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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 (2nd), 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

"Access Control has greatly prevented the misuse of administrator rights which is very rampant."
"No, the product been stable and robust, and boasts with new additional features."
"It efficiently controls the access to the resources from the privileged user thus implementing the security aspects and this provides fine granular access."
"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."
"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."
"We have been able to exceed our audit requirements for security."
"Access Control enhances the security of business systems through a secured authentication and validation of users credentials before accessing organizations resources."
"CyberArk is a very important tool for my organization."
"This product helped our customer manage their privileged accounts; it is easier for them to manage and control the privileged accounts."
"Implementing CyberArk is not only rolling out a tool, it also will force the company to have a good look at the access management strategy, improve security processes and clean data."
"All the high privileged accounts are managed by CyberArk at a regular frequency."
"Session recordings and timestamps are valuable features. They allow me to specifically select the time a particular command was executed, so I do not have to review the entire recording. I can click on events to determine where and when they happened."
"Security is the solution's most valuable feature. As far as I know, this solution is the most secure system of this class on the market today, even considering another management system like Fudo Security, which we also use. The integration capabilities are very good; it helps strengthen our overall security."
"You can see the benefits of CyberArk Privileged Access Manager immediately."
"The biggest feature is the security of the overall solution. It's very secure. The vaulting technology and the number of security layers involved in the vault, where privileged accounts are actually stored, is the heart of the solution."
 

Cons

"Automated deployment did not work as expected, had to go to a manual deployment."
"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 found the installation process of Access Control challenging due to the much networking work involved in order to grant access to authorized users."
"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."
"User Interface needs to be improved."
"I have faced a few challenges due to the system complexity, as it involves two integrated authentication systems that have to be purchased."
"Sometimes we encounter issues whilst generating the reports."
"Some aspects of the administration need improvement, though they have recently made improvements to the API. However, the management with the interface and configuration are not so user-friendly. It has not changed much during all the years that CyberArk has been on the market. The management part, like platform management as well as PSM connectors definition and management, could be improved, even if it has already been done with the API."
"When I was a component owner for PAM's Privileged Threat Analytics (PTA) component, what I wanted was a clear mapping to the MITRE ATT&CK framework, a framework which has a comprehensive list of use cases. We reached out to the vendor and asked them how much coverage they have of the uses cases found on MITRE, which would have given us a better view of things while I was the product owner. Unfortunately they did not have the capability of mapping onto MITRE's framework at that time."
"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 one place where we found that this product really needs to improve is the cloud. Simple integrations don't exist, even today. We don't have anything specific on CyberArk for managing, SaaS products, SaaS vendors, SaaS credentials. I understand it's a vendor-based thing and that they have to coordinate with the other vendors to be able to do that, and there are integrations coming. But these are the major places where CyberArk definitely needs to invest some more time."
"Password Vault is much pricier than other solutions. A vendor team might struggle to explain why that price is justified. There are good alternatives that cost less."
"The solution that they proposed was not straightforward because of the backend processes of CyberArk."
"I would prefer that this is a fully-managed service, rather than have to manage the software ourselves and keep it up to date."
"With regards to potential improvements for the CyberArk product, I find the product quite expensive and I would like to see the cost reduced."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"CyberArk Privileged Access Manager is more expensive than its competitors, such as BeyondTrust, Delinea, and ManageEngine PAM360."
"The price of CyberArk support could be a little bit less. Otherwise, pricing is fine."
"The pricing is slightly higher compared to other solutions, but it is reasonable because there are better security features."
"Our risk is definitely significantly lower. Also, our resources are low."
"Network and security licenses are currently being managed by other outsource vendors, so they are facing some type of problems in the digital aspect."
"CyberArk is very expensive and there are additional fees for add-ons."
"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."
"The solution is available at a high price"
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Construction Company
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 Enterprise175
 

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 Idira by Palo Alto Networks, One Identity, Okta and others in Privileged Access Management (PAM). Updated: June 2026.
905,526 professionals have used our research since 2012.