BeyondTrust Password Safe vs Symantec Privileged Access Manager comparison

BeyondTrust and Broadcom are both solutions in the Privileged Access Management (PAM) category. BeyondTrust is ranked #8 with an average rating of 9.0, while Broadcom is ranked #15 with an average rating of 8.5. BeyondTrust holds a 2.3% mindshare in PAM, compared to Broadcom’s 1.8% mindshare. Additionally, 84% of BeyondTrust users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of Broadcom users who would recommend it.

BeyondTrust Password Safe

Read 27 BeyondTrust Password Safe reviews

3,967 Views
2,341 Comparison Views

84% willing to recommend

Symantec Privileged Access ...

Read 53 Symantec Privileged Access Manager reviews

3,322 Views
2,724 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

BeyondTrust Password Safe

Symantec Privileged Access ...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 6, 2024

BeyondTrust Password Safe and Symantec Privileged Access Manager compete in the privileged access security category. While BeyondTrust is noted for its support and cost-effectiveness, Symantec is viewed as offering superior features, which many users find justifies its higher price point.

Features: BeyondTrust Password Safe is recognized for its comprehensive auditing, session management capabilities, and efficiency in quickly realizing ROI. Symantec Privileged Access Manager distinguishes itself with scalability, integration options, and advanced threat detection, making it a preferred choice for highly secure environments.

Room for Improvement: BeyondTrust users suggest enhancements for a more intuitive reporting system, improved third-party cloud integrations, and advanced analytics. Symantec users seek a simpler update process, better customization options, and increased efficiency in updates.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: BeyondTrust Password Safe is favored for its straightforward deployment and responsive customer service. Symantec Privileged Access Manager, despite offering extensive documentation, involves more complex deployment steps, though it is backed by highly rated technical support.

Pricing and ROI: BeyondTrust Password Safe is considered cost-effective with lower initial setup costs and quicker ROI. Symantec Privileged Access Manager, although starting with a higher setup cost, is seen as providing substantial ROI over time through its advanced features, justifying the investment.

To learn more, read our detailed BeyondTrust Password Safe vs. Symantec Privileged Access Manager Report (Updated: August 2026).

Buyer's Guide

BeyondTrust Password Safe vs. Symantec Privileged Access Manager

August 2026

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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)

8th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Enterprise Password Managers (10th)

Symantec Privileged Access ...

Ranking in Privileged Access Management (PAM)

15th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Privileged Access Management (PAM) category, the mindshare of BeyondTrust Password Safe is 2.3%, down from 3.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Privileged Access Manager is 1.8%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Privileged Access Management (PAM) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
BeyondTrust Password Safe	2.3%
Symantec Privileged Access Manager	1.8%
Other	95.9%

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.

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Muzi Lubisi

Senior technical Consultant at CA Africa

Secure management of sensitive servers and seamless applications with direct linking

The credential injection feature is highly valued, particularly for RDP sessions. A majority of customers use it for RDP, and a couple for Linux servers. The broader capabilities, including access to multiple systems, web-based applications, and clustering, have never posed an issue. The threat analytics aspect is also a robust feature that analyzes all pertinent information.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is very easy to deploy. It's easy to use. That's the major thing I like about it."

"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 solution protects organizations from internal and external threats."

"BeyondTrust Password Safe has good reporting and Smart Rules which makes it convenient. Though Smart Rules are convenient, those who do not have much experience with such things may find it difficult to understand how these things work. Otherwise, I find Smart Rules very convenient to work with."

"The performance is good."

"BeyondTrust Password Safe is a good PAM tool."

"One of the most valuable features is that this is a product designed with enterprises in mind."

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

More BeyondTrust Password Safe pros

"I’m very satisfied with the product."

"The agent-based credential management solution allows clients to programmatically use the agent to collect passwords during runtime from Symantec Privileged Access Manager."

"The most valuable element is the keystroke tracking feature."

"CA PAM is the least expensive option than most and is easy to deploy."

"So all the different roles (such as database admin, Unix admin, network administrator), are now centralized into one system."

"For me, it is the robust API which is the most valuable feature."

"Transparent login for users of privileged IDs (Linux, Windows). This prevents sharing of the password because it is never seen."

"The best features are the comprehensive coverage of the required features for the PAM solution like a credential vault, a session recording, an endpoint agent, security analytics."

More Symantec Privileged Access Manager pros

Cons

"The early version of this solution was not stable. It was terrible, but I think they eventually got their act together and it's better now so that they can compete."

"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."

"If there was one thing, it would be having the documentation standardized."

"We didn't see a return on our investment."

"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."

"I have faced stability issues when upgrading BeyondTrust Password Safe solution. The upgrade process can be lengthy compared to other modules."

"The database instance onboarding should be simplified."

"The only improvement I could suggest would be standardizing documentation, but that's more the responsibility of the implementing engineer rather than BeyondTrust Password Trust itself. The documentation must be specific and narrow for implementation, not just broad guidelines."

More BeyondTrust Password Safe cons

"Stability is a problem that we fight every day."

"Now, the reporting feature on CA PAM only shows the basic information in white-black table format."

"The integration with AS/400 Endpoint via Transparent Login could be better and useful for some users."

"I would like it to support more types of integration."

"There is already a feature for that. It is not too great to use."

"I would like to see improvements in branding customization and multi-tenancy."

"We have to do a lot of manual work to automate features."

"We experience stability issues after every patch upgrade. This is a place where CA needs to improve drastically."

More Symantec Privileged Access Manager cons

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."

"The pricing of BeyondTrust is very good as compared to other products. That was the main reason we decided to go with BeyondTrust at first."

"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."

"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 product is quite affordable."

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

"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."

More BeyondTrust Password Safe pricing and cost advice

"It is reasonably priced."

"Pricing is fair compared to other top vendors."

"The licensing is simple and scalable."

"It is more expensive than other solutions on the market."

"They offer per-device, per-user, or monthly and yearly licensing models."

"The prices are not low, but one can ask for a discount. It’s not the cheapest PAM solution."

"Appliances are relatively cheap, don’t skimp. Make sure you have redundancy, high availability, and enough appliances to manage the concurrent workload."

"Cost-wise, CA was better compared to others in the market. "

More Symantec Privileged Access Manager pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

27%

Manufacturing Company

Construction Company

Government

Outsourcing Company

14%

Construction Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	14
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	30

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...

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What needs improvement with BeyondTrust Password Safe?

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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 ...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Symantec Privileged Access Manager?

Due to the nature of the solution, it is hard to gauge, but compared to competitors, the pricing is very good. I would rate it as an eight and a half out of ten.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Symantec Privileged Access Manager?

Recent releases need improvement in webpage management. For instance, navigating through a webpage that acts like a wizard, where I proceed to the next page and enter more information, is not handl...

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What is your primary use case for Symantec Privileged Access Manager?

With the customers that I have so far, I help them broker RDP sessions to sensitive servers, particularly those that manage aspects like physical access. I have also done it for backend databases, ...

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Comparisons

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Compared 13% of the time

Delinea Secret Server vs BeyondTrust Password Safe

Compared 10% of the time

1Password Business vs BeyondTrust Password Safe

Compared 8% of the time

Safeguard by One Identity vs BeyondTrust Password Safe

Compared 7% of the time

BeyondTrust Privileged Remote Access vs BeyondTrust Password Safe

Compared 6% of the time

More BeyondTrust Password Safe Competitors

Idira Privileged Access Manager vs Symantec Privileged Access Manager

Compared 26% of the time

ARCON Privileged Access Management vs Symantec Privileged Access Manager

Compared 14% of the time

Safeguard by One Identity vs Symantec Privileged Access Manager

Compared 9% of the time

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) vs Symantec Privileged Access Manager

Compared 7% of the time

BeyondTrust Endpoint Privilege Management vs Symantec Privileged Access Manager

Compared 7% of the time

More Symantec Privileged Access Manager Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

BeyondTrust Password Safe

August 2026

Download BeyondTrust Password Safe product report

Buyer's Guide

Symantec Privileged Access Manager

July 2026

Symantec Privileged Access Manager report

Download Symantec Privileged Access Manager product report

Also Known As

BeyondTrust PowerBroker Password Safe

CA PAM, Xceedium Xsuite, CA Privileged Access Manager

Overview

BeyondTrust Password Safe is a robust Privileged Access Management tool designed to secure access to servers, databases, and applications. It automates onboarding, rotation, and integration processes, enhancing efficiency and compliance with advanced security measures.

BeyondTrust Password Safe offers a comprehensive approach to managing privileged accounts, integrating smoothly into organizational frameworks to bolster security protocols. Its standout capabilities include session recording, Smart Rules for onboarding automation, and sophisticated auditing tools that support compliance and real-time monitoring. While it exhibits high availability and facilitates seamless usability, enhancements are needed in management console integration, documentation, and installation processes. Users benefit from its password rotation and policy enforcement, despite facing challenges with authentication sync times and session disconnects.

What are the core features of BeyondTrust Password Safe?

Smart Rules: Automates onboarding processes to increase efficiency.
Session Recording: Provides detailed session records for compliance and analysis.
Password Rotation: Ensures secure and regular password changes to mitigate risks.
Application Integration: Streamlines connectivity with essential applications for cohesive operations.
Advanced Auditing: Enhances security and compliance through detailed auditing and reporting.

What benefits should users expect from BeyondTrust Password Safe?

Enhanced Security: Protects sensitive access with robust security protocols.
Compliance Adherence: Simplifies meeting regulatory standards through comprehensive auditing.
Efficiency Boost: Automates complex processes, saving time and reducing manual effort.
Streamlined Onboarding: Improves onboarding speed with automated tools and clear processes.
Seamless Usability: Offers an intuitive interface for efficient navigation and use.

In industries with stringent security demands, BeyondTrust Password Safe is employed to safeguard privileged accounts, ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements. It is crucial for sectors like finance and healthcare, where access to sensitive data must be tightly controlled and monitored.

BeyondTrust

Symantec Privileged Access Manager provides enterprises with advanced capabilities in managing access and security compliance, emphasizing seamless integration and scalability. Organizations leverage it for simplified access control and proactive security management to enhance data privacy.

It's designed for managing privileged access across diverse IT environments, featuring easy deployment and configuration along with robust integration capabilities. Users benefit from its scalable architecture, transparent login procedures, and comprehensive password management. Despite its strengths, some challenges persist with the interface, policy management, and upgrade processes. Session recording limitations and documentation gaps are noted, impacting overall user satisfaction. Integration with specific systems, especially mainframes, and a restrictive pricing model present challenges. Nonetheless, its role in managing admin access and reducing security threats in Linux and Windows environments remains critical. Enhanced security is further achieved through integration with CA strong authentication.

What features does Symantec Privileged Access Manager offer?

Easy Deployment and Configuration: Quick setup process with intuitive functionality.
Password Management: Automated rotation of random, strong passwords.
Integration with Active Directory: Direct and seamless connectivity for user management.
Session Recording: Comprehensive logging of user activity for audit purposes.
Credential Injection: Secured access without revealing passwords to users.

What benefits should organizations look for?

Scalability: Supports growth and complex enterprise environments.
Security Compliance: Enhances data protection and regulatory adherence.
Transparency: Simplified login and access management for users.
Cost Efficiency: Potential reduction in security incidents and associated costs.

Organizations in the financial sector appreciate its effective management of privileged accounts across IT infrastructures, including servers and applications. It's valued for its role in RDP and SSH session facilitation and focus on enterprise-level security, crucial for identity governance and protecting high-stakes data.

Broadcom

Sample Customers

Aera Energy LLC, Care New England, James Madison University

NEOVERA, Telesis, eSoft

Buyer's Guide

BeyondTrust Password Safe vs. Symantec Privileged Access Manager

August 2026

Free Report: BeyondTrust Password Safe vs. Symantec Privileged Access Manager

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