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

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 2, 2026

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
Idira Privileged Access Man...
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

"It gives us the ability to track who is using what ID and for what purpose."
"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."
"Access Control enhances the security of business systems through a secured authentication and validation of users credentials before accessing organizations resources."
"Access Control has greatly prevented the misuse of administrator rights which is very rampant."
"We have been able to exceed our audit requirements for security."
"It efficiently controls the access to the resources from the privileged user thus implementing the security aspects and this provides fine granular access."
"It has become one of the primary components that we have."
"Overall, as a partner in our digital transformation, CyberArk has been great."
"Rather than multiple tools for maintaining regulatory compliance around passwords and privileged accounts, we have centralized as much as possible with CyberArk. This is now a one stop shop for end users to access their elevated credentials."
"The most valuable feature is the special management. It records the activity and the actions that we use for auditing."
"We are able to rotate privileged user passwords to eliminate fraudulent use."
"With this product and the protection it offers, you can witness ROI immediately."
"I find the threat analytics is an important feature, as CyberArk can look at the log details and analyze who is using the applications, which are their locations, and which are the IP locations from which they are accessing, enabling the solution to find the exact location the threat is emanating from, which we really value."
"AIM has been a great help in automating password retrieval which removes the need for hard-coded credentials."
 

Cons

"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."
"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."
"Yes, I encountered lots of issues."
"Automated deployment did not work as expected, had to go to a manual deployment."
"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."
"Sometimes we encounter issues whilst generating the reports."
"The continuous scanning of the assets is limited to Windows and Unix. We like to have the solution scan any databases, network devices, and security devices for privileged accounts. That would be very helpful."
"It is easily customized, and that customization makes it very easy to start trying to shoehorn the solution into roles it was never intended to fill."
"As we have not yet moved to the core licensing model, we don't have the benefit of PSM and a few other things that were not previously included."
"The initial setup is pretty difficult and it takes a while to put into place."
"One area for improvement is the user interface. It needs significant enhancements."
"The usual workload on the system is sometimes delayed by CyberArk, so any major work is getting delayed and may take twice the amount of time that it usually does."
"Upgrading the product is very difficult, so this could be an area for improvement."
"We would like to expand the usage of the auto discovery accounts feed, then on our end, tie in the REST API for automation."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"It's per-company, license-based."
"If you are looking at implementing this solution, buy the training and go to it."
"The solution is costly but we get what we pay for."
"If you want a Ferrari, it will cost you. The solution is really nice, so it costs the client, but in the long run, it is very good. If you buy a solution that costs a lot to maintain because it is not stable, and you are frequently asking for consultant support, it costs more."
"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."
"The price of CyberArk Privileged Access Manager could be less expensive."
"The price of this solution is quite reasonable."
"The product's licensing is yearly. I would rate the solution's pricing a six out of ten."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
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 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...
What needs improvement with CyberArk Privileged Access Manager?
I believe account discovery and rolling support need to be improved. Account discovery is important when integrating with other systems, as other PAM solutions can perform account discovery and onb...
 

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.
896,803 professionals have used our research since 2012.