Microsoft Entra ID vs Thales SafeNet Trusted Access comparison

Why PeerSpot?

Microsoft and Thales are both solutions in the Single Sign-On (SSO) category. Microsoft is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.6, while Thales is ranked #19. Microsoft holds a 8.4% mindshare in SSO, compared to Thales’s 1.8% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Thales users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 11, 2024

Microsoft Entra ID and Thales SafeNet Trusted Access are both popular solutions for identity and access management. Thales SafeNet Trusted Access is often preferred for its advanced features, while Microsoft Entra ID scores higher in pricing and support.

Features: Microsoft Entra ID offers robust integration capabilities, comprehensive access policies, and reliable customer support. Thales SafeNet Trusted Access is praised for its advanced security features, flexible authentication methods, and superior feature set.

Room for Improvement: Users feel Microsoft Entra ID could improve in areas such as detailed reporting, role management, and enhancing its documentation. Thales SafeNet Trusted Access users mention a need for a more intuitive management console, better user interface, and simplified configuration options.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft Entra ID is reported to have a straightforward deployment process and reliable customer support. Thales SafeNet Trusted Access also provides efficient deployment but is noted for superior customer service quality.

Pricing and ROI: Microsoft Entra ID is generally considered more cost-effective, offering a better perceived ROI among users. Thales SafeNet Trusted Access, while more expensive, is seen as worth the investment due to its feature set. Users are happier with Microsoft Entra ID's pricing but acknowledge Thales offers good value for its price.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Entra ID vs. Thales SafeNet Trusted Access Report (Updated: October 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Entra ID vs. Thales SafeNet Trusted Access

October 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

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Single Sign-On (SSO) category, the mindshare of Cisco Duo is 3.2%, down from 4.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Entra ID is 8.4%, down from 16.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Thales SafeNet Trusted Access is 1.8%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Single Sign-On (SSO) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Microsoft Entra ID	8.4%
Cisco Duo	3.2%
Thales SafeNet Trusted Access	1.8%
Other	86.6%

Single Sign-On (SSO)

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.

Read full review

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.

Read full review

reviewer1719510

Regional Sales Manager at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Great validation and integrity features of the endpoint

Our primary use case of Safenet is for cybersecurity incidents, particularly for remote users. I'm the customer sales leader and a key account manager and we are customers of Thales. The validation and integrity features of the endpoint are great. Whether you're using a Mac OS or other operating…

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

"We like the different ways that it allows you to push notifications to people. It can do text, a phone call, and email. We liked the versatility for all of our different end-users, regardless of their level of understanding of the technology."

"My advice for other companies that are considering getting Cisco Duo is to try it, and you will be amazed at how easy and how productive this tool is."

"Cisco Duo is rock solid in terms of stability and reliability."

"From an administrative point of view, I find Cisco Duo user-friendly because the console is very easy to use, and when it comes to the Cisco Duo agent installations, the documents are pretty clear."

"The administrator tool in the dashboard is the most valuable feature. It's really easy to quickly see if users are locked out from their device, firmware code, or just all the little dashboards and reports I can run to give the security for monthly reports. The dashboard's really good."

"Cisco Duo scales with the growing needs of our organization by making it easy to acquire more licensing, especially with an enterprise agreement, which allows built-in growth and minimizes worries about licensing as we expand."

"The experience my clients have with Cisco Duo is mainly good, there are sometimes some problems, but not major ones, so it is a solid security product."

"Duo Security just adds another layer; it's a great addition to the security of any network infrastructure."

More Cisco Duo pros

"We use it for authentication where we have cloud services, it syncs with Active Directory on-prem, and we have about 1,800 people using it."

"The feature of Microsoft Entra ID that I appreciate the most is the level of integration that's available in the partner network."

"We are satisfied with this solution because we use all of its features."

"Every feature in Microsoft Entra ID plays a crucial role in overall security."

"I believe that this solution has simplified our work environment; we have over 13,000 users and this is very helpful to connect everything."

"Entra ID enables us to implement security easily and effectively."

"Don't delay implementing this solution, it's the best thing you can do for your identity protection."

"We had a roadmap meeting with Microsoft a few months ago, and I know that Microsoft is working hard at listening to their customers, especially through COVID."

More Microsoft Entra ID pros

"The interface is easy to use."

"Right now, we only have a small use case for the product, however, it has performed well."

"The solution is simple to use."

"I recommend this solution because it protects information."

"The validation and integrity features of the endpoint are great."

Cons

"Cisco Duo could benefit from improvements in certain areas that are important to us."

"We have a 24 hour timer for our Duo cookie and we would like to reduce this to a shorter time when using Duo."

"I would appreciate it if Duo Security could improve its integrations with Windows Hello."

"There are limitations because Cisco Duo does not support Hotmail accounts, which many people use to log in to their systems."

"I wish that the support would be a little bit more prompt and a little bit more flexible because there are certain things that they will do and certain things they won't do."

"I think Cisco Duo could improve the dashboard to make logging in and credential management more visible."

"My experience with deploying Cisco Duo was a bit rough at first, but after we got it smoothed out, it has worked ever since."

"Technical support seems to be lacking. It takes a long time for them to come back to the customer."

More Cisco Duo cons

"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. This is probably our biggest challenge."

"They should put the features of P1 and P2 into a single license."

"Microsoft's biggest challenge is the documentation."

"Sometimes I sense complications when moving from one tenant to another, which is simply because different enterprises have different security guidelines."

"On a scale from one being the worst and ten being the best, I would rate my customer service and technical support from Microsoft a three."

"From time to time it takes a little bit of time to replicate, with some of the applications—something like five to 10 minutes. I know that the design is not supposed to enable real-time replication with some of the applications. But, as an administrator, I would like to run a specific change or modification in Azure Active Directory and see it replicated almost immediately."

"The primary thing I would prioritize if we could do this again is the ability to keep a SAM account name instead of having to use a UPN. This causes considerable challenges for us as a customer because we have to reissue identities to everybody."

"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."

More Microsoft Entra ID cons

"There's a dependency on Microsoft Azure."

"I'd like to see more networking features, such as the ability to integrate network monitoring solutions and authenticate the app users."

"SafeNet's reporting and monitoring features could be improved."

"The scalability may not be there."

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

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

"It falls in line with everything else."

"Our licensing fee is currently on an annual basis."

"You pay per user when using this solution and the pricing is fair."

"Overall, the pricing is fair. Customers can wrap it into their Enterprise Agreement, making it easier for them to solve their issues."

"The licensing is very good because it does not cost a lot of money. It's affordable for all-sized customers, including enterprises. There is an additional cost for premium support."

"My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing has been good, with no issues. I am pleased that the prices remained stable after Cisco acquired the solution."

More Cisco Duo pricing and cost advice

"If you're on Azure, it can be free or it's incorporated, at no extra cost, or it can become extremely complicated."

"I feel Microsoft is very costly compared to other products. That is also what management is thinking. But when we consider security and support, Microsoft is better than any other product."

"It is not too expensive."

"Azure Active Directory is expensive."

"We are working with the Premium P2 licenses, which are reasonable. If you invest in the on-premises environment setup, then it costs so much. However, on-prem AD gives you the ability to manage your organization in a very organized manner, where you can create a group policy."

"The E5 plan we are using contains the premium plans for Azure Active Directory. We are not paying only for the Azure Active Directory Premium licenses. We have it already included within our E5 plan."

"Active Directory is bundled with a package of Microsoft services, so it doesn't cost much. I don't know about the individual license of Active Directory."

"Its price is per user. It is also based on the type of user that you're synchronizing up there."

More Microsoft Entra ID pricing and cost advice

Information not available

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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

11%

Outsourcing Company

Performing Arts

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	66
Midsize Enterprise	29
Large Enterprise	93

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 tie...

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

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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

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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

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Okta Platform vs Thales SafeNet Trusted Access

Compared 14% of the time

FEITIAN Identity and Access Management vs Thales SafeNet Trusted Access

Compared 5% of the time

OneLogin by One Identity vs Thales SafeNet Trusted Access

Compared 5% of the time

Ping Identity Platform vs Thales SafeNet Trusted Access

Compared 4% of the time

IBM Security Verify Access vs Thales SafeNet Trusted Access

Compared 2% of the time

More Thales SafeNet Trusted Access 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

Single Sign-On (SSO)

November 2026

Download Thales SafeNet Trusted Access product report

Also Known As

Duo Security

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

SafeNet Trusted Access, Gemalto SafeNet Trusted Access

Interactive Demo

Demo not available

Cisco

Microsoft

Demo not available

Thales

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

Thales SafeNet Trusted Access provides a flexible and secure solution for managing identities and access policies. It streamlines identity management across multiple platforms, enhancing security and compliance.

Thales SafeNet Trusted Access offers comprehensive identity and access management supporting complex IT environments. It simplifies authentication processes and enforces security policies through a cloud-based platform that integrates with existing systems. This ensures users enjoy a seamless authentication experience while maintaining the required security posture, essential in today's cybersecurity landscape.

What are the key features of Thales SafeNet Trusted Access?

Single Sign-On: Simplifies user access by allowing single credential use across resources.
Multi-Factor Authentication: Enhances security with multiple authentication methods.
Access Management: Provides detailed control over who can access sensitive systems.
Cloud Integration: Easily integrates with cloud services for streamlined operations.

What benefits and ROI should users expect?

Increased Security: Reduces risk through enhanced identity verification methods.
Operational Efficiency: Minimizes overhead by automating access management tasks.
Compliance Support: Assists in meeting regulatory requirements with detailed reporting tools.
Scalability: Adaptable to growing or changing IT needs without significant cost increases.

In industries like finance and healthcare, Thales SafeNet Trusted Access helps secure sensitive data through stringent identity verification mechanisms. Retailers use it to manage access across digital channels, while educational institutions benefit from its streamlined access for students and staff. This versatility demonstrates its effectiveness in diverse technology ecosystems.

Thales

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.

IBM, Western Union, Vanderbilt University Medical Centre, Novartis, and AT&T.

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Entra ID vs. Thales SafeNet Trusted Access

October 2026

Free Report: Microsoft Entra ID vs. Thales SafeNet Trusted Access

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Entra ID vs. Thales SafeNet Trusted Access and other solutions. Updated: October 2026.

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