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

CyberArk Privileged Access Manager vs Symantec Siteminder 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 ...
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
224
Ranking in other categories
User Activity Monitoring (1st), Enterprise Password Managers (2nd), Privileged Access Management (PAM) (1st), Mainframe Security (2nd), Operational Technology (OT) Security (3rd)
Symantec Siteminder
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
75
Ranking in other categories
Single Sign-On (SSO) (13th), Web Access Management (1st), Access Management (12th)
 

Featured Reviews

Abdul Durrani - PeerSpot reviewer
Enables granular and secure access with just-in-time access and Zero Trust model
CyberArk provides a good amount of control over access types. However, as a future enhancement, having additional features for cross-platform integration would be beneficial. It would be good to have integrations with other tools and firewalls, such as Zscaler and CrowdStrike. Although I am not fully aware of recent updates, more cross-platform integration would be valuable. A SOC analyst would like to have centralized access in terms of information flowing in even for privileged access management. They would like to have control over everything instead of opening four to five tabs for different sorts of information. Cross-platform integration would help with that. Customers also want CyberArk's pricing to be better so that they can implement it further and have more licenses. Implementing a privileged access management solution can be challenging. It would be great if CyberArk could provide recommendations based on the compliance standards of an organization. It would help system admins ensure that all the required ports are closed and the systems are being managed properly. If any system is not being used anymore, any ports opened for that system need to be closed. Having such recommendations would be helpful.
Muzi Lubisi - PeerSpot reviewer
Improved user experience with seamless integration and easy installation
The feature that I mostly valued is the ease of installation on different systems, especially on Windows. Additionally, it is very beneficial for deploying single sign-on sessions between different windows on a web browser, provided I am connected to the right identity provider. That seamless integration significantly improves user experience and efficiency.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"CyberArk Privileged Access Manager is the best solution for safeguarding sensitive patient data in healthcare, providing visibility and traceability that enhance compliance."
"I appreciate CyberArk's real-time capabilities. I can secure critical sessions, such as SSH or database sessions."
"The password rotation and cyber gateway have been quite useful."
"The technical support is good."
"CyberArk has resulted in a massive increase in our security footprint."
"The risk of lost password and forbidden access to resources has been drastically reduced which increased the security level for the entire company,"
"The password vault and session monitoring are useful."
"CyberArk Privileged Access Manager’s ability to safeguard credentials for our organization is very important because it helps in managing the keys to the kingdom, especially the privileged access for various platforms."
"Siteminder allows us to manage identity and portability control efficiently."
"The most valuable feature is that it meets the requirements of the customer. You have a lot of features in the product. Every product has them, but the question is, are these products going to meet the requirement of the customer?"
"The solution has features that allow you to easily distinguish between protected and unprotected resources."
"As our identity model continues to mature, probably the Federation is most valueable."
"Symantec Siteminder has simplified user access for our customers from user login to their web applications."
"Authentication & Authorization are important because all the sites need authentication for security purposes. That has been handled pretty well all these years with SSO."
"All of our applications get a point, click, and you are in, while we increase security at the same time."
"The single sign-on is the solution's most valuable feature"
 

Cons

"CyberArk definitely needs to improve user experience and reduce complexity."
"As they grow, the technical support is having growing pains. One of the things is just being able to get somebody on the phone sometimes."
"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."
"Over the past seven years, I have seen a lot of ups and downs with the product."
"They are sometimes not flexible with things. For instance, from one day to another, there might be something that had been done years ago by CyberArk, then they say, "We do not support that." You then have to initiate a complaint and start working with them. Things might become complicated and months pass while you are working with them. Usually, they are good and fast, but sometimes they seem to be blocked with problems, e.g., you will suddenly be working with another team instead of the team that you were working with the day before."
"The support services could act faster when people reach out to resolve issues."
"CyberArk's license is too expensive. I rate it seven out of 10 for affordability."
"We'd like to see the creation of some kind of memo field for each device account, which could be used, in our network at least, to leave a note about the device for either the security or network engineering team members."
"The support could be faster."
"We're currently unable to find information about if the solution can do a full implementation with SQL. Some better and more accessible documentation for new users or those curious about the product would be helpful."
"To add more value to this solution it needs to be more user-friendly."
"Symantec SiteMinder is not easy to set up and maintain at an infrastructure level."
"Symantec Siteminder needs to have adaptive authentication and multi-factor authentication as integrated features."
"In future releases, I would like to see maybe more capabilities with some more modern authentication."
"The maintenance cost has increased significantly, and we are concerned about this."
"Some of the new protocols, like OAuth 2.0, could be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is cost-effective for the features."
"This solution is expensive."
"I would rate the cost of CyberArk Privileged Access Manager seven out of ten with ten being the most expensive."
"Although CyberArk Privileged Access Management is expensive, its protection capabilities outweigh the cost."
"The price of CyberArk support could be a little bit less. Otherwise, pricing is fine."
"CyberArk provides all the features bundled. This is compared to other vendors who provide them as a different license for each functionality."
"There are additional features added to our CyberArk Privileged Access Manager license. For example, features that allow us to integrate into various kinds of platforms."
"This solution is considered to be more expensive than others out there on the market today."
"The solution's pricing is competitive."
"The licensing is fair for this solution."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"Siteminder is a little costly. You pay for licensing, and they offer packages, so if you have less users, then you have to buy different products at different prices. If you have more of a user base, then the package is different. They also include other features—for example, if you have a database and you're using Siteminder, then it's good to use a Semantic-specific database, but if you are using less, then you have to purchase the database separately. Whereas if you are going for a bigger license, then it comes within the package. It depends on which plan you are using."
"CA solutions are generally expensive but for the customer the ROI is big."
"Symantec Siteminder is expensive; they could definitely do better on the price."
"The price is quite comparable to the other enterprise-level solutions in that market."
"I recommend conducting a PoC on every available product before choose one."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Access Management solutions are best for your needs.
862,452 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
15%
Educational Organization
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
31%
Insurance Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
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 do you like most about Symantec Siteminder?
It's agent-based. It's convenient to deploy and integrate.
What needs improvement with Symantec Siteminder?
Symantec Siteminder needs to have adaptive authentication and multi-factor authentication as integrated features. Currently, multi-factor authentication is available as a separate solution, and it ...
 

Also Known As

CyberArk Privileged Access Security, CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault
SiteMinder, CA SSO, Layer7 SiteMinder
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Rockwell Automation
British Telecom, CoreBlox, DBS, HMS, Itera ASA and Simeo
Find out what your peers are saying about CyberArk Privileged Access Manager vs. Symantec Siteminder and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
862,452 professionals have used our research since 2012.