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CyberArk Privileged Access Manager vs CyberArk Secrets Management 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

CyberArk Privileged Access ...
Ranking in Enterprise Password Managers
3rd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
229
Ranking in other categories
User Activity Monitoring (1st), Privileged Access Management (PAM) (1st), Mainframe Security (2nd), Operational Technology (OT) Security (3rd)
CyberArk Secrets Management
Ranking in Enterprise Password Managers
17th
Average Rating
7.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.9
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
Secrets Management Tools (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Enterprise Password Managers category, the mindshare of CyberArk Privileged Access Manager is 6.9%, down from 7.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of CyberArk Secrets Management is 0.7%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Password Managers Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
CyberArk Privileged Access Manager6.9%
CyberArk Secrets Management0.7%
Other92.4%
Enterprise Password Managers
 

Featured Reviews

SI
Senior PAM Consultant at iC Consult GmbH
Makes privileged access management easy with automation and granular control
Many people underestimate the value of these tools because they treat them as simple automated password management. Once you realize the volume of passwords in your organization and factor in nonhuman passwords, you realize its value. Last year, CyberArk Impact cited 45 nonhuman passwords for every human password. If you have 10,000 employees, you can imagine the number of passwords. There are also many other operations. For example, you have a Qualys scanner that needs to reach out and touch all your endpoints and scan them for vulnerabilities. They use an API call to CyberArk to pull out a Privileged credential that allows them to log in to that target. This is an automated machine call. It is tapping into CyberArk to get that credential. There can be hundreds of thousands of those operations a day. You do not want to manage those passwords by hand. Some people marginalize the significance of such a solution by saying that it is just a fancy password changer. It goes well beyond that, especially with API calls and automation. Its importance extends beyond merely changing passwords; it involves automation, API calls, and process integration, crucial in agile environments for standing up new Amazon servers or other processes needing privileged credentials. CyberArk can automate these tasks into their build processes. Another critical feature is the proxy service via Privileged Session Manager (PSM), providing not only a proxy between your user and the target servers, protecting against malware but also offering session recording. Many companies I have worked with implemented a PAM product as a knee-jerk reaction to SOX audit requirements. They discovered they needed session recording and retention for regulatory compliance. This has become a major factor for clients instituting CyberArk, so PSM is a big deal in addition to regular password rotation.
RJ
Senior Member Of Technical Staff at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
Helps with compliance and improves operational flexibility
We have had both on-premises and SaaS models. The on-premise setup was a little difficult, but now that it has been moved to the SaaS model, everything is controlled by CyberArk. We just go and do our work. The initial on-premises setup took two weeks because it was an integrated effort. I had to spin up the servers and bring in the CyberArk Secrets Management resource to deploy the scripts. I then had to open networks and firewalls between CyberArk Secrets Management's on-premise servers and the application server. In the initial phase, it took two to three weeks, but it became easier when moving to the SaaS model. In terms of maintenance, it requires patching or upgrades, which happens one day in a month. If there is a failure, we have to roll back and try once again, which takes more time, but if everything goes smoothly, there is three to five hours of downtime.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"The main feature of CyberArk Privileged Access Manager is the ability to manage who has access to what and when, especially with shared accounts."
"With PAM in place, we've experienced a significant reduction in potential security breaches."
"The implementation of the PSM proxy has reduced the specific risk of "insider attacks" on our domain controllers and SLDAP servers by eliminating direct user login by an open secure connection on the user's behalf without ever revealing the privileged credentials."
"The ability to monitor privileged accounts throughout the enterprises."
"The tool has safe vaults. We keep our passwords in the Vault. The tool’s recording feature is also valuable for us."
"With CyberArk, you can be fully confident that your existing accounts are secure. You will be 100 percent"
"CyberArk's support is excellent, providing personalized assistance through a dedicated local account manager and sales engineer."
"The audit trails have been extremely important for us in helping our organization meet regulatory requirements."
"The granular controls of CyberArk Secrets Management are very niche in their development and very secure from the overall secret management perspective, offering high-level functionalities where we have control over user access, which can be tracked and monitored."
"One of the most important features for us is the system's performance, particularly its speed of retrieving secrets."
"CyberArk Secrets Management is a critical solution for strengthening our security posture."
"With CyberArk Secrets Management, we were able to resolve the automatic change of the passwords based on timelines. We were also able to retrieve the passwords in an encrypted format by utilizing the CyberArk platform, which was not provided to us by UiPath."
"The automatic rotation of the password is the top feature."
"It's vital for effectively managing and securing my credentials."
"CyberArk's support team is knowledgeable and helpful, consistently responding on time."
 

Cons

"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."
"Our DevOps team is looking in the direction of cloud, because we are not in it today. We are hoping to build it with Conjur from the ground up."
"The PTA could be improved. Currently, companies often have multiple domains and sometimes it's difficult to implement CyberArk in this kind of infrastructure. For example, you can add CPM (Central Policy Manager) and PSM (Privileged Session Manager and PVWA (Password Vault Web Access) for access, but if you want to add PTA (Privileged Threat Analysis) to scan Vault logs, it is difficult because this component may be adding multiple domain environments."
"In the next release, they could simplify the setup and I would like some tasks added like file sharing. When a client connects to CyberArk and wants to put a file on the server, they cannot."
"One area for improvement is the plug-in development challenge. Although CyberArk provides a plug-in generator utility, it does not fully meet our needs, particularly for web-based applications."
"I'd like it to be a little more granular. I want a little bit more control over exactly what we do. I know if you do that, you add more knobs and dials to deal with, but that's just my personal approach: granular access."
"The major pain point that we have is the capacity of CyberArk due to the sheer volume of NPAs that we are managing. We are a large organization and we have hundreds of thousands of non-personal accounts to manage. We have already found out that there are certain capacity limitations within CyberArk that might introduce performance issues. From my perspective, something that would be valuable would be if the vault could hold more passwords and be more scalable."
"New functionalities and discovered bugs take longer to patch. We would greatly appreciate quicker development of security patches and bug corrections."
"Implementation was complex and required professional services."
"There is room for improvement with better documentation and less need for CyberArk Secrets Management personnel to assist us with their presence."
"The password search feature and integration between different vaults could be enhanced. For instance, when updating passwords in both lower and higher environment vaults, improvement is required in search and upgrade functions."
"We occasionally experience incidents that delay password injection back into the script."
"Improvements for CyberArk Secrets Management include enhanced documentation with more use cases and step-by-step integration guides."
"Implementing it and ensuring seamless password rotations present challenges."
"We did not have a good experience with technical support because their numerous processes caused delays in engaging, leading to project delays or issues with production."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I have heard from my leaders that CyberArk is costlier in terms of licensing. The support and maintenance are also costly. We use their premium support, but for the price we pay, we do not get the value."
"With reducing the privileged account access, there has been a huge improvement. They are now bringing more accounts on a little at a time."
"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."
"CyberArk is one of the best PAM solutions and one of the most expensive, but it works better than the others, so the pricing is fair."
"I hope to learn how the pricing works so that I can understand it better, but I am certain it is not inexpensive."
"The solution is costly but we get what we pay for."
"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."
"The price of CyberArk Privileged Access Manager is expensive. There are no other fees other than the standard licensing fees."
"It is in the middle. It is neither very cheap nor very expensive, so I would place it in the middle."
"CyberArk Secrets Management has a moderate pricing structure based on a per-tenant licensing model rather than a per-user account model like their PAM solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
6%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Insurance Company
12%
Legal Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business59
Midsize Enterprise40
Large Enterprise173
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business1
Large Enterprise6
 

Questions from the Community

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...
What needs improvement with CyberArk Secrets Management?
The tool is very good, but the commercialized training, which is paid, could be improved. Regularizing those trainings as part of a global alliance between the customer, SI partner, and CyberArk wo...
What is your primary use case for CyberArk Secrets Management?
The main use case for CyberArk Secrets Management is application integrations and the CI and CD part. In CyberArk Secrets Management, there are a variety of tools that they cover, one being the Cre...
 

Also Known As

CyberArk Privileged Access Security, CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Rockwell Automation
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about CyberArk Privileged Access Manager vs. CyberArk Secrets Management and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.