Head to head
Amazon Cognito vs Microsoft Entra External ID
Both platforms are scored with the same methodology and the same category rubric. Nothing on this page is influenced by advertising.
45/100 | 49/100Higher score | |
|---|---|---|
| Category rank | #9 | #5 |
| Confidence | High confidence | Medium confidence |
| External Reputation | 79 | 71 |
| AI Authority | 0 | 31 |
| Web Authority | 35 | 27 |
| Expert Assessment | 67 | 63 |
| TOP10 User Score | — | — |
| Pricing | Lite: $0.0055 per MAU above the free tier (first band), $0.0046 per MAU next band — AWS example 950,000 MAUs = $4,405/month · free tier: 10,000 MAU/month per account or AWS Organization on Lite and Essentials (does not expire); 50 MAU/month for SAML 2.0/OIDC federated users on any tier; identity pools free of charge; no free tier on Plus, none for M2M token requests, and none in AWS GovCloud (US) Regions | Not published — the vendor pricing page rendered every dollar figure as '$-' on retrieval; the paid rate above 50,000 MAUs is stated only as 'per Monthly Active User' · free tier: Core offering free for the first 50,000 monthly active users (MAUs) |
| Pricing model | Usage-based (pay-as-you-go per monthly active user, plus per-token and per-RPS add-ons) | Usage-based (Monthly Active User metering) with free allowance and paid add-ons |
| Best for | Engineering teams already running on AWS that are building consumer or B2C applications with social/direct sign-in, either below 10,000 MAU (free) or above roughly 500,000 MAU on Lite, and with in-house capacity to wire up Lambda triggers, IAM, KMS and SNS/SES. | Enterprises already running Microsoft Entra, Microsoft 365 and Azure that need partner and supplier guest access with governance, or customer-facing apps under 50,000 MAUs where password and social sign-in suffice without metered SMS. |
| Avoid if | You sell B2B SaaS where every user arrives via a corporate SAML/OIDC IdP, need adaptive authentication on a small user base, provision an app client per tenant beyond 2,500, operate in GovCloud, have no AWS footprint or platform engineering capacity, or require a fixed predictable monthly invoice. | You need a firm published price before engaging sales, run a high-volume consumer app dependent on SMS OTP, need governance on a pure consumer external tenant, sit outside the Azure ecosystem, or weight depth of peer review evidence heavily. |
| Markets | SMB, Enterprise, Startups, Consumer/B2C applications, Public sector (with GovCloud limitations) | Enterprise, Mid-Market, Public Sector, SMB |
| Founded | — | — |
| Headquarters | — | — |
A higher TOP SCORE means more of the evidence favours that platform on this methodology — it is not a recommendation, and it does not account for your specific requirements. Advertisers are never declared the winner of a comparison.