Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

CyberArk Privileged Access Manager vs HashiCorp Vault comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 16, 2024

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
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
221
Ranking in other categories
User Activity Monitoring (1st), Privileged Access Management (PAM) (1st), Mainframe Security (2nd), Operational Technology (OT) Security (3rd)
HashiCorp Vault
Ranking in Enterprise Password Managers
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Enterprise Password Managers category, the mindshare of CyberArk Privileged Access Manager is 7.8%, down from 9.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HashiCorp Vault is 12.3%, down from 14.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Password Managers
 

Featured Reviews

Lasantha Wijesinghe - PeerSpot reviewer
We have visibility and control through real-time user behavior analytics
It took us some time to realize its benefits because there was a learning curve for us. It took us about a year to get our heads around this product and start effectively using it. It is a journey. It takes at least five years for any company to make this product very useful and reach maturity. It is not only the product's fault. The company needs to have a vision, and the company culture needs to go with it. Senior leadership needs to support the vision. You need to have lots of ingredients for success. If everything is in place, you will see success after one year. In the first year, it is a struggle for everybody. My company was bought by a bigger company, and they were very new to privileged access management. Everybody was struggling. The advice I would give is to have a good vision for privileged access management. You need dedicated teams, senior management support, and proper company policies and standards before implementing the solution. Start building knowledge slowly and avoid jumping into the deep end without preparation. I would rate CyberArk Privileged Access Manager a nine out of ten.
AKASHGUPTA3 - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to manage and maintain the password API but stability could be improved
I would advise doing a Proof of Concept first and then deciding accordingly because your use case might be simple. You can try out AWS Key Management or Azure Key Vault. They are different products. Do the POC and then decide what you need. Overall, I would rate the solution a six out of ten. No solution is a ten in my opinion.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The access control feature and privilege and role-based assignment are outstanding."
"It is a robust product."
"Password rotation is the most valuable feature"
"On the EBB user side, we were able to secure all the server root passwords and admin for Windows. This was a big win for us."
"I would recommend implementing CyberArk Privileged Access Manager as it is the best so far."
"You can easily manage more than 4000 accounts with one PSM."
"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."
"Password Vault's policy configuration is very good - when you receive an attack, you can segment the structure of the project in order to isolate parts or users."
"We use the solution for secret management."
"The feature I find most beneficial in HashiCorp Vault is the secret engine. It integrates smoothly with many applications, making it easy to set up and implement quickly. This allows you to test it easily and see good results rapidly. When you integrate an internal API or application, it quickly manages that application's secrets."
"It is an added value for our customers to have a Secrets Management workflow available that is PaaS/CaaS/KaaS Platform agnostic."
"For me, the most valuable features include that it's easy to manage and maintain the password API for retrieving passwords and other things."
"It is user-friendly and easy to implement from any application point."
"It is a good product to consider for companies who are looking to build on-premise or hybrid infrastructure."
"The most valuable feature of HashiCorp Vault is the management of tickets in the pipeline."
"The most valuable feature of HashiCorp Vault is version control."
 

Cons

"The solution should be able to mitigate internal threats"
"The scalability, sometimes, is lacking. It works really well for more static environments... But for an environment where you're constantly spinning up new infrastructure or new endpoints, sometimes it has a hard time keeping up."
"I would like to see improvement in the custom connector for integration with different devices."
"Transitioning from a traditional on-premises deployment to the privileged cloud has resulted in losing access to many logs and administrative tools typically available on the back end."
"The only problem involves granting access to people who are authorized to view it."
"Maintaining the product is challenging. Upgrades require a lot of resources, as it impacts the entire organization. For example, upgrading components like the Privileged Session Manager (PSM) and the vault is time-consuming and difficult. In the long term, I would like to see these processes simplified, especially for on-premise installations."
"It is complicated to deploy for Windows servers compared to other vendors."
"Currently, in Secure Connect, an end user is required to enter account information manually, and cannot save any of this information for future use."
"The documentation is very general; it should have more examples and more use cases."
"The technical support was hard to get a hold of and lacking in service."
"I would like to see better integration of HashiCorp Vault with SAP products."
"A drawback for some clients who have to be PCI compliant is that they still need to use and subscribe to an HSM (Hardware Security Module) solution."
"In my opinion, HashiCorp Vault could improve its user interface. Right now, they don't offer much in terms of a graphical interface, which means you usually have to manage things manually through API calls. I think CyberArk has a better approach because it provides a UI that integrates features across all its components, making it easier, especially for new users or those from organizations with strict licensing policies."
"It would be helpful to have more advanced features."
"The product is complicated to install."
"There could be a plugin for the database to change the secret automatically. It would be an efficient feature for password security."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Its price can be reduced."
"It can be an expensive product."
"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."
"Overall, its pricing is really good. The main difference from all the other vendors is that they have one package that covers all the functionality and modules of the basic PAM, except the add-on modules like adware and server protection. It also doesn't include the licenses for domain controller protection or maybe an API call-related feature. For the basic privileged access management, the bundle pricing is really good, but when it comes to an agent-based solution for advanced cyber protection or application identity managers, it is expensive. Services are also very expensive if you hire the services team from CyberArk, but these guys are really good. For a couple of large banking projects, we had an experience with them. The banks wanted to have things quickly and efficiently, so we had to hire them. If we take four weeks, these guys can do everything on a weekend. They charge quite a big sum of money, but they know the system well."
"CyberArk Privileged Access Manager is on the expensive side. It is very expensive."
"My company always complains about the cost of CyberArk Privileged Access Manager because it's too high."
"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."
"The solution is very expensive and requires a license. We pay for an enterprise license."
"In my case, the open-source version works well. It's advisable for small to medium-scale organizations, but for large-scale organizations, you should go with the enterprise version."
"The product is expensive."
"The solution's cost is reasonable."
"The AWS version is much cheaper than HashiCorp Vault."
"It could do everything we wanted it to do and it is brilliant, but it is super pricey. To be fair to HashiCorp, we drove the price up with our requirements around resiliency. Because of the nature of our company, we don't really operate in the cloud."
"I am using the open-source version of Vault and I would have to buy a license if I want to get support."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Enterprise Password Managers solutions are best for your needs.
849,686 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
33%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
20%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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?
With the current model of licensing, for my use cases, sometimes it's hard to convince the management and get budget approvals for it. It's expensive and you're not getting anything new. It's just ...
Which is better - HashiCorp Vault or AWS Secrets Manager?
HashiCorp Vault was designed with your needs in mind. One of the features that makes this evident is its ability to work as both a cloud-agnostic and a multi-cloud solution. As a cloud-agnostic sol...
What do you like most about HashiCorp Vault?
The feature I find most beneficial in HashiCorp Vault is the secret engine. It integrates smoothly with many applications, making it easy to set up and implement quickly. This allows you to test it...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HashiCorp Vault?
If I were to set it up in AWS Secret Management, I would have to manage it, pay, and create secrets without being cloud agnostic. The advantage with Vault is that it is cloud agnostic. I can deploy...
 

Also Known As

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

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Rockwell Automation
Adobe, SAP Ariba, Citadel, Spaceflight, Cruise
Find out what your peers are saying about CyberArk Privileged Access Manager vs. HashiCorp Vault and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
849,686 professionals have used our research since 2012.