Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Microsoft Azure Active Directory or Azure AD) is a cloud-based identity and access management (IAM) solution supporting restricted access to applications with Azure Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) built-in, single sign-on (SSO), B2B collaboration controls, self-service password, and integration with Microsoft productivity and cloud storage (Office 365, OneDrive, etc) as well as 3rd party services.
$6
per user/per month
Yubico YubiKeys
Score 9.4 out of 10
N/A
Yubico YubiKeys make the internet safer with phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication (MFA) by providing simple and secure access to computers, mobile devices, servers, and internet accounts. The Yubico YubiKey stops account takeovers at scale by mitigating phishing and ransomware attacks, and delivers users authentication with a simple touch or tap.
Google Workspace is really pretty much the only other primary competitor. And again, Microsoft has just been the standard for so many years and it was in place at the organization when I was first brought on at the beginning of my tenure. And so it didn't seem logical to switch …
Yeah, so basically that product to be honest, was more of a getting comfortable with cloud identification management. So that was a product I used. It has all the policies for desktops and doing updates and all that central directory identity provisioning stuff for users. Users …
We use DUO as another IDP solution and we also evaluated Okta as a solution. We didn't have a choice to be honest, because Microsoft products, you can't get away with it, but it's built in and a bunch of other providers have it as authentication, so it's great.
We've used other Microsoft products and we've also used some standalone products, like each application you can have its own identity, so we've looked at some of those too, but we try to use the Entra ID as much as possible because it offers a wider range of reliability.
We actually did just the Microsoft Active directory, so we picked the actual. We did just pure active directory. I mean the open LDAP stuff, but it didn't quite work that well.
I think the closest one would be because we recently went through an implementation, but Salesforce has their own version of a signal sign-on product. It's not the same. I'd say that it works, but it doesn't give you as much functionality.
For us, it was a natural evolution of our use of active directory. As we went from on-premises to the cloud, this was an easy extension of our authentication infrastructure. We looked at other products from Oracle, so Oracle ID, Oracle Identity Management. We looked at pink …
We used Google before, but we tried to use it but it didn't. We didn't like it. I'll this is better. It integrates better with our environment that we have right now.
We're Microsoft dedicated. We do however, displace other products that do similar things, so a lot of third party products, so even like Okta. In my opinion, it's just equally as powerful or more powerful of a product and it has a way better price point for customers. I think …
I'd love to tell you about Amazon IM and Google's IM because they suck and they tell you to use Entra ID, factually. They're like, oh cool, set it up with Entra ID. They just know you're going to do it. I don't think you guys have a competitor, to be honest. You just don't.
We're a Microsoft Native shop, so we're looking at Okta's identity tool, SailPoint and a few other competitors of Venture id. And we decided to go with this one because we're already using Active Directory, so just using the native Microsoft Suites kind of just they integrate …
Well, it's natively integrated with all Microsoft Stack, so it comes very handy when you need to, for example, use it for Intune Association, et cetera, so it's very handy.
Previously we had worked with Okta, which was kind of using our replacement for active directory server, and I know that has integrations, but we ended up just going with Entra ID just for the ease of access and without having to stack on an additional third party application …
In our application use case, it's kind of unique and there isn't any like for if there's anything on the identity space, probably Okta. Yeah. But we do both use them and we have integration with Okta and Entra ID, so it works for us very well.
Microsoft Login ID was chosen for its ease of use and availability of access via any device. Unlike the old Active Directory, it has a low learning curve and is very intuitive for analysts who are using it for the first time.
We used to use something from Okta that has I think a passwordless authentication or readily get a notification that's an alternative, but it's software, not hardware. That's the other thing I would say. We have tried nothing else on the hardware side. Its hardware token, ease …
Yubico YubiKeys has been a leader in the security key market, and I think they have a new product we just read about two days back and they can store up to a hundred private keys now. So I think this is what it distinguishes them from the market, apart from this, whatever …
If you compare it to authenticator apps, I'd say it's much more easy to set this up for the individual user. Well, it's Swedish. It's also very well documented. There are a lot of guides on how to use them and I have a lot of faith in the security posture of Yubico and how the …
I've never really used any other physical keys, I mean I've used multifactor authentication from Google Authenticator or Duo, but never another physical key, so this is my first experience with that.
I have used the tokens that display a little six-digit code that rotates, but I feel that's just like my phone does that, so why would I have a separate device for that? This at least provides a physical thing I have to either insert or tap to use. I think they're not …
I have tested the Google Titan Keys. I found Yubico YubiKeys to be a bit more durable and last longer. I've already had a few Google Titan Keys that have just gone out. They just stopped working. So the Yubico YubiKeys are a bit more lightweight and easier to fit on a key ring. …
I prefer Yubico YubiKeys because sometimes logging in with pass keys on an iPhone you have to do kind of two handshakes. One is the QR code and then doing a face ID. So that's an extra step versus the Yubico YubiKeys, which I can just put in and scan with my finger.
We have thought about just trying another competitor for due diligence but have not explored that option yet. We went with Yubico YubiKey due to hearing about it at a conference and decided to start experimenting with the solution. We are pretty decided on what we are going …
They offer ways to store passwords or MFA support, but most need a root password. In addition, LastPass and 1Password do not have much support for MFA. This results in a lack of MFA support. For Okta, although it offers MFA and SSO, the OTP can be very annoying to have as I do …
For one, a significant factor for us is that it is integrated with HelloID, which gives us, as the IT department, a lot of time back because we don’t need to create user accounts manually. It is great for the roles we have defined, as they can be used repeatedly. A great feature is that guest accounts can be created for external users; we only need to be in a closed area of your domain.
When I used it as an engineer for a software company a few years ago, I would be able to continue doing work on the train ride into and out of the office. So that was an extra hour, two hours a day that I was able to access our systems and still be able to continue to work. So that was a lot of fun. Well, I don't know if stay fun, but it was nice to be able to have the access, not have to be connected directly to the corporate network.
It addresses the issue of identity management very well with respect to putting in that multi authentication.
It can also support with respect to we can push these policies into another product that is not Microsoft, but it needs that SSO so we can have one account going into multi different accounts. I think that's the biggest pros and the easy use of Microsoft 365 also is one of those pros also in terms of administration.
I think the best thing is it has a lot of capacity and it's very, very secure. It can store a lot of private keys versus all the other products. We have reviewed a few other products, but Yubico YubiKeys gives a lot more capabilities than some of the other security key brands.
Well, I'm an active ad admin, so there's a lot of features in active directory that Entra ID seems to be just adding now. We're kind of figuring out that the policies are different than Entra ID that they were in active directory and we're finding other products to do that, like Azure policy. Some things I'm used to seeing in identity products or like active directory aren't in Entra iID, but are doing good job of managing stuff that it does so far.
It can be about access control because either right now it's just you have access or you don't have access. I think there can be a use case where you are allowed a particular set of servers and not a particular set of servers. I think maybe it's there or we don't use it, but I haven't seen that. I think I've used Yubico YubiKeys at two companies and I haven't seen that. Maybe that's something that can be added.
Entra ID is a vital part of our Identity management/administration. With the integrations it has to other Microsoft products, setup and configuration is a breeze. Additionally, Microsoft has been around a long time and have the resources to ensure this product is stable and secure for many years to come. We know it will evolve with time to provide us what we need as technology changes.
As for implementing YubiKey its simple so I don't see us using anything else as we have experienced no issues so fare. Adding these to our environment is still new for us currently but in the transition phase I only see us buying YubiKey. It is highly rated and well known and cost is reasonable so no need to find another solution.
Very easily usable. It could be easier to use. Implementation was kind of tricky. We do run a hybrid environment, so we're syncing a local active directory instance with Entra ID, so that could be a little tricky. But outside of that, if you're not running a hybrid deployment or a version of Entra ID usually, it's pretty straightforward.
I give slightly better than average rating because of the complexity in using a Yubikey. It is not as easy as native push notifications for 2FA products, however, it provides much better strength. Rating this higher or lower would be a disservice to people reading this review. If you are in the market for a hardware 2FA tool, Yubikey will be a great asset in your toolbox.
We have not experienced any issues with availability which is very important when you are dealing with a company that holds the keys to the gate. We have had more issues with availability from our SaaS providers before with authentication but that was on their end. YubiKey has worked every time for us over the course of the last 6 or so months we began testing phase.
We have not seen any lag in loading pages and getting into systems or sites. In comparison to other 2FA and MFA options it is actually faster most of the time to authenticate due to not having to type in. We require users to have long passwords and when there is an option given for password less they jump on it with excitement. As we explore going password less on their PC's the YubiKey is going to make their lives a lot easier to access the resources they need.
Microsoft has offered Azure Active Directory as a solution for a couple of decades now, so they have seen and anticipated almost any issue that an organization may face and can therefore help. The cloud offering of Azure Active Directory offers some additional "self healing" or monitoring services that can minimize the need for a service call. However, as with most large companies supporting a fast growing market, there may be some gaps in service knowledge (and particularly processing) from the front line / tier one staff as they follow a corporate script at first contact.
Make sure you use a good partner. Our implementation was a bit longer and more problematic than we expected. Our partner got it done, but, in my opinion, some of their inexperience and staffing issues were evident.
I figured it all out on my own with the excellent product documentation provided by Yubico. I even managed to produce a backup YubiKey in case I lost my frequently used one. This was crucial when I temporarily lost the original.
Microsoft Entra ID is not as stand-alone product as competitors like Okta. It may lack some of the features that competing products have but on the other hand it integrates both technically and license wise with other Microsoft cloud services and is easy to deploy. It is also the easiest way to extend identity management to the cloud if you already have Microsoft Active Directory in use.
We used to use something from Okta that has I think a passwordless authentication or readily get a notification that's an alternative, but it's software, not hardware. That's the other thing I would say. We have tried nothing else on the hardware side. Its hardware token, ease of use, easy integration, more reliance on an external device like a phone or something. If your phone gets lost, then you are worried about your multifactor, no problems with this device.
For us I feel like the ease of deployment has made this product very appealing, overall this will make the scalability very easy for us to push out once we roll out to our users and the management tools that we have looked at will make the admins like me happy as it is clear and easy to use. The rollout process looks to be very straight forward from the demos that we have looked at regarding the enterprise tools.
I don't know if I can really quantify that. It's one of those products that just exists and so there's not a whole lot of changes that we need to make with the product. And so I guess in terms of value, what we get is we don't have to worry about the identity management piece. We know that that's taken care of.
I think it's the flexibility in being able to let users pick the type of authentications that they want to use. Some are comfortable with the touch device on the physical Yubico YubiKeys. Others prefer the mobile app. So it provides flexibility for our users to choose how they want to authenticate without running a file of our security requirements.
