We performed a comparison between Azure Active Directory and CyberArk Privileged Access Manager based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Based on the parameters we compared, Azure Active Directory is the more popular solution because its deployment is easier and it has a free version.
"Automates password management to remove the human chain weakness."
"The most important feature is managing the credentials and implementing those policies which rotate the credentials. Session Manager is also key in not letting the users have access to those credentials. Instead, CyberArk actually manages everything by itself."
"I find value in notifications from CyberArk when passwords fail verification and have other issues."
"We are utilizing CyberArk to secure applications, credentials, and endpoints."
"CyberArk has been easy for us to implement and the adoption has been good. We've been able to standardize a bunch of things. We've been able to standardize relatively easily with the use of the platforms and managing the policies."
"It is a central repository. Therefore, if someone needs to access a server, then they go through CyberArk PAM. It provides a secure way to do this and CyberArk PAM records everything. For example, if you are connecting to a Linux server, then once you get into the Linux server and if it is integrated with CyberArk, it will automatically start recording everything that is being done. In most banks, seeing the recordings is very useful. If there are any gaps or something has happened which shouldn't have happened, then we can check the logs and videos. So, it gives security, in a robust manner, to the organization."
"It has a centralized page where you can manage everything. This makes work easier. You don't have to remember different module URLs or browser applications. It is very easy to get all the secure identities of other environments into a single page, which is very important for us as it helps a lot in terms of operations, e.g., reduces management time. This is a single page where you can manage all accounts and onboard them to the CyberArk. You can then secure and see passwords from everywhere. So, there is a single pane of glass where you can manage all the identities across environments as well as across different types of identities."
"The product has allowed us to improve both the management and access to privileged credentials, while also creating a full audit trail of all activities happening within isolated sessions of all tasks and activities taking place within the solution."
"Azure Active Directory has been very useful for our company, it is not difficult to use."
"It is cloud based so it is always updated,"
"The solution has come a long way. Now, with the Azure AD B2C offering integrated as well, we've got a full IAM-type solution for our customer-facing identity management. In addition, when it comes to user journeys we now can hook in custom flows for different credential checking and authorizations for specific conditional access."
"Microsoft Authenticator is highly secure."
"Azure Active Directory features have helped improve our security posture. The remote working has been a massive help during the pandemic."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Entra ID is its security options, where we can provide highly effective security for user accounts during authentication."
"The scalability of the product is decent."
"The most valuable features of this solution are security, the conditional access feature, and multifactor authentication."
"The solution could improve by adding more connectors."
"Areas the product could be improved are in some of the reporting capabilities and how the reports are configured."
"More additional features as far as the REST is concerned, because we have something which was the predecessor to REST. A lot of the features which were in the predecessor have not necessarily been ported over to REST yet."
"The usual workload is sometimes delayed by the solution."
"If we could have some kind of out-of-the box feature that you can simply say "no" so they don't have to go into a development mode, that would a really helpful feature."
"I would like easier integrations for creating an online dashboard that executives would look at or are able to run reports from the tool."
"There was a functionality of the solution that was missing. I had noticed it in Beyond Trust, but not in this solution. But, recently they have incorporated something similar."
"I would like to see better usability for non-technical people."
"The synchronization between my AD and Azure AD needs improvement."
"I would like to see improvements made when it comes to viewing audit logs, sign-in logs, and resource tags."
"The solution can improve the educational portion because it is an administration cost."
"When we add some user groups, at times they will not be properly configured. Also, sometimes Azure AD is not aware of the group policy, like the control, device functions, and settings, in detail. For example, you cannot configure these settings through mobile devices. It doesn't provide the flexibility to do that. The other challenge is that a third-party application may provide access without authorization."
"If Microsoft can give us a way to see where this product is running, from a backend perspective, then it would be great."
"Azure Active Directory could improve by having an authentication service for laptops or desktop computers running Mac and Linux operating systems. They currently have authentication capabilities for Microsoft Windows. Having this capability would benefit people because in today's world everybody is working from the home environment."
"The main issue is that because Active Directory is in the cloud, it will inevitably be dependent on internet connectivity."
"The integration between the Azure active directory and the traditional active directory could be improved upon."
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CyberArk Privileged Access Manager is ranked 1st in Privileged Access Management (PAM) with 142 reviews while Microsoft Entra ID is ranked 1st in Access Management with 190 reviews. CyberArk Privileged Access Manager is rated 8.8, while Microsoft Entra ID is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of CyberArk Privileged Access Manager writes "Lets you ensure relevant, compliant access in good time and with an audit trail, yet lacks clarity on MITRE ATT&CK". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Microsoft Entra ID writes "Allows users to authenticate from home and has excellent integrations in a simple, stable solution". CyberArk Privileged Access Manager is most compared with Cisco ISE (Identity Services Engine), Delinea Secret Server, WALLIX Bastion, One Identity Safeguard and ManageEngine PAM360, whereas Microsoft Entra ID is most compared with Microsoft Intune, Google Cloud Identity, Cisco Duo, Yubico YubiKey and Okta Workforce Identity. See our CyberArk Privileged Access Manager vs. Microsoft Entra ID report.
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We monitor all Access Management reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.
