Delinea Secret Server vs Microsoft Entra ID

Different layers of the access stack

Delinea Secret Server is a privileged-access management vault. Its job is to discover, store, and automatically rotate the credentials that grant elevated control over infrastructure, and to record privileged sessions for audit. It treats heterogeneous estates as first-class, managing secrets for Windows and Linux servers, databases, network gear, and service accounts regardless of the underlying cloud or identity provider. It is not a workforce authentication or single sign-on system.

Microsoft Entra ID, formerly Azure Active Directory, is a cloud identity platform. It authenticates users, enforces multi-factor authentication and conditional access, federates single sign-on to thousands of applications, and provides identity governance for access requests, reviews, and lifecycle. Its Privileged Identity Management capability, available in the P2 tier, provides just-in-time elevation for Microsoft and Azure roles and integrated applications. Entra governs who users are and what roles they can assume, but it is not a credential vault for arbitrary infrastructure secrets.

Pricing comparison

Microsoft Entra ID publishes clear per-user tiers. A free tier ships with Azure and Microsoft 365 subscriptions; Entra ID P1 is approximately $6 per user per month and adds full conditional access; Entra ID P2 is approximately $9 per user per month and adds Identity Protection and Privileged Identity Management. Entra ID Governance is a roughly $7 per user per month add-on requiring P1 or P2. Many organisations already hold these licences, since Microsoft 365 E3 includes P1 and E5 includes P2, so the marginal cost can be low.

Delinea Secret Server is quote-based, with independent references placing it around $90-$180 per user per year, and bundles with Privilege Manager that are often competitive. Because the two products address different layers, organisations frequently buy both: Entra for workforce identity and Delinea for privileged credential vaulting. Pricing verified June 2026. Enterprise pricing for Delinea requires a quote, and Entra costs should be checked against existing Microsoft 365 entitlements.

Fit and how they combine

Entra ID is the natural backbone for identity in organisations already invested in Microsoft 365 and Azure, where conditional access, single sign-on, and governance can be applied consistently across the estate. Its Privileged Identity Management is well suited to controlling elevation of Azure and Microsoft 365 administrative roles on a just-in-time basis. The limitation is scope: PIM does not vault or rotate the credentials for a Linux fleet, a database tier, or network appliances.

Delinea fills exactly that gap. A common architecture uses Entra ID as the identity provider and single sign-on layer, with Entra Privileged Identity Management governing cloud role elevation, while Delinea Secret Server vaults and rotates the privileged credentials for infrastructure that lives outside the Microsoft role model. In that pattern the two are complementary rather than competing, and the honest limitation of each is simply that it does not do the other's job.

User sentiment

Buyers frequently note that Microsoft Entra ID is the path of least resistance for organisations already running Microsoft 365, with conditional access and broad application integration cited as practical strengths, while some observe that getting full value from governance and Privileged Identity Management requires the higher-priced P2 tier and careful configuration. For Delinea Secret Server, buyers consistently highlight fast deployment, intuitive credential management, and effective rotation across mixed infrastructure, and they value the lighter operational footprint. Reviewers of both products tend to agree that the tools are not substitutes: satisfaction is highest when Entra is used for identity and access policy and Delinea is used for privileged credential vaulting, rather than expecting either to cover the other's domain.

Recommendation

Choose Microsoft Entra ID when the goal is workforce identity, single sign-on, conditional access, and identity governance, especially in a Microsoft-centric estate where licences may already be held through Microsoft 365. Choose Delinea Secret Server when the goal is to vault, rotate, and audit privileged credentials across servers, databases, and network devices that fall outside the Microsoft role model. For most enterprises the practical answer is to deploy both, using Entra as the identity backbone and Delinea as the privileged credential vault, so each covers the layer it is designed for.

Alternatives to both