Microsoft Entra ID vs Venafi comparison

Microsoft and CyberArk are both solutions in the Authentication Systems category. Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.7, while CyberArk is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.3. Microsoft holds a 15.3% mindshare in AS, compared to CyberArk’s 1.2% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of CyberArk users who would recommend it.

Microsoft Entra ID

Read 234 Microsoft Entra ID reviews

7,912 Views
4,140 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Venafi

Read 8 Venafi reviews

760 Views
230 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Microsoft Entra ID

Venafi

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 11, 2024

Venafi and Microsoft Entra ID are strong competitors in the identity management space. Microsoft Entra ID seems to have the upper hand due to its robust feature set and seamless integration with other Microsoft products.

What features are offered by Venafi in comparison to Microsoft Entra ID?

Venafi is known for its security automation, detailed logging and monitoring, and management capabilities. Microsoft Entra ID offers seamless integration with Microsoft products, comprehensive identity protection, and a robust feature set.

What areas of improvement can be found in Venafi in comparison to Microsoft Entra ID?

Venafi users mention a steep learning curve, complexity in configuration, and technical issues. Microsoft Entra ID improvements focus on cost, complexity issues with scaling, and cost efficiency.

How is the ease of deployment and customer service of Venafi in comparison to Microsoft Entra ID?

Venafi's deployment can be complex and time-consuming, but their customer support is highly rated. Microsoft Entra ID offers straightforward deployment with extensive support resources provided by Microsoft, although direct support experiences can vary.

What setup costs and ROI can be seen with Venafi in comparison to Microsoft Entra ID?

Venafi's setup cost is often seen as high but provides positive ROI due to enhanced security. Microsoft Entra ID has higher setup costs, but the extensive feature set justifies the investment, offering a more compelling ROI for users.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Entra ID vs. Venafi Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Entra ID vs. Venafi

June 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 859,957 peers since 2012

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

Microsoft Entra ID

Ranking in Authentication Systems

1st

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

234

Ranking in other categories

Single Sign-On (SSO) (1st), Identity Management (IM) (2nd), Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) (1st), Access Management (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (2nd)

Venafi

Ranking in Authentication Systems

10th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Authentication Systems category, the mindshare of Microsoft Entra ID is 15.3%, down from 19.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Venafi is 1.2%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Authentication Systems

Featured Reviews

Bahram Piri

Chief Executive Officer & Founder at IDmelon Technologies

Security focus and seamless implementation increase platform productivity

Microsoft Entra ID can be improved in many ways, and there's a big wish list.If we're focusing on security, something that I definitely expect is improvement in the UI and UX for frontline workers. This is important, especially for non-tech savvy individuals. It is something Microsoft Entra ID could do to improve for a wider audience. It's important to focus on the frontline workers since they are non-tech savvy individuals. They are not like those back-office engineering C-level employees who are constantly dealing with computers, and we need to build a specific user experience and user interface for them to handle this stuff. That's something I expect Microsoft to focus on more for Microsoft Entra ID.

Read full review

Adam Goldstein

Systems Engineer at a insurance company with 51-200 employees

Automates certificate management across platforms and has enhanced integration support

Venafi's automation capabilities were significant, as they allowed us to automate certificate rotation and deployment effectively. We integrated it with GlobalSign and aimed to automate DNS verification, although challenges remained. Venafi's platform-agnostic nature was beneficial for handling certificates across different systems like IIS, AWS, and Azure. It ensures centralized certificate management, which is crucial for compliance and maintaining best practices. It significantly improved our operational efficiency by automating certificate workflows. This reduced the number of certificates requiring manual management, freeing internal resources from deploying trivial certificates. While some complex certificates still needed manual intervention, automating simpler ones eliminated internal bottlenecks associated with tasks like uploading certificates to Imperva. By automating these processes, we reduced errors, streamlined workflows, and eliminated the need to repeatedly remember and execute complex procedures, ultimately increasing our overall operational efficiency. The automation capabilities are good; when properly configured, it performs as expected.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Multi-factor authentication is one of the most important features of my work. Verified ID is another feature that is becoming significant."

"I would say that Azure AD's pricing is very reasonable because of the structure and in terms of the solution."

"The benefits of using this solution were realized straightaway."

"We like the ease of app registrations and single sign-on with Entra ID. It offers an easy way to add multi-factor authentication to nearly any application and system."

"Multi-factor authentication (MFA) has improved our customers' security posture. Multi-factor authentication has two layers of authentication, which helps in case you input your credentials into a phishing website and then it has access to your credentials. So if they use your credentials, then you have proof on your phone that was sent to the end user."

"The most valuable features of this solution are security, the conditional access feature, and multifactor authentication."

"Azure Active Directory provides us with identity-based authentication, which secures access at the user level and also integrates with conditional access policies and multi-factor authentication helping to increase the identity security for that person. So, the hacking and leaking of passwords is a secondary problem because you will not authenticate a person with one factor. There is a second factor of authentication available to increase the security premise for your company."

"Coming from a traditional on-premises Active Directory infrastructure, it is purely a SaaS platform. It is global. It is evergreen. It is always evolving. It is core to the Microsoft Ecosystem."

More Microsoft Entra ID pros

"Automating anything, whether on-prem or cloud, is possible."

"Venafi's technical support is impressively fast."

"The feature that I have found most valuable is their certificate discovery."

"Venafi is super stable, and we experienced no issues with its stability."

"The most valuable feature of Venafi is that it provides a seamless user interface and integrations."

"The most valuable feature of Venafi is the automation that helps save time and reduce human error."

"We use Venafi for PKI certificates."

"Venafi's automation capabilities were significant, as they allowed us to automate certificate rotation and deployment effectively."

More Venafi pros

Cons

"The onboarding process for new users can be improved. It can be made simpler for people who have never registered to Azure AD previously and need to create an account and enable the MFA. The initial setup can be made simpler for non-IT people. It should be a bit simpler to use. Unless you get certifications, such as AZ-300 and AZ-301, it is not a simple thing to use at the enterprise scale."

"The quality of support has declined in recent years."

"The frequent changes in branding cause confusion among customers who struggle to keep track of product names and functions."

"I would like it if Intune could manage MacOS or iOS directly. Right now, we have to use a third-party solution."

"The robustness of the conditional access feature of the zero trust strategy to verify users is adequate but not comprehensive."

"When it comes to identity and access life cycle management for applications that are run on-premises, as well as access governance, if those kinds of capabilities could be built into Azure Active Directory, that would be good."

"Overall, it's not a very intuitive solution."

"One thing that they need to improve is the cost."

More Microsoft Entra ID cons

"I would like to see included in the next release of Venafi integration with the cloud HSM's, Hardware Security Module. Additionally, I would say other cloud services, because it's not only cloud that's essential. If you have a customer that has a lot of their IT moved into cloud, integration with different cloud services is always an area to improve."

"Currently lacks the capability to automatically download certificates in JKS."

"We have not faced any kind of disadvantage regarding Venafi, but they could improve on the bugs, as sometimes the system gets stuck."

"Venafi excels in automating certificate rotation and deployment but could enhance its offering by improving support for hardware security modules like Fortanix and providing more advanced, out-of-the-box integrations with public certificate authorities for DNS re-verification."

"The product was really good when it was a Venafi product. However, since its acquisition by CyberArk, there has been a lack of significant innovations."

"I would give it a seven out of ten for stability because I reported a bug after an update. We faced one issue. Overall, stability is good, though there are some bugs and crashes."

"There's definitely lots of room for improvement with Venafi. They have a website where we can suggest new features, and they need to take that a little bit more seriously."

"There are quite a few different technical aspects of Venafi that I feel they just missed out on; I'd have to look at my notes for the specifics."

More Venafi cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is relatively affordable, especially compared to Okta, a pricey solution."

"Active Directory is bundled with a package of Microsoft services, so it doesn't cost much. I don't know about the individual license of Active Directory."

"Azure AD comes with Office 365, so we are just paying for the Office 365 license."

"There are four different levels of subscription including the free level, one that includes the Office 365 applications, the Premium 1 (P1) level, and the Premium 2 (P2) level."

"It's relatively inexpensive in comparison with third-party solutions. It's highly available and supported by Microsoft Azure in our enterprise agreements. With the addition of their B2C tenants, it's hard to beat from a cost perspective now."

"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 pricing of Azure Active Directory is competitive. By default, the product exists in almost every Microsoft cloud product. But it then depends on the features that a customer really wants to make use of."

"If you're on Azure, it can be free or it's incorporated, at no extra cost, or it can become extremely complicated."

More Microsoft Entra ID pricing and cost advice

"The pricing model is complex, considering factors beyond the number of certificates. This complexity can make our payments to Venafi challenging if costs continue to rise. It is good but more expensive than the competitors."

"I feel that it's fairly priced compared to other solutions we evaluated, such as IBM, SailPoint, and KiteServer. It is fairly priced and offers good value."

"Venafi's pricing appears to be competitive within the market."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Authentication Systems solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

859,957 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

16%

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

16%

Insurance Company

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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...

See all answers

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.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Active Directory?

Our experience with the pricing, setup costs, and licensing of Microsoft Entra ID involves leveraging Microsoft 365 E5 licensing, so it's included. Being included in Microsoft licensing makes it mu...

See all answers

What do you like most about Venafi?

We use Venafi for PKI certificates.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Venafi?

I was the member who decided it, so I'm aware of the pricing. I feel that it's fairly priced compared to other solutions we evaluated, such as IBM, SailPoint, and KiteServer. It is fairly priced an...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Venafi?

We have not faced any kind of disadvantage regarding Venafi, but they could improve on the bugs, as sometimes the system gets stuck.

See all answers

Comparisons

Google Cloud Identity vs Microsoft Entra ID

Compared 11% of the time

Microsoft Intune vs Microsoft Entra ID

Compared 9% of the time

Okta Workforce Identity vs Microsoft Entra ID

Compared 6% of the time

Auth0 vs Microsoft Entra ID

Compared 5% of the time

Amazon Cognito vs Microsoft Entra ID

Compared 5% of the time

More Microsoft Entra ID Competitors

AppViewX CERT+ vs Venafi

Compared 41% of the time

DigiCert PKI Platform vs Venafi

Compared 30% of the time

Entrust Identity Enterprise vs Venafi

Compared 12% of the time

Axiad Conductor vs Venafi

Compared 11% of the time

More Venafi Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Entra ID

June 2025

Download Microsoft Entra ID product report

Buyer's Guide

Venafi

June 2025

Download Venafi product report

Also Known As

Azure AD, Azure Active Directory, Azure Active Directory, Microsoft Authenticator

No data available

Interactive Demo

Microsoft

Demo not available

CyberArk

Overview

Microsoft Entra ID is used for extending on-premises Active Directory to the cloud, managing application access, enabling multi-factor authentication, and single sign-on. It facilitates policy enforcement and secure access, ensuring centralized identity management across cloud and on-premises resources.

Organizations utilize Microsoft Entra ID for robust user and group management, identity synchronization, and conditional access. Its seamless integration with third-party apps, scalability, and support for remote work make it a preferred choice. The admin center streamlines identity and access tasks, enhancing efficiency and security with features like privileged identity management and audit logs.

What are the key features of Microsoft Entra ID?

Single Sign-On: Simplifies user access to multiple applications with one login.
Multifactor Authentication: Enhances security by requiring additional verification.
Conditional Access: Establishes policies that determine how users' access cloud apps.
Integration: Easily integrates with various third-party applications.
User Identity Protection: Safeguards user identities from threats.
Privileged Identity Management: Manages elevated access to sensitive resources.
Audit Logs: Provides thorough activity logs for oversight and compliance.

What benefits should users look for in Microsoft Entra ID reviews?

Enhanced Security: Offers strong multifactor authentication and identity protection.
Administrative Efficiency: Simplifies identity and access management tasks.
Scalability: Supports growing user bases and remote work environments.
Integration Capabilities: Compatible with numerous third-party applications.
User-Friendly Interface: Makes managing user identities straightforward.

Microsoft Entra ID implementation varies across industries. Tech firms leverage it for secure, scalable access management, while healthcare organizations utilize its identity protection features to safeguard patient data. Educational institutions adopt Entra ID for streamlined user management and policy enforcement, ensuring secure access for students and staff across on-premises and cloud resources.

Microsoft

Venafi automates protection for machine identities, which all organizations rely on to keep communications between machines secure and private. Venafi generates the machine identity intelligence necessary to automatically safeguard the flow of information to trusted machines and prevent communication with untrusted ones - all at machine speed and scale.

CyberArk

Sample Customers

Microsoft Entre ID is trusted by companies of all sizes and industries including Walmart, Zscaler, Uniper, Amtrak, monday.com, and more.

Surescripts, CME Group, TD Bank Group, Aetna, MoneyGram, Zions Bancorp, Cisco

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Entra ID vs. Venafi

June 2025

Free Report: Microsoft Entra ID vs. Venafi

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Entra ID vs. Venafi and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

859,957 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Microsoft Entra ID vs. Venafi report.

See our list of best Authentication Systems vendors.

We monitor all Authentication Systems reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.