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IBM Tivoli Federated Identity Manager [EOL] vs Symantec Siteminder comparison

IBM and Broadcom are both solutions in the Web Access Management category. Additionally, 100% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of Broadcom users who would recommend it.
Symantec Siteminder
Read 75 Symantec Siteminder reviews
  • 2,692 Views
  • 188 Comparison Views
91% willing to recommend

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 Federated Identi...
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
1
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) (13th), Web Access Management (1st), Access Management (13th)
 

Featured Reviews

AN
reviewer287652
Presales Consultant at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
A stable and scalable web security and identity management solution.
The solution is good, but it's pretty complex. So, I wouldn't recommend this solution to anyone without extensive security knowledge. The administration and configuration aren't straightforward. If the implementation takes up to six months, it will be costly. On a scale from one to ten, I would give IBM Tivoli Federated Identity Manager an eight.
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Muzi Lubisi - PeerSpot reviewer
Muzi Lubisi
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.
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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"IBM Tivoli Federated Identity Manager is a good solution. It's both stable and scalable."
"It allows us to get, again, both externally hosted and internally hosted web applications up and running using centralized credentials in short order."
"It’s a secure product; we can make use of two factor authentication with the product and so from a security perspective, it gives us strong authentication."
"The solution has features that allow you to easily distinguish between protected and unprotected resources."
"We needed to implement secure access, CA is a leader in this area, so we went naturally with the best, and we also chose CA because of the way they interact with customers, pitch new features to us, ask us for feedback, and provide us with support."
"SSO affords us the opportunity to have a federated connection between our members, groups, and companies, giving providers the ability to transpose across the different Delta Dentals without having to authenticate more than once with one identity for all sites."
"I would totally recommend this product, but I think CA has a really good handle on what the drivers are and where the business is going in terms of application development."
"You can quickly deploy the entire product with a basic config within couple of hours."
"SAML is the best thing we're using right now because there is no need for creating an external account."
More Symantec Siteminder pros
 

Cons

"It would be better if the administration and configurations were more straightforward. The architectural level is also quite complex."
"The tech support has not been very good for us so we don't use them anymore. We have had some issues. Nobody is perfect."
"I would prefer to see their SAML integration be a more streamlined and easier interface."
"We use technical support. It's not the best feature of CA. Lots of enterprise product companies have variable support offerings. CA are not the worst, but they're not the best. They're okay."
"Unfortunately, SSO doesn't really allow us to do that. We have to basically do it through brute force."
"The maintenance cost has increased significantly, and we are concerned about this."
"I would say it is a relatively complex setup. We have a relatively complex environment so with all of the availability requirements we have, it is quite complex but having said that, it is no more complex than any other enterprise systems that has to be highly available."
"It's stable, but we are finding some compatibility issues."
"It may be a good product, but I'd advise staying away from customizing it."
More Symantec Siteminder cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Our customers pay for the license every year or every three years. It's not available on a monthly basis."
"The solution's pricing is competitive."
"Symantec Siteminder is expensive; they could definitely do better on the price."
"I recommend conducting a PoC on every available product before choose one."
"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."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"The price is quite comparable to the other enterprise-level solutions in that market."
"The licensing is fair for this solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
23%
Insurance Company
8%
Marketing Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise69
 

Questions from the Community

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What do you like most about Symantec Siteminder?
It's agent-based. It's convenient to deploy and integrate.
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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Symantec Siteminder?
My experience with pricing is that it is all good.
See all answers
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 ...
See all answers
 

Comparisons

No data available
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Compared 11% of the time
Keeper Enterprise Password Manager vs Symantec Siteminder Logo
Keeper Enterprise Password Manager vs Symantec Siteminder
Compared 8% of the time
Microsoft Entra ID vs Symantec Siteminder Logo
Microsoft Entra ID vs Symantec Siteminder
Compared 7% of the time
Auth0 Platform vs Symantec Siteminder Logo
Auth0 Platform vs Symantec Siteminder
Compared 7% of the time
More Symantec Siteminder Competitors
 

Product Reports

No data available
Buyer's Guide
Symantec Siteminder
February 2026
Symantec Siteminder reportDownload Symantec Siteminder product report
 

Also Known As

Tivoli Federated Identity Manager
SiteMinder, CA SSO, Layer7 SiteMinder
 

Overview

IBM Tivoli Federated Identity Manager provides web and federated single sign-on (SSO) to users across multiple applications. It uses federated SSO for security-rich information sharing for private, public and hybrid cloud deployments. With it you can enable security-rich business collaboration in the cloud.

IBM

Symantec® SiteMinder is designed to secure the modern enterprise through a unified access management platform that applies the appropriate authentication mechanism to positively identify users; provides single sign-on and identity federation for seamless access to any application; enforces granular security policies to stop unauthorized access to sensitive resources; and monitors and manages the entire user session to prevent session hijacking. Finally, Symantec SiteMinder is battle-tested and has been deployed in the largest IT environments in the world.

Broadcom
 

Sample Customers

EXA Corporation
British Telecom, CoreBlox, DBS, HMS, Itera ASA and Simeo
See our list of best Web Access Management vendors.

We monitor all Web Access Management reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.