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Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence vs Microsoft Entra External ID 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
8.1
Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence consolidates security, reduces costs, enhances intelligence, and effectively prevents breaches, offering significant ROI.
Sentiment score
5.9
Organizations saved time and costs with Microsoft Entra External ID, despite higher operational costs and less monetary gain.
It has led to cost savings as well as time savings because I can use a single solution for all applications.
Companies can leverage it for setting up external identities without needing to develop their own solutions.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.4
Microsoft Defender support varies, with excellent technical help praised but mixed experiences with contact ease and expertise levels.
Sentiment score
5.6
Microsoft Entra External ID customer service varies, with slow response, staff changes, and better resource access via enterprise contracts.
Level two support is knowledgeable and knows how the product works, which is very good.
We have figured out ways to use open-source tools or alternative solutions to address those restrictions that Microsoft has and make things work.
The documentation is very thorough, reducing the need for support.
The support for business applications, infrastructure support, and Entra has been mostly positive with highly skilled technicians.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence offers scalable security, favored for flexibility, ease of use, and seamless cloud integration despite potential costs.
Sentiment score
8.0
Microsoft Entra External ID is scalable, supports large enterprises well, but may experience latency issues with cloud workloads.
If there were some customizations available, I would rate its scalability as nine out of ten.
End-user workloads experience increased latency in a cloud environment compared to on-premises resources.
Microsoft Entra External ID is quite scalable, and I would rate its scalability between eight and nine out of ten.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.3
Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence is praised for stability, performance, security features, and resilience, despite occasional outages and delays.
Sentiment score
8.2
Microsoft Entra External ID is highly rated for stability, with minor issues often due to external factors, ensuring reliability.
It provides a high level of security and avoids phishing and scam emails.
I have not encountered any stability issues with Microsoft Entra External ID.
The stability of this solution is very good.
Unless such major incidents occur, it is stable and reliable.
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence needs pricing, integration, support, AI, automation, and customization improvements for better affordability and usability.
Microsoft Entra External ID struggles with high costs, slow synchronization, and complex pricing, affecting integration, alerts, and security.
Providing code customization would help keep pace with new vulnerabilities and threats.
From the telemetry data standpoint, I would prefer Defender data to be more open in future updates.
This is particularly challenging during enterprise agreement renewals, as it's difficult for customers to review costs leading to lengthy negotiations.
We have figured out ways to use open-source tools or alternative solutions to address those restrictions that Microsoft has and make things work.
I would like to see a more detailed alert system that provides a summary of why alerts are generated, who is generating them, and the reasons behind it.
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence is cost-effective in E5 bundles but can be complex and costly standalone for SMEs.
Microsoft Entra External ID becomes costly at scale due to complex pricing and additional integration expenses, despite scalable options.
The cost can be a factor for Microsoft Entra External ID, but in general, it offers a scalable and efficient solution compared to deploying individual solutions.
If you need support, then it becomes quite expensive.
Microsoft's pricing is complex and difficult to fathom due to a range of different licensing options.
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence integrates globally informed threat detection with seamless Microsoft product integration for comprehensive, automated protection and analysis.
Microsoft Entra External ID enhances access management with easy setup, strong security, federated identities, and seamless integration capabilities for widespread adoption.
One of the best features is that it provides a certain level of customization, allowing us to set our spam confidence levels.
Our threat detection is enhanced due to the AI agents in Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence, which helps in detecting automatically.
It is crucial for hybrid environments, especially for integrating existing on-site infrastructures with cloud-based Active Directory, such as in Office 365 implementations.
Primarily Microsoft Entra External ID SSO is valuable as it works with everything when it comes to integration.
Microsoft's reliability in providing a clear roadmap for the solution is very important, especially at a time when cybersecurity is a risk in every company.
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Defender Threat I...
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
15th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (10th), Threat Intelligence Platforms (4th)
Microsoft Entra External ID
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
26th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) (11th), Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Microsoft Security Suite category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence is 0.4%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Entra External ID is 0.8%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Microsoft Security Suite
 

Featured Reviews

TapabrataSamanta - PeerSpot reviewer
A cost-effective solution for monitoring and security but lacks supports for non-Microsoft products
There are weaknesses, and Microsoft is working on addressing them. Over the past three to four years, the ATP and other components have improved significantly, and the integration has also advanced. We are using third-party services. While we have Microsoft Threat Intelligence, which leverages Microsoft's facilities, we also utilize additional third-party threat intelligence. As of today, we don't completely rely on Microsoft for certain regions. This is an area where Microsoft needs to improve. Consequently, we use Anomali, a third-party threat intelligence provider. We integrate our product's intelligence with Anomali, from which we obtain threat insights. Microsoft products offer significant advantages, especially in the realm of threat intelligence. It works very well with Microsoft products. However, you might need additional services if you have non-Microsoft products in your environment. For instance, if you use Apple or Linux, Microsoft's solutions alone might not be sufficient. If they can work more effectively, especially with zero-day attack speed and other sophisticated threats, it will help us provide our customers with timely newsletters about new attacks.
Corrado Vigano - PeerSpot reviewer
Solution integrates well with existing systems while being easy to use
The fact that it is quite integrated into the entire Microsoft environment makes it quite easy to use. Furthermore, Microsoft's reliability in providing a clear roadmap for the solution is very important, especially at a time when cybersecurity is a risk in every company. The solution is easy to reuse and not difficult to find expertise for in the market because it is widespread. It is gaining attention even from partners and from the market on the offering side. This serves as a good starting point for customers who can develop internal competence on the solution. Additionally, the presence of reliable partners who know the solution and can provide internal knowledge is the best aspect for them.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Educational Organization
11%
Government
10%
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence?
It just runs in the background. I don't have to worry about, making sure it's Intelligence. So, you know, this kind of makes it very easy, have to worry about installing. It is easy to use.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence?
From the telemetry data standpoint, I would prefer Defender data to be more open in future updates.
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence?
We have tried Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence. I have expertise with Microsoft Defender products. I am not familiar with Microsoft Defender for IoT because we did not use that in our environ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Entra External ID?
The cost totally depends on Azure's pricing structure. If you have sufficient background knowledge about the features and functionality, it can be cost-effective. However, if you need support or as...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Entra External ID?
Integration could be improved when it comes to legacy tools.The support engineers are not as skilled as our engineers. When they say something would not work, or there is no solution, we usually he...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Entra External ID?
Currently we use some of the AWS ( /products/amazon-aws-reviews ) solutions and Google Solutions and few of Alibaba Cloud ( /products/alibaba-cloud-reviews ). That totally depends on time to time a...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Azure Active Directory External Identities
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence vs. Microsoft Entra External ID and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
857,162 professionals have used our research since 2012.