Entra External ID vs Keycloak
Learn how Entra External ID and Keycloak differ in their key features like authentication, enterprise auth, security, user management and compliance, so you can decide which of these authentication providers is best for you.
Entra External ID

Keycloak

Feature Comparison
Both tools offer comparable feature coverage, with Keycloak supporting 30 features and Entra External ID supporting 28. Consider your specific needs regarding authentication, enterprise auth, security, user management and extensibility when making your decision. Keycloak fully covers authentication and user management, and both tools fully cover machine to machine (m2m) authentication and branding.
Session idle and max lifespans and offline sessions can be adjusted to keep sessions alive for longer periods
Admins can invalidate refresh tokens and sessions through the Microsoft Entra admin center and specify token lifetimes
Admins can view and revoke user and client sessions, sign out all sessions, and configure session lifespans in the admin console
The UI is internationalized. Administrators can enable multiple languages and users can choose their language at login or in the account/admin consoles
| Entra External ID | Keycloak | |
|---|---|---|
Session idle and max lifespans and offline sessions can be adjusted to keep sessions alive for longer periods | ||
Admins can invalidate refresh tokens and sessions through the Microsoft Entra admin center and specify token lifetimes | Admins can view and revoke user and client sessions, sign out all sessions, and configure session lifespans in the admin console | |
The UI is internationalized. Administrators can enable multiple languages and users can choose their language at login or in the account/admin consoles |
Compliance Comparison
Entra External ID and Keycloak lack compliance certifications and regulatory frameworks. Therefore you are responsible for meeting compliance requirements yourself.