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Idira Privileged Access Manager vs Symantec VIP Access Manager 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

Idira Privileged Access Man...
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
230
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)
Symantec VIP Access Manager
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Authentication Systems (12th), Access Management (22nd)
 

Featured Reviews

Atul-Gujar - PeerSpot reviewer
CyberArk manager at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Secures critical infrastructures with essential user session audit records
A potential area for improvement is enhancing support for cluster environments and distributed Vaults. Clients in multiple countries that need central access have different challenges that require better solutions from CyberArk. For financial services, CyberArk can improve incident response by ensuring fast support for critical priority tickets to meet compliance requirements. Providing more documentation on CyberArk is recommended for new team members to enhance their troubleshooting capabilities. I understand it's up to the client, but 99% fail to change the demo key, so it's crucial for CyberArk to emphasize changing the key and documenting it as part of the installation process.
Berk Onur - PeerSpot reviewer
Presales Consultant at Cyberwise
With its mobile application, this tool offers a convenient and user-friendly experience to its users
To improve the tool, I think that the solution should consider integrations with other cybersecurity and IT technologies, such as Privileged Access Management and Site Integration. Additionally, the implementation of second-factor authentication via Symantec VIP Access Manager, CyberArk, and Delinea, among other technologies, could be best for the product. While the existing technology is okay, improving the integration capabilities for Symantec VIP Access Manager would benefit the product. I would like to see the solution meet the integration needs at our company. While many cybersecurity solutions can function independently, they often lack integration with our systems due to missed integration points. Improving the solution's integration feature would be beneficial.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature I find in CyberArk Privileged Access Manager is that we can record the sessions. It provides flexible workflows. I can change the workflow to specify if it needs one approval or two approvals, and I can approve my peer."
"All access to our servers by both staff and vendors is monitored and recorded."
"It is a great product when it comes to security, and from the security point of view, I would advise a new user to use this tool and deploy it in your environment since the security is unbeatable."
"We have accomplished our security goals. We have two-factor authenticated and vaulted our important accounts, so people can't just steal stuff from us."
"The password management feature is valuable."
"For audit and risk purposes, CyberArk EPV has helped us meet our standards and requirements to help us comply with industry standards and banking regulations."
"Overall, I feel that this is a good product and I recommend it."
"Previously, we used to share passwords for service and normal admin accounts among team members. However, since we started managing it through the product, we've transitioned to individual admin accounts or implemented dual control for shared accounts. With dual control, exclusive checking and checkout options are available, and passwords are not stored in clear text anywhere in the credentials."
"The ease of integrating into an existing authentication system."
"The VPN we are using is good and working quite well."
"Pricing was about 25% of the old solution, saving us about $500,000 over three years for 10,000 users."
"In this version 9.1, lots of changes are done for the dashboard, User Store etc."
"It is a fast and easy solution for end users, and you are always online."
"Cloud-based service and management."
"It offers more platform support, like Apple, Android, and Microsoft."
"Mostly from a product expert's point of view, it provides solutions for my clients."
 

Cons

"Online help needs to be looked into with live agent support."
"As of now, it does not manage all of the IDM practices. It is only good as a PAM solution."
"CyberArk PAM could greatly benefit from an under-the-hood update; integrating machine learning algorithms could provide predictive insights."
"We have had some performance and stability issues. We have had instances where things weren't as they should be, however, we worked closely with the development support teams once the issues were escalated and managed to find either a resolution or a workaround to stabilize the solution."
"CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault must incorporate connectors for password and session managers in the marketplace."
"This is probably a common thing, but they do ask for a lot of log files, a lot of information. They ask you to provide a lot of information to them before they're willing to give you anything at all upfront. It would be better if they were a little more give-and-take upfront: "Why don't you try these couple of things while we take your log files and stuff and go research them?" A little bit of that might be more helpful."
"Its pricing is a big challenge here. When it started, the product came in at a very low cost. Now, they are the leaders in the market, so the cost has grown and is quite huge."
"There was a situation when one of our presidents had an issue, but I can't recall the specifics."
"I would like to see the solution meet the integration needs at our company...Improving the solution's integration feature would be beneficial."
"The VIP Manager can be accessed from the outside which is a security vulnerability."
"Geofencing needs improvement."
"It is challenging to use when installing a new version."
"Technical support is one of the worst problems."
"Maybe Symantec could consider providing a step-by-step guide for first-time users."
"There are some shortcomings on the reporting side, such as how many connections you can get per month."
"The gateway server is a RADIUS server, but it lacks the functionality of returning RADIUS attributes other than those that are required for the gateway to authenticate the users."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is slightly higher compared to other solutions, but it is reasonable because there are better security features."
"The product’s pricing is feasible for enterprise customers. The pricing is expensive for smaller businesses. You need to pay additional costs for service implementation and local support."
"It is in line with its competitors, but all such solutions cost too much money."
"CyberArk Privileged Access Manager is perceived to be somewhat overpriced compared to similar market products. It is a little bit overvalued. It could come down a little bit for my liking. However, the industry-leading reputation and the quality of service justify the high price point to some extent."
"The solution is cost-effective for the features."
"Our risk is definitely significantly lower. Also, our resources are low."
"Overall, its pricing is really good. The main difference from all the other vendors is that they have one package that covers all the functionality and modules of the basic PAM, except the add-on modules like adware and server protection. It also doesn't include the licenses for domain controller protection or maybe an API call-related feature. For the basic privileged access management, the bundle pricing is really good, but when it comes to an agent-based solution for advanced cyber protection or application identity managers, it is expensive. Services are also very expensive if you hire the services team from CyberArk, but these guys are really good. For a couple of large banking projects, we had an experience with them. The banks wanted to have things quickly and efficiently, so we had to hire them. If we take four weeks, these guys can do everything on a weekend. They charge quite a big sum of money, but they know the system well."
"The license CyberArk Privileged Access Manager is on an annual basis."
"I can say that the solution is worth the money."
"There are additional costs for maintenance."
"There is a one-time setup fee plus the licenses are provided as per the number of users. For SMS and voice calls, the costs are separate."
"Licensing and pricing seems very fair."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Construction Company
7%
Construction Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Outsourcing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business59
Midsize Enterprise42
Large Enterprise175
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise10
 

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?
My thoughts on the pricing of CyberArk Privileged Access Manager depend entirely on the vendors' requirements. If they want their things to be secure, they have to spend accordingly. We have four t...
What needs improvement with CyberArk Privileged Access Manager?
I believe account discovery and rolling support need to be improved. Account discovery is important when integrating with other systems, as other PAM solutions can perform account discovery and onb...
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Also Known As

CyberArk Privileged Access Security, CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault
Symantec VIP
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Rockwell Automation
Maine Medical Center, Aria S.p.A
Find out what your peers are saying about Idira Privileged Access Manager vs. Symantec VIP Access Manager and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.