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Certificate Lifecycle Manager vs RSA Authentication 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

Certificate Lifecycle Manager
Ranking in Authentication Systems
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
Certificate Management Software (2nd)
RSA Authentication Manager
Ranking in Authentication Systems
15th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
8.2
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2026, in the Authentication Systems category, the mindshare of Certificate Lifecycle Manager is 1.9%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of RSA Authentication Manager is 2.5%, up from 2.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Authentication Systems Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Certificate Lifecycle Manager1.9%
RSA Authentication Manager2.5%
Other95.6%
Authentication Systems
 

Featured Reviews

Karthik Kashyap T H - PeerSpot reviewer
Lead Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
Eliminates certificate expiration outages and offers good customization and reporting capabilities
Even though it allows for email editing, until version 23.1, you had to log on to the server, and the console itself used to take a lot of time. That has changed from the last release onwards. When you're defining the flow, there are some areas that can probably cause confusion to the users. If you want to rename the default field, you cannot rename it, which caused a lot of confusion during the initial days until everyone got settled in. Allowing the renaming or updating of the default field is something Certificate Manager can improve on. Certificate Manager has both the on-prem and the cloud versions, but the on-prem version is far more mature than the cloud version, which lacks a lot of features that the on-prem version offers, at least when we did the POC and evaluated the product. The maturity of the cloud version needs improvement. Additionally, when considering the on-prem version, there is a minor glitch in the system. When an administrator makes changes, they have flexibility regarding the approval flow. When dealing with a certificate that requires approval from several different teams, there is a minor glitch in the system where the name of the approver does not appear. This is a bug that we are currently addressing. Additionally, there is room for improvement in key management. Changing the default account name is not a straightforward process; it can be quite tedious. This is an area where improvements could be made. If there is a particular workflow that we want to tweak, right now, we can achieve it only via a PowerShell script. It would be great if they could also support a small Python script or anything to expand their scripting or adaptable workflow code base. Even though we can call another script from a PowerShell script, if someone doesn't have knowledge of PowerShell, that would be challenging.
US
VP Business Development at SDVG
Enhancing security with seamless single sign-on and Microsoft integration
We use RSA Authentication Manager for web applications and internal applications. We have a number of applications connected to it, serving over thirty thousand clients. It is integrated into everything from our standard login to Windows in the morning, as well as our applications Due to its…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"CyberArk Certificate Manager has excellent capability in handling certification renewals; whenever you specify any validity period that needs to be renewed within certain days, it triggers automatically, and I appreciate that aspect."
"The most valuable feature of Venafi is the automation that helps save time and reduce human error."
"By using Certificate Manager, we have reduced our potential risk significantly due to certificate expiry, as all teams are getting emails before 60 days and 90 days, which is helpful."
"Certificate Manager has reduced the certificate expiration outages to almost nil, and since 2022, we have had almost zero major incidents wherein we saw a financial impact or business disruption due to an expired certificate."
"The feature that I have found most valuable is their certificate discovery."
"CyberArk Certificate Manager is doing its best with multiple layers of security, and while they face challenges with legacy applications, they can still connect to web applications, rich applications, desktop applications, and cloud-native applications."
"It's definitely worth the money to have Venafi as a tool; it's definitely miles away from the competition, in my opinion."
"So, from the perspective of risk reduction, it can be directly quantified in the value for the customer."
"The technical support has been great; their service is perfect."
"The most valuable feature is the provision part. The mapping and the logging is also very good. In addition, the troubleshooting, from a console point of view, is easy for administration and on the provisioning and logging part."
"It is a good solution for token identification."
"RSA Authentication Manager Appliance is almost like Plug 'n' Play, so it's an excellent experience."
"RSA Authentication Manager is the best available solution."
"I have found RSA Authentication Manager to be scalable."
"Easy setup, deployment, and integration in different infrastructures, including virtual ones."
"It stands out as a comprehensive and adaptable solution that excels in both on-premises and cloud-based authentication, offers strong security with multi-layered authentication, and boasts a well-maintained product with reliable performance."
 

Cons

"Unfortunately, we didn’t receive a notification from Venafi because it wasn't configured correctly, which led to a loss of around 12 million dollars."
"The initial setup is complex. You need third-party support or support from CyberArk Certificate Manager if you do not have a lot of skillset inside your own company."
"Regarding stability, I observed that in the last year, CyberArk Certificate Manager was down two to three times without any notification."
"There's definitely lots of room for improvement with Venafi. They have a website where we can suggest new features, and they need to take that a little bit more seriously."
"I would like to see included in the next release of Venafi integration with the cloud HSM's, Hardware Security Module. Additionally, I would say other cloud services, because it's not only cloud that's essential. If you have a customer that has a lot of their IT moved into cloud, integration with different cloud services is always an area to improve."
"Currently, specific processes require manual installations due to the lack of built-in integrations."
"In terms of scalability, given that we were in the situation where it was on-prem, there were certain limitations there."
"There are quite a few different technical aspects of Venafi that I feel they just missed out on; I'd have to look at my notes for the specifics."
"Our major problem is the authentication via Microsoft, via Microsoft cloud systems. This is our major aim, to be a valued product for the future. The biggest problem is to work against cheap cloud systems. Cloud identification is our main problem at this time."
"We are seeing a lot of difficult issues in terms of RSA, especially the cloud-based two-factor authentication process."
"The price needs to be improved."
"RSA Authentication Manager is perfect. We do not see current missing products or enhancements yet emphasize the importance of a continuous development roadmap."
"Enhancing the user interface and expanding their marketing efforts in regions like Nigeria and West Africa could be beneficial."
"My observation over the years is that the system upgrades can be complicated and must be well planned out to address 'what if' issues, including backing off upgrades if necessary."
"Perhaps parts of the the user interface should become more intuitive."
"We are not planning on using the solution in the future."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing model is complex, considering factors beyond the number of certificates. This complexity can make our payments to Venafi challenging if costs continue to rise. It is good but more expensive than the competitors."
"Venafi's pricing appears to be competitive within the market."
"The pricing is a little bit complicated because sometimes resellers are able to make prices that are too low. Our price, with a discount, is typically not as high as some of our competitors."
"As a new customer, the minimum cost would be four dollars, but you have room for negotiation, potentially bringing it down to as low as three dollars."
"The solution is costly."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
8%
Construction Company
7%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Construction Company
10%
Government
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Large Enterprise19
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Large Enterprise7
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Venafi?
In terms of pricing, they are a little costly, but they are the best in the market today, so I would say they are worth every penny, rating them again at seven or eight.
What needs improvement with Venafi?
CyberArk Certificate Manager can be improved, particularly in terms of integrations with other tools. I would like to see improvements in integrations with ID, Kerberos, or with other companies for...
What advice do you have for others considering Venafi?
Since using CyberArk Certificate Manager, I have seen specific outcomes such as a reduction in incidents because I can work with CyberArk Certificate Manager, where digital certificates are everywh...
What needs improvement with RSA Authentication Manager?
RSA Authentication Manager is perfect. We do not see current missing products or enhancements yet emphasize the importance of a continuous development roadmap.
What is your primary use case for RSA Authentication Manager?
We use RSA Authentication Manager for web applications and internal applications. We have a number of applications connected to it, serving over thirty thousand clients. It is integrated into every...
What advice do you have for others considering RSA Authentication Manager?
RSA Authentication Manager is the best available solution. However, for other companies, it might seem expensive. It's important for RSA to keep developing new features and maintain a robust roadma...
 

Also Known As

Venafi
ACE/Server
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Surescripts, CME Group, TD Bank Group, Aetna, MoneyGram, Zions Bancorp, Cisco
Tiera, Fred Loya, BRE Leasing, ADP, BlueFort Security, New Hanover County
Find out what your peers are saying about Certificate Lifecycle Manager vs. RSA Authentication Manager and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
904,836 professionals have used our research since 2012.