IAM solutions are paramount to business resources today and Microsoft offers a suite of powerful tools under the Azure umbrella. Microsoft Azure Entra product family includes some of the best identity and access management tools (IAM) in the market.
The two most popular IAM tools in this regard are Azure Entra ID (formerly known as Azure Active Directory) and Entra ID B2C (Business to Consumer). However, there is much confusion among users between these different Azure IAM services.
While they share some foundational elements, they cater to different needs and use cases. Let’s examine Azure Entra ID vs Entra ID B2C and their features, pricing, and ideal use cases.
What are IAM solutions?
IAM solutions are frameworks of policies, technologies, and tools that help organizations securely manage digital identities and access to critical information and resources.
Modern cybersecurity teams include an IAM role to ensure that right users or devices get the right access to the right resources at the right time. IAM tools do that while maintaining full visibility and compliance with set standards.
Here are the core functions performed by IAM software:
- Identity management
- Authentication and authorization
- Multi-factor authentication (MFA)
- Access governance
What is Azure Entra ID?
Azure Entra ID is a comprehensive cloud-based identity and access management service for employees and internal users. It helps organizations manage user identities, control access to applications and resources, and enhance security through various features.
Key Features of Azure Entra ID
- Single Sign-On (SSO): This property or feature enables users to sign in once and access multiple applications, both on-premises and in the cloud services, without requiring them to sign in again. It saves time and effort.
- Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): This is a common protection method exercised by many companies, which tends to add an extra layer of security. It requires users to verify their identity using a second factor, such as a phone call or mobile app notification.
- Conditional Access: This feature provides fine-grained access control policies based on conditions such as user location, device state, and application sensitivity.
- Self-Service Password Reset (SSPR): According to this feature, SSPR allows users to reset their passwords without IT assistance, which reduces the helpdesk workload.
- Identity Protection: This uses machine learning to detect and mitigate identity-based threats, such as suspicious sign-in attempts and compromised accounts.
- Integration with Microsoft 365: Seamlessly integrates with Microsoft 365, thus providing enhanced security and identity management for Office applications.
- Application Proxy: It enables secure remote access to on-premises web applications.
Entra ID vs Azure AD
Is Entra ID the same as Azure AD (Active Directory)? In short, yes. Azure Entra ID is Microsoft’s latest rebranding of Azure AD. Micrsoft decided to retire Azure AD and replace it with Azure Entra ID in 2023 to maintain consistency with its Entra product family.
Apart from Azure AD, all of Microsoft’s IAM tools followed the Entra naming convention, which created confusion. Therefore, Microsoft rebranded it to Azure Entra ID without changing the core features, such as IAM login options, functionalities, and security protocols.
What is Entra ID B2C?
Azure Entra ID B2C is customer identity and access management (CIAM) solution. CIAM solutions are specialized IAM tools that allow businesses to securely manage and authenticate external users, such as customers or partners accessing web and mobile applications.
Entra ID B2C is designed for businesses that need to manage customer identities and access to applications. It provides customizable authentication experiences for end-users, which makes it ideal for consumer-facing applications.
Key Features of Entra ID B2C
Following are its renowned and notable features:
- Customizable User Journeys: It tailors the user experience for sign-up, sign-in, and profile management processes to fit the brand’s requirements.
- Social and Local Account Integration: With this feature, businesses allow users to sign in using their social media accounts (e.g., Facebook, Google) or local accounts with email and password.
- Multi-Factor Authentication: Entra ID B2C also includes MFA in its CIAM strategy, which enhances security by requiring additional verification methods during sign-in.
- Scalability: It is designed to handle millions of consumer identities and transactions efficiently.
- Policy Configuration: With policy configuration, you can create custom policies to define the user experience and authentication flows.
- API Access: This integrates with various APIs to extend functionality and connect with other systems.
- Branding and Customization: You can fully customize the look and feel of the authentication pages to align with the brand’s identity.
Comparing Azure Entra ID and Entra ID B2C
1. Target Audience
Azure Entra ID: Primarily for internal users, employees, and organizational management.
Entra ID B2C: Focused on external users, customers, and consumer-facing applications.
2. Customization
Azure Entra ID: Limited customization focused on organizational needs and compliance.
Entra ID B2C: Extensive customization options to tailor the user experience and integrate with social accounts.
3. Use Case Scenarios
Azure Entra ID: Ideal for enterprises needing to securely manage employee access to resources and applications.
Entra ID B2C: Best suited for businesses that require managing customer identities and providing a seamless sign-in experience.
4. Integration
Azure Entra ID: Integrates deeply with Microsoft services like Microsoft 365 and other enterprise applications.
Entra ID B2C: Designed to integrate with various social identity providers and offers extensive API support for broader application integration.
5. Security Features:
Both services offer robust security features like MFA and conditional access, but Azure Entra ID focuses more on protecting internal assets, while Entra ID B2C is geared towards safeguarding customer data.
6. Scalability
Azure Entra ID: Primarily designed for scaling internal users.
Entra ID B2C: More scalable and designed to handle millions of external users.
Azure Entra ID and Entra ID B2C: Pricing
Both IAM solutions offer free and paid plans. Azure Entra ID offers premium plans Entra ID P1, P2, and Suite at $6/user/month, $9/user/month, and $12/user/month respectively. The payments are made yearly through annual commitments.
On the other hand, Entra ID B2C is free to use for the first 50,000 monthly active users (MAU). After that, each additional MAU costs $0.03. So, if have 68,000 MAUs, you’ll pay for the additional 18,000 MAUs at $0.03 per MAU each month.
Azure Entra ID and Entra ID B2C: Use cases
As we have discussed so far, Azure Entra ID and Entra ID B2C are two different IAM solutions that cater to different needs and users.
An IAM analyst may use one or the other based on the following use cases.
Use cases of Azure Entra ID
- Internal employee management: Entra ID allows the management of employees to have access to company resources to ensure secure and efficient identity management.
- Access control for SaaS applications: It’s IAM security features provide secure access to third-party SaaS applications used by the organization.
- Enhanced security measures: Implementing MFA and conditional access policies allows businesses to better protect sensitive information with Azure Entra.
- Streamlined IT operations: It minimizes the workload on IT staff with the help of SSPR option and automated identity protection.
Use cases of Entra ID B2C
Consumer-Facing Applications: This allows businesses to manage user identities for apps used by customers, ensuring secure and seamless access.
- Social media integration: Entra ID B2C allows users to sign in with their social media accounts, simplifying the registration process.
- Scalable identity management: With Entra ID B2C, users can handle large volumes of user identities and transactions without compromising performance.
- Customized user experiences: It provides a tailored and branded user experience during authentication processes.
- Secure access for external users: Businesses use Entra ID B2C to implement robust security measures to protect customer data and ensure compliance with regulations.
Conclusion
Azure Entra ID and Entra ID B2C are robust identity management solutions catering to different audiences and needs. Azure Entra ID is perfect for internal organizational identity management, enhancing security, and streamlining IT operations. On the other hand, Entra ID B2C is designed for businesses needing to manage customer identities, offering extensive customization and scalability.
Choosing the right solution depends on your specific requirements: whether you need to manage employee access to internal resources or provide a seamless and secure experience for your customers. By understanding the differences and capabilities of each, you can make an informed decision that best fits your organization’s needs. Based on all the information above, what have you decided?
Contact us at [email protected] to find answers to all your queries regarding Azure Entra vs. Entra ID B2C.