Connecting Okta and Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD) to B2B SaaS

When selling your SaaS to enterprise clients, Okta and Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) represent over 80% of the Identity Provider (IdP) market.

When your prospect asks, “Can we connect our Okta or Entra ID directory to your application?”, having a streamlined, tested integration flow is critical to closing the deal.

This guide covers how Okta and Entra ID handle authentication with B2B SaaS applications and how SSoBridge allows you to support both identity giants through a single API.

Okta vs. Microsoft Entra ID: Key Identity Differences

While both platforms support standard SAML 2.0 and OpenID Connect (OIDC) protocols, their configuration models and attribute claims differ significantly:

Step-by-Step SAML Integration Architecture

To establish Single Sign-On with either Okta or Entra ID, your application must exchange metadata with the customer’s Identity Provider:

  Enterprise Admin (Okta/Entra)                Your SaaS Application
               │                                         │
               │────── 1. Download IdP Metadata ────────>│
               │                                         │
               │<───── 2. Configure ACS URL & Entity ID ─│
               │                                         │
               │────── 3. Test SSO Authentication ──────>│
1. Metadata Exchange
IdP Issuer / Entity ID: The unique URI identifying Okta or Entra ID.

SSO URL: The endpoint where SAML authorization requests are sent.

X.509 Certificate: Used by your SaaS backend to cryptographically verify incoming SAML assertions.

2. Service Provider Endpoint Setup
Your SaaS must provide:

ACS URL (Assertion Consumer Service): The callback route where tokens are posted.

Audience URI / Entity ID: The unique ID assigned to your application instance.

Handling the Entra ID "Group Object ID" Challenge
A common pain point when integrating Microsoft Entra ID is that SAML assertions send Object GUIDs instead of human-readable group names (e.g., 74a21e42-132d-4d2c... instead of Engineering-Admins).

Without an abstraction layer, your engineering team must write custom Microsoft Graph API calls per client tenant just to fetch group names for Role-Based Access Control (RBAC).

Why Connect Okta & Entra ID via SSoBridge?
Instead of maintaining separate integration guides, custom token parsers, and certificate renewal routines for every enterprise customer:

Plaintext
Your SaaS Application
         │
         ▼
     SSOBridge
         │
  ┌──────┴──────┐
  │             │
Okta        Entra ID
SSoBridge Benefits:
Normalized Attributes: Automatically converts Entra Object GUIDs and Okta group claims into normalized user profile objects.

Self-Service Customer Portal: Embed an admin UI where your customers can configure their own Okta or Entra metadata without developer assistance.

Automated Certificate Rotation: Prevents downtime caused by expired enterprise X.509 certificates.

Close Enterprise Deals Faster
Don't let custom IdP integrations stall your enterprise sales pipeline. SSoBridge handles Okta, Entra ID, Google Workspace, and Ping Identity out of the box.

[Integrate Okta & Entra ID with SSoBridge]