BeyondTrust Password Safe vs Microsoft Purview Privileged Access Management comparison

BeyondTrust Password Safe vs. Microsoft Purview Privileged Access Management

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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

BeyondTrust Password Safe

Ranking in Privileged Access Management (PAM)

10th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Enterprise Password Managers (8th)

Microsoft Purview Privilege...

Ranking in Privileged Access Management (PAM)

15th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Privileged Access Management (PAM) category, the mindshare of BeyondTrust Password Safe is 2.6%, down from 3.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Purview Privileged Access Management is 1.9%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Privileged Access Management (PAM) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
BeyondTrust Password Safe	2.6%
Microsoft Purview Privileged Access Management	1.9%
Other	95.5%

Privileged Access Management (PAM)

Featured Reviews

PawanShirose

Associate Security Consultant at CyberSec Consulting

Has enabled bulk onboarding and password rotation while ensuring secure privilege management

I have faced stability issues when upgrading BeyondTrust Password Safe solution. The upgrade process can be lengthy compared to other modules. For example, upgrading the appliance and reconfiguring HA is easier in PRA. However, in BeyondTrust Password Safe, the upgrade activity can take longer, and I have occasionally experienced being stuck during appliance version upgrades, sometimes duplicating the upgrade. Regarding additional features, we have good features in BeyondTrust Password Safe compared to other modules, such as Secret Safe to secure secrets and the check-in, check-out functionality. We already have the main features, but I think it would be helpful if BeyondTrust implemented a heartbeat check feature on the privileged account level. This feature would allow PAM to check the credentials of privileged accounts, indicating if they are correct or not, showing if the heartbeat has failed if they are wrong.

Read full review

Christiaan Evenhuis

Technical Consultant Security and Compliance at inSpark

Integration helps protect sensitive information effectively and new GUI simplifies setup

Regarding improvements for Microsoft Purview Privileged Access Management, there are still some challenges. Purview contains numerous predefined sensitive information types, which sometimes makes it difficult to specify relevance. For example, in the Netherlands, we are not interested in driver licenses from Australia, making separation challenging. Furthermore, the capabilities for exporting large amounts of sensitive information for deeper investigations and reporting should be enhanced. Additional features related to AI tools would be beneficial in the next release. Microsoft Purview Privileged Access Management has made progress in providing insights into generative AI tools being used within organizations, but customers need to further track where sensitive information is being used within AI tooling. While they have made a good start, AI is advancing faster than anticipated, creating a gap that needs to be addressed.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Automation in BeyondTrust Password Safe uses Smart Rules, which eliminate the need for manual onboarding and effectively handle multiple bulk tasks, such as onboarding and mapping."

"The performance is good."

"It simplifies your compliance and tracking to benchmark other credentials and analytics."

"The solution protects organizations from internal and external threats."

"Its number one feature is discovery. The discovery engine in BeyondTrust is off the charts. When they perform a discovery, you know everything there is about a server, including what software is installed. For example, if you want to group all of your database servers together, you can do that by using discovery and Smart Rules. If a server has Microsoft SQL installed, it gets put into a group based on a Smart Rule. It makes it very easy to determine what is what in your environment. As organizations grow or acquire other companies and merge, they lose track of what they have. BeyondTrust can help you throw a rope around it very rapidly."

"The time-saving benefits come from no longer having to remember multiple device passwords."

"Smart Rules is a nice feature in BeyondTrust. It is a unique feature that BeyondTrust has as compared to other vendors such as CyberArk. With Smart Rules, you can do automatic onboarding of accounts. There are a lot of options and features. For example, you can do onboarding based on different AD attributes. It is a nice feature in BeyondTrust that some of the other PAM vendors don't have. With other vendors, we have to create our own scripts, whereas, with BeyondTrust, we can just use the in-built Smart Rules."

"I like the session recording feature. I also like the analytics and reports. You can pull up a report, and the UI is fantastic. The system is recording when nobody's there, so we have a record of what's happening."

More BeyondTrust Password Safe pros

"The ability to provide just-in-time privileged access and set specific parameters for access duration is highly beneficial."

"Microsoft Purview Privileged Access Management is easy to understand, particularly its menu."

"The integration with Azure Identity is a significant advantage, as it allows for seamless automation and power app integration."

"Microsoft Purview Privileged Access Management is easy to understand, particularly its menu."

"The integration with other Microsoft solutions is a standout feature of Microsoft Purview Privileged Access Management."

Cons

"We face screensaver timeout issues and problems with the server. I would like the product to include a server visibility feature."

"Named accounts don't work well in this solution. If you use named accounts for your administrative access, the way Smart Rules work is that it takes your SAM account name and matches it to the account name of your privileged ID, which creates limitations on size and how big those names can be because the directory has a 20-character limit."

"When we deploy BeyondTrust, we have to deploy our own database on a SQL server. It doesn't deploy the database. I wish BeyondTrust packages the whole solution in one and includes the MySQL database so that when you deploy it, it deploys everything for you. BeyondTrust gives you the software, but you are in charge of setting up your own database. It is a single appliance just for the BeyondTrust portion but not the database. Unless that has changed in later releases, you have to set up your own database for BeyondTrust Password Safe. I find that part complex because we then need the expertise and help of the database team to set it up, which also increases the deployment time. If they can deploy the database, it will reduce the deployment time."

"We'd like to have incremental backups to ensure the solution's information is protected regularly."

"I think that BeyondTrust Password Safe could be improved with more testing. In the beginning, they were practically using customers as beta testers. Maybe the product has evolved since I last used it, but if you look at PAM, privileged access management, whatever's out there has already been done. I don't see there being any other enhancements that are being made regarding PAM, except to support more cloud-based applications."

"If they can create a single platform to create a connector, it would be better than using the RBS server."

"We weren't aware that the Password Safe virtual appliance runs on a Windows server. As part of our monthly patching process, we ran into an issue. BeyondTrust Password Safe wasn't compatible with the patching we used to put on our server."

"The pricing is not cheap, but it could be better."

More BeyondTrust Password Safe cons

"There's room for improvement in Microsoft's documentation, as it often lacks clarity."

"Microsoft Purview Privileged Access Management has made progress in providing insights into generative AI tools being used within organizations, but customers need to further track where sensitive information is being used within AI tooling."

"Microsoft Purview Privileged Access Management could improve integration with multiple cloud environments."

"Sometimes, its functions, like XLOOKUP in Microsoft Excel, do not find situations properly, especially without the use of pivot tables."

"Microsoft Purview Privileged Access Management could improve integration with multiple cloud environments."

"I do not see any financial benefit after implementing Microsoft Purview Privileged Access Management, however, this question would be better answered by my manager."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"When you buy Password Safe and perform your initial Discovery, you have all these servers that are added to your assets in BeyondTrust, but you're not using a license until you actually start managing the systems. BeyondTrust's licensing is based on the systems when they're managed, which means when an administrator is able to connect to the server through BeyondTrust with a managed account. There would be a privileged account on the endpoint when the licensing starts. A significant advantage to that is that there are many organizations that want to evaluate their environment prior to automatic management."

"I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive."

"This solution is not cheap—it's a very expensive solution. Very, very expensive compared to the features and functions that they offer."

"The pricing structure is better than the competitors. It's much cheaper than CyberArk. They do the licensing on the basis of assets, not on the number of users. For CyberArk, they base the licensing on the number of users, and they have an expensive model of pricing. BeyondTrust has a cheaper model."

"At the time, BeyondTrust was significantly cheaper than CyberArk. Pricing-wise, if I remember correctly, it goes by assets. The pricing was negotiated for our instances based on the number of assets that we onboard into the system. It is a little different from CyberArk, where the pricing is by users. So, it depends. If you have a lot of assets, it can get very expensive."

"It has subscription-based licensing. BeyondTrust is three times less expensive than CyberArk."

"We just pay for Password Safe. Session management is included, but we don't use it. There aren't any additional costs besides the standard licensing fees. We pay for an annual license."

"The product is quite affordable."

More BeyondTrust Password Safe pricing and cost advice

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

22%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

13%

Healthcare Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

10%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	13
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	10

No data available

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for BeyondTrust Password Safe?

My experience with BeyondTrust Password Safe's pricing, setup cost, and licensing has been positive, primarily due to its asset-based licensing model. This is a significant advantage for us because...

What needs improvement with BeyondTrust Password Safe?

What is your primary use case for BeyondTrust Password Safe?

I am working on both BeyondTrust Password Safe and the PRA (Privileged Remote Access). I have three years plus experience working with BeyondTrust Password Safe solution, and I have hands-on, good ...

What do you like most about Microsoft Purview Privileged Access Management?

The ability to provide just-in-time privileged access and set specific parameters for access duration is highly beneficial.

What needs improvement with Microsoft Purview Privileged Access Management?

What is your primary use case for Microsoft Purview Privileged Access Management?

We are a company offering solutions to other customers, and Microsoft Purview Privileged Access Management provides great helping features and solutions. It is not the only thing needed to prevent ...

CyberArk Privileged Access Manager vs BeyondTrust Password Safe

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Product Reports

BeyondTrust Password Safe

Download BeyondTrust Password Safe product report

Privileged Access Management (PAM)

Download Microsoft Purview Privileged Access Management product report

Microsoft Purview Privileged Access Management report

Also Known As

BeyondTrust PowerBroker Password Safe

Microsoft Privileged Access Management (PAM)

Overview

Beyond Trust Password Safe is an automated solution that combines password and privileged session management into a single platform. Password Safe delivers secure access control, auditing, alerting, recording, and monitoring.

This free and open-source password manager supports Windows and Linux, and some ports are available for other platforms as well. Their proprietary algorithm, Twofish, is considered highly secure, with the advantage that it is not affiliated with NIST. The Twofish algorithm secures the data while keys are delivered using SHA-256 authentication.

The application is easy to use, and you can download the Windows app from several sites. Additionally, the application is available in 14 languages.

Beyond Trust Password Safe Key Features

Continuous automated account discovery: Scan, identify and profile assets with the discovery engine. The solution has dynamic categorization that enables the automated onboarding of assets into groups.
Application-to-application password management: Password Safe offers an adaptable API interface including an unlimited number of password caches, therefore providing scalability and redundancy.
Secure SSH key management: The system automatically rotates SSH keys to enforce granular access control and workflow. Private keys securely log users onto systems without exposing them.
Adaptive access control: Evaluates context and provides access requests by considering factors such as time of access and location to determine the user’s authorization level.
Enhanced privileged session management: Admins can record, lock, and document suspicious behavior without disrupting productivity by managing sessions live.
Advanced privileged threat analytics: Password Safe monitors assets and user behavior every day, analyzing what are normal patterns and detecting deviations.
Multi-factor authentication: Password Safe supports 2FA (two-factor authentication) using Yubikey 4, Nano, or Neo.

What can you do with Password Safe?

Cross-device and cross-platform syncing: You can safely store encrypted password files online, where you can access them via Password Safe-compatible apps.
Drag and drop password: Password Safe has a “Dragbar,” which you can use to complete forms by dragging and dropping icons over the form - for example, passwords, usernames, design tiles, and emails.
Autotype: With Password Safe, when you click on a web page or login box, the autotype feature will try to fill in your credentials automatically for you.
Import and export: You can import passwords from text, XML, or CSV fails. You can also export passwords in text, XML, and the PSAFE format.
Password generator: Generate secure passwords by using the algorithm. You can also define your password rules.

Beyond Trust Password Safe Benefits

Controls third-party access: Password Safe secures the connection and automatically checks privileged credentials. The solution records all sessions.
Uses context to determine access: Password Safe considers risk factors like location, day, or time of access and uses them to adjust the permissions and privileges of each user.
Manages access for privileged and non-privileged accounts: By integrating with SailPoint IdentityIQ, Password Safe effectively manages user access for privileged as well as non-privileged accounts.
Reduces cloud risk: Password Safe simplifies secure storage and session management. It supports major cloud providers such as Azure, Amazon, Google, Rackspace, and GoGrid. It also supports social networks - Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
Integrates password and privilege management: Integrates with Endpoint Privilege Management to control the resources users can access and the actions they are allowed to take

Reviews from Real Users

A PAM Architect at a tech services company says, "BeyondTrust Password Safe's features that I have found most valuable are really those that are knitted in. That is their Smart Rules and Smart Groups, where you design your administration model so you create your AD groups and your asset groups, and configure Password Safe."

An I.S. Architect at a insurance company mentions that "Session recording, password rotation, and password vaulting are the most valuable features."

"One of the most valuable features is that this is a product designed with enterprises in mind," adds a Cybersecurity Architect at a tech vendor.

BeyondTrust

Privileged access management allows granular access control over privileged admin tasks in Office 365. It can help protect your organization from breaches that use existing privileged admin accounts with standing access to sensitive data or access to critical configuration settings. Privileged access management requires users to request just-in-time access to complete elevated and privileged tasks through a highly scoped and time-bounded approval workflow. This configuration gives users just-enough-access to perform the task at hand, without risking exposure of sensitive data or critical configuration settings. Enabling privileged access management in Microsoft 365 allows your organization to operate with zero standing privileges and provide a layer of defense against standing administrative access vulnerabilities.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

Aera Energy LLC, Care New England, James Madison University

Information Not Available

BeyondTrust Password Safe vs. Microsoft Purview Privileged Access Management