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Microsoft Identity Manager vs SAP Identity Management comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 1, 2024

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 Identity Manager
Ranking in Identity Management (IM)
12th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SAP Identity Management
Ranking in Identity Management (IM)
16th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.9
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
User Provisioning Software (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Identity Management (IM) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Identity Manager is 2.0%, down from 4.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP Identity Management is 2.1%, down from 2.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Identity Management (IM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Identity Manager2.0%
SAP Identity Management2.1%
Other95.9%
Identity Management (IM)
 

Featured Reviews

RameshKumar9 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant at IOM - UN Migration
Supports reliable identity management and custom policy design
Microsoft Identity Manager can be improved by integrating it with Entra ID as a SaaS application or by having a cloud-based connector, as it is currently limited to on-prem scenarios, and a combination of both would be a great solution compared to competitors such as SailPoint or One Identity Manager. While the initial setup of Microsoft Identity Manager is not completely complex, migrating or upgrading to a new version can be complex and requires multiple backups to ensure it goes smoothly.
FM
Sales Executive at Minsait
Identity management enhances connectivity and productivity with streamlined access and robust security, offering time-saving processes and facilitating seamless integration with other BI tools
One area that could be improved with SAP Identity Management, other than support, is user engagement from an implementation perspective. It would be beneficial for SAP to extend their events and workshops that are currently performed for partners to their final customers, as many customers want to know what's new and what else they can do without solely depending on the partners. For SAP support in Brazil, everything is in English, which poses a difficulty for many customers. The support could be improved for the specific needs in Brazil, as many customers have difficulty accessing the support center due to the language barrier. This feedback is specific to Brazil, though it's unclear if SAP receives similar feedback from other countries. It could certainly be enhanced with Portuguese documents, among other improvements.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The most valuable and most interesting feature is the conditional access."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is the fact that I can use it to track who is sending which email, who is accessing which documents or which files, etc. These tools help me improve security within the enterprise environment."
"This is an all-encompassing product."
"I would recommend Microsoft Identity Manager to others anytime."
"MIM's most valuable feature is its connectivity with Exchange."
"I would say that it's the best solution on the market and I would go ahead with it."
"It has a lot of features; it has all the bells and whistles of identity and access management, such as adaptive MFA, intelligent graph security API, and being powered by Microsoft Graph API."
"The features that we find most valuable are security, mobility, and Single Sign-On."
"IBM really gives you the power to implement a lot of functionality outside the current implementation if you know how to build the functionality you want."
"It provides basic automatic user administration and role provisioning to save time."
"Some processes that they used to perform in two to three days now take one to two hours, which has been really beneficial for them regarding the time saved."
"What I like about SAP Identity Management is that it's stable for experienced users and suitable for access management, not just for SAP accounts, but for Active Directory, including file sharing and process sharing."
"There is definitely ROI because we use this as our enterprise-wide SSO solution."
"The most valuable features of SAP Identity Management are business roles and automated user provisioning."
"What I found most valuable in SAP Identity Management is process automation."
"NW IDM is extremely flexible, and with a small amount of effort you can integrate the basic provisioning for most of the commonly used modern systems."
 

Cons

"This product was only launched two or three years ago and it is still in the process of becoming stable."
"It would be good if Microsoft Identity Manager Maybe could be integrated with Azure Active Directory directly and made as a cloud platform."
"From my view, Microsoft doesn't invest much in this product and it can take a while to resolve any issues."
"The information that is available for the Active Directory portal is segregated here and there."
"The product's setup phase was difficult."
"The product's pricing and integration features could be improved."
"Microsoft Identity Manager could be more intuitive in terms of interface."
"It requires a lot of improvements. Microsoft is killing this product and migrating some of the features to Azure AD. The last version of this solution was 2016. If it is going to stay and integrate with Azure AD, its integration needs to be worked on in terms of connectors, etc. It doesn't seem that they are improving it alone. Microsoft wants to integrate it with Azure AD, but the integration is still not complete."
"I have encountered issues with the host authentication feature."
"I believe they could make a lot of improvements on SAP IDM. There is also a lack of startup connectors to different systems, and they could have better cloud integration connectors for SAP IDM."
"The product needs better UI customization and the administration console is outdated in this version."
"What needs improvement in SAP Identity Management is its compatibility with third-party applications. We'd like to get connectors or plugin settings to make it easier to manage other applications, whether SAP or non SAP applications. As SAP Identity Management is not compatible with non SAP applications, some of the clients are looking for other IDM applications such as SalePoint and Saviynt, so this is an issue we've observed in the solution."
"Research and marketing need to be improved."
"The pricing could be better."
"SAP Identity Management can improve risk analysis and authority checks."
"The current functionality allows you only to change one user at a time. There is no option to maintain the business roles from the UI using standard validation or imports, so you have to build your business roles one by one."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"My rating for the pricing of Microsoft Identity Manager is average, neither too expensive nor too cheap."
"The tool's price is low for my company."
"The solution is included in the Microsoft E3 license and premium subscriptions of Azure AD."
"MIM is free with a Microsoft Azure license."
"It is an expensive tool."
"Microsoft Identity Manager comes with the premium or community license. If the customer doesn't have a premium license, the reseller who sells the licenses of Microsoft to the enterprise can extend the license for the client."
"When comparing the cost, Microsoft Identity Manager is the best solution because it is free if you have an Azure P2 license."
"The solution is expensive."
"When evaluating the price of any product, I first look at how it meets my business requirements and if it meets requirements adequately and predictively. Currently, I don't see this from SAP Identity Management, so pricing for it is expensive, in my opinion."
"The licensing cost varies depending on the specific requirements and deployment size."
"I rate the solution's pricing a four out of ten."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Construction Company
9%
Energy/Utilities Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business13
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise11
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise6
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Identity Manager?
Regarding pricing, setup costs, and licensing of Microsoft Identity Manager, it has a couple of cloud connectors that can sync directly with the O365 admin center, which is good enough, but Entra I...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Identity Manager?
Microsoft Identity Manager could be improved in several areas. The solution uses a batching process that executes at scheduled times, which differs from other vendor solutions. It is missing capabi...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Identity Manager?
Microsoft Identity Manager is used primarily in the retail business. The implementation is enterprise-level within a national company, specifically at JCPenney, which is a large organization.
What needs improvement with SAP Identity Management?
One area that could be improved with SAP Identity Management, other than support, is user engagement from an implementation perspective. It would be beneficial for SAP to extend their events and wo...
What is your primary use case for SAP Identity Management?
The use cases for SAP Identity Management include the logistics company, and we also have a beverage company that is using SAP Identity Management. We did not make the migration for them, but we im...
What advice do you have for others considering SAP Identity Management?
My clients use SAP Identity Management for managing access rights efficiently based on user roles. I have experience with other IAM tools, having worked for Oracle three or four years ago, but I ca...
 

Also Known As

MIM, Forefront Identity Manager, FIM, MS Identity Manager
SAP NetWeaver Identity Management, NetWeaver Identity Management
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Dow Chemical Company (Dow), Whole Foods Market
State of Indiana, Automotive Resources International (ARI), Alliander N.V., Chemion Logistik GmbH, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital (SNUBH)
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Identity Manager vs. SAP Identity Management and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
902,270 professionals have used our research since 2012.