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Akamai Enterprise Application Access vs Symantec Siteminder comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 11, 2024

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

Akamai Enterprise Applicati...
Ranking in Access Management
19th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (15th), ZTNA as a Service (20th), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (18th)
Symantec Siteminder
Ranking in Access Management
15th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
75
Ranking in other categories
Single Sign-On (SSO) (14th), Web Access Management (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Access Management category, the mindshare of Akamai Enterprise Application Access is 1.3%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Siteminder is 3.5%, up from 2.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Access Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Symantec Siteminder3.5%
Akamai Enterprise Application Access1.3%
Other95.2%
Access Management
 

Featured Reviews

DE
Platform Manager at Globe Telecom
Centralized authentication streamlines global access with single sign-on and auto-scaling for seamless user experience
We use Akamai Enterprise Application Access for centralized authentication for our global customers. It provides a solution for consolidated authentication on our platform. We use the service to manage access for our global consumers, not for remote access for our employees My favorite part of…
Muzi Lubisi - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior technical Consultant at CA Africa
Improved user experience with seamless integration and easy installation
The feature that I mostly valued is the ease of installation on different systems, especially on Windows. Additionally, it is very beneficial for deploying single sign-on sessions between different windows on a web browser, provided I am connected to the right identity provider. That seamless integration significantly improves user experience and efficiency.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"My favorite part of the Akamai Enterprise Application Access service is its SSO and auto-scaling capabilities."
"The solution is very convenient and stable because you don't have to worry about attacks to public IPs or public networks."
"Application Access's most valuable feature is the accessibility of enterprise tech protection."
"The capability of Akamai Enterprise Application Access is what you're looking for, it's giving you the service that you're looking for. It's simple and doesn't use an agent. It uses LCSD responders, and they have a lot of services around the globe. That's the reason that we were very interested in using it because it has a lot of coverage. This is because it's under the GDS umbrella."
"We've had a good ROI from Application Access."
"The cost and the capability are great."
"Once it works, it works really well."
"Obviously, the most valuable feature is the flexibility of the solution, it being able to be integrated with a number of applications and solutions, and also the configurability of the solution."
"I would totally recommend this product, but I think CA has a really good handle on what the drivers are and where the business is going in terms of application development."
"Security to protect digital assets is most valuable to us."
"It is reliable."
"CA SSO is helping us a lot in providing the access solution to the customers."
"Authentication Authorization for our websites are important because all the sites need authentication for security purposes and that has been handled pretty well all these years with SSO."
"Symantec Siteminder Is both scalable and stable."
 

Cons

"The technical enablement sessions are quite limited, and Akamai could help by providing more of them."
"If you provide enterprise services we have to stop telling the customers it's going to be per users or the transactions. That's not good for the customers, it's good for the vendors."
"The pricing could be lower for Akamai Enterprise Application Access."
"The solution has two agents so should combine its enterprise application and security access into one agent."
"We need another approach to bring the solution to the cloud. In addition to Access Management, we would like to see if we can jump into Directories. I think ADs are going to go away and everything is going to be cloud-based and minimize the use of ADs because of the cost and some other dependencies to the cloud. Every time you buy AD it is more hardware, and everything's changing to software. The network's changing, the applications are changing, and for IT it is hard to keep up with it."
"We use technical support. It's not the best feature of CA. Lots of enterprise product companies have variable support offerings. CA are not the worst, but they're not the best. They're okay."
"It was complex and not at all straightforward. They really need to work on this."
"If the reporting feature can be integrated into SSO itself that will be an icing on the cake."
"The GUIs are not very clear, especially when integrating with other products from CA."
"We would like to the OAuth be more stable, more issues being fixed rather than not."
"The problem is we need the support, but they don't know anything about the product."
"I would like to see a move towards the newer technologies, which is what we are doing right now. I think that's in the roadmap that's coming, in the 12.8 and 14 releases, but we would like to have it sooner than later."
"Probably the biggest thing that SiteMinder needs is a refreshed UI for administrators."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Licensing is based on user count."
"The license can be shared based on the number of active users."
"The price is great it is all-inclusive, they use an enterprise cost model. That's what we like compared to other users. This is one of the main attractions of Akamai Enterprise Application Access. It's already an enterprise cost model established with us for services."
"I recommend conducting a PoC on every available product before choose one."
"The licensing is fair for this solution."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"Symantec Siteminder is expensive; they could definitely do better on the price."
"The price is quite comparable to the other enterprise-level solutions in that market."
"CA solutions are generally expensive but for the customer the ROI is big."
"Siteminder is a little costly. You pay for licensing, and they offer packages, so if you have less users, then you have to buy different products at different prices. If you have more of a user base, then the package is different. They also include other features—for example, if you have a database and you're using Siteminder, then it's good to use a Semantic-specific database, but if you are using less, then you have to purchase the database separately. Whereas if you are going for a bigger license, then it comes within the package. It depends on which plan you are using."
"The solution's pricing is competitive."
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909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Construction Company
8%
Healthcare Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Construction Company
13%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Marketing Services Firm
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise69
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Akamai Enterprise Application Access?
The pricing is a bit expensive for our market. Although it is cheaper compared to alternatives, Akamai Enterprise Application Access offers a more robust solution overall, particularly for authenti...
What is your primary use case for Akamai Enterprise Application Access?
We use Akamai Enterprise Application Access ( /products/akamai-enterprise-application-access-reviews ) for centralized authentication for our global customers. It provides a solution for consolidat...
What needs improvement with Symantec Siteminder?
Symantec Siteminder needs to have adaptive authentication and multi-factor authentication as integrated features. Currently, multi-factor authentication is available as a separate solution, and it ...
What is your primary use case for Symantec Siteminder?
I deploy and support Symantec Siteminder ( /products/symantec-siteminder-reviews ). I have been a partner and reseller.
 

Also Known As

Soha
SiteMinder, CA SSO, Layer7 SiteMinder
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Bugcrowd, InPowered, Spirent Communications
British Telecom, CoreBlox, DBS, HMS, Itera ASA and Simeo
Find out what your peers are saying about Akamai Enterprise Application Access vs. Symantec Siteminder and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.