Licence Types to Use SSO through Azure Enterprise App

Question

Licence Types to Use SSO through Azure Enterprise App

Neil Duffy 0

Hi,

What types of licence are available for users who we want to use SSO through Azure but we don't need them to have a mailbox or access to any other Microsoft App?

The reason I ask is that we are working with an organisation who want to access our Enterprise App through SSO however not all users have an organisation email account/mailbox.

Are there any other licence types that can be used solely for SSO as the cost of a licence for each additional user would be unsustainable.

Thanks

Neil

Andy Agarwal 0 Reputation points

2025-12-29T04:58:08.5566667+00:00

Azure AD Free tier works fine for SSO. Your users don't need mailboxes or any M365 licenses - just an identity in the directory. You can create cloud-only accounts at no cost.

The confusing part is whose problem this is. If you're the app vendor (which it sounds like), your customers manage their own Azure AD tenants and users. Their licensing situation, not yours. You just consume the SAML assertion they send.

Real talk though - if you're building a B2B app and dealing with enterprise SSO, the Azure licensing question is the easy part. The actual pain is supporting Azure AD and Okta and Google Workspace and whatever else your customers use. Each has its own certificate rotation schedule, attribute mapping quirks, and 2am "SSO is broken" tickets.

Most companies either spend 8-12 weeks building all that in-house or just use something like SSOJet ($99/month for 2 connections) to avoid becoming identity experts. Depends on whether that engineering time is better spent on your actual product.

But yeah - Azure AD Free handles SSO fine. No Exchange needed.

Your answer

Andy Agarwal 0 Reputation points

2025-12-29T04:58:08.5566667+00:00

Azure AD Free tier works fine for SSO. Your users don't need mailboxes or any M365 licenses - just an identity in the directory. You can create cloud-only accounts at no cost.

The confusing part is whose problem this is. If you're the app vendor (which it sounds like), your customers manage their own Azure AD tenants and users. Their licensing situation, not yours. You just consume the SAML assertion they send.

Real talk though - if you're building a B2B app and dealing with enterprise SSO, the Azure licensing question is the easy part. The actual pain is supporting Azure AD and Okta and Google Workspace and whatever else your customers use. Each has its own certificate rotation schedule, attribute mapping quirks, and 2am "SSO is broken" tickets.

Most companies either spend 8-12 weeks building all that in-house or just use something like SSOJet ($99/month for 2 connections) to avoid becoming identity experts. Depends on whether that engineering time is better spent on your actual product.

But yeah - Azure AD Free handles SSO fine. No Exchange needed.