TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

Microsoft Entra External ID

Score9.3 out of 10

56 Reviews and Ratings

Get a Demo

What is Microsoft Entra External ID?

Microsoft Entra External ID (formerly Azure Active Directory B2C, or alternately, Azure Active Directory External Identities) provides business-to-customer identity as a service. Customers can use their preferred social, enterprise, or local account identities to get single sign-on access to applications and APIs.

Categories & Use Cases

Key Features

Learn about the best (and worst!) features Microsoft Entra External ID has to offer, as determined by TrustRadius' reviewers.
Based on 56 ratings of Microsoft Entra External ID's features
View all features

Top Performing Features

  • Password Management

    Self-help capabilities the help users recover forgotten passwords, etc.

    Category average: 8.4

  • Account Provisioning and De-provisioning

    Capabilities for creating user accounts based on roles, group memberships and business processes

    Category average: 8.4

  • ID-Management Access Control

    Authorization or restriction of access to information depending on role

    Category average: 8.9

Areas for Improvement

  • ID Risk Management

    Identification, evaluation, and prioritization of risks with procedures to minimize, impacts of unplanned consequences

    Category average: 8.3

  • Multi-Factor Authentication

    Using multiple, independent components to gain access

    Category average: 8.8

  • ID Management Workflow Automation

    Automated sequence of tasks to simplify processes

    Category average: 8.2

Reviews

What users are saying about Microsoft Entra External ID.
View all reviews

Microsoft Entra External ID

Incentivized
Doug GawelView profile
Manager in Information Technology at North American Hoganas (1001-5000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Microsoft Entra External ID is used for our external vendors and consultants to access our systems for remote work.

Pros

  • Locks down where and what can be accessed
  • Logs the remote connection
  • Keeps our data secure

Cons

  • Dashboard could be a little cleaner
  • Little easier to assign what can be accesses per user

Return on Investment

  • Positive impact since it works and keeps everything secure

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Navan

Other Software Used

Microsoft Azure, Nutanix AHV, Acronis Cyber Infrastructure

Entra-cation for Multi Academy Trusts

Incentivized
Verified User
Manager in Information Technology (201-500 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Here in our educational setting, a medium sized multi academy trust, we use Microsoft Entra External ID to deliver internal apps and resources to a series of children's homes and school communities that work externally with our organisation. Microsoft Entra External ID enables us to reach children that other wise struggle to attend school regularly. It gives each pupil or prospective pupil and their supporting agencies an opportunity to continue/support their learning from where ever they are, securely.

Pros

  • Security
  • Simple account creation
  • Deployment of resources.

Cons

  • Initial external/workforce tenant setup
  • Authentication app requirement (although essential, not every child has a device they can use)
  • Company Branding Tools

Return on Investment

  • Greater pupil platform engagement
  • Greater visibility for external agencies to see compliance
  • More comprehensive remote education offerings
  • Greater visibility for IT management

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Amazon Cognito

Other Software Used

Microsoft Teams, Fortinet FortiGate, Kernel Data Recovery

Microsoft Entra External ID

Incentivized
Verified User
Analyst in Information Technology (501-1000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

In ou organization, we iser Microsoft Entra External ID for pur third party vendors who operate from different countries. Instead of giving full access to our sensitive data. We used Microsoft Entra External ID so that limited access could be given but at the same time enough access is given to operate properly. Data security is th major business problem which Microsoft Entra External ID helps with. It makes our sensitive data safe and secure.

Pros

  • One of the things that Microsoft Entra External ID does really well is creating user logins, accounts and profile. It is very easy to create them, manage them and delete them. It is fast and reliant.
  • Limit access or authorization feature. We can allow different levels of authorization and access. So that not all the employees would have access to all the data. Only some relaible employees would have access and power to change anything.
  • Mutli factor authentication feature is also a really good feature to secure data. Even overseas vendors need MFS to login which gives double protection to our data.

Cons

  • The non technical users might get a little frustarted when it comes to passwors resets and MFA for Microsoft Entra External ID. They find it difficult to navigate through it and make the changes. Specially someone who is not a texh savvy.

Return on Investment

  • The positive impact is that, if our company would have used local employees rather than third party vendors, it could have been very expensive. Using third party vendors with the peace of mind that the data is secure. Its a win-win situation if the financial aspect is considered.
  • Negative impact was the implentation and setup. It was very time taking. The IT team had to work on it for so long as it was very complex. It really took some time to train employees onto using Microsoft Entra External ID.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Amazon Cognito

Cloud based - Business to Consumer

Incentivized
Cj Rosenstiel
IT Apps Programmer Sr in Information Technology at Progressive (5001-10,000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Azure Active Directory B2C allows users to sign into parts of our systems using multifactor authentication while still accessing the parts that do not need the added protection. The predefined user flows help create user experiences and access quickly, while the custom policies are for a more robust scenario. Both are unique and tailored to our needs.

Pros

  • User flows
  • MFA
  • User interface

Cons

  • Custom policies options
  • integrating

Most Important Features

  • One stop shop
  • Easy access
  • multiple options

Return on Investment

  • Stronger security
  • Conditional Access

Alternatives Considered

PingOne from Ping Identity and OneLogin by One Identity

Other Software Used

Microsoft 365, Google Analytics

Awesome product, lousy marketing -- it's Azure's best-kept secret!

Incentivized
Lars KemmannView profile
Principal Architect in Engineering at Netrix LLC (501-1000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Azure Active Directory B2C is our go-to platform for customer identity and access management (CIAM) needs, both for our internally-developed applications and products as well as for our clients' customer-facing applications. Despite the name, Azure Active Directory B2C excels at both business-to-consumer and business-to-business ("B2B") functionality; I often explain to people that "B2C" should be read as "business-to-customer." We have used Azure Active Directory B2C for everything from prototype apps and small business scenarios to very large enterprises with millions of user accounts.

Pros

  • Customer identity
  • User experience customization
  • Integration and configuration
  • Security
  • Availability/reliability

Cons

  • Troubleshooting diagnostic logs effectively requires VS Code
  • Group and role management requires additional effort
  • The programming model (XML) could use some developer experience love

Most Important Features

  • Configurability
  • Integration with Azure
  • Value
  • Security
  • Reliability

Return on Investment

  • Time to market for our products significantly reduced
  • Optimized our total cost of ownership for providing subscription SaaS solutions
  • Streamlined maintainability of solutions

Alternatives Considered

AuthX, The Okta Identity Cloud and AWS Identity & Access Management

Other Software Used

Azure API Management, Azure App Service, Azure Blob Storage, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)