Okta vs Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD): which IAM solution for mid-size companies?

Okta vs Entra ID: the short answer

For a company between 100 and 500 employees, the honest answer is this: Microsoft Entra ID usually wins if you already run Microsoft 365, Windows and Azure, because the identity layer is bundled with licenses you pay for and integrates natively with Conditional Access and Intune. Okta usually wins if your stack is a mix of non-Microsoft tools (Google Workspace, Salesforce, Slack, AWS, Workday) and you want a vendor-neutral identity provider that connects everything from one place.

But that binary framing hides the real problem for a small or growing company. An identity provider (IdP) authenticates users and routes them to apps. It does not tell you how many SaaS licenses you are wasting, which accounts were never deprovisioned, or which tools employees signed up for without IT knowing. That gap is where mid-size budgets leak, and it is the same whether you pick Okta or Entra ID.

This guide compares both platforms on features, pricing and use cases, then shows the governance layer that sits on top of either one. If you have already read our comparison of Okta and Google SSO, this is the same decision lens applied to Microsoft Entra ID.

This article shows you a third option when you are a Google store with no interest in Entra and Okta is overkill for you.

What is Okta?

Okta is a cloud-native, vendor-neutral identity and access management platform. Its Workforce Identity product centralizes single sign-on (SSO), multi-factor authentication (MFA), user lifecycle management and identity governance across cloud, on-premises and hybrid applications.

Okta's defining strength is breadth. The Okta Integration Network offers more than 7,000 pre-built application integrations, which makes it the natural choice for heterogeneous environments that are not standardized on a single vendor. Okta is independent of any cloud provider, so it treats Microsoft, Google and AWS apps as equals.

The trade-offs are cost and operational weight. Okta is licensed separately per user, on top of whatever you already pay for productivity suites, and it has to be layered onto your existing stack to deliver its value. For a lean IT team, that is one more platform to configure, maintain and renew.

What is Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD)?

Microsoft Entra ID, formerly Azure Active Directory, is Microsoft's identity provider for cloud and hybrid environments. It handles authentication and authorization across Microsoft 365, Azure and thousands of third-party apps, and it bridges to on-premises Active Directory for hybrid setups.

If you already use Microsoft 365, you already have Entra ID in your subscription. That single fact drives most migration decisions. Conditional Access, Identity Protection, Privileged Identity Management and device compliance signals from Intune all work better when they live inside the same Microsoft tenant, which gives Entra ID a strong Zero Trust story for Microsoft-centric companies.

The limitation is symmetrical to Okta's strength: Entra ID is Microsoft-first by design. Provisioning and lifecycle automation are excellent for Microsoft services and thinner for the long tail of non-Microsoft SaaS that a modern mid-size company actually runs.

Okta vs Entra ID: feature by feature

Both platforms cover the identity fundamentals well. The differences show up at the edges: how policies are structured, how deep provisioning goes outside the home ecosystem, and which compliance frameworks each one emphasizes. Conditional Access in Entra ID is tenant-wide, evaluating device, location and risk signals in one policy engine, while Okta attaches ordered sign-on policies per app or group, which suits workloads that need distinct rules.

For the provisioning mechanics behind both (and why the protocol choice matters for lifecycle automation), see our explainer on SCIM vs SAML.

Notice the last row. Neither platform manages SaaS spend or license usage, because that is simply not what an IdP is built to do. Hold that thought.

Okta vs Entra ID: pricing and real cost

On paper, Entra ID looks cheaper for Microsoft shops because the basic tier ships free with Microsoft 365, with P1 from $6 and P2 from $9 per user per month. Okta starts around $6 per user per month for its Starter suite and $17 for Essentials, with governance features in higher tiers quoted on request.

List price is the easy part. The harder cost is implementation: application discovery, access policy design, HRIS integration and Joiner-Mover-Leaver automation routinely run into the tens of thousands of dollars for a mid-size rollout. And the cost that never appears on either quote is the one that compounds every month: licenses nobody uses, accounts nobody offboarded, and apps nobody approved.

That recurring waste is usually larger than the IdP subscription itself. Mid-size companies that put a management layer over their stack typically recover a meaningful share of it, which is the logic behind structured SaaS spend optimization.

Which one fits your mid-size company?

A few concrete scenarios cut through the abstract comparison:

• You run Microsoft 365 across the company already. Entra ID is the pragmatic default. You own it, it integrates natively, and adding Okta on top would duplicate licensing and integration work.
• Your stack is genuinely mixed and SaaS-first. Okta's neutrality and integration catalog reduce friction across the apps your teams actually use day to day.
• You inherited both. This is more common than the comparison articles admit. Many companies keep Entra ID for workforce identity and Okta (or Auth0) for customer identity, or arrive at a mix through acquisitions. Running both is a valid architecture, not a mistake to fix.
• You are scaling fast and hiring across borders. Whichever IdP you pick, the bottleneck becomes onboarding and offboarding across dozens of apps, not authentication itself.

If you want a broader field beyond these two, our roundup of the top IAM solutions for mid-size companies widens the shortlist.

The part nobody compares: the IdP is only half the job

Here is what almost every Okta vs Entra ID article leaves out. Both are identity providers. They decide who can log in and where. Neither one gives a mid-size IT team a complete answer to the questions that actually fill the ticket queue:

• Which SaaS apps are in use across the company, including the ones bought on a credit card without IT (the shadow IT problem)?
• How many paid seats are sitting unused on tools we renew every year?
• Did the contractor who left last month actually lose access to every app, including the ones that do not support SCIM or SSO?
• Can we produce a clean access review when the auditor asks?

An IdP covers the apps it is connected to through standard protocols. The reality of a growing company is a long tail of tools that an IdP never fully reaches. Managing the lifecycle of those apps is a known hard problem, which we cover in how to handle offboarding for apps that do not support SCIM, SAML or SSO. This is the half of the job that sits above the IdP, and it is where a dedicated management and governance layer earns its place.

Why European mid-size teams need a layer on top

There is a second blind spot in the standard comparison: it is written for the US market. The compliance angle in most Okta vs Entra ID content centers on US frameworks like FedRAMP and CMMC. For a European company, the questions are different. Where does identity and usage data physically live? Are you GDPR-native, not just GDPR-compliant on paper? Are you ready for the NIS2 directive, which expands cybersecurity obligations across many more mid-size organizations?

Both Okta and Entra ID can be configured for EU data residency, but it is plan-dependent or tenant-dependent rather than the default posture. A European management layer changes that baseline. It hosts data in the EU by design and turns recurring access reviews into evidence for ISO 27001 rather than a manual spreadsheet exercise. For a 50 to 500 employee company without a large GRC team, that difference is the gap between passing an audit and dreading one.

How Corma works with both Okta and Entra ID

This is the practical conclusion of everything above. Corma is not a third identity provider competing with Okta and Entra ID. You keep the IdP you chose, or the two you inherited. Corma is the European SaaS Management and identity governance layer that sits on top of it.

Corma connects natively to your identity stack, including Okta and Microsoft Entra ID, then adds the half of the job the IdP does not do:

• Full SaaS discovery, so you see every app in use, including shadow IT your IdP never sees.
• License usage and reclaim, with up to 30% reduction in SaaS cost by cutting unused and duplicate seats.
• Automated Joiner-Mover-Leaver across all your apps through user provisioning and lifecycle automation, including tools that do not support SCIM or SSO.
• Access reviews and compliance mapped to ISO/IEC 27001:2022 and NIS2, with data hosted in the EU.

Corma is ISO 27001 certified and was recognized in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for SaaS Management Platforms, with full onboarding for a mid-size company typically completed in under a month. The result, as the capability matrix above shows, is one control plane for access, licenses, spend and compliance, on top of whichever IdP you run. You can see how IT teams use this in practice on our solution page for IT teams, or book a demo to map it to your own stack.

FAQ

Is Entra ID the same as Okta?

No. Both are identity providers offering SSO, MFA and access management, but Okta is vendor-neutral and built to connect any stack, while Entra ID is Microsoft's identity layer, tightly integrated with Microsoft 365, Azure and Windows.

Is Microsoft Entra ID just the new name for Azure AD?

Yes. Microsoft renamed Azure Active Directory to Microsoft Entra ID in 2023. The product is the same identity service, so older comparisons that say "Azure AD" refer to today's Entra ID.

Can you use Okta and Entra ID together?‍

Yes, and many companies do. A common pattern is Entra ID for workforce identity and Okta or Auth0 for customer identity, or a mix inherited through acquisitions. The challenge then becomes governing access, licenses and lifecycle consistently across both, which a management layer like Corma handles.

Is Entra ID cheaper than Okta?

For companies already paying for Microsoft 365 it usually is, because the basic tier is bundled and premium tiers start at $6 (P1) to $9 (P2) per user per month. Okta is licensed separately, from around $6 for Starter to $17 for Essentials. The bigger cost for both is implementation and ongoing license waste.

Which IAM solution is best for a mid-size company?‍

There is no single winner. Entra ID fits Microsoft-centric companies, Okta fits multi-vendor SaaS stacks. For a 50 to 500 employee company, the more important decision is adding a SaaS management and governance layer on top of the IdP to control spend, lifecycle and compliance.

Do I still need a SaaS management tool if I already have Okta or Entra ID?‍

Yes, if you want visibility into all SaaS (including unmanaged apps), license reclaim, spend optimization and audit-ready access reviews. An IdP authenticates users, it does not manage software cost or discover shadow IT.