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IBM Tivoli Access Manager [EOL] 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

IBM Tivoli Access Manager [...
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
3.8
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Symantec Siteminder
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
75
Ranking in other categories
Single Sign-On (SSO) (14th), Web Access Management (1st), Access Management (15th)
 

Featured Reviews

it_user711612 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Consultant at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Reverse proxy provides central control over authentication and authorization.
It is a single product that caters for all the business needs throughout the organization. It provides a seamless integration that in turn encourages most of the applications to use the SSO features Reverse proxy is the most valuable feature as it provides central control over authentication and…
Muzi Lubisi - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior technical Consultant at CA Africa
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

"It has helped them to improve and control web and mobile application security."
"Several SSO methods are supported out of box, federation based SSO (SAML / Oauth / OpenID etc) setup is easy, performance and scalability are very good, and the internal STS token service can be used for custom SSO tokens."
"Some of the valuable features are: Reverse proxy Protected object space Ease of integration Multiple and robust AuthN and AuthZ mechanisms built-in No single point of failure (SPOF)"
"Single Sign-On functionality is valuable because the core purpose of the product is to allow universal (or bespoke) SSO for application suites."
"I like the primary function of this product allowing the administration of user/network accounts with a fair amount of ease."
"Tivoli Access Manger lets you separate security from applications and manage at one place."
"Since its birth it is an unbelievable stable product."
"Provided more secure computing."
"For the most part, SSO is very stable."
"The single sign-on is the solution's most valuable feature."
"Once it works, it works really well."
"The most valuable feature is the flexibility of this product to integrate with any third-party components and platforms."
"Symantec Siteminder Is both scalable and stable."
"The feature that I mostly valued is the ease of installation on different systems, especially on Windows."
"This is the only access management product that I have come across which configures end-to-end and hosts resources."
"It puts the expertise around authentication and security on our organization where it belongs."
 

Cons

"The whole product could be made into one suite instead of multiple components which are essentially a part of the same infrastructure."
"Older TAM versions are not compatible for connecting to a DB."
"The initial set-up is a bit complex for a novice as the Linux version of it needs you to be somewhat good with Linux."
"An Amazon Machine Image (AMI) for the newer appliance versions for hosting the virtual appliances on AWS will help."
"The TAMeB policy server is not scalable."
"Yes, because there are so many moving parts it can often be difficult getting it right first time."
"Multi-factor authentication with social integration needs to improve."
"Redundant Policy servers had to be manually configured using LB."
"The initial setup of Symantec SiteMinder was a bit tricky. I would rate it a seven on a scale of one to ten, where ten indicates an easy setup."
"The installation process was complex. There are a lot of different moving pieces, and the main complaint is that it's hard to automate any of it."
"Symantec Siteminder needs to have adaptive authentication and multi-factor authentication as integrated features."
"We go by agents for authentication; anything relating to agent configuration could be improved, or even agentless security."
"Probably the biggest thing that SiteMinder needs is a refreshed UI for administrators."
"Not great. The first level of support is not up to the mark or able to understand the actual problem."
"Yes it can be complex, I think that's one area we have already given feedback to the product management, that is a little complex to get the set up and get it going and the upgrade process is very complex."
"The OpenID Connect piece, we would like to see the new technologies baked into the product, as opposed to going out and using a different product to accomplish the same thing."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The IBM prices are, as ever, extortionate, even with a business partnership, and high levels of discounts."
"I recommend conducting a PoC on every available product before choose one."
"CA solutions are generally expensive but for the customer the ROI is big."
"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."
"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."
"The solution's pricing is competitive."
"The licensing is fair for this solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
14%
Outsourcing Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Marketing Services Firm
11%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Construction Company
13%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Marketing Services Firm
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise18
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise69
 

Questions from the Community

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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 ...
What is your primary use case for Symantec Siteminder?
I deploy and support Symantec Siteminder ( /products/symantec-siteminder-reviews ). I have been a partner and reseller.
 

Also Known As

Tivoli Access Manager, IBM Security Access Manager
SiteMinder, CA SSO, Layer7 SiteMinder
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Essex Technology Group Inc.
British Telecom, CoreBlox, DBS, HMS, Itera ASA and Simeo
Find out what your peers are saying about Okta, Microsoft, Cisco and others in Single Sign-On (SSO). Updated: July 2026.
908,877 professionals have used our research since 2012.