Microencapsulation has been used as a technique for immobilizing microorganisms by polymeric material coating. Microspheres are formed in a semipermeable matrix allowing the physical isolation of the yeast cells in an internal microenvironment that guarantees the survival of the microorganism. Sodium alginate is one of the most used polymers in encapsulation techniques, because of it has non-toxic characteristics and is mechanically strong and stable. Thus, the objective of this study was to compare two microencapsulation techniques, external and internal ionic gelation, as protectors of Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells. The biomass generation was carried out in YPD broth at 30 °C and centrifuged before microencapsulation. The microparticles were formed by dripping 2% sodium alginate in 2% calcium chloride for external gelation and by emulsification method using soybean oil for internal gelation. All microspheres formed were oven dried at 30 °C and analyzed for moisture content, hygroscopicity, water activity and morphology (by optical microscopy). The enumeration of the microorganisms was carried out by the microtake technique, in YPD medium, and the microencapsulation efficiency was calculated. The moist form particles showed 96.13% moisture in the external gelation and 93.84% in the internal gelation. After drying, the moisture content was 13.05% and 12.01%, hygrocopicity was 10.69% and 7.39% and water activity was equal to 0.274 and 0.373 for external and internal gelation, respectively. There was no reduction in the cell concentration of both moist form and dried particles. Morphologically, the microspheres formed in the external gelation showed a more regular structure after drying than internal gelification. The efficiency of microencapsulation for both techniques did not present significant difference. It was possible with the ionic gelation methods to produce microspheres that protected S. cerevisiae, allowing the use of sodium alginate as a wall material.