higher environment vaults, improvement is required in search and upgrade functions."
"Lacks integration between applications and phones."
"There is no documentation about how Microsoft will scale Azure AD for customers. It only mentions that it will scale out if you have a lot of requests but does not mention how in detail."
"The product needs to improve its support."
"In my opinion, Microsoft sometimes releases products too early without providing enough documentation. Our team works with innovative solutions like verified ID, identity governance ,and lifecycle workflow. When we started with lifecycle workflows, we had only two integrated worklows. Still, we couldn't find much of the information we needed in the documentation about our use case or how to leverage IDs in our proof of concept."
"Many people believe that the Azure Active Directory is overly complicated and antiquated."
"Its price should be improved. It is very expensive for Turkish people."
"The solution has certain limitations. For example, it has very little governance functionality."
"Having more training would be quite helpful."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is in the middle. It is neither very cheap nor very expensive, so I would place it in the middle."
"CyberArk Secrets Management has a moderate pricing structure based on a per-tenant licensing model rather than a per-user account model like their PAM solution."
"Azure AD's pricing is comprehensive and affordable. The prices are easy to understand, and the licenses include a variety of security monitoring and additional features."
"The E5 plan we are using contains the premium plans for Azure Active Directory. We are not paying only for the Azure Active Directory Premium licenses. We have it already included within our E5 plan."
"The solution has three types of tiers: E1 has very basic features. You get limited stuff in E2 and cannot have Office 360 associated with it. E3 is on the costly side and has all the features."
"We are working with the Premium P2 licenses, which are reasonable. If you invest in the on-premises environment setup, then it costs so much. However, on-prem AD gives you the ability to manage your organization in a very organized manner, where you can create a group policy."
"Make sure that you get the most out of your Office 365 licenses for Azure AD. If you have additional concerns for users who don't have an Office 365 license, consider Azure AD Premium P1 and P2. Be aware that you have to evaluate your license usage beforehand."
"This product is sold as part of the enterprise package and our licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."
"I don't pay for it. Going by how I feel, I see the prices for any MFA solution going down because the more different alternatives there are, the cheaper things should be. Microsoft Authenticator app would be the preferred application, but there are too many ways to implement MFA. I don't know how much it cost, but the price should go down."
"Most features of Entra ID are part of Microsoft's ecosystem and included in Microsoft 365 bundles, which means there are no additional costs associated with pricing and licensing."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Educational Organization
29%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for CyberArk Secrets Management?
It is in the middle. It is neither very cheap nor very expensive, so I would place it in the middle.
What needs improvement with CyberArk Secrets Management?
The user interface can be improved, and with new platforms emerging, CyberArk Secrets Management could integrate with them. The password search feature and integration between different vaults coul...
What is your primary use case for CyberArk Secrets Management?
We own a robotic process automation platform called UiPath. We use CyberArk Secrets Management to bring the credentials into robotic process automation for the bots during runtime.
How does Duo Security compare with Microsoft Authenticator?
We switched to Duo Security for identity verification. We’d been using a competitor but got the chance to evaluate Duo for 30 days, and we could not be happier. Duo Security is easy to configure a...
What do you like most about Azure Active Directory?
It is very simple. The Active Directory functions are very easy for us. Its integration with anything is very easy. We can easily do third-party multifactor authentication.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Active Directory?
Regarding pricing, for the services we receive, it seems within the market range and about average.
 

Also Known As

No data available
Azure AD, Azure Active Directory, Azure Active Directory, Microsoft Authenticator
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Microsoft Entre ID is trusted by companies of all sizes and industries including Walmart, Zscaler, Uniper, Amtrak, monday.com, and more.
Find out what your peers are saying about CyberArk Secrets Management vs. Microsoft Entra ID and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
850,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.