Microsoft Entra ID vs Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management comparison

Microsoft Entra ID vs. Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management

December 2025

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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 Microsoft Security Suite

2nd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

266

Ranking in other categories

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

Microsoft Purview Insider R...

Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite

28th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

5.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Insider Risk Management (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Microsoft Security Suite category, the mindshare of Microsoft Entra ID is 7.7%, down from 8.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management is 2.4%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Microsoft Security Suite Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Microsoft Entra ID	7.7%
Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management	2.4%
Other	89.9%

Microsoft Security Suite

Featured Reviews

Dewey Phillips

Senior Information Security Engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Implementing seamless integration boosts secure access and supports Zero Trust

What I appreciate the most about Microsoft Entra ID is that it integrates seamlessly with all the Defender products and is easy to use. Microsoft Entra ID's integration capabilities influence our Zero Trust model by allowing us to enforce our Zero Trust model. Conditional access policies allow us to leverage Microsoft Entra ID to verify that devices signing in to our cloud services are coming from registered devices, and that people are passing all the other requirements we have in order to complete sign-on or conditional access policies. Since implementing Microsoft Entra ID, I've observed changes in the frequency and nature of identity-related security incidents. The organization already had it implemented when I arrived, and I've been working to enhance it. Better configuration of Microsoft Entra ID has allowed us to better protect our organization from threats. Having it alone isn't a solution, but ensuring proper configuration goes a long way in preventing future compromises. My company's approach to defending against token theft and nation-state attacks has evolved since implementing Microsoft Entra ID. We haven't experienced any known compromises from nation-state attacks, and implementing newer features gives me more confidence in our protection. Regarding device-bound passkeys in Microsoft Authenticator and our approach to phishing-resistant authentication, we are currently implementing Microsoft Entra ID certificate-based authentication. Adding a strong form of MFA is important as we found it to be the most cost-effective way. While other solutions might be equally or more secure, they are significantly more expensive. Having worked as an IT consultant mainly with the Microsoft stack across various industries, I have experience with different identity management solutions. Microsoft Entra ID remains the best option. The major advantages when comparing it to Okta include integration with Defender products, Defender for Identities' integration with conditional access policies, and insider threat management integration for blocking sign-ins based on risk factors. The enhancement of Microsoft Entra ID's implementation is relatively straightforward. My main concern is the occasional lack of documentation and the frequency of changes, which can make feature location challenging.

Read full review

Karthik Ekambaram

Director at Scybers

Have consistently built secure internal environments while implementing compliance tools for diverse customer needs

The customizable alerts system needs improvement. The detection rules are not extensive enough. There should be more possibilities for creating alerts based on additional criteria. While rules can be customized, the available criteria for creating detection rules should be expanded. Microsoft's pricing is very expensive. The Business Premium offering should be extended to enterprise customers, as it's currently limited to 300 users. There should be a tier below E5 that includes Microsoft Purview and other features. Currently, E5 licensing costs approximately 6,000 INR per user per month including taxes. Competitive solutions offer similar functionality at about 50% of Microsoft's cost. Email DLP is included in Business Premium or P1 licenses, while P2 licenses cover endpoint DLP and additional channels. Microsoft should introduce an intermediate tier below E5 that covers all P1 licenses, as customers often need coverage across the entire M365 suite.

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

"As an end-user, the access to shared resources that I get from using this product is very helpful."

"I find the stability of Microsoft Entra ID to be excellent."

"Syncing with our on-prem Active Directory is valuable because we do not have to keep multiple identities for each of our staff members. We can easily evaluate login risks and provide access for SSO via 365 into applications, such as Salesforce, and other things that we run our business on."

"The identity and access management piece is probably the most valuable to us."

"The features of Microsoft Entra ID such as token replay detection, attack-in-the-middle detection, and verified threat actor IP protection have all had an impact on defending against these threats, with the last one being particularly significant."

"I like how Entra allows you to upload a CSV file with user details for bulk user creation. This is useful for automation. Entra has made it easy to manage identity and access by integrating with all Microsoft services. Everything is managed in a single place, eliminating the need for another application."

"Conditional access is a very important feature where a specific user can be restricted such that they cannot connect to the application if they travel outside of the US."

"We have about 80 users in the Azure Active Directory right now, however, we know that if it was necessary to scale it for hundreds or thousands of users, it wouldn't be a problem."

More Microsoft Entra ID pros

"An example of how these features from Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management have benefited my organization is that we recently discovered a foreign actor, someone from North Korea took a job at our company and was pretending to be an employee, and with Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management, they notified us of that problem and we were able to remediate the fact that we had a North Korean spy working for us."

"Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management was helpful in performing investigations after alerts were received."

"The best thing about Purview is that it's easy to integrate with our day-to-day environment. We have Active Directory, and Word and Excel. Using a third-party vendor and trying to integrate with our existing environment would be much more challenging."

"The scoring mechanism is exceptional because it eliminates the need to reinvent criteria for identifying risks, misconfigurations, or vulnerabilities."

"Insider Risk Management's graphing is highly specific and useful. You can see the last six months of data for the Microsoft tenant. You can easily find what you need. For example, you can filter for alerts about devices, emails, etc."

Cons

"The visibility in the GUI is not good for management. There are a lot of improvements that could make it better. It should be more user-friendly overall. It is not user-friendly because everything keeps changing on the platform. I can understand it because I know the platform, am familiar with it, and use it every day. However, for a lot of clients, they don't use it every day or are not familiar with it, so it should be more user friendly."

"They can improve how people manage their accounts. They can simplify and provide more information about adding or updating a phone number or email id in the MSA account. A lot of time users do get confused about where to go. For example, if I've changed my mobile number, where do I go and change my mobile number in the MSA account? A lot of time, employees think if they change the phone number in the HR database, it'll automatically get changed on the MSA account, which is not the case. Microsoft can simplify that and add these questions in the FAQ documents as well."

"I want to be able to identify the audiences effectively and manage them."

"The issue with Microsoft Customer Service is that we have many experts in our IT department, including myself as an Entra expert, Exchange experts, and other specialists. When we contact Microsoft Support, it does not matter that we are experts; we must start at the very bottom."

"Our users sometimes experience issues from having multiple Microsoft accounts, which can cause some confusion and hassle."

"I think the solution can improve by making the consumption of that data easier for our customers."

"Entra ID needs to improve its application credentials and use of ID permissions. There are challenges with the management layer. We want to create access down to the Graph level while invoking some management logic. That also means that if an application comes in, we cannot send that to the Graph because we would need an ID on behalf of the cloud hook."

"The area that needs improvement is integrating IDs between multiple environments and forests. In our case, it's hard to get the identities from multiple forests into one location."

More Microsoft Entra ID cons

"Microsoft's pricing is very expensive. The Business Premium offering should be extended to enterprise customers, as it's currently limited to 300 users."

"The reporting capabilities sometimes leave a little to be desired. It could be improved in terms of producing reports to provide information to the C-suite or others."

"The user interface also isn't user-friendly. When we introduce Insider Risk Management to our clients, they often find it difficult to understand. There is too much information, and the UI is not scalable. Also, entry-level IT technicians are not always interested in learning something new. It should be clearer and easier to understand."

"For certain things, you need to install an agent. I understand it's for integrity, but if there could be a clientless solution for certain aspects, it would make life easier."

"My experience with the deployment of Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management was a fifty-fifty situation because we have a very diverse network, and not all of it is on Microsoft products."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing depends on the use case and can be negotiated based on volume."

"The basic tier of Azure Active Directory is free, so many users use the service for free. For a small company having the security and compliance that Azure offers is a great benefit. For small companies that are using the basic services, not having to pay for Azure Active Directory is the main asset because they can manage their users and have authentications tools and security."

"We have an agreement with Microsoft, and my company pays yearly."

"This product is sold as part of the enterprise package and our licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."

"I'd recommend Azure Active Directory if you are a big company. For small or medium companies, it's probably not the best idea in the world because of the pricing. If you are a small company, you can probably deploy your own solutions because you're not handling a website with tons of traffic. If you are not like Adidas, Nike, or Walmart, you can do it in a way that is more localized than handling everything through a big price solution. However, Azure tends to provide you with solutions that are easier to use. If it was cheaper, I'd definitely recommend going for it."

"Microsoft has a free version of Azure AD. So, if you don't do a lot of advanced features, then you can use the free version, which is no cost at all because it is underpinning Office 365. Because Microsoft gives it to you as a SaaS, so there are no infrastructure costs whatsoever that you need to incur. If you use the free version, then it is free. If you use the advanced features (that we use), it is a license fee per user."

"We are always looking for better pricing."

"It can be a bit expensive for organizations, but they do have different pricing models. Their free tier can be used on a personal level, but for an organization, the licenses might be a bit expensive. In general, the licenses can become cheaper, which will make it accessible for more people."

More Microsoft Entra ID pricing and cost advice

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

18%

Financial Services Firm

Outsourcing Company

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	85
Midsize Enterprise	38
Large Enterprise	155

No data available

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...

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

My experience with the pricing, setup costs, and licensing of Microsoft Entra ID is that it is decent.

What needs improvement with Azure Active Directory?

I think Microsoft Entra ID could be improved by assigning permissions to nested groups in the next release.

What needs improvement with Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management?

I feel Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management can be improved by being able to identify patterns and practices of users to determine whether or not they fit the normal use case of a developer, a...

What is your primary use case for Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management?

My main use cases involve identifying issues related to problems with the current software deployments and whether or not it is being utilized correctly.

What advice do you have for others considering Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management?

My advice to another organization that is considering using Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management is to make sure they plan out their deployment very carefully because the biggest sticking poin...

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Compared 4% of the time

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Compared 4% of the time

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Compared 3% of the time

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Splunk User Behavior Analytics vs Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management

Compared 31% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Identity vs Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management

Compared 19% of the time

Netskope Advanced Analytics vs Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management

Compared 16% of the time

Dtex Systems vs Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management

Compared 6% of the time

Exabeam vs Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management

Compared 4% of the time

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Product Reports

Download Microsoft Entra ID product report

Microsoft Entra ID

January 2026

Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management

January 2026

Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management report

Download Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management product report

Also Known As

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

Microsoft Insider Risk Management

Interactive Demo

Demo not available

Overview

Microsoft Entra ID is an advanced identity and access management service offering seamless single sign-on, multifactor authentication, and centralized user access across applications, enhancing security and efficiency for organizations transitioning to cloud-based environments.

Recognized for its centralized management, Microsoft Entra ID significantly boosts organizational security by integrating features such as conditional access and identity protection. It supports a wide array of applications, facilitating a secure transition from on-premises to scalable cloud environments. By adopting robust security measures and flexible identity management, organizations can streamline operations and ensure consistent user experiences. However, challenges like confusing licensing costs, outdated documentation, and limited integration with non-Microsoft applications persist. Enhancements in technical support, interface design, and more granular permissions are needed to address these issues effectively.

What are the key features of Microsoft Entra ID?

Seamless Single Sign-On: Allows users to access multiple applications with one set of credentials.
Multifactor Authentication: Adds an extra layer of security by requiring multiple forms of verification.
Conditional Access: Provides adaptive policies to ensure the right access under the right conditions.
Identity Protection: Detects and responds to potential vulnerabilities and threats.
Privileged Identity Management: Controls and monitors access to critical resources.

What benefits should users expect when evaluating Microsoft Entra ID?

Enhanced Security: Protects against unauthorized access and data breaches.
Operational Efficiency: Centralizes identity management to reduce administrative tasks.
Scalability: Supports growth by accommodating evolving IT environments.
Cost Management: Facilitates cost control through centralized systems and automated processes.

In healthcare, Microsoft Entra ID facilitates secure patient record access and compliance with industry regulations. Financial institutions rely on it for robust security measures in safeguarding client data. In the education sector, it streamlines access to online resources for students and faculty. Global enterprises benefit from its ability to manage complex identity frameworks across multiple regions, ensuring reliable security amidst increasing cyber threats.

Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management helps organizations identify and manage potential internal threats by utilizing advanced analytics and insights to minimize risk.

With a focus on addressing internal threats, Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management employs sophisticated analytics to proactively detect and manage risks. It offers context-rich insights to protect data, helping businesses maintain compliance and safeguard their information. By implementing mechanisms to predict potential risks, it aids in preventing data loss and ensures that sensitive information remains secure.

What are the most important features of Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management?

Advanced Analytics: Provides in-depth analysis to detect suspicious activities within the organization.
Data Protection: Ensures sensitive data security with robust preventive measures.
Risk Insights: Delivers actionable insights to help mitigate potential insider threats.
Compliance Support: Assists organizations in maintaining compliance with industry regulations.

What benefits should businesses expect from Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management?

Efficient Risk Mitigation: Streamlines identifying and addressing insider threats, saving time and resources.
Enhanced Data Security: Protects sensitive data, reducing the likelihood of data breaches.
Better Decision Making: Offers insights that help organizations make informed decisions about security protocols.

In industries like finance and healthcare, where data sensitivity is critical, adopting Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management can be crucial. For example, financial institutions utilize this tool to detect and mitigate fraudulent activities, while healthcare providers leverage its capabilities to protect patient data, ensuring compliance with data protection regulations. Its implementation varies across industries but consistently focuses on securing valuable information and reducing risk exposure.

Sample Customers

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

Information Not Available