What is the difference between creating user from EntraID and MS365 Protal?

Question

So i can create a User from Microsoft 365 portal without using EntraID. Does that automatically create a user on EntraID ? Meaning : Are User Synced ? And when i Create A user using EntraID would a MS365 user be automatically created as well? Why do i have the option to create users using different ways, what is the difference?

Would it be possible for me to create and maintain Users using EntraID and use those accounts to set up all Office365, Exchange, Sharepoint and Teams services?

Don't have a subscription.

Answer 1

I'm not really an M365 admin, but I'll try to answer to the best of my knowledge.

The user store used in both cases is the same, Entra ID. All users in M365 are Entra ID users. These are not separate, so it should not matter what route you use to create the users.

What can differ is the properties that you can set in each portal. The form in Entra portal might just not have some of the fields that the M365 portal has, so you can't define that field through there.

Why do i have the option to create users using different ways, what is the difference?

The Entra portal is the "core" place to manage users since that is the user store. But M365 admins need to manage things that are not part of that core. So to make it more convenient for them and so they don't have to leave the M365 admin portal, they offer a user creation form there as well.

Would it be possible for me to create and maintain Users using EntraID and use those accounts to set up all Office365, Exchange, Sharepoint and Teams services?

I would think so, yes. I've only assigned M365 licenses through the M365 portal; I'm not sure if you can assign M365 licenses through Entra portal. You might have to do some management operations through M365 portal still.