Microsoft Entra ID vs Opal comparison

Why PeerSpot?

Microsoft and Opal Security are both solutions in the Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) category. Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.6, while Opal Security is ranked #20 with an average rating of 8.7. Additionally, 95% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Opal Security users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Microsoft Entra ID and Opal based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Entra ID vs. Opal Report (Updated: September 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Entra ID vs. Opal

September 2026

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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

Cisco Duo

Featured Reviews

Charles Slaustas

Information Technology Contractor at Insight global

Supports seamless authentication for users across multiple organizations and personal portals

The features I use in Cisco Duo include Duo Pushes to confirm my identity to the device, and eventually as MFA security was increased, I actually had to use exchange passcodes. Sometimes, I have to go into the site and get into Cisco Duo to retrieve the passcode, and many of them have been two-factor, where the sites send a passcode that I have to enter into Cisco Duo. It has been more of the latter. I have not seen issues with lagging or crashing on Cisco Duo's end; it was usually on the client end, often because someone set up a bad upgrade or there were connection issues with the Cisco Duo cloud through the administrative site.

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Stafin Jacob

Microsoft 365 Security & Compliance Practice Lead at Invoke

Identity has become our central gatekeeper and has provided secure single sign-on for all users

Microsoft Entra ID can improve by focusing more on new passwordless methods and becoming a primary adopter. One feature we would like to see is the ability to have security questions for password resets. I know the current capability is phasing out, so we do not have an alternative method yet. Customers who already use security questions require a smoother transition for that capability to be available. My experience with the deployment has had some challenges, particularly around the Microsoft MFA campaigns. The hardest part is moving users from a different MFA provider to the Microsoft MFA provider, as it ultimately depends on user activity. In large enterprises with numerous users across various geographies, this transition takes time. If there are ways to exert more control around that process, it would improve the situation.

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Mohammed Mudasser

AI/ML Engineer at a educational organization with 5,001-10,000 employees

Automated access reviews have improved least privilege and simplified identity governance

The best features Opal offers are automated access reviews, centralized visibility, and just-in-time access. I especially appreciate the ability to enforce time-bound access and automatically revoke privileges, which makes least privilege management much more practical. The automated access reviews have made the process much more efficient by giving us a structured way to review and revoke unnecessary permissions. Instead of manually checking every entitlement, we can focus on exceptions and higher risk access, which makes the review process more manageable and consistent. I would also add that the context Opal provides during access reviews is valuable. You can see the access relationship and risk rather than simply approving or denying it blindly. This makes the decisions more informed and gives the team a much better audit trail.

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

"The ability for users to authenticate via phone, from any random phone number, has been very helpful for managing a distributed workforce. Using it across a distributed network for securing access to our applications is big for us."

"Cisco Duo has improved my operational efficiency and reduced costs in areas such as authentication, IT support, and security operations because many times it ends up coming down to the ease of use, especially for the third-party contractors we have."

"The features of Cisco Duo that I like the most are the simplicity, and the benefits of these features to my organization include security components and security authentication components."

"The Verified Duo Push feature is valuable. It gives an extra level of security beyond just the regular push."

"It is very easy. Having just wrapped up my tenure at Cisco, it was used day in and day out for security. It was always easy to log in and not have to worry about logging in multiple times."

"Duo Security gives us an additional layer of security that would give us added confidence that our network will be less likely to get hacked, compromised, or otherwise."

"The product is really amazing, and I think it is one of the best documentation sets I have ever seen."

"It has definitely decreased our security risk."

More Cisco Duo pros

"After implementing Conditional Access policies in Microsoft Entra ID, we observed significant improvements in our security metrics, with unauthorized access attempts reduced by approximately 60 to 80% due to strict policy enforcement, MFA adoption rate increasing to nearly 100% for critical applications, and the ability to automatically block or challenge a higher number of risky sign-ins detected by the system while also seeing a significant decrease in security incidents related to identity compromise after implementation."

"Multi-factor authentication really secures our environments and gives us the flexibility to use location-based policies. Azure AD also gives us a lot of flexibility in our scope of integration."

"The fact that it's an ecosystem in itself is probably the best one."

"The user management groups are valuable. It is a pretty basic product, but user management, in general, is valuable with the ability to differentiate between business lines and add different policies, group-based management, and dynamic user groups."

"Overall the solution functions very well, such as the ability to access it from the cloud."

"Having the single sign-on or the multi-factor way with just allowing the application with one tap to authenticate is really smart."

"The most valuable components of the solution are provisioning and deprovisioning since both features work...Microsoft Entra Verified ID is a very stable solution."

"Two very important features in terms of security are governance and compliance through the Conditional Access policies and Azure Log Analytics."

More Microsoft Entra ID pros

"The clearest outcome I have seen is less manual effort during access reviews and better control over unnecessary or standing access, which improves the overall security posture."

"Opal has positively impacted my organization by reducing stress and increasing effectiveness for all our employees; it works better so all our employees have more time to sleep and they can investigate more."

"Previously, my phone usage was around nine hours and fifteen minutes or more, but it has significantly reduced to around six hours and thirty minutes to seven hours, meaning two and a half to three hours has been reduced after using Opal as my primary screen time blocker."

Cons

"We use Yubikey for pushing it to the phones. Yubikeys can get expensive because people tend to lose those for some reason. Fifty dollars a device is pretty high."

"I think Cisco Duo can be improved. I found the onboarding was very difficult, even for engineers who have been using similar solutions before."

"The experience with customer support and tech support when I first started with Cisco Duo was lacking on some parts where we were having issues."

"We had some trouble with the password reset function."

"Cisco Duo could be improved, possibly by adding features for the healthcare space. If you're selling something to a healthcare provider, there needs to be consideration for how to launch Cisco Duo with a handheld device that is not native, where you can install the application."

"From an administrative standpoint, I'd love to see it be a little better at remembering a device and location so that I don't have to continually authenticate. That's pretty much it."

"It took me a while to figure it out. I went to every user and forced them to set it up. I might have done it the long way."

"What I dislike about Cisco Duo is that anything that Cisco Duo lacks, we can do through Microsoft, which is a workaround because we're integrated with Microsoft, and that was the first thing I did."

More Cisco Duo cons

"The custom role creation function could be improved as it's somewhat tricky to use."

"One area that can be improved is ensuring that detailed documentation is being produced in a timely fashion. There have been many instances where documentation either hasn't been updated to reflect recent changes or is either non-existent or not very accessible."

"Microsoft plans to move away from SMS authentication for Multi-Factor Authentication and only implement application-based authenticator, which will be challenging for retail outlets reliant on Microsoft Active Directory."

"The downside of using a single password to access the entire system is that if those credentials are compromised, the hacker will have full access."

"The permission management is a mess."

"The transition from on-prem Active Directory to the Azure Cloud was difficult because there aren't group policy objectives. This is handled differently in the Azure cloud environment."

"In the compliance area, the granulation of access to storage accounts or Kubernetes could be improved."

"Role-based access controls."

More Microsoft Entra ID cons

"Opal can be improved in some ways."

"The core platform is already strong, but I would appreciate more flexibility in customizing workflows and access review policies."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It has a fair pricing model. I know they have different tiers, but it would be nice to have different types of licenses for certain groups of users in our organization. That way, we wouldn't have to lump everybody into one group. That would be also one complaint."

"The cost was reasonable. Licensing was pretty straightforward for a change."

"I believe the licensing model is excellent as it offers flexibility to our customers, allowing them to adopt a crawl, walk, or run approach."

"It is affordable for what's coming to the table with it, but in this day and age, the cost is looked at under a microscope, and companies need to very finely define what is needed versus what is critical. In some cases, it might not be cost-effective for a company to have it. In a lot of other cases, it is the cost of doing business."

"I rate the product pricing a seven out of ten."

"It falls in line with everything else."

"I haven't seen any information on the pricing in four years, so I can't comment on that."

"Its price is reasonable. It is not highly expensive."

More Cisco Duo pricing and cost advice

"The pricing for companies and businesses is okay, it's fair. But if you are trying to teach someone about Azure AD, there is no licensing option for that... It would be nice to have a 'learning' license, one that is cheaper for a single person."

"Compared to other Microsoft products, the cost is not too expensive. There's a free tier available, though it doesn't include all features. Overall, it's well-priced."

"The price is affordable, and we pay around $100 per month."

"The cost of Azure AD is one of the biggest benefits, as it is available for use free of charge when you start with Office 365."

"The solution has three types of tiers: E1 has very basic features. You get limited stuff in E2 and cannot have Office 360 associated with it. E3 is on the costly side and has all the features."

"I give the cost a three out of ten."

"The pricing of Azure Active Directory is competitive. By default, the product exists in almost every Microsoft cloud product. But it then depends on the features that a customer really wants to make use of."

"Previously, only building and global administrators could purchase subscriptions or licenses. Mid-last year, Microsoft made it so users can purchase the license online. Microsoft business subscription is for 200 to 300 users. If you have more than 300 users, you can't purchase the business plan. You have to purchase the enterprise plan. The enterprise plan is for 301 users and above. Pay as you go is also available. If you pay as you go in Azure, you will be billed for whatever you use."

More Microsoft Entra ID pricing and cost advice

Information not available

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) solutions are best for your needs.

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Outsourcing Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Outsourcing Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Comms Service Provider

13%

Outsourcing Company

12%

Educational Organization

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	64
Midsize Enterprise	28
Large Enterprise	82

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	91
Midsize Enterprise	42
Large Enterprise	162

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 Du...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Duo Security?

Regarding the pricing, what actually happened was that we got the product purchased through our HQ, so the costing as...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Duo Security?

I do not have a straight answer for how Cisco Duo can be improved at this time. With the implementation that we are g...

See all answers

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

I primarily use Microsoft Entra ID's free tier, so I have not faced any issues with pricing; I hope this free tier re...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Azure Active Directory?

To improve Microsoft Entra ID, I believe it should be openable with third-party applications to use Microsoft Authent...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Azure Active Directory?

My main use case for Microsoft Entra ID is the authentication of M365, Azure, and third-party applications like Sales...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Opal?

The paid version is a little costly.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Opal?

The core platform is already strong, but I would appreciate more flexibility in customizing workflows and access revi...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Opal?

The main case I am using Opal is for identity and access governance, particularly managing application access and enf...

See all answers

Comparisons

Fortinet FortiAuthenticator vs Cisco Duo

Compared 6% of the time

Okta Platform vs Cisco Duo

Compared 4% of the time

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) vs Cisco Duo

Compared 3% of the time

Auth0 Platform vs Cisco Duo

Compared 3% of the time

Yubico YubiKey vs Cisco Duo

Compared 2% of the time

More Cisco Duo Competitors

Google Cloud Identity vs Microsoft Entra ID

Compared 23% of the time

Okta Platform vs Microsoft Entra ID

Compared 5% of the time

SailPoint Identity Security Cloud vs Microsoft Entra ID

Compared 3% of the time

Ping Identity Platform vs Microsoft Entra ID

Compared 2% of the time

Auth0 Platform vs Microsoft Entra ID

Compared 1% of the time

More Microsoft Entra ID Competitors

Okta Platform vs Opal

Compared 16% of the time

SailPoint Identity Security Cloud vs Opal

Compared 16% of the time

ConductorOne vs Opal

Compared 9% of the time

Idira IGA vs Opal

Compared 9% of the time

Gluu Flex vs Opal

Compared 2% of the time

More Opal Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Duo

November 2026

Download Cisco Duo product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Entra ID

October 2026

Download Microsoft Entra ID product report

Buyer's Guide

Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS)

October 2026

Download Opal product report

Also Known As

Duo Security

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

No data available

Interactive Demo

Demo not available

Cisco

Microsoft

Demo not available

Opal Security

Overview

Cisco Duo is a cloud-based identity security platform safeguarding critical resources for any user and device worldwide. Known for its ease of use, Duo offers seamless protection across multi-cloud, hybrid, and on-premises environments.

Cisco Duo is designed to secure access with identity-first protection and provides extensive visibility throughout an organization's identity ecosystem. Offering multi-factor authentication, Duo facilitates easy integration and management, allowing teams to protect data effectively on VPNs, applications, and networks. Its single-pane management improves security processes while enhancing trust, making it suitable for diverse IT infrastructures.

What are the key features of Cisco Duo?

Multi-factor Authentication: Strengthens user verification with multiple methods.
Push Notifications: Simplifies authentication with quick approvals.
Single Sign-On: Enhances convenience by allowing one set of credentials.
VPN Access: Secures remote connections with reliable authentication.
User Activity Visibility: Offers comprehensive insights into access patterns.

Which benefits and ROI should users consider?

Quick Deployment: Facilitates rapid integration within existing systems.
Effective Management: Streamlines IT operations with centralized control.
Regulatory Compliance: Aids in meeting industry standards for data protection.
Enhanced Trust: Strengthens security posture across networks.
User-friendly Approach: Simplifies authentication for non-technical users.

In industries like education and finance, Cisco Duo is widely employed to secure multi-factor authentication across platforms such as email, databases, and servers. Its integration capabilities with Microsoft 365, Active Directory, and VPNs like AnyConnect are instrumental in verifying user identities using mobile apps or OTPs, catering effectively to both remote and on-premise environments.

Cisco

Microsoft Entra ID offers advanced identity management capabilities, ensuring security and efficiency with features like single sign-on and multifactor authentication.

Designed for hybrid environments, Microsoft Entra ID provides seamless synchronization between on-premises Active Directory and Azure Active Directory, enhancing security with multifactor authentication and conditional access. By integrating with a broad spectrum of cloud services, it supports user authentication and mobile device management, facilitating streamlined application registration and secure API access.

What are the most notable features of Microsoft Entra ID?

Robust Security Measures: Implements strong security protocols to protect identities.
Single Sign-On: Enables users to access multiple applications with one set of credentials.
Conditional Access Policies: Provides a framework to control access based on predefined conditions.
Third-Party Integration: Ensures compatibility with external applications for comprehensive use.

What benefits should users consider in reviews?

Improved Security Posture: Enhances protection against unauthorized access through advanced security features.
Simplified Onboarding: Streamlines the process of integrating new users and systems.
Operational Efficiency: Reduces identity and access management workload, boosting productivity.

In finance and healthcare, Microsoft Entra ID plays a crucial role in managing access to sensitive information while maintaining compliance with industry regulations. Retail and manufacturing sectors leverage its capabilities for secure supply chain operations and partner collaboration.

Microsoft

Opal is a comprehensive platform for identity access management and compliance automation. It excels in streamlining access control, audit preparation, and compliance tracking. Key features include an intuitive interface, robust security measures, and real-time collaboration, significantly improving organizational efficiency and productivity.

Opal Security

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

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

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Entra ID vs. Opal

September 2026

Free Report: Microsoft Entra ID vs. Opal

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Entra ID vs. Opal and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.

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See our list of best Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) vendors and best Access Management vendors.

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