--- title: Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) Reviews meta_title: 'Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2' meta_description: Filter 12 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to find out how Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) works for a business like yours. aggregate_rating: rating_value: 3.4 review_count: 12 scale: '5' date_modified: '2026-07-01' parent_category: name: Confidentiality url: https://www.g2.com/categories/confidentiality --- # Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) Reviews **Vendor:** Microsoft **Category:** [Certificate Lifecycle Management (CLM) Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/certificate-lifecycle-management-clm) **Average Rating:** 3.4/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 12 ## About Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) AD CS provides customizable services for issuing and managing digital certificates used in software security systems that employ public key technologies. ## Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) Reviews ### 1. Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Simon L. | IT OPS Team Manager, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 27, 2023 **What do you like best about Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS)?** Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services is one of essential things for securing that internal communication between servers and clients. It allow the use of things like internal intune configuration, windows hello and secondary factors. there are a lot more uses for this and a lot of how-to guides and documentation for many other types of usage. Microsoft Learn in particular provides a lot of support guides for this. I have for example used this a lot for VPN Security, **What do you dislike about Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS)?** The tool itself is easy to install, but once installed you kind of "what now". there could be updated templates to reflect current usages such as passwordless for example. **What problems is Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) solving and how is that benefiting you?** Additional Layer of Security for Intune and Certificate based VPN and Certificated based RDS Login ### 2. An Insecure and disorganized Solution **Rating:** 1.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Luan G. | Architect, Design, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 12, 2023 **What do you like best about Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS)?** It lacks support for cross platform usage and is limited to Microsoft products. Since it is a Windows based solution it does not manage Linux and MAC clients. This leads to performance issues in networks. Access to domain controllers is somewhat restricted. The configuration steps are difficult when using AWS certificate manager. **What do you dislike about Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS)?** Its availability on Azure Cloud hinders integration with cloud based environments. The lack of troubleshooting resources and advanced features makes smooth operation more difficult requiring time for issue resolution. **What problems is Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) solving and how is that benefiting you?** Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) is solving communication issues. It falls short of meeting the demands of level authentication and comprehensive product lifecycle management. Careful management of certificate expiration is difficult. It lacks built in features to generate CSR without relying on third party tools. ### 3. Best tool to authenticate and secure data in IT infrastructure **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Siddhant R. | Senior Consultant, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 27, 2023 **What do you like best about Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS)?** Its feature of allowing to setup a certificate authority for issuing and managing digital certificates. It comes with Active directory, so it is very easy and efficient to manage certicates for users and computers present in the domain envireonment. **What do you dislike about Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS)?** There is nothing to dislike about this product but i want to highlight one improtant aspect that it is not suitable for intigeration with other platforms. It lacks in cross platform support only good with microsoft products. **What problems is Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) solving and how is that benefiting you?** It is helping in issuing digital certificates to all the objects present in our domain environment . It is easy to manage from single point and implement PKI infrastrasture because our environment is primarly using Active Directory services. ### 4. Compatibility Concerns and Performance Pains **Rating:** 0.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Emanuela P. | Principal, Research, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 10, 2023 **What do you like best about Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS)?** Its compatibility with non Microsoft platforms and performance issues in larger networks. Managing certificate expiration is difficult for domain controllers due to access. **What do you dislike about Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS)?** The limitations on Azure Cloud availability restrict its usage in cloud based environments. The lack of troubleshooting resources on the website makes problem solving difficult. **What problems is Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) solving and how is that benefiting you?** Microsoft AD CS does not manage domains and users optimizing. Its features lack in security measures. Also there arent good options for configuration and customization. ### 5. Great User Authentication Service **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Akash M. | Consultant and Support, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 29, 2023 **What do you like best about Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS)?** We can define the user-level authentication per our requirements and the role ( Role back Access Control) R-Back. We can customize, organize and manage the data through it **What do you dislike about Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS)?** It is a Windows-based solution only. Lacking to manage the Linux and MAC client system for which we need to opt the LDAP. It can also cause performance use in the more extensive network. **What problems is Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) solving and how is that benefiting you?** It allows managing multiple devices over large geographical areas because of automation. We can handle the large group object in a Single console as compare to other directory. ### 6. Micro AD CS review **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Rishabh Raj S. | Network Automation Engineer, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 25, 2023 **What do you like best about Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS)?** Easy to use and UI is also good of Microsoft AD certificate **What do you dislike about Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS)?** Active Directory Certificate Services has limited access for domain controllers **What problems is Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) solving and how is that benefiting you?** Product lifecycle management and authentication ### 7. Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services Review **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** sanjay d. | Technical Manager, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 25, 2023 **What do you like best about Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS)?** Single place/vault to keep track of Certificates within the environment Easy to integrate with alerting system in jira **What do you dislike about Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS)?** Configuration steps are bit complex w.r.t to AWS certificate manager **What problems is Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) solving and how is that benefiting you?** We did not use it because of its unavailability on AZURE CLOUD ### 8. Used to managed digital certs **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Banking | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 18, 2023 **What do you like best about Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS)?** Supports MDM. ITs been around for ages.. **What do you dislike about Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS)?** Managing cert expiration. When not carfully managed it becomes a big problem. **What problems is Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) solving and how is that benefiting you?** I'm not an administor of the product. ### 9. Direct and Easy to use for Certificate **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Janson E. | Network and Security, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 26, 2022 **What do you like best about Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS)?** Ease of Administration when come to generate Certificate **What do you dislike about Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS)?** Lack the features to generate CSR rather than using third party tools **What problems is Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) solving and how is that benefiting you?** Generating internal certificate for web server ### 10. MS AD CS Recommendation **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 07, 2022 **What do you like best about Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS)?** PKI, since it is the most attractive thing in AD CS and everyone would be looking after security in order to get the out of it. Competitors has other encryptions in place so MS has always known for its secure services. Other competitors work as Shared Responsibility model **What do you dislike about Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS)?** The interface needs to me more lively and colorful. And GUI must be more simplest and interactive. this will give more confidence to the customers who are using it on a daily basis. **What problems is Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) solving and how is that benefiting you?** I haven't face any problmes yet, some issues but troubleshooting guide on the website will help resolves the most of the problems. so We can skip this one as there might be some other issues or more advance problems. ### 11. Easy to use and secure **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 07, 2022 **What do you like best about Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS)?** User interface is good and provide good features **What do you dislike about Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS)?** Nothing much. However, the it should be more user friendly **Recommendations to others considering Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS):** Go for it **What problems is Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) solving and how is that benefiting you?** We are tracking user connections to our servers using this. This is great for audits ### 12. Active directory gives you feature to manage all of our domain and users in a better way. **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 29, 2022 **What do you like best about Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS)?** AD connect which gives connection to on-prem AD. **What do you dislike about Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS)?** Only one sync at one time. This needs to be enhanced. **What problems is Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) solving and how is that benefiting you?** Multi level authentication. ## Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) Discussions - [What is Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-microsoft-active-directory-certificate-services-ad-cs-used-for) - [View Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/microsoft-active-directory-certificate-services-ad-cs/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-07-06+02%3A59%3A00+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=c4e3978e-d3dc-4d44-964a-85d73c1e8b4f&secure%5Btoken%5D=76c802d4e0935b41c40231671434ce6d93f97365c2d0517a3b7de7a0ac596494&format=llm_user) ## Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) Features **Functionality** - Certificate Discovery - Expiration Monitoring - Automated Certificate Operations - Policy And Role-Based Access Controls - Workflow - Protocol Support - Reporting And Search - Audit And Enforcement - Key Storage ## Top Microsoft Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) Alternatives - [Cloudflare Application Security and Performance](https://www.g2.com/products/cloudflare-application-security-and-performance/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (580 reviews) - [Sectigo Certificate Manager](https://www.g2.com/products/sectigo-certificate-manager/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (184 reviews) - [Keyfactor EJBCA®](https://www.g2.com/products/keyfactor-ejbca/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (35 reviews)