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

Microsoft Defender for Identity vs Microsoft Entra ID Protection comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 20, 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
6.7
Microsoft Defender for Identity improves incident management, reduces costs, enhances ROI, and saves time despite unclear financial benefits.
Sentiment score
7.1
Microsoft Entra ID Protection achieved ROI in three years, enhancing efficiency and user satisfaction despite higher costs.
There is a return on investment in terms of time-saving, control, and ease of manageability of the environment.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
8.4
Microsoft Defender for Identity support receives mixed reviews, with responsiveness varying, but higher-tier users report better service experiences.
Sentiment score
6.1
Entra ID Protection support receives mixed reviews; while responsive for some, others report delays, reliance on documentation, and inconsistent ticket handling.
Generally, the support is more effective than other providers like Oracle.
The quality of support is very good, but troubleshooting can take time due to complex setups and the need to provide many logs.
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.
My teammates have had good communication with Microsoft.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.6
Microsoft Defender for Identity scales efficiently across all environments, providing excellent performance and easy expansion for diverse organization sizes.
Sentiment score
8.6
Microsoft Entra ID Protection offers scalable, adaptable solutions with high performance, praised for flexibility and cloud-native capabilities across industries.
In a Microsoft-centric organization, especially with Azure infrastructure and Office 365, Microsoft Defender for Identity is scalable.
Since it is a cloud computing product, it can accommodate a range of company sizes, from a few users to large businesses.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Microsoft Defender for Identity is highly stable with reliable performance, though some users faced minor regional and agent issues.
Sentiment score
8.0
Microsoft Entra ID Protection and Azure AD are generally stable, reliable, and perform well, with minor and infrequent issues.
Microsoft Defender for Identity is quite robust and built on Azure hyperscale infrastructure, with a 99% availability.
Having recently started using it, reliability is affirmed, but manual investigation is often performed to verify if alerts identified by auto-remediation are accurate.
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Defender for Identity users desire better integration, improved interfaces, and enhanced threat intelligence to overcome current limitations and challenges.
Microsoft Entra ID Protection needs better management, integration, scalability, and simplified user interface, with key improvements for Mac support.
If Microsoft could develop a feature that indicates when impossible travel is caused by VPN connections, it would prevent unnecessary password resets and session disruptions, especially for VIP users in organizations.
One improvement I would recommend is the integration of an admin application within Teams, allowing easy access to attack information on a mobile platform.
Reducing false positives is something we've been working on with Microsoft.
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.
Identity protection and trust issues, particularly in hybrid environments, could be addressed better with Microsoft Entra ID Protection.
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Defender for Identity is cost-effective for some but can be expensive, depending on geographic location and licensing.
Microsoft Entra ID Protection's pricing is seen as competitive, yet sometimes perceived as complex or expensive by enterprise buyers.
If they can reduce the costs, organizations will be happy, and it will compensate for using the Azure environment, which is more expensive on the infrastructure as a service side.
Ensuring a fair price according to market standards.
From an organization perspective, using E5 licenses is value for money, especially if Azure and Office 365 are already in use.
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

Microsoft Defender for Identity integrates with Sentinel for efficient threat detection, using real-time analytics and machine learning for enhanced security.
Microsoft Entra ID Protection integrates seamlessly, enhancing security with multifactor authentication, conditional access, and scalable user management.
We receive an advance report of risky users, allowing us to take preemptive action before an attack causes damage to organization details.
The most valuable feature is its hybrid artificial intelligence, which gathers forensic data to track and counteract security threats, much like the CSI series in effect.
The advanced threat protection is one of the strengths of Microsoft Defender for Identity, as it utilizes user and entity analytics and can detect indicative attacks.
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.
The valuable features of Entra ID Protection include providing me visibility of my entire estate, managing access, and having a level of control.
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Defender for Iden...
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
5th
Ranking in Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR)
3rd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (5th)
Microsoft Entra ID Protection
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
9th
Ranking in Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR)
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
Identity Management (IM) (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Microsoft Security Suite category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Identity is 7.1%, up from 6.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Entra ID Protection is 4.4%, up from 4.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Microsoft Security Suite
 

Featured Reviews

ROBERT-CHRISTIAN - PeerSpot reviewer
Integration within the ecosystem enhances collaboration and automates functionalities
The integration into the Microsoft Defender ecosystem is the most valuable feature of Microsoft Defender for Identity. It fits very nicely with all the other Defender tools, allowing for excellent collaboration among them. It also fits seamlessly into Microsoft Sentinel SIEM. Furthermore, Microsoft security solutions can save time as they allow the automation of numerous functionalities, and the reporting inside the Microsoft ecosystem is commendable.
Mahender Nirwan - PeerSpot reviewer
Access to other software is just one click away and suitable for big organizations
Currently, we have limited use of Microsoft AD. We only use it to see if user blocks are available. If they are, we unblock the account and get access accordingly. AD has paid access control features. We can add access control over AD. For example, for documentation, we use an Outline tool. It's open source, and we add our company's knowledge base to it. It's an alternative to Confluence. We don't want everyone to have access to all documentation. If I create documentation for my team, only my team should have access, not support or sales. We can add these scopes or access controls over AD. Once integrated, the person will get the appropriate access control features upon logging in. Role-based access control is a great feature of Active Directory.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Microsoft Security Suite solutions are best for your needs.
856,874 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Government
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft Defender for Identity?
Microsoft Defender for Identity provides excellent visibility into threats by leveraging real-time analytics and data intelligence.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Identity?
In Microsoft Defender for Identity, I would appreciate improvements in providing information on conditional access. They have added more control that can be put in place, which was not present year...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Defender for Identity?
The main use cases for Microsoft Defender for Identity involve working with security and signing risk aspects. I work with conditional access, though I have not implemented this task yet.
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?
I have set up my Active Directory locally for the same domain. However, Entra ID lacks a function to synchronize from the cloud to the local directory. This is a significant issue since there is no...
 

Also Known As

Azure Advanced Threat Protection, Azure ATP, MS Defender for Identity
Azure Active Directory Identity Protection, Azure AD Identity Protection
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Microsoft Defender for Identity is trusted by companies such as St. Luke’s University Health Network, Ansell, and more.
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender for Identity vs. Microsoft Entra ID Protection and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
856,874 professionals have used our research since 2012.