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Microsoft Entra External ID vs Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention 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
3.6
Users faced challenges with Microsoft Entra External ID but saved costs and time compared to traditional, on-premises solutions.
Sentiment score
6.7
Microsoft Purview DLP offers cost savings, security enhancements, and reduced onboarding time, though ROI varies among users.
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.
In terms of return on investment, prior to using this product, our company managed our own mail server with all internal authentication happening on premises, resulting in a ROI in the thousands every year.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
4.6
Microsoft Entra External ID support varies; response times, documentation, and regional differences affect user satisfaction and solution accessibility.
Sentiment score
5.1
Microsoft Purview DLP support is inconsistent, with quick responses and clear resources but also delays and monopolistic concerns.
Companies without a Microsoft license for Entra ID or Azure portal cannot add Azure AD B2C, creating logistical issues for some of my clients who are unable to evaluate the platform.
The support for business applications, infrastructure support, and Entra has been mostly positive with highly skilled technicians.
The documentation is very thorough, reducing the need for support.
Once we got to the Microsoft engineers, the experience was great.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.0
Microsoft Entra External ID offers scalable security for large enterprises, with distinct policies and strong performance despite some latency issues.
Sentiment score
7.6
Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention offers scalable, flexible cloud solutions, but needs improvements in user-friendliness and device-level scalability.
This is one of EID's weak points compared to Azure AD B2C, which offers customizable authentication options, including attribute and password combinations.
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.
The policy working and detection technology need enhancements.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
4.8
Microsoft Entra External ID is highly stable, reliable, and smooth, with minor rare issues, and positive user feedback.
Sentiment score
7.8
Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention is highly stable, reliable, and responsive, though minor real-time issues and internal connection challenges exist.
I'd rate the stability of the Microsoft Entra External ID as a 10.
The stability of this solution is very good.
I have not encountered any stability issues with Microsoft Entra External ID.
Sometimes the solution is not stable when the internal connection is not reliable, so this aspect needs improvement.
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Entra External ID needs improved support, integration, pricing, security, UI, and customization for medium-sized businesses.
Microsoft Purview DLP needs better integration, improved UI, enhanced AI features, cost-effective licensing, and better language support.
This is particularly challenging during enterprise agreement renewals, as it's difficult for customers to review costs leading to lengthy negotiations.
Enhanced customizable login options and the ability to use attribute password logins are critical features that are required for Microsoft Entra External ID to gain dominance in the authentication market.
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.
Implementing a degree of severity ranking is essential.
Endpoint Data Loss Prevention needs to be improved as it is not up to expectations.
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Entra External ID pricing is complex, potentially costly, but scalable, benefiting from Azure expertise and existing subscriptions.
Microsoft Purview DLP in E5 licenses offers competitive pricing and flexible payment, valued for security features and added services.
Regarding pricing, the cost seems high for single sign-on, especially for external applications like Oracle.
Microsoft's pricing is complex and difficult to fathom due to a range of different licensing 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.
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Entra External ID enhances security, management, and user experience through integration, single sign-on, and adaptive authentication features.
Microsoft Purview DLP enhances data security with auto-labeling, multi-cloud support, cross-platform protection, and strong compliance features.
It is crucial for hybrid environments, especially for integrating existing on-site infrastructures with cloud-based Active Directory, such as in Office 365 implementations.
EID unifies workforce users with external business partners, which is a very strong feature.
The detailed monitoring and reporting in Microsoft Entra External ID support compliance efforts effectively.
Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention usually performs well, except for endpoint Data Loss Prevention, which may need improvements.
The feature I find most valuable that I'm currently using is the quickness of the emails that the Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention solution sends to us, where we get notifications that say a user has potentially breached our data guideline rules, and we get those alerts continuously, allowing us to enforce them manually.
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Entra External ID
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
21st
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.5
Number of Reviews
16
Ranking in other categories
Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) (8th), Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) (4th)
Microsoft Purview Data Loss...
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
17th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Microsoft Security Suite category, the mindshare of Microsoft Entra External ID is 1.3%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention is 2.7%, up from 2.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Microsoft Security Suite Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention2.7%
Microsoft Entra External ID1.3%
Other96.0%
Microsoft Security Suite
 

Featured Reviews

Suresh Kumar Subramaniyan - PeerSpot reviewer
Has supported secure access but still lacks full coverage for external identity challenges
The user experience is acceptable, but Microsoft Entra External ID is not a full-fledged IGA solution. We use different products for complete Identity Governance Administration. Microsoft Entra External ID is suitable for small-scale enterprises implementing identity lifecycle management since most have Active Directory. However, there are several challenges. The out-of-the-box connector has limited features for applications, requiring us to build scheme connectors. While small-scale enterprises can benefit from Microsoft Entra External ID's Identity Governance solution, large-scale enterprises might need different tools from leading market vendors such as SailPoint or Saviynt. Customers face particular challenges with contractor and B2B accounts. Microsoft Entra External ID isn't a complete cloud-based account solution, as it must handle internal employees and collaborate with internal Active Directory. There are delays in the identity lifecycle process, especially for contract partners during onboarding and off-boarding. This might be due to back-end syncing with Active Directory. B2B account removal and provisioning take considerable time. Access governance, particularly access certification for guest users, is time-consuming. Multi-factor authentication enforcement also presents challenges for external users.
HosmanRodriguez - PeerSpot reviewer
Nice dashboard, good data loss prevention, and helps with compliance
The data loss prevention is great. It can prevent things like credit card information from being taken. The data protection is excellent. We can use the solution on Windows and iOS. We mostly use it with Office 365 and ingest data sources from Microsoft. The solution is natively integrated and compliant across Azure. It takes into account critical regulations from around the world. We need to comply with various regulations. For our business case, it's very important. If we can prevent information from going out, eventually, when a regulator is asking about our security measures, we can show what we've been doing. It helps us to reduce the likelihood of potential fines. We can educate users on how to handle sensitive data. By showing the records we keep and explaining the technologies implemented, we can provide awareness to our users. The solution offers good visibility into our environment. Our security team can use the product to monitor and track. Its dashboard allows us to show compliance in real-time. We've been able to reduce the time to action on insider threats. Security permissions are always being monitored. In general, it has saved us time and money when dealing with security. It's made us become more efficient. We've increased our compliance capabilities by 25%.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Insurance Company
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise12
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Entra External ID?
The only problem that you might face with Microsoft now is their complex licensing model.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Entra External ID?
For the last four or five years, I have been in an IT manager function, focusing on making things happen and having technical persons execute tasks. In the last three months, I have transitioned to...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Entra External ID?
I am looking for a new solution and investigating existing products. We are already working with Microsoft Intune and SOTI. I have been working in the past with a Kaseya product, specifically Datto...
What do you like most about Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention?
The most valuable features are identifying sensitive data and issuing alerts.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention?
My experience with the pricing, setup costs, and licensing is not something I manage directly since I'm the owner operator; my colleagues might be more involved with that aspect as we have other te...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention?
Improving Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention would involve recognizing that the whole AI path we are all on is going to help, given the massive amount of data we handle; even if there are true ...
 

Also Known As

Azure Active Directory External Identities
Microsoft Endpoint Data Loss Prevention, MS Endpoint DLP, Microsoft Endpoint DLP
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Entra External ID vs. Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
869,513 professionals have used our research since 2012.