If you run IT at a company on Microsoft 365, you may use Entra ID to handle sign-in and managing Microsoft apps. Then you look at the rest of the SaaS stack. Nine tools require tickets, forms and someone creating accounts in by hand. Microsoft has an answer for part of that: Entra ID Governance. It is a real product, and for some teams it is enough.

One IT analyst at a real estate investment firm called out one of the limitations with Entra:

"The thing is that Entra only provisions maybe three out of the 12 applications that we're shooting for."

Analyst, ~1,100-user real estate and investment firm

This guide compares five Entra ID Governance alternatives. It's based on our research and pulls from conversations with 450+ IT buyers who evaluated an access management solution. Most teams keep Entra as the directory and add a governance layer on top, so that is the lens we use.

TL;DR

• Most teams do not replace Entra. They keep Entra for SSO and managing Microsoft apps, then add a tool for provisioning, requests and access reviews across third party SaaS apps.

• The alternative options differ on the SCIM tax, how they assume your identity stack is setup, implementation complexity, and how easily they integrate to third party SaaS apps.

• AccessOwl is best for teams of 30 to 1,000 people on Microsoft 365. It automates access management and governance across hundreds of SaaS apps with no SCIM required, and its pricing is public.

• ConductorOne is best for compliance-led teams with an Okta-centred stack and a security team to run it.

• Okta Identity Governance is best if Okta is already your identity backbone.

• Lumos suits larger teams on a mature identity stack.

What Entra ID Governance covers

Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) comes in Free, P1 and P2 tiers. Microsoft Entra ID Governance is a separate add-on that sits on top of P1 or P2. P1 ships with Microsoft 365 E3 and Business Premium, and P2 with E5. The Governance add-on brings three main capabilities:

• Access reviews let reviewers confirm or remove access to groups, connected apps and roles on a schedule.

• Lifecycle workflows automate joiner, mover and leaver tasks for Entra users, such as disabling the account or removing group memberships.

• Entitlement management bundles access into packages that people request, with approvals and expiry dates.

Confused about P1, P2, E3, E5 and the Governance add-on? We were too. We built this table from Microsoft's docs to make it easier.

• Free: included with any Microsoft 365 or Azure subscription.

• P1: included in Microsoft 365 E3, E5, E7 and Business Premium.

• P2: included in Microsoft 365 E5 and E7.

• Governance: an add-on on top of P1 or P2. It is also included in Microsoft Entra Suite and Microsoft 365 E7.

Source: Microsoft Learn, Governance licensing fundamentals. Page last updated 2026-10-16. We checked it on 2026-10-21.

These are strong where Entra already has the objects. If most of your apps support SCIM and you own the right tier, Entra's own tooling may be all you need. Entra's provisioning service connects to apps through SCIM 2.0, so the more of your stack speaks SCIM on the plan you pay for, the further it goes.

Why teams look for an Entra ID Governance alternative

The search usually starts with the apps outside that net. Governance acts on Entra groups, apps connected to Entra, roles and access packages, so an app with no SCIM endpoint on your plan sits outside what it can create, remove or review. The other limit is the licensing. Governance is a separate layer on top of P1 or P2, and buyers find the packaging hard to follow.

A CISO at an insurance and financial group we talked to said:

"With Entra governance, we right away came across a problem that not all of our application support single sign-on or integrate with Entra. Someone in IT has to go in and create an account and link it, and then attest to the fact that they revoked that access when that person is off-boarded."

CISO, insurance and financial group

Here is where teams typically hit the edge of Entra ID:

The long tail is also growing. Gartner predicts that by 2027, 75% of employees will acquire, modify or create technology outside IT's visibility, up from 41% in 2022 (Gartner, 2023).

Many apps charge extra for SSO and SCIM, which is why so much of the long tail stays outside Entra. We cover that in more detail in our SSO tax guide.

How we ranked these Entra ID Governance alternatives

We compared these tools on the problems a smaller IT team on Microsoft 365 runs into, not on the length of a feature list. Five factors mattered most:

• SSO and SCIM tax: Does the tool need each app on an enterprise plan with SSO or SCIM before it can create and remove accounts?

• What it assumes about your identity setup: Does it work with Entra as it is, or is it built around Okta or another provider?

• Implementation complexity: How long does it take to set up, and does someone need to be an identity or security specialist to run it?

• Pricing: Is it published, or gated behind a sales process, and does it fit a smaller IT team's budget?

• Out-of-the-box connectors: How many apps connect without custom work, and how many of those can actually create and remove accounts?

For a wider view of identity governance tools beyond Entra, see our guide to the best IGA tools by team size.

AccessOwl (best for teams between 30 and 1,000 employees)

AccessOwl is an access governance and automation layer over Microsoft 365. It handles provisioning for onboarding and offboarding, access request workflows and access reviews across hundreds of SaaS apps, with no SCIM required. Entra stays your directory and handles sign-in.

AccessOwl connects to Microsoft with one authorization click, with no migration, and you can be up and running in minutes.

AccessOwl + Microsoft Entra features

• Microsoft 365 as the identity source: Users, groups, managers and start dates sync from Microsoft, including future hires' start dates. Apps can be granted through Microsoft IdP groups, and AccessOwl manages the membership in those groups.

• Provisioning without SCIM: AccessOwl creates and removes accounts through admin service accounts and browser automation, so an app does not need to be on its enterprise plan. Our catalog covers 500+ integrations.

• Request workflows made easy for everyone: Employees request access from an app catalog. Approvers get a notification and approve in one click. AccessOwl then creates the account automatically. Requests that used to take days take minutes.

• Access reviews: User lists are automatically pulled from apps. Reviewers get context with each person's department, job title and last review status, and revoked access is executed and logged by AccessOwl. Our detailed guide to SOC 2 access reviews covers the full process.

• Offboarding that reaches apps outside SSO: When someone leaves, accounts are revoked for all third party SaaS apps, not just the ones behind single sign-on. See our comparison of tools for automating offboarding and access revocation.

• Shadow IT discovery: AccessOwl reads OAuth logs from Microsoft 365 and scans invitation emails to find apps people signed up for without telling IT.

"I was impressed that with AccessOwl I could grant users access and programmatically provision their accounts without having to upgrade to the enterprise tier of the company's applications. Other solutions I'd investigated worked only with specific APIs (SCIM and/or SAML), which would often require enterprise upgrades."

Ethan Yu, Cofounder & COO, from Motion's success story

Who AccessOwl is built for

AccessOwl fits well for solo IT admins and small IT teams at companies of roughly 30 to 1,000 people. You run Microsoft 365, you have a long tail of SaaS apps, and you do not have a dedicated identity or security hire. Often you are the first IT hire, or an ops lead who inherited IT. The setup is quick and the platform is friendly to non technical personnel

AccessOwl does not offer MFA or SSO, so you keep Entra for that. It governs provisioning, requests and reviews. Connecting each app also takes a one-time setup of an admin service account.

Why AccessOwl is best for SMBs on Microsoft 365

No SSO and SCIM tax. Most governance tools only automate apps where SCIM is enabled, which usually means apps on enterprise plans. Connectors that are not SCIM often rely on APIs, and those run into similar limits. Setup takes careful work on your end. If an app is not on the plan that includes API access, you are left with accounts outside central visibility. AccessOwl creates accounts through admin service accounts, so it does not wait for the vendor to support it.

Setup measured in days. There is no migration, and nothing to build before it starts working. You connect Microsoft, connect your apps and turn on the workflows you need.

Pricing you can see. AccessOwl's pricing is public. It starts at $250 a month, and there is a 7-day free trial. You do not have to book a demo to find out what it costs.

Connectors that provision. Every one of the 496 SaaS apps in our catalog supports provisioning and deprovisioning, not only read access, as of 2026-09-23.

Bottom line: If you're a smaller IT team on Microsoft 365 and a lot of your apps do not support SCIM, AccessOwl gets provisioning, requests and access reviews working without needing an entire identity management stack in place.

ConductorOne (best for compliance-led teams on an Okta-centred stack)

ConductorOne (now C1) is an identity governance platform built around access reviews, policy and just-in-time access. It started out as a tool for Okta-centred teams and stays closely tied to that ecosystem. AccessOwl is the lighter alternative for Microsoft 365: it creates and removes accounts in apps that do not support SCIM, so a smaller IT team gets provisioning running without first building out Okta, SCIM and enterprise plans.

An IAM engineer at a 120-person developer platform described the gap this way:

"Our team bought Conductor One believing it could do the whole lifecycle provisioning, because it's advertised like it can. It does not. They have maybe 50 to 80 pre-built connectors. The vast majority of their connectors do not have account provisioning or deprovisioning components built out."

IAM engineer at a fast-growing, 120-person developer platform we spoke to

ConductorOne's own numbers back up the pattern. Its catalog lists 455 apps, but C1's own connector docs show only about 30% of its connectors can create and remove accounts. We break this down in our ConductorOne comparison.

What ConductorOne offers

• Access reviews and certifications, which are its core strength.

• Policy, entitlements and just-in-time access.

• Connectors for Okta, Microsoft Entra, Google Workspace and others. Where a connector cannot create accounts, provisioning falls back to the identity provider, usually by assigning the person to the right group.

• An open-source SDK for building custom connectors.

Where it fits

ConductorOne fits teams with audit pressure, a security or identity person to run the tool, engineers who can build custom connectors, and a budget for an enterprise governance product. A buyer at a 400-person UK software company said this: "Conductor One is very big. You can't really miss them when you start looking for this kind of stuff."

Where it falls short

For a smaller IT team on Microsoft 365, the friction shows up in three places. Provisioning depends on which connectors support it. The tool leans toward Okta, so teams on Entra end up fitting their setup to it. And the pricing is aimed at enterprise budgets. ConductorOne does not publish prices. Its listing on AWS Marketplace shows $100,000 for a 12-month contract, and Vendr's marketplace data puts the median buyer at about $42,500 a year, with a range from about $9,950 to $381,250. Real deals vary.

An IT lead at a European fintech with about 650 users, who evaluated ConductorOne put it simply:

"I liked the product itself. But they were like super, super expensive for us."

IT lead, European fintech with about 650 users

Bottom line

If Okta is your identity backbone and compliance is the driver, ConductorOne is a strong governance layer. If you're on Microsoft 365 with a long tail of apps, it is more platform than most smaller IT teams need. Our ConductorOne alternative guide goes deeper on the comparison.

Okta Identity Governance (best if Okta is already your identity backbone)

Okta Identity Governance (OIG) is the governance add-on in Okta Workforce Identity Cloud, which is Okta's workforce product and not its customer identity product (Auth0). It makes the most sense when Okta is, or is about to be, your identity provider.

What Okta Identity Governance offers

• Access requests through a self-service portal, with approvals routed to a manager.

• Access certifications, scheduled by admins so managers can review their team's permissions.

• Lifecycle management and workflows for onboarding and offboarding, with Okta Workflows for no-code orchestration.

• Entitlement management for fine-grained, in-app permissions such as Admin versus Viewer.

• More than 600 native integrations for discovering app users and permissions, according to Okta.

Where it fits

OIG fits teams standardising on Okta, companies with several identity providers, and larger organisations with an identity team that wants advanced policy control. If that sounds like you, it is the right buy, and a strong one. Okta describes OIG as governance built into its core identity platform, so it works best when that platform is where your users live.

Where it falls short

For a team on Microsoft 365, adding OIG usually means running Okta next to Entra, which is a second identity system and a bigger project than adding a governance layer. Okta Identity Governance is built for a buyer you may not be yet, and that is fine.

Bottom line

Many teams on Microsoft are really choosing between building more on Entra and adding Okta. We cover that choice in our guide to the lean identity management stack. If you are weighing Okta's governance add-on specifically, our guide to the best alternatives to Okta Identity Governance compares the other options.

Lumos (best for larger teams on a mature identity stack)

Lumos combines identity governance with SaaS management. It sits on top of an identity provider and works best where most of the stack already supports SCIM and sits on enterprise plans.

What Lumos offers

• Access requests and approvals, with pre-approved access for low-risk apps.

• Access reviews.

• HRIS-triggered and attribute-based onboarding.

• SaaS management, including app discovery and spend visibility.

• Support for Okta, Google Workspace and Microsoft Entra as identity sources, with Okta as the centre of the product.

Where it fits

Lumos is a modern identity governance platform. It fits larger organisations with a mature identity setup and most apps on enterprise plans. Lumos's comparison page against Zluri describes Lumos as not meant for teams below 200 employees, so check that size guidance against your own headcount.

Where it falls short

A limit buyers describe is integration depth. Most of the catalog relies on SCIM, which brings the SSO tax with it. Shane Fritts, Sr. IT Manager at Maxio, evaluated Lumos and put it this way:

"They advertise a lot of apps that they can integrate with. But when you dig into them, they're behind paywalls. It's not their fault, but… the SSO tax. It automates maybe five to ten percent of what I need it to."

Shane Fritts, Sr. IT Manager, Maxio

Pricing is also sales-gated. Lumos's pricing page does not list prices. Its AWS Marketplace listing shows $27,000 for a 12-month core platform contract plus $180 per additional user a year, and Vendr's data puts the median buyer at about $36,300 a year, with a range from about $13,300 to $129,400 across 55 recorded purchases.

Bottom line

If you're a larger team with Okta in place, Lumos is a capable choice. If you're a smaller IT team on Microsoft 365 with apps outside SCIM, integration depth and price are where the wall appears. Our Lumos alternative guide has the full comparison.

YeshID (best for very small teams)

YeshID is a lightweight identity and access tool for small teams. YeshID and AccessOwl both set out to give non-enterprise companies a way to manage access without paying the SSO tax. The two take different routes. YeshID connects apps through API connectors, and anything it cannot connect becomes a manual task on a checklist. AccessOwl creates and removes accounts through admin service accounts by default and supports APIs and SCIM when they are a better fit. The difference comes down to how many of your apps end up automated and how many stay on the checklist.

What YeshID offers

• Lifecycle workflows for onboarding and offboarding.

• Directory sync for Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 and Entra ID, and JumpCloud.

• Access requests through Slack, with audit-ready logs.

• Shadow IT visibility and alerts on paid plans.

• Published pricing. YeshID has a free plan for teams under 20 users and a paid plan at $9 per user per month, billed annually, with a 14-day trial.

Where it fits

YeshID fits teams of a few dozen people with a simple stack and mostly connectable apps. The free tier makes it easy to start and the setup is light.

Where it falls short

Coverage is where small teams hit the limit. YeshID's own docs say what it can do depends on the plan you have in each app. For example, YeshID's Slack guide states that SCIM requires the Slack Business+ or Enterprise Grid plan, and its GitHub integration is read-only, so onboarding and offboarding steps for GitHub run as manual tasks.

Bottom line

YeshID is a good place to start for a very small team. As the stack grows, count the apps a tool will actually create and remove accounts in. Our YeshID alternative guide compares the two.

The 5 Entra ID Governance alternatives compared

Do you need to replace Entra ID, or just extend it?

Most teams keep Entra ID as the directory and sign-in layer and add a governance layer on top. Replacing the identity provider is a different and bigger project, and it solves a different problem than the gap described above. Entra ID is your directory and sign-in. Entra ID Governance is the add-on for reviews, workflows and access packages.

Self assessment questions for picking an Entra ID Governance alternative

A few questions settle most choices:

• What share of your apps support SCIM on the plan you pay for today? If most do, Entra's own tooling may be enough.

• How big is your IT team? Among the companies under 100 employees that came to us looking for an access tool, 90% had no dedicated IT person. Tools built for a dedicated identity team assume someone you may not have.

• Do you have a security and compliance team alongside your IT team? If you do, a compliance-heavy platform has people to run it. If IT also carries security and compliance, pick the tool one person can operate.

• Is Okta already your identity provider? If yes, Okta Identity Governance or ConductorOne are worth a look.

• Will your employees adopt a clunky enterprise tool? An IT and InfoSec manager at a ~95-person UK fintech said this: "With an enterprise tool that's hard to adopt, employees are still just going to put a Jira ticket in. Like, what have we solved?"

If you are a smaller IT team on Microsoft 365 with apps outside SCIM, try AccessOwl free for 7 days. You can also run our free shadow IT scan to see which apps you are missing.

FAQs

Is Entra ID Governance enough for a small company?

It can be, if most of your apps support SCIM and you already have the right Entra tier. It acts on groups, connected apps and access packages, so apps outside Entra still need another route. Many smaller teams add a governance layer for that.

What is the difference between Entra ID P1, P2 and Entra ID Governance?

P1 and P2 are Entra ID tiers. Governance is a separate add-on on top of P1 or P2. Lifecycle workflows are in the Governance add-on, and access reviews and entitlement management are in Governance with a subset on P2. Learn's licensing page has the full feature table.

Do I need to replace Entra ID to get better governance?

No. Most teams keep Entra ID as the directory and sign-in layer and add a tool on top for provisioning, requests and reviews.

How do I provision apps that don't support SCIM from Entra?

Entra's provisioning service needs an app to expose a SCIM endpoint, or you have to build a custom connector. For apps without SCIM, tools like AccessOwl create the accounts through admin service accounts and browser automation instead.

What Entra ID Governance alternatives are the easiest to set up?

AccessOwl and YeshID are the lightest to set up. AccessOwl connects to Microsoft with one authorization click, with no migration, and you can be running in minutes. Each app then needs a one-time admin service account. YeshID is also light to start, with a free plan for teams under 20 users, though apps it cannot connect stay as manual tasks. ConductorOne, Okta Identity Governance and Lumos are usually a project run by a security or identity team, and they assume an identity stack, often Okta, is already in place.

What is the SSO tax and how does it affect Entra?

The SSO tax is the premium that vendors charge to unlock SSO and SCIM, usually on enterprise plans. It matters for Entra because the apps without SSO or SCIM on your plan stay outside what Entra can provision. See ssotax.org.