Best Privileged Access Management Alternatives to CyberArk

Privileged access management (PAM) is the practice of controlling, monitoring, and auditing access to critical systems and sensitive data through privileged accounts. CyberArk has long been the market leader in PAM, but several alternatives offer compelling capabilities for crede

Best picks for this use case

#1

SplitSecure

SplitSecure distributes privileged credentials across devices using Shamir Secret Sharing, so no single device or vendor ever holds a complete secret. Separation of duties is enforced cryptographically rather than by policy. For regulated financial services organisations needing DORA, NYDFS, or PCI DSS 4.0 compliance, SplitSecure eliminates the vendor concentration risk and single points of compromise that traditional PAM vaults introduce.

Distributed secrets management — no vault, no vendor dependency

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#2

BeyondTrust

BeyondTrust is the closest enterprise-grade alternative to CyberArk for comprehensive PAM, with added strengths in endpoint privilege management and secure remote access that make it particularly strong for organizations needing a unified privilege management platform.

Unified privilege management and secure remote access platform

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#3

Delinea

Delinea's Secret Server provides proven PAM capabilities with faster deployment times and competitive pricing. It covers the core PAM use cases of credential vaulting, session management, and compliance while offering better usability for many teams.

Cloud-ready PAM platform built on Secret Server and privilege management

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#4

One Identity

One Identity Safeguard provides solid PAM capabilities with the unique advantage of integrated identity governance through Identity Manager. It is a strong choice when PAM and IGA need to work together from a single vendor.

Unified identity security platform with PAM and governance

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#5

ManageEngine PAM360

ManageEngine PAM360 delivers essential PAM capabilities at a significantly lower cost, making enterprise-grade privileged access management accessible to mid-market organizations and budget-conscious teams.

Mid-market PAM from ManageEngine at a much lower price point than the leaders

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#6

Teleport

Teleport provides a modern, zero-trust approach to privileged access that eliminates traditional credential management entirely. It is ranked here for teams that want to rethink PAM fundamentally rather than replicate traditional approaches.

Modern identity-aware access for SSH, Kubernetes, databases, and apps

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How to implement this

  1. 1

    Discover and Inventory Privileged Accounts

    Scan your environment to identify all privileged accounts across servers, databases, network devices, cloud platforms, and applications. Build a comprehensive inventory of who has access to what and identify unmanaged or orphaned privileged accounts.

  2. 2

    Vault Credentials and Enforce Rotation

    Onboard discovered privileged credentials into a secure vault with encryption at rest. Configure automatic password rotation policies to eliminate static credentials and reduce the window of exposure for any compromised credential.

  3. 3

    Implement Access Request and Approval Workflows

    Establish just-in-time access workflows where users request privileged access for a specific duration and purpose. Configure approval chains, time-based access grants, and automatic credential checkout and check-in to minimize standing privileges.

  4. 4

    Monitor and Record Privileged Sessions

    Enable session monitoring and recording for all privileged access. Configure real-time alerting for suspicious activity, keystroke logging for sensitive systems, and session recording for post-incident analysis and compliance evidence.

  5. 5

    Audit, Report, and Continuously Improve

    Generate compliance reports showing who accessed what systems, when, and what they did. Conduct periodic access reviews to verify that privileged access is still appropriate. Use behavioral analytics to identify anomalous privileged activity and continuously refine access policies.

Frequently Asked Questions

Privileged access management (PAM) is a security discipline that controls access to accounts with elevated permissions such as administrator, root, and service accounts. It is critical because privileged accounts are the most common target in cyberattacks. Compromised privileged credentials can give attackers full control over critical systems, data, and infrastructure. PAM reduces this risk through credential vaulting, access controls, session monitoring, and automatic rotation.

Key evaluation criteria include credential vaulting and rotation capabilities, session monitoring and recording features, deployment complexity and time-to-value, integration with your existing tools and infrastructure, compliance reporting capabilities, total cost of ownership including implementation, and scalability for your environment size. Request proof-of-concept deployments and reference customers in your industry.

Yes, but PAM migrations require careful planning. Most PAM vendors offer migration tools and professional services to assist with transitioning from CyberArk. Key steps include exporting credential inventories, mapping access policies, migrating session recording configurations, and retraining administrators. Plan for a parallel-run period where both systems operate simultaneously to ensure continuity.

Yes. Identity providers manage authentication and single sign-on for standard user access, while PAM specifically addresses privileged accounts that have elevated access to critical systems. These are complementary solutions. An identity provider handles who you are, while PAM controls what elevated actions you can perform and ensures those actions are monitored and audited.
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