Microsoft Entra External ID vs Salesforce
Which one do AI engines recommend, and how do they differ on price, fit and features?
The short answer
Salesforce is the stronger AI pick in Identity & Access Management: it has a visibility score of 6.6 versus 4.9 for Microsoft Entra External ID, and ranks ahead in 67% of the answers that name both.
Choose Microsoft Entra External ID if…
- Customer and external-user identity integrated with Microsoft's ecosystem
Choose Salesforce if…
- You want the brand AI engines rank higher (6.6 vs 4.9)
- AI answers describe it more positively (21% vs 0% positive)
- You need ISO 27001:2022 or ISO 27017 or ISO 27018 or SOC 1 or SOC 2 or SOC 3 or HITRUST coverage
- Powerful reporting, automation and customisation
AI visibility side by side
Latest weekly run · Nov 3
| Metric | Microsoft Entra External ID | Salesforce |
|---|---|---|
| Visibility score | 4.9% | 6.6% |
| Change vs last week | down−0.6% | down−0.8% |
| Rank in Identity & Access Management | #20 | #12 |
| Share of voice | 1.9% | 1.7% |
| Mentions this run | 6 | 5 |
| Positive in AI answers | 0% | 21% |
The stronger value in each row is marked with a ✓.
Visibility score trend
Weekly runs over the last 60 days
Microsoft Entra External ID −6.799999999999999pp · Salesforce −2.5999999999999996pp over 1 weekly runs.
Engine by engine
Salesforce leads on 1 of 3 engines
Head to head in AI answers
3 engine answers name both brands
| Prompt | Engine | Microsoft Entra External ID | Salesforce |
|---|---|---|---|
| What is a identity and access management platform and when does a company need one? | ChatGPT | #8 | #1 |
| What is a identity and access management platform and when does a company need one? | Perplexity | #1 | #2 |
| What should a identity and access management platform integrate with? | ChatGPT | #13 | #3 |
Features, pricing & fit
| Dimension | Microsoft Entra External ID | Salesforce |
|---|---|---|
| Deployment | Cloud (SaaS) | Cloud (SaaS) |
| Compliance | — | ISO 27001:2022, ISO 27017, ISO 27018, SOC 1, SOC 2, SOC 3, HITRUST |
| Support | — | Phone, Trailblazer Community, Success Plans, Trailhead training |
| Founded | — | 1999 |
| Headquarters | Redmond, WA, United States | San Francisco, California |
| Employees | 5,000+ | 5,000+ |
| Best for | Organizations building customer-facing or partner-facing sign-in on Microsoft's cloud, including new projects that would previously have used Azure AD B2C. | Businesses from small companies to large enterprises wanting sales, service, marketing and commerce on one CRM platform |
Pros and cons
Themes from the AI answers that mention each brand
Microsoft Entra External ID
- Customer and external-user identity integrated with Microsoft's ecosystem
Salesforce
- Powerful reporting, automation and customisation
- Market leader and gold standard CRM
- Deep ecosystem and strong CRM integrations
- Built for large enterprises and scaling
- Free trial to test its features
- Requires a dedicated administrator to manage
- High enterprise pricing
- Heavy, slow implementation that suits large budgets
Data collected ·ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode·coverage 98.8%·next run
Cite as: SlateIndex, “Microsoft Entra External ID vs Salesforce”, https://slateindex.ai/compare/microsoft-entra-external-id-vs-salesforce, data of Nov 3, 2026. Licence: CC BY 4.0.