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IBM Cloud Identity Service vs Microsoft Entra ID Governance comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 2, 2024

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

IBM Cloud Identity Service
Ranking in Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS)
28th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Microsoft Entra ID Governance
Ranking in Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS)
10th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) category, the mindshare of IBM Cloud Identity Service is 0.9%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Entra ID Governance is 2.4%, up from 0.8% 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 ID Governance2.4%
IBM Cloud Identity Service0.9%
Other96.7%
Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS)
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer1054431 - PeerSpot reviewer
Chief Technology Officer at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Excellent support, beneficial integration, and low maintenance
I have found IBM Cloud Identity Service to be highly scalable. It can handle thousands of users. IBM solutions are truly enterprise-grade. You don't find a lot of use cases for small businesses, or even sometimes medium businesses, the price point does not fit smaller businesses. The implementation effort, it's hard to find that cost-benefit.
JG
Lead Cloud Systems Architect at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Access reviews and lifecycle policies have streamlined privileged account oversight and onboarding automation
I am not using the access review agent feature in Microsoft Entra ID Governance because that is in preview right now, and I do not know if that is available. My perception of Microsoft Entra ID Governance's ability to handle large volumes of users access and management tasks is good. There is a slight delay from creation of the actual access review to how long it takes to complete the actual review. For us, we are a large organization with over ten thousand employees. If we are doing a review on a larger group that has thousands of employees inside of it, it takes a while to actually complete, and then it becomes a headache for managers. If there were a way to condense that or decrease the amount of time it takes to do it, that would be better. We inspect thousands of people. Microsoft Entra ID Governance can be improved, and I actually have two tickets in with you now about improvements. I would have to dig it up because I do not know off the top of my head, but you can find it. We have two tickets that have been put in by the FastTrack team that I work with for identity governance. I think it was something about the ability to stop reviews early. When you create an access review now, and you put a time gate on it, say it is the end of this week, once the access review is finished, the managers went in there and finished the access review, you cannot finish it until the end of the week. That is a slight problem because we do not get a notification for people that are on the identity side that they have actually finished that, and I think there are two tickets in for that right now.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"One of the most valuable features of IBM Cloud Identity Service is that it delivers integrations with the commercial SaaS software that's available."
"It is stable. We can automate many of our daily operations with it, and we don't have to manage many things manually."
"It is multiple identity and access management, so all of the applications are valuable. It's also part of the automated process."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Entra ID Governance is access reviews."
"I am very happy with the solution."
"The solution is fully scalable, supporting everything from small companies to large enterprises."
"Access reviews are an essential feature of Entra Governance. Additionally, privileged identity management is one of its most valuable features. Just-in-time access, or Jet GIT, is integral to this system. Moreover, user behavior analytics stands out as one of its top features."
"The most valuable functions in Microsoft Entra ID Governance are ease of use, conducting access reviews, and tighter platform coupling."
"The platform's most valuable feature is the single sign-on service."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Entra ID Governance for identity management is multi-factor authentication."
"The most valuable features are multifactor authentication and account creation for the Exchange environment in Office 365."
 

Cons

"IBM Cloud Identity Service is going in the right direction with the product. They need to keep building out the integrations and having the library is very critical."
"The initial setup is complex, it's not straightforward. It takes months because it's not straightforward."
"Everything can be more stable and secure. There could also be more account features. I would like to be able to do more things through it to manage users' accounts."
"The solution lacks the feature to work well with third-party applications."
"Microsoft Entra ID Governance should improve its capability to manage identities and access from a single console."
"If you want to conduct access review of database-based applications, then you cannot do that."
"Sometimes, the solution is not super reliable."
"Even though we have almost the full package, there are some bugs."
"There is a slight delay from creation of the actual access review to how long it takes to complete the actual review. For us, we are a large organization with over ten thousand employees... it takes a while to actually complete, and then it becomes a headache for managers."
"Microsoft has done a commendable job with RPAX. However, Microsoft should prioritize enhancing its ABAC (Attribute-Based Access Control) capabilities. Currently, Microsoft's ABAC offering falls behind AWS in comparison."
"Microsoft Entra ID Governance is relatively new, and some features require more development. For example, when creating user access review campaigns, we can't specify the time to send emails to reviewers—only the date."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of the solution is expensive for non-enterprise companies. IBM's always going to be a little more expensive, you're going to be paying a premium. However, depending on the organization's needs, there's probably a benefit there to do even with the price being the way it is."
"While other products give the pricing for their application, Microsoft Entra ID Governance has a per-user-based license model."
"There are no additional costs besides the standard licensing fees."
"In the education sector where I work, the annual cost for my Google and Microsoft environments is approximately $35,000. This covers the needs of 3,400 students and 800 faculty and staff members."
"The solution's pricing is not low but reasonable."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Healthcare Company
7%
Energy/Utilities Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise9
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What do you like most about Microsoft Entra ID Governance?
The most valuable feature of Microsoft Entra ID Governance is access reviews.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Entra ID Governance?
I am not using the access review agent feature in Microsoft Entra ID Governance because that is in preview right now, and I do not know if that is available. My perception of Microsoft Entra ID Gov...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Entra ID Governance?
My main use cases for Microsoft Entra ID Governance are access reviews, but specifically Privileged Identity Management access reviews. I am utilizing the user-centric access reviews in Microsoft E...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Baxter Healthcare, 
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Cloud Identity Service vs. Microsoft Entra ID Governance and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,114 professionals have used our research since 2012.