Microsoft · 8 categories · RankedMicrosoft Entra ID
385Judge labels
120First choices
28Negative labels
12 of 12Models named it
8Categories
September 2026 Edition. Every number here is derived from the raw labels under vendor table vv2026-09.2, every buyer segment counted.
Best standing
47% in Workforce identity for enterprise buyers
Rank 1 of 48 in the mid-market standingendorsed leader
5 of 12 models made it the first choice on the direct prompt; 13% of its 63 labels there were negative.
By buyer segmentStrongest at enterprise.
Small business2 of 44
35%64 labels
endorsed leader
Mid-market1 of 48
36%63 labels
endorsed leader
Enterprise1 of 55
47%67 labels
endorsed leader
In workforce identity · each standing computed within its segment · bars are 0 to 100 · the accent bar is the product's own best reading
Standing by category
Every category where a model named Microsoft Entra ID for a mid-market B2B company. Share is first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts; rank is within every product named in that category.
| Category | Function | Share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels | Quadrant |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Workforce identity and SSO | Identity and access | 36% | 1 of 48 | 13% | 63 | endorsed leader |
| Multi-factor authentication | Identity and access | 30% | 2 of 78 | 2% | 49 | endorsed leader |
| Privileged access management | Identity and access | 2% | 10 of 74 | 0% | 2 | under 10 labels · led by ManageEngine PAM360 at 21% |
| Customer identity and access management | Identity and access | 2% | 14 of 74 | 0% | 1 | under 10 labels · led by Auth0 at 22% |
| Identity governance | Identity and access | 2% | 16 of 77 | 14% | 7 | under 10 labels · led by Lumos at 20% |
| Zero trust network access | Network and edge | 0% | 23 of 71 | 0% | 3 | under 10 labels · led by Cloudflare One at 35% |
| Business password managers | Identity and access | 0% | 17 of 35 | 0% | 1 | under 10 labels · led by Bitwarden at 49% |
| SASE platforms | Network and edge | 0% | 31 of 43 | 0% | 1 | under 10 labels · led by Cato SASE Cloud at 28% |
Movement
This is the first edition on this tier, so no move can be computed for Microsoft Entra ID yet. From the next edition this section shows, per buyer segment, whether its share moved by more than the measured noise floor.
By model
How each model treated Microsoft Entra ID across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Twelve models, six prompts per category.
| Model | First choice | Alternative | Mention | Negative | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 11 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 8 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 12 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 7 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 11 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 2 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 12 |
| Grok 4.1 Fast | 5 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 11 |
| Mistral Small | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 7 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 5 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 11 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 2 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 9 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 5 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 13 |
| Kimi K2 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 11 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 9 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 10 |
By framing
Which of the six questions produced the naming. By model says how often; this says asked what. The first-choice count on the right carries the marks of the models that produced it.
FramingLabels by classFirst choices
Direct81 labels28
Paraphrase69 labels29
Comparative65 labels31not counted in share
Budget-constrained74 labels47
Scale-constrained56 labels16
Negative40 labels7not counted in share
First choiceAlternativeMentionNegative385 labels in all, every segment counted; 120 of the 158 first choices count toward share, since the comparative and negative framings do not. The bar is one segment per label class, to scale within the framing.
What the models said for it
Verbatim evidence the judge attached to positive labels.
“Microsoft shop: Start with Microsoft Entra ID MFA + Conditional Access — cheapest, deep integration, passkey support. This is often the pragmatic default.” DeepSeek V4 Flash · MFA · scale prompt · first choice
“Choose Microsoft Entra ID if you are already a Microsoft-centric shop; the financial integration and native OS/security synergy are too strong to ignore.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · Workforce identity · comparative prompt · first choice
“Leaders to Prioritize (Lower Relative Risk): Microsoft Entra ID (ecosystem lock-in but top execution in Gartner/Forrester; watch non-MS integrations)” Grok 4.1 Fast · Workforce identity · negative prompt · first choice
“Choose Microsoft Entra ID if you are already a 90%+ Microsoft shop and want to consolidate your budget using your existing licensing.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · MFA · comparative prompt · first choice
And against it
Verbatim evidence attached to negative labels. A warning on a product with few labels is a warning; on a product with many, it is one voice among them.
“Caution: Microsoft's deep integration creates significant vendor lock-in risk, and the platform's complexity leads to frequent misconfigurations.” Kimi K2 · Workforce identity · negative prompt · soft negative
“Microsoft's identity platform has also faced vulnerabilities: Critical Vulnerabilities... multiple critical CVSS 10.0 vulnerabilities” MiniMax M2.5 · Workforce identity · negative prompt · soft negative
“it can be less polished outside of it. Advanced governance and identity protection features are often locked behind higher-tier plans” Mistral Small · Workforce identity · negative prompt · soft negative
“Offers the best value only if you're fully invested in the Microsoft stack. Non-Microsoft integrations are often less polished” Qwen 3.7 Flash · Workforce identity · negative prompt · soft negative
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as Microsoft Entra ID, over the 385 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Microsoft Entra ID was named but was not.
ProductSame answerTook the first choice insteadHead to head
A head-to-head page exists where both products are in a category's top three. The other rows are the same fact without a page behind them, so they link to the product instead.
What carried it into the answer
The sites and pages cited by the answers that named Microsoft Entra ID. A fact about retrieval, not a lever on the model.
Citations exist only for the models that return a source list, four of the twelve in this edition, so these counts come from 304 of the 385 answers that named Microsoft Entra ID and are not a share of its labels.
Domains cited
startwithidentity.com174
securityboulevard.com101
okta.com90
siit.io84
rippling.com74
expertinsights.com73
g2.com61
decryptiondigest.com58
corma.io56
techrepublic.com55
826 of the 826 domain citations in answers naming Microsoft Entra ID came from somebody else's page.
Pages cited
Pages are listed as the models cited them.
Names read as Microsoft Entra ID
What the judge wrote, as written, with how often. The vendor table decides that these count as Microsoft Entra ID; a claim can dispute any of them.
Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) 13Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD) 8Microsoft Entra 7Microsoft Entra MFA 4Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory) 2Microsoft Entra ID Free tier 2Azure AD 1Azure AD (Microsoft Entra ID) 1Azure Active Directory 1Entra ID 1Microsoft Authenticator / Entra ID 1Microsoft Azure MFA 1Microsoft Entra (formerly Azure Active Directory) 1Microsoft Entra E5 1Microsoft Entra ID (Access Reviews) 1Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD) MFA 1Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD) Security Defaults 1Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) "Security Defaults" 1Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) MFA 1Microsoft Entra ID / Azure AD with integrated password management 1Microsoft Entra ID / Defender for Endpoint 1Microsoft Entra ID Free security defaults 1Microsoft Entra ID MFA 1Microsoft Entra ID MFA (formerly Azure AD) 1
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Claiming is free and changes nothing in the data. A claimed page shows a verified contact who is told when each edition publishes and when Microsoft Entra ID's standing changes by more than the noise floor; the right to propose corrections to the vendor table, meaning names the judge wrote that should or should not read as Microsoft Entra ID, applied by version and listed in the change log; and a one-line description supplied by the vendor and marked as such.
It does not get any change to labels, shares or verdicts, any preview, or any say over which quotes appear. A verification link goes to your work email; an address at microsoft.com is approved on the spot, any other address is reviewed by hand.
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