what is microsoft entra? what is its relationship to B2C?

Question

Here is the Doc: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory-b2c/customize-ui?pivots=b2c-user-flow#configure-company-branding

It says:

Keep these things in mind when you configure company branding in Azure AD B2C:

Company branding in Azure AD B2C is currently limited to background image, banner logo, and background color customization. The other properties in the company branding pane, for example, Advanced settings, aren't supported.

OK, looks like there is very few I can do. It is limited to background image, banner logo, and background color customization.

However, In step 6, it says:

Follow the steps in Add branding to your organization's Microsoft Entra sign-in page.

If you follow the guide to Add branding to your organization's Microsoft Entra sign-in page, there are all these nice things you can customize, like:

1. Favicon: Small icon that appears on the left side of the browser tab.
2. Header: Space across the top of the sign-in page, behind the header log.
3. Header logo: Logo that appears in the upper-left corner of the sign-in page.
4. Background image: The entire space behind the sign-in box.
5. Page background color: The entire space behind the sign-in box.
6. Banner logo: Logo that appears at the top of the sign-in box
7. Sign-in page title: Larger text that appears below the banner logo.
8. Sign-in page description: Text to describe the sign-in page.
9. Username hint and text: The text that appears before a user enters their information.
10. Self-service password reset: A link you can add below the sign-in page text for password resets.
11. Sign-in page text: Text you can add below the username field.
12. Footer link: Privacy & Cookies: Link you can add to the lower-right corner for privacy information.
13. Footer: Terms of Use: Text in the lower-right corner of the page where you can add Terms of use information.
14. Footer: Space across the bottom of the page for privacy and Terms of Use information.
15. Template: The layout of the page and sign-in boxes.

A: Company branding in Azure AD B2C is currently limited to background image, banner logo, and background color customization.

B: I can customize all those 15 elements above.

Now, which one is it????

Answer 1

It depends on what you're using. If you're using Azure AD B2C then it's

A: Company branding limited to background image, banner logo, and background color customization.

B2C does also support completely customising the branding but for that you need to host HTML/CSS/JS yourself.

The confusion you have here is between Entra ID and Azure AD B2C, they're different products under the same umbrella.

• Entra - Umbrella term for Microsoft's identity-related products
  • Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory) - Provides identity within your organisation
  • Entra External ID - Umbrella term for Microsoft's identity products that provide identity outside your organisation
    • Entra External ID for partners - Allows you to invite your partners as guests to your Entra ID tenant
    • Entra External ID for customers - Allows you to provide identity to your customers, separate from your organisation's Entra ID tenant (in preview)
    • Azure AD B2C - Allows you to provide identity to your customers and, to a degree, to your partners, separate from your organisation's Entra ID tenant
  • Entra Verified ID - Provides distributed identity via verified credentials

There are other products under the Entra umbrella as well, mostly related to Entra ID, but those are the main ones as a starting point for dealing with users' identities.

You'll notice the Azure AD B2C and External ID for customers serve largely the same purpose. That's because MS have identified that B2C can be quite difficult to configure once you get into more complex scenarios, and it's built on an older version of Azure AD, so their long term plan is to migrate the service to External ID for customers.