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Microsoft Entra External ID vs Microsoft Sentinel 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
4.3
Users faced challenges with Microsoft Entra External ID but saved costs and time compared to traditional, on-premises solutions.
Sentiment score
7.1
Microsoft Sentinel offers mixed ROI, improving efficiency and security, with high initial costs but potential positive long-term returns.
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.
If a customer is already using Microsoft’s ecosystem, the ROI can be positive due to seamless integration.
We attribute our growth to Sentinel.
From a risk perspective, it's about mitigating risk, and as mentioned earlier, we haven't missed many things since we've had the offering in market—only a couple of minor incidents.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
4.3
Microsoft Entra External ID support varies; response times, documentation, and regional differences affect user satisfaction and solution accessibility.
Sentiment score
6.6
Microsoft Sentinel support is generally positive, with quick responses and valuable documentation, though high-tier issues exist.
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.
Their solutions' integration simplifies resolving issues compared to those caused by third-party products.
Working with a Sentinel engineer helped us tune settings effectively.
When my team needs to escalate issues to Microsoft, especially for Microsoft Sentinel, the response is fast through their French entity.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.0
Microsoft Entra External ID offers scalable security for large enterprises, with distinct policies and strong performance despite some latency issues.
Sentiment score
7.9
Microsoft Sentinel efficiently scales in diverse environments with easy integration, automatic scaling, and satisfactory performance, despite cost concerns.
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.
Office 365 and Exchange are running on it, covering about 35,000 users efficiently.
As our organization uses Microsoft Azure and Defender, everything grows together, and we can integrate various features seamlessly.
Being a SaaS solution, the scalability of Microsoft Sentinel is robust.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
5.7
Microsoft Entra External ID is highly stable, reliable, and smooth, with minor rare issues, and positive user feedback.
Sentiment score
7.8
Microsoft Sentinel is stable and reliable, with minimal downtime, excellent uptime, and occasional minor manual interventions needed.
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.
So far, we have not experienced any issues, and it has been stable from the beginning.
In the past two years, our team hasn't encountered any issues with the stability of Microsoft Sentinel from an operations perspective.
I need to be aware of deprecated connectors as they may disconnect, but the data continues to be sent with a need for quick adaptation.
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Entra External ID needs improved support, integration, pricing, security, UI, and customization for medium-sized businesses.
Microsoft Sentinel users desire better integrations, clearer features, improved speed, enhanced AI, and streamlined processes for effective use.
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.
We have some tools, such as our off-site Meraki firewalls, that have not fully integrated with Sentinel.
Currently, we are happy to have a way in the middle with not so much cost, but it would be nice to have the ability to enhance the automation of workflows based on learned incidents.
There are complexities in calculating the right pricing tier for different customers, which makes it difficult for me as a consultant during upfront pricing.
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Entra External ID pricing is complex, potentially costly, but scalable, benefiting from Azure expertise and existing subscriptions.
Microsoft Sentinel's cost perception varies, offering flexibility and integration benefits, yet data volume can significantly impact expenses.
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.
Microsoft Sentinel offers more capabilities than Bastion, with a more intuitive experience.
Setting up the right cost model for customers is intricate, requiring careful consideration of various components and licensing tiers.
The ingestion costs for the data analytics is usually the highest cost.
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Entra External ID enhances security, management, and user experience through integration, single sign-on, and adaptive authentication features.
Microsoft Sentinel integrates seamlessly with Microsoft tools, using AI for threat detection, automation, and providing comprehensive threat management.
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.
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.
Microsoft Sentinel's ability to correlate data from multiple sources and its detection capabilities are essential.
Microsoft Sentinel has improved cost efficiency, which is one of the key areas we're able to win business against the ability to have threat intelligence.
Microsoft Sentinel's ability to correlate data from multiple sources enhances our threat detection capabilities beyond what is a simple data lake solution by filtering out the noise and consolidating the signal down to a meaningful level that is easier to investigate and see.
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Entra External ID
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
21st
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.8
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) (9th), Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) (4th)
Microsoft Sentinel
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
6th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
98
Ranking in other categories
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (3rd), Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR) (1st), AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Microsoft Security Suite category, the mindshare of Microsoft Entra External ID is 1.0%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Sentinel is 4.9%, down from 5.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Microsoft Security Suite
 

Featured Reviews

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.
Ivan Angelov - PeerSpot reviewer
Threat detection and response capabilities enhance investigation processes
My security team has been using Microsoft Sentinel for around two years. We also have Bastion and SolarWinds as part of our monitoring tools. We use a three-way tool, alongside Microsoft Sentinel, in our environment The most valuable features for us include threat collection, threat detection,…
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Entra External ID?
Concerning the pricing or setup costs for Microsoft Entra External ID, based on my experience with Entra and 365 in general, it shouldn't require a whole education on their software. That's been a ...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Entra External ID?
I haven't utilized the adaptive authentication feature. We haven't used the customization capability for user journeys within the Microsoft Entra External ID. I don't have experience trying to crea...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Entra External ID?
I'm more familiar with the Microsoft Entra External ID, the Active Directory external identities, because we have a hybrid environment. For the parts that I handle, the on-premise part is easier fo...
Is there a common threat intelligence tool that aggregates multiple threat intelligence sources?
Yes, Azure Sentinel is a SIEM on the Cloud. Multiple data sources can be uploaded and analyzed with Azure Sentinel and its Threat Hunting functionality with AI available as templates or customized ...
What is a better choice, Splunk or Azure Sentinel?
It would really depend on (1) which logs you need to ingest and (2) what are your use cases Splunk is easy for ingestion of anything, but the charge per GB/Day Indexed and it gets expensive as log ...
Which is better - Azure Sentinel or AWS Security Hub?
We like that Azure Sentinel does not require as much maintenance as legacy SIEMs that are on-premises. Azure Sentinel is auto-scaling - you will not have to worry about performance impact, you will...
 

Also Known As

Azure Active Directory External Identities
Azure Sentinel
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Microsoft Sentinel is trusted by companies of all sizes including ABM, ASOS, Uniper, First West Credit Union, Avanade, and more.
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Entra External ID vs. Microsoft Sentinel and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.