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Idira Privileged Access Manager vs Netgate pfSense comparison

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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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.6
Idira Privileged Access Manager users benefit from time savings, enhanced security, cost savings, and increased satisfaction in access management.
Sentiment score
6.5
Netgate pfSense offers significant ROI by reducing costs, consolidating functions, and enhancing efficiency through simplified management and existing hardware compatibility.
The return on investment lies in improved security infrastructure, addressing over-privileged access, and reducing the risk of credential compromise, which is a major source of data breaches.
Cyber Security Engineer at Isolutions Associates Ltd (ISOLS)
The end users have the authority to reconcile the password or verify it before using session isolation, which is one of the unique features that can be enabled through Privileged Session Manager, preventing any attacks from happening within the organization when connected with sessions through CyberArk Privileged Access Manager.
Senior Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
CyberArk Privileged Access Manager has helped customers save on costs primarily by reducing the number of engineering and information security personnel.
Head of Sales Services Department at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
I have seen a return on investment with cost savings after implementing Netgate pfSense, as other firewalls would cost me lakhs of rupees while pfSense is free.
Information Technology Infrastructure Manager at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
I evaluate specific metrics and ROI by noting that our clients have become almost fully remote, so in the sense that they would not have been able to go fully remote without this investment, the ROI is almost close to 100%, definitely over 90%.
代表社員 at a computer software company with 1-10 employees
I have seen a return on investment from using Netgate pfSense, primarily through cost avoidance and reduced administrative overhead by consolidating firewall, NAT, VPN connectivity, and VLAN segmentation into one solution.
Lead Engineer at intelQong Technology
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.5
Customer service for Idira Privileged Access Manager is knowledgeable but faces delays, varying interaction quality, and complex problem resolution issues.
Sentiment score
7.7
Netgate pfSense support is praised for responsiveness and knowledge, though costs and occasional inconsistent responses are noted.
CyberArk has been exceptional in coming back to us with immediate responses.
IT Cyber Security Lead at a mining and metals company with 1,001-5,000 employees
It could be forever until you talk to someone who knows what they are doing.
Senior PAM Consultant at iC Consult GmbH
Based on the issue resolution and support quality, I rate the support 10 out of 10.
Operation Specialists at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
When we're down, that's $8000 an hour on a $1500 firewall.
Chief information security officer at Center for Information Management, Inc.
Even when they're in the middle of deploying a new version, I've reached out and received a download link within five minutes.
Senior Network Engineer at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
He had me try several troubleshooting things, identified that the box was bad, and got me a replacement.
CIO and President at Aim High! Inc.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Idira Privileged Access Manager is flexible and scalable, efficiently supporting organizational growth with minor planning and licensing challenges.
Sentiment score
6.6
Netgate pfSense effectively scales for small to medium businesses, offering flexibility and high availability but struggling with large deployments.
The CPM can reportedly handle up to 50,000 accounts independently without issue.
Privileged Access Management Engineer at a hospitality company with 10,001+ employees
I would rate it a ten out of ten for scalability.
IT Cyber Security Lead at a mining and metals company with 1,001-5,000 employees
They had 40,000 passwords in this one safe, and it was saving the last ten iterations of each password object. That means they had 400,000 password objects in this safe. They exceeded the limit.
Senior PAM Consultant at iC Consult GmbH
The next step up now is to the 4100, which gives you an additional preconfigured WAN port that allows you to easily separate networks.
CIO and President at Aim High! Inc.
Netgate doesn't come anywhere close to the scalability that its competitors do.
Chief information security officer at Center for Information Management, Inc.
If I should grow into a business, then all I need to do is change the virtual machine capacity.
Director, Latin America at Bradmark Technologies, Inc.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
Idira Privileged Access Manager is stable and reliable, with minor issues usually resolved by updates, ensuring overall high performance.
Sentiment score
7.2
Netgate pfSense is praised for its high stability and reliability, with rare downtime often due to hardware issues.
Proper fine-tuning and expertise ensure the product performs well.
Cybersecurity Specialist at a comms service provider with 5,001-10,000 employees
Overall, the stability of the solution is high.
Senior Cybersecurity Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
It has a large customer base and positive feedback within my network.
Senior Manager at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Netgate pfSense rates a 10 for stability, and I have experienced no issues there.
Workday Reporting & Analytics Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Otherwise, I've never seen one have a problem. It's just rock solid.
Chief information security officer at Center for Information Management, Inc.
The solution is stable.
Managing Director at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Idira Privileged Access Manager needs improved UI, integrations, pricing, installation, support, reporting, and API for better accessibility and efficiency.
Netgate pfSense requires UI improvements, centralized tools, better integration, enhanced documentation, and strategic collaboration for market positioning.
They want everything to be on the cloud, but even in the SaaS version of CyberArk Privileged Access Manager, they need to deploy some servers on-premises.
Presales Engineer at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
We cannot generate a plug-in for web-based applications.
Contractor at a pharma/biotech company with 5,001-10,000 employees
If they want clients to move to the cloud, they need to support them in real-time.
Senior Manager at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
You could add AI for troubleshooting with Netgate pfSense because it will be easier for new engineers.
Network & Security Engineer at Arrow PC Network Pvt Ltd
I also think built-in dashboards for real-time throughput, packet drops, CPU and memory utilization, VPN tunnel health, and connection counts with configurable historical retention should be added for first-glance visibility.
Lead Engineer at intelQong Technology
I would like to have the ability to control all my devices from one place.
CIO and President at Aim High! Inc.
 

Setup Cost

Idira Privileged Access Manager is seen as high-cost but justified for large enterprises due to advanced features and support.
Netgate pfSense is cost-effective, offering a free edition and affordable Plus version, appealing to small-medium enterprises.
CyberArk is expensive compared to other products I know.
Cybersecurity Specialist at a comms service provider with 5,001-10,000 employees
CyberArk is comparatively expensive compared to other PAM solutions, such as Delinea, especially during renewal.
Presales Engineer at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
CyberArk's SaaS solution is particularly expensive.
Senior Manager at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The cost of the 3500 was closer to $4,000.
CIO and President at Aim High! Inc.
For smaller companies or those aiming to reduce expenses, it's a highly affordable option, and even their hardware is reasonably priced.
Senior Network Engineer at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
pfSense pricing is extremely competitive, and it delivers exactly what is advertised.
 

Valuable Features

Idira Privileged Access Manager enhances security with session monitoring, password management, integration flexibility, compliance support, and a user-friendly interface.
Netgate pfSense excels in security, flexibility, and ease of use, offering scalable solutions with strong community support and third-party integration.
CyberArk Privileged Access Manager helps ensure data privacy because we now know who is using which credentials and at what time.
Senior Cybersecurity Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
It keeps a record of activities, allowing me to easily fetch screen recordings to detect any misuse and see who did what and what happened.
Senior Manager at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
It can integrate with Splunk, SNMP, and other solutions and technologies.
Technical Support Analyst at Capgemini
pfSense's flexibility is great. If you don't have the money to buy the NetGate hardware, anything works with it. You can toss it on any low-end piece of hardware or virtualize it if you choose to virtualize it.
Senior Network Administrator at Elite Computers
We had downtime before pfSense. We've never gone down using the solution.
Head of IT at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
It is very stable, and it works very well.
 

Categories and Ranking

Idira Privileged Access Man...
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
231
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)
Netgate pfSense
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
223
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Network Security Systems solutions, they serve different purposes. Idira Privileged Access Manager is designed for Privileged Access Management (PAM) and holds a mindshare of 8.6%, down 16.0% compared to last year.
Netgate pfSense, on the other hand, focuses on Firewalls, holds 6.8% mindshare, down 10.9% since last year.
Privileged Access Management (PAM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Idira Privileged Access Manager8.6%
Safeguard by One Identity4.4%
Teleport3.6%
Other83.4%
Privileged Access Management (PAM)
Firewalls Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Netgate pfSense6.8%
Fortinet FortiGate13.0%
Cisco Secure Firewall8.0%
Other72.2%
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

Singaravelu C - PeerSpot reviewer
CyberArk Engineer at Tata Consultancy
Provides full visibility into user activity and ensures secure end-to-end access across critical systems
In CyberArk Privileged Access Manager, I see room for improvement as I am working in the on-premises networks, and now we are also having the cloud-based PAM. So there, everything is maintained by the CyberArk Privileged Access Manager team, and we are only maintaining the PSM servers. So it is already upgraded from the on-premises network to the cloud network. If you ask me what we can implement beyond that, I just need a few minutes to think about what new things, because it is already an end-to-end security on-premises itself. Now, when it comes to PCloud, Privileged Cloud, it is more secure than the on-premises networks because most of the things are handled using the cloud itself. So it is an already upgraded version; we do not need to implement something new. But if you think in that way, we can have a chance to implement our things. If anything could be improved in CyberArk Privileged Access Manager, I think we could build a small agent AI in my team, we could give access to these logs—the Vault logs, PSM logs, and CPM logs. Whenever the system is going down, the AI will automatically check. If we actually implement agent AI in CyberArk Privileged Access Manager, it will check the logs, and if any errors are coming, it automatically triggers alerts and gives the solution. That is the best improvement I can think of because these days, most things are done by agent AI. So if we also implement this agent AI in CyberArk Privileged Access Manager, we can add more features.
Juan-Arias - PeerSpot reviewer
Principal Cloud Architect - Software Engineer at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Rapid VPN setup has connected offices in minutes and brings live insights for proactive issue control
What I appreciate the most about Netgate pfSense is the ease and straightforward nature of the platform. I can set up a new office in less than 10 minutes. The benefits of using Netgate pfSense are that I can set up VPNs in less than two to three minutes, and then just deploy the file across my networks, where everybody would be connected in less than an hour. The dashboards of Netgate pfSense bring all the necessary information that I need at a glance, and it is actually a live update every three to five seconds. It is spotless, and I have been able to catch issues before they hit operations.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business59
Midsize Enterprise43
Large Enterprise175
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business172
Midsize Enterprise34
Large Enterprise29
 

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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for CyberArk Privileged Access Manager?
The pricing is reasonable compared to other software options we evaluated, and it is straightforward. However, overall costs depend on deployment size and licensing requirements.
What needs improvement with CyberArk Privileged Access Manager?
While the access control capabilities are useful, streamlining some configuration and policy management workflows could enhance the user experience for administrators. A simpler interface for creat...
Help me find the best open source router
You don't really specify what type of router you are looking for but if you are talking about a gateway router I recommend PFSense. This software solutions can be installed on youf own hardware or ...
How do I choose between Fortinet FortiGate and pfSense?
Fortinet’s Fortigate is a firewall solution we use and are very much satisfied with its performance. We find Fortigate both cost-effective and efficient. One of the features we like most is that Fo...
What is the difference between PfSense and OPNsense?
Two of the most common and well recognized firewalls, PfSense and OPNsense both support site-to-site IPsec VPN and client, Open VPN and client, and PPTP client. Both also have intrusion detection a...
 

Also Known As

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

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Rockwell Automation
Nerds On Site Inc., RKC Development Inc., Expertech, Fisher's Technology, Ncisive, Consulting, CPURX, Vaughn's Computer House Calls, Imeretech LLC, Digital Crisis, Carolina Digital Phone, Technigogo Technology Services, The Simple Solution, SwiftecITInc, Rocky Mountain Tech Team, Free Range Geeks, Alaska Computer Geeks, Lark Information Technology, Renaissance Systems Inc., Cutting Edge Computers, Caretech LLC, GoVanguard, Network Touch Ltd, P.C. Solutions.Net, Vision Voice and Data Systems LLC, Montgomery Technologies, Techforce, Concero Networks, ASONInc, CPS Electronics and Consulting, Darkwire.net LLC, IT Specialists, MBS-Net Inc., VOICE1 LLC, Advantage Networking Inc., Powerhouse Systems, Doxa Multimedia Inc., Pro Computer Service, Virtual IT Services, A&J Computers Inc., Envision IT LLC, CommunicaONE Inc., Bone Computer Inc., Amax Engineering Corporation, QPG Ltd. Co., IT 101 Inc., Perfect Cloud Solutions, Applied Technology Group Inc., The Digital Sun Group LLC, Firespring
Find out what your peers are saying about Idira by Palo Alto Networks, One Identity, Okta and others in Privileged Access Management (PAM). Updated: October 2026.
917,884 professionals have used our research since 2012.