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

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
  • 1,569 Views
  • 78 Comparison Views
91% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report
Executive Summary
We performed a comparison between IBM Tivoli Federated Identity Manager [EOL] and Symantec Siteminder based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Broadcom, P2 Security, OpenText and others in Web Access Management.

DOWNLOAD THE COMPLETE REPORT

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 (12th)
 

Featured Reviews

AN
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.
Read full review
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.
Read full review

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."
"Ease of use is very good, for administrating it. It's very well known."
"Authentication & Authorization are important because all the sites need authentication for security purposes. That has been handled pretty well all these years with SSO."
"The solution has features that allow you to easily distinguish between protected and unprotected resources."
"It has considerably reduced the amount of time that new users would take to join into the organization. Previously, it was a lengthy, manual process because it's a very secure environment, where they need to verify the user before they can actually grant him a user-ID and password. Integrating with the built-in custom application, and exposing CA Single Sign On to the internet, we were able to get the employees onboard. The time that we gained was: previously it would generally take from four to eight weeks for each employee, we brought it to one to two days."
"The most valuable feature is the integration with the Active Directory."
"As our identity model continues to mature, probably the Federation is most valueable."
"Symantec Siteminder Is both scalable and stable."
"Siteminder allows us to manage identity and portability control efficiently."
More Symantec Siteminder pros
 

Cons

"It would be better if the administration and configurations were more straightforward. The architectural level is also quite complex."
"Better documentation. I went through some sessions on single sign-on for version 12.7."
"The support could be faster."
"I think they need to integrate some of the newer types of authentication into the product. I'm not seeing the innovation when it comes to biometrics in the product."
"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."
"Symantec Siteminder needs to have adaptive authentication and multi-factor authentication as integrated features."
"The initial setup was complex, painful. But that is to be expected of any new setup. When you're a big bank like us, any kind of migration to a new product is hard. I expect it to be painful, and it was painful. But it's not something that you can avoid."
"Symantec SiteMinder is not easy to set up and maintain at an infrastructure level."
"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."
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 pricing is reasonable."
"The licensing is fair for this solution."
"CA solutions are generally expensive but for the customer the ROI is big."
"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."
"The price is quite comparable to the other enterprise-level solutions in that market."
"Symantec Siteminder is expensive; they could definitely do better on the price."
"I recommend conducting a PoC on every available product before choose one."
"The solution's pricing is competitive."
report
See which vendors are best for you
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Web Access Management solutions are best for your needs.
See recommendations
867,497 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
30%
Insurance Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Retailer
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

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What do you like most about Symantec Siteminder?
It's agent-based. It's convenient to deploy and integrate.
See all answers
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
Ping Identity Platform vs Symantec Siteminder Logo
Ping Identity Platform vs Symantec Siteminder
Compared 41% of the time
ForgeRock vs Symantec Siteminder Logo
ForgeRock vs Symantec Siteminder
Compared 31% of the time
Microsoft Entra ID vs Symantec Siteminder Logo
Microsoft Entra ID vs Symantec Siteminder
Compared 17% of the time
Okta Workforce Identity vs Symantec Siteminder Logo
Okta Workforce Identity vs Symantec Siteminder
Compared 12% of the time
More Symantec Siteminder Competitors
 

Product Reports

No data available
Buyer's Guide
Symantec Siteminder
August 2025
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
Buyer's Guide
OpenText Access Manager with Managed Services vs. Symantec Siteminder
August 2025
Free Report: OpenText Access Manager with Managed Services vs. Symantec Siteminder
Find out what your peers are saying about OpenText Access Manager with Managed Services vs. Symantec Siteminder and other solutions. Updated: August 2025.
DOWNLOAD NOW
867,497 professionals have used our research since 2012.
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.