Same-subcategory comparison

Microsoft Entra External IDvsPingOne for Customers

Compare buyer fit, pricing, capability depth, and purchase constraints within one buying category. A higher score is not a universal winner.

Comparison summary

How to choose

These conclusions apply to this subcategory and the buyer conditions shown here. They do not make one product universally better.

Microsoft Entra External ID

Consider when

Developers building branded customer registration and authentication into web and mobile apps.
Identity teams managing external business-guest access to Microsoft 365.

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Customer applications requiring SMS as the primary authentication method.
Customer tenants requiring Entra ID Governance or application proxy.

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PingOne for Customers

Consider when

Customer identity journeys need visual orchestration
Customer applications require stronger authentication

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Passwordless bundle components must run outside DaVinci
Unlimited user creation must continue beyond the licensed hard cap

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Dimension	Microsoft Entra External ID	PingOne for Customers
Pricing and trial	Basic Free · per Monthly Active User · First 50,000 MAUs free · First 50,000 monthly active users of Basic $0.03 USD · per Monthly Active User · per month · Basic usage above 50,000 MAUs · usage based · Basic usage beyond the first 50,000 monthly active users Basic charges for usage above 50,000 MAUs. Linked tenants share the monthly active-user count. Premium add-ons have no free tier: SMS is USD 0.03/0.07/0.15/0.35 per attempt by country tier, M2M USD 0.001 per token and Go-Local USD 0.02 per MAU/month. Workforce-only guest Governance is USD 0.75 per MAU/month and GSA USD 2.50 per MAU/month through Entra Private Access. These East US USD estimates depend on the Azure agreement. Production billing requires a linked Azure subscription; customer and guest configurations have different entitlements. Full profile	Essential Amount unverified — check official pricing Plus Amount unverified — check official pricing PingOne for Customers Passwordless Requires quote · custom quote Essential covers customer authentication, SSO, profiles and orchestration. Plus adds adaptive MFA and API access management. Passwordless combines Protect, SSO, Directory and MFA through DaVinci, with a transaction-based license and sales quote. Specify licensed identities or transactions, currency, implementation and support in the order form. Direct-purchase template terms provide advance invoicing with net-30 payment, equal-term automatic renewal and 90-day non-renewal notice unless overridden. Full profile
Best for	Developers building branded customer registration and authentication into web and mobile apps. Identity teams managing external business-guest access to Microsoft 365. Applications whose active-user demand changes over time.	Customer identity journeys need visual orchestration Customer applications require stronger authentication Customer consent and preferences must be managed
Not for	Customer applications requiring SMS as the primary authentication method. Customer tenants requiring Entra ID Governance or application proxy. Deployments requiring Microsoft Entra US Government Cloud.	Passwordless bundle components must run outside DaVinci Unlimited user creation must continue beyond the licensed hard cap
Source check	96/100	93/100
Key features	Branded registration and sign-in Conditional Access and multifactor authentication Federation and single sign-on REST authentication extensions Business-guest B2B collaboration	Customer SSO, registration and identity profiles Visual orchestration of Ping identity services Customer self-service preference management REST and SCIM interfaces and LDAP gateway connectivity Plus adaptive MFA, mobile verification and API access management
Cons	Add-on fees apply even within the free Basic allowance. Actual payment, commitment and renewal conditions depend on the Azure agreement. Go-Local residency requires a creation-time Australia/Japan selection.	Confirm the actual currency and contracted capacity: Annual starting prices are lower bounds the order form determines currency and licensing quantities. Budget for usage beyond licensed entitlements: Overage rates depend on the order form. Flow-based and identity-based licenses have different fair-use rules.
Category buying score	83	85Higher category-fit score
Rank	#3	#2
Context	Security & Privacy / Customer Identity and Access Management Software	Security & Privacy / Customer Identity and Access Management Software
Customer authentication experience	87Branded registration and sign-in plus OIDC, OAuth 2.0 and SAML federation cover the documented customer authentication paths; teams using SMS should pair it with another primary factor because SMS is limited to MFA.	87Essential combines customer registration and SSO with profile management and visual orchestration, while Plus and Passwordless provide distinct authentication paths that buyers should match to their intended journeys.
Customer auth policy security	88Conditional Access and multifactor authentication support customer access policies, while SMS is an add-on for MFA rather than a first factor; buyers should select controls that match their sign-in policy.	86Plus includes adaptive MFA, mobile verification, trusted-device authentication and transaction approval, while Passwordless use is confined to DaVinci flows; buyers should align controls and licensed workflow to their access design.
Customer profile and identity control	76Customer registration and REST authentication extensions support identity workflows that call application-defined business logic, while teams should map their profile and account-linking needs to the application design.	88REST and SCIM profile interfaces, directory synchronization and an on-premises LDAP gateway provide defined identity connection paths for teams integrating customer profiles with existing directories.
Consent and privacy readiness	78Go-Local offers exclusive data storage in Australia or Japan for external tenants, with the region fixed at tenant creation; buyers should settle residency needs before provisioning and confirm their consent obligations.	79Product-level consent capture and enforcement supports preference-aware identity workflows, with procurement needing to validate the selected package against its consent obligations.
Scale and developer fit	82REST authentication extensions and listed Azure App Service and Visual Studio Code integrations provide defined application connection paths, while linked tenants share MAU counts for billing; teams should validate capacity and usage forecasts against their deployment design.	80REST and SCIM interfaces, directory synchronization, LDAP connectivity and a mobile SDK provide defined integration paths for customer apps; teams should validate deployment capacity against their traffic and region needs.
Full profile	Full profile	Full profile

Comparison summary

Most material score differences

These are the stored dimension rationales returned with each score. They explain the buyer conditions behind the gap without speculating about hidden model reasoning.

Customer profile and identity control

12 pts

Microsoft Entra External ID · 76/100: Customer registration and REST authentication extensions support identity workflows that call application-defined business logic, while teams should map their profile and account-linking needs to the application design.
PingOne for Customers · 88/100: REST and SCIM profile interfaces, directory synchronization and an on-premises LDAP gateway provide defined identity connection paths for teams integrating customer profiles with existing directories.

Customer auth policy security

2 pts

Microsoft Entra External ID · 88/100: Conditional Access and multifactor authentication support customer access policies, while SMS is an add-on for MFA rather than a first factor; buyers should select controls that match their sign-in policy.
PingOne for Customers · 86/100: Plus includes adaptive MFA, mobile verification, trusted-device authentication and transaction approval, while Passwordless use is confined to DaVinci flows; buyers should align controls and licensed workflow to their access design.

Scale and developer fit

2 pts

Microsoft Entra External ID · 82/100: REST authentication extensions and listed Azure App Service and Visual Studio Code integrations provide defined application connection paths, while linked tenants share MAU counts for billing; teams should validate capacity and usage forecasts against their deployment design.
PingOne for Customers · 80/100: REST and SCIM interfaces, directory synchronization, LDAP connectivity and a mobile SDK provide defined integration paths for customer apps; teams should validate deployment capacity against their traffic and region needs.

Research basis

This page uses stored product facts, official evidence, and category scoring rationales. It is not an account-based hands-on test, and third-party user ratings are not folded into the category buying score.

Microsoft Entra External ID: Fact confidence: 96% · Fact checked: 2026-10-06
PingOne for Customers: Fact confidence: 93% · Fact checked: 2026-10-06