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ACF2 vs Top Secret comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 4, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

ACF2
Ranking in Mainframe Security
4th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.8
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
Database Security (12th)
Top Secret
Ranking in Mainframe Security
3rd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
8.4
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Mainframe Security category, the mindshare of ACF2 is 12.5%, up from 11.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Top Secret is 12.3%, down from 15.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Mainframe Security Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Top Secret12.3%
ACF212.5%
Other75.2%
Mainframe Security
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer1077621 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Examiner at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
A reliable, scalable product for security and auditing of our mainframe environment
It is a good product. It has been used for years. As long as it is configured correctly, it is a very stable product. It depends on how an institution or a company configures it. It depends on an institution's risk appetite. You need to make sure it is configured as per the concept of least privilege, and the logging features, detection and control mechanism, and other things like that are enabled. If you configure it to give access to the public, then there could be compromises. You should also have someone who independently checks it to make sure that it is configured keeping security in mind. If it has been configured for a while, when there are enhancements to the product or when you enhance it, you need to make sure that security is also looked at, and it is configured according to an institution's security policies. I would rate it a nine out of 10.
it_user814482 - PeerSpot reviewer
Information Security Engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
All the features help ensure we are compliant with banking regulations
Top Secret is our external security manager for our mainframe systems It's an integral part of all of our mainframe security functions. It's the core of our mainframe security functions. It helps ensure that we are compliant with all of the various banking regulations, security regulations and…

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"It is a good product."
"Excellent real-time reporting that saves time and resources."
"Know that this tool is a great tool, a good tool to use, because you can quickly automate, quickly provision, and deprovision new users, which is essential when you are bringing new people onboard."
"The NOACCESS by default is another very good feature. Also, access rules are straightforward, and easy to understand."
"Without the product, extracting this information may take us as much as several days; instead, we can get it in real time."
"I love their support. The support is great. They are number one."
"Logging and monitoring are most valuable. It is for the mainframe environment, and it is at the forefront for security and resilience."
"The most valuable feature is strict and reliable access control to CICS Resources."
"We have an ongoing relationship with technical support; they are excellent."
"It's an integral part of all of our mainframe security functions and helps ensure that we are compliant with all of the various banking regulations, security regulations and requirements."
"It centralizes all the user security on a single tool, which has truly been the best part for us."
"Customer service is excellent, as any issue that we have had in working with the product received the best response that we could have hoped for, with technicians who have great knowledge of how the product works and who promptly responded with solutions to any problems that we have had over the years."
"It protects our enterprise by providing an access monitor authentication protocol."
"We have implemented two-factor authentication, which is a new piece of CA Top Secret."
"The stability of the product is wonderful."
"In banking, security is a priority, and we constantly get updates that meet our needs."
 

Cons

"It needs longer rules. The max rule is 32K."
"Initial setup could be complex if you rely on contractors to help with implementation."
"I would like my team and me to be able to use simple browsers, like Chrome, to be able to access mainframe data and provision users using the browser.​"
"They can work on its ability to work in a distributed environment. It's a mainframe product. As many companies move to the cloud, depending on what cloud models they choose, such as a public, hybrid, or private cloud, it should be deployable. I am not sure if it can be deployed on those platforms. It has been there since the '50s or '60s, and it's still scalable. It has survived all these years, and it's scalable to many platforms, but I don't know about the cloud."
"Reporting can sometimes include false positives."
"The user access review could also be improved. It produces a lot of false positives."
"They can work on its ability to work in a distributed environment."
"Make sure that there is a post-sale department in your country. We have experienced some post-sale problems to do with integration of CA products into our systems."
"I'd like to see that more granular, see where you could get the passwords that are being enforced, but you can enforce it at different hierarchical layers between the product."
"In new releases, installation is not easy and can take about four months to roll out."
"As an IT auditor, the UI is the tough part. From the IT auditing standpoint, it needs to be more simple to use."
"That is an area where I have a concern, because I don't see them keeping pace with what we're doing."
"I'd like to see integration with LDAP's services, because today we have the mainframe and Windows AD separated."
"It would be helpful if they removed limitations on user record sizes."
"I would like to see better reporting, more emphasis on audit reporting, and better scrubbing of the canned reports."
report
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
19%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Insurance Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Construction Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise4
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business1
Large Enterprise8
 

Also Known As

CA ACF2
CA Top Secret
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Sky, Rogers Communications
First Tennessee Bank
Find out what your peers are saying about ACF2 vs. Top Secret and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,747 professionals have used our research since 2012.