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CA Privileged Access Manager Server Control [EOL] vs CyberArk Privileged Access Manager comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

CA Privileged Access Manage...
Average Rating
7.8
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
CyberArk Privileged Access ...
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
230
Ranking in other categories
User Activity Monitoring (1st), Enterprise Password Managers (3rd), Privileged Access Management (PAM) (1st), Mainframe Security (1st), Operational Technology (OT) Security (3rd)
 

Featured Reviews

it_user558603 - PeerSpot reviewer
Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
I like that the access control on the agent. Installation is difficult.
I would like to see some improvements, specifically in terms of some set-up items. We have spoken to CA quite a bit about the ability to have 'always-on', or 'active/active' status options, so if the infrastructure goes down, we don't lose transactions. This is very important for the environment and for the users so we cannot really afford any downtime with the solution. We have had problems with deployment, and we are concerned with the possibility for outages and how they can have a negative impact on the environment.
Atul-Gujar - PeerSpot reviewer
CyberArk manager at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Secures critical infrastructures with essential user session audit records
A potential area for improvement is enhancing support for cluster environments and distributed Vaults. Clients in multiple countries that need central access have different challenges that require better solutions from CyberArk. For financial services, CyberArk can improve incident response by ensuring fast support for critical priority tickets to meet compliance requirements. Providing more documentation on CyberArk is recommended for new team members to enhance their troubleshooting capabilities. I understand it's up to the client, but 99% fail to change the demo key, so it's crucial for CyberArk to emphasize changing the key and documenting it as part of the installation process.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"This product has improved the security of the corporate network and made compliance with the safety regulations of our country."
"It depends on the client's requirements, but for me the most valuable one is the security access management with distributed architecture and centralized management."
"We're happy to see it working so well with our IBM solution, saving us time and costs."
"It efficiently controls the access to the resources from the privileged user thus implementing the security aspects and this provides fine granular access."
"We have been able to exceed our audit requirements for security."
"Access Control has greatly prevented the misuse of administrator rights which is very rampant."
"It gives us the ability to track who is using what ID and for what purpose."
"Access Control enhances the security of business systems through a secured authentication and validation of users credentials before accessing organizations resources."
"The audit capabilities include video so that not only keystrokes but also mouse clicks are captured, providing safety and reassurance for anyone working in our infrastructure."
"It is a central repository. Therefore, if someone needs to access a server, then they go through CyberArk PAM. It provides a secure way to do this and CyberArk PAM records everything. For example, if you are connecting to a Linux server, then once you get into the Linux server and if it is integrated with CyberArk, it will automatically start recording everything that is being done. In most banks, seeing the recordings is very useful. If there are any gaps or something has happened which shouldn't have happened, then we can check the logs and videos. So, it gives security, in a robust manner, to the organization."
"It is one of the best solutions in the market, and ever since I started using this solution, there has not been any compromise when it comes to our lab."
"I find value in notifications from CyberArk when passwords fail verification and have other issues."
"The solution is very stable."
"CyberArk Privileged Access Manager's main benefit is it provides secure access to our servers. There are features to capture the user activity, it provides video recording processing. If the users are logged in to the server, we can see what activities they are performing. It's a very nice tool for Privileged Access Management. They have plenty of useful services and the solution has fulfilled our needs."
"Performance-wise, it is excellent."
"We chose CyberArk because of its great functionalities, the ability to be deployed granularly at a different scale for each function, and the ability to be deployed in a distributed infrastructure."
 

Cons

"Automated deployment did not work as expected, had to go to a manual deployment."
"We have had problems with deployment, and we are concerned with the possibility for outages and how they can have a negative impact on the environment."
"I found the installation process of Access Control challenging due to the much networking work involved in order to grant access to authorized users."
"User Interface needs to be improved."
"Yes, I encountered lots of issues."
"Sometimes we encounter issues whilst generating the reports."
"The manuals for this product used to be good. We could find in one place answers to pretty much every question or situation we had. However, it's now in piece-meal fashion."
"I have faced a few challenges due to the system complexity, as it involves two integrated authentication systems that have to be purchased."
"My concern and area for improvement revolves around reporting."
"We need a bit more education for our user community because they are not using it to its capabilities."
"The web interface has come a long way, but the PrivateArk client seems clunky and not intuitive. It could use an update to be brought up to speed with the usability of PVWA."
"The session monitoring and recording feature is also a good feature feature, but we're currently experiencing an issue with session monitoring not working correctly. We're working with CyberArk to resolve it. We aren't able to view active sessions or historical recordings of sessions."
"Regarding technical support from CyberArk, while L2 and L3 teams are effective, L1 support requires improvement due to longer response times in critical situations."
"Their post-sale support area requires a big improvement."
"The downside is that it's a big program. To scale excessively, locally, on an on-prem application, takes a lot of servers."
"I sometimes require learning resources when there is a new solution for CyberArk."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The price of the solution is reasonable."
"The SaaS version of CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault is very expensive, but the on-premises version is relative, e.g. depending on the size of the environment, it can be a bit pricey, but it's relatively okay compared to the others."
"Although CyberArk Privileged Access Management is expensive, its protection capabilities outweigh the cost."
"This solution is expensive."
"I rate the tool's pricing an eight out of ten."
"The product's licensing is yearly. I would rate the solution's pricing a six out of ten."
"The pricing is slightly higher compared to other solutions, but it is reasonable because there are better security features."
"Pricing and licensing depend on the environment."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise4
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business59
Midsize Enterprise42
Large Enterprise174
 

Questions from the Community

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How does Sailpoint IdentityIQ compare with CyberArk PAM?
We evaluated Sailpoint IdentityIQ before ultimately choosing CyberArk. Sailpoint Identity Platform is a solution to manage risks in cloud enterprise environments. It automates and streamlines the m...
What do you like most about CyberArk Privileged Access Manager?
The most valuable features of the solution are control and analytics.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for CyberArk Privileged Access Manager?
My thoughts on the pricing of CyberArk Privileged Access Manager depend entirely on the vendors' requirements. If they want their things to be secure, they have to spend accordingly. We have four t...
 

Also Known As

CA Access Control, CA Privileged Identity Manager
CyberArk Privileged Access Security, CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Colruyt Group, Logicalis, TIS Inc.
Rockwell Automation
Find out what your peers are saying about CyberArk, One Identity, Okta and others in Privileged Access Management (PAM). Updated: May 2026.
896,387 professionals have used our research since 2012.