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

Microsoft Purview Privileged Access Management vs Symantec Privileged 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

Microsoft Purview Privilege...
Ranking in Privileged Access Management (PAM)
15th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Symantec Privileged Access ...
Ranking in Privileged Access Management (PAM)
16th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
53
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Privileged Access Management (PAM) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Purview Privileged Access Management is 2.0%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Privileged Access Manager is 1.5%, down from 1.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Privileged Access Management (PAM)
 

Featured Reviews

Mayeen Uddin - PeerSpot reviewer
Security features have increased satisfaction while implementation is seamless
I use Microsoft Purview Privileged Access Management primarily for Outlook, Microsoft Word, and Excel Microsoft Purview Privileged Access Management is easy to understand, particularly its menu. I am satisfied with its security features provided through Microsoft Security. However, my company…
Muzi Lubisi - PeerSpot reviewer
Secure management of sensitive servers and seamless applications with direct linking
The credential injection feature is highly valued, particularly for RDP sessions. A majority of customers use it for RDP, and a couple for Linux servers. The broader capabilities, including access to multiple systems, web-based applications, and clustering, have never posed an issue. The threat analytics aspect is also a robust feature that analyzes all pertinent information.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Microsoft Purview Privileged Access Management is easy to understand, particularly its menu."
"The integration with Azure Identity is a significant advantage, as it allows for seamless automation and power app integration."
"The ability to provide just-in-time privileged access and set specific parameters for access duration is highly beneficial."
"The integration with Azure Identity is a significant advantage, as it allows for seamless automation and power app integration."
"The integration with other Microsoft solutions is a standout feature of Microsoft Purview Privileged Access Management."
"Microsoft Purview Privileged Access Management is easy to understand, particularly its menu."
"Comprehensive coverage of the required features for the PAM solution."
"Whoever built it from the ground up, they understand how an organization is laid out."
"The two factor authentication, and the single most important capability was it supported PIV and CAC as one of the two factors. That was pretty huge for us."
"It reduces the viral attacks on my website. It also allows certain users access to see what happens daily."
"Password Management and Session Recording. The simplicity and ease that it is to be up and running out-of-the-box is very much appreciated."
"The product is very scalable in terms of concurrent sessions that it can handle at a time, number of device it can support, accounts that it can manage, or number of nodes that you can deploy in a cluster."
"It is great for identity governance."
"The agent-based credential management solution allows clients to programmatically use the agent to collect passwords during runtime from Symantec Privileged Access Manager."
 

Cons

"There's room for improvement in Microsoft's documentation, as it often lacks clarity."
"Microsoft Purview Privileged Access Management could improve integration with multiple cloud environments."
"Microsoft Purview Privileged Access Management has made progress in providing insights into generative AI tools being used within organizations, but customers need to further track where sensitive information is being used within AI tooling."
"Microsoft Purview Privileged Access Management could improve integration with multiple cloud environments."
"I do not see any financial benefit after implementing Microsoft Purview Privileged Access Management, however, this question would be better answered by my manager."
"Sometimes, its functions, like XLOOKUP in Microsoft Excel, do not find situations properly, especially without the use of pivot tables."
"Broadcom has neglected product development since acquiring Symantec, and nothing major has been added to PAM."
"The support for other remote assistance tools would be excellent. Free included tools in Windows (Remote Assist) and Microsoft SCCM Configuration Manager (ConMgr Remote Control) allow companies to reduce the amount of RDP connections and expand the usage of the tools are frequently used by companies to provide technical support for remote assistance."
"They need to have zero tier and active-active setup ​with zero minimum downtime, which they are working on it. ​"
"We experience stability issues after every patch upgrade. This is a place where CA needs to improve drastically."
"It's difficult to locate the reports, there are limits on what reports can be run from the GUI, and the report formats are lacking."
"The service account management functionality needs to be extended to application pools, SQL database, PowerShell scripts, service account discovery, etc."
"They should include some assignments in the test environment to explore the product's features."
"We have to do a lot of manual work to automate features."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The version we are using is affordable compared to BeyondTrust, which is maybe three to four times as expensive, but it depends on the features."
"Pricing is fair compared to other top vendors."
"I would prefer better licensing options for the 20-100 users we have at a given time."
"The prices are not low, but one can ask for a discount. It’s not the cheapest PAM solution."
"It is reasonably priced."
"They offer per-device, per-user, or monthly and yearly licensing models."
"The licensing is simple and scalable."
"Appliances are relatively cheap, don’t skimp. Make sure you have redundancy, high availability, and enough appliances to manage the concurrent workload."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Privileged Access Management (PAM) solutions are best for your needs.
865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Healthcare Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
15%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft Purview Privileged Access Management?
The ability to provide just-in-time privileged access and set specific parameters for access duration is highly beneficial.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Purview Privileged Access Management?
Regarding improvements for Microsoft Purview Privileged Access Management, there are still some challenges. Purview contains numerous predefined sensitive information types, which sometimes makes i...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Purview Privileged Access Management?
We are a company offering solutions to other customers, and Microsoft Purview Privileged Access Management provides great helping features and solutions. It is not the only thing needed to prevent ...
What do you like most about Symantec Privileged Access Manager?
We can check the activities in the server for fragile files and documents in case of any issues.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Symantec Privileged Access Manager?
Due to the nature of the solution, it is hard to gauge, but compared to competitors, the pricing is very good. I would rate it as an eight and a half out of ten.
What needs improvement with Symantec Privileged Access Manager?
Recent releases need improvement in webpage management. For instance, navigating through a webpage that acts like a wizard, where I proceed to the next page and enter more information, is not handl...
 

Also Known As

Microsoft Privileged Access Management (PAM)
CA PAM, Xceedium Xsuite, CA Privileged Access Manager
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
NEOVERA, Telesis, eSoft
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Purview Privileged Access Management vs. Symantec Privileged Access Manager and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.