MasterSAM Star Gate vs Netwrix Privileged Access Management comparison

Managing cybersecurity has become the most challenging ever mission in today's fast-growing security landscape. Undeniably, insider threat has been growing tremendously looking at day-to-day reported data breaches around the world. It's a trend and it will continue to grow rapidly. Privilege is the main key to IT infrastructure. As such, managing privileged access has become a priority milestone to achieve in the most organization’s cybersecurity blueprint. User endpoints like desktop or laptop are always the main interest point among attackers, allows them to penetrate into the entire corporate network. A security layer is required to isolate the network between users and servers, eliminating the direct access through user endpoints to greatly reduce the risk of attack surface.

MasterSAM Star Gate is designed to manage, secure and monitor privileged credential and access across the enterprise IT environment – either it’s on-premise data centre, on the cloud or hybrid infrastructure. This agent-less architecture enables organization to meet the compliance needs in a quick deployment model, supports wide coverage to systems/devices such as operating system, database, hypervisor, application, network and security devices. It offers built-in High Availability and Offline Secured Retrieval options to help organizations mitigating the risk of system access downtime, and ensure business impacts are minimized.

Netwrix Privileged Access Management (PAM) enables organizations to discover, control, and monitor privileged accounts across endpoints, servers, and hybrid environments. It continuously identifies unmanaged and excessive privileges to help reduce credential misuse and limit lateral movement.

At the core of the solution is a Zero Standing Privilege model that removes persistent administrative rights. Instead of relying on long-lived privileged accounts, access is granted on a time-bound, just-in-time basis only when required. Privileged accounts are dynamically created, elevated, and disabled per session, significantly reducing persistent attack surface exposure.

Netwrix PAM combines just-in-time elevation, credential vaulting, session monitoring, multi-tier approvals, and post-session cleanup to support least privilege across administrative workflows. Real-time session recording, centralized policy controls, and detailed audit trails provide centralized visibility into privileged activity and strengthen operational oversight.

While traditional vault-centric approaches focus primarily on password storage, Netwrix PAM removes standing privileges and reduces attack paths rather than simply managing them. As part of the broader Netwrix identity security portfolio, it integrates with identity governance, directory security, and threat detection capabilities to deliver coordinated protection across hybrid environments.

Comprehensive reporting and session-level evidence support regulatory and governance requirements, helping organizations demonstrate control over elevated access during audits aligned with frameworks such as SOX, HIPAA, PCI DSS, and ISO standards. By eliminating permanent administrative rights and applying strict, policy-driven access controls, Netwrix PAM helps materially reduce risk across on-premises, hybrid, and cloud-connected environments.

Key use cases

• Replace permanent admin rights with time-bound, just-in-time privileges

• Continuously discover unmanaged and excessive privileged accounts

• Record and monitor privileged sessions with detailed audit trails

• Grant secure, time-limited access to third-party vendors

• Provide break-glass emergency access with full accountability

• Eliminate shared administrative accounts to enforce individual accountability