Configuring a Free Azure AD

Question

Documentation says that there's a free tier of Azure AD you get access to via Microsoft 365, ex: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/active-directory/#pricing

but in the azure portal when configuring an Azure AD instance it only lists Standard, Enterprise and I think the 3rd one was Premium. How do you setup the free AD? We have basic needs AD wise. We want to move our currently on prem software to be a SaaS option via Azure Virtual Desktop and need AD/domain user accounts for customers for them to connect to a Virtual Desktop session apparently. All we need is a real dumb username/password bucket as far as we are concerned. All the data, and permissions a user has are handled via their login into our client not via AD.

So in summary I guess two questions: can we use free AD to authenticate 3rd party users and if so how do you set it up from the portal or otherwise?

Answer 1

Hi @Mike Gallamore ,

There are a few options to set up free Azure services. The resources and services you use will determine whether you need an Microsoft 365 license, a Premium P1 License, or a Premium P2 license. There is a good comparison chart in this article: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/fundamentals/active-directory-whatis

To get 12 months of free services and $200 of Azure credits for 30 days, you can follow this link.

To get a free trial of Azure AD Premium, see this link.

The Microsoft 365 bundles also come with different Azure AD licenses, and that's where you would have seen the Standard and Enterprise options you mentioned. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/servicedescriptions/microsoft-365-service-descriptions/microsoft-365-business-service-description

With the free version, your users will be able to sign on across Azure services, but a lot of the hybrid features will require a Premium license. I would recommend speaking with a billing representative to get free guidance for your particular scenario.

For authenticating third party identities, you would want to leverage Azure AD B2C. B2C has a free tier for your first 50,000 active users per month (MAU) and has incremental pricing for Premium P1 and Premium P2 features.

Let me know if this helps.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cost-management-billing/manage/avoid-charges-free-account
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/free/free-account-faq/