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One Identity Safeguard vs Symantec Privileged Access Manager comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 6, 2024

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

One Identity Safeguard
Ranking in Privileged Access Management (PAM)
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
53
Ranking in other categories
User Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) (5th), Non-Human Identity Management (NHIM) (1st)
Symantec Privileged Access ...
Ranking in Privileged Access Management (PAM)
18th
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 March 2026, in the Privileged Access Management (PAM) category, the mindshare of One Identity Safeguard is 4.4%, up from 4.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Privileged Access Manager is 1.6%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Privileged Access Management (PAM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
One Identity Safeguard4.4%
Symantec Privileged Access Manager1.6%
Other94.0%
Privileged Access Management (PAM)
 

Featured Reviews

ST
Senior Information Technology Consultant at Helse Nord IKT
Centralized privileged access has improved control and now supports secure vendor billing oversight
The transparent mode is a seamless approach when using it. We have some issues with it, but we are working on it to make it work for us. Managing remote access for privileged users with the secure remote access feature is both easy and hard depending on the scenario we face. We have some systems that are easy and take not even a minute to set up, while others take a bit longer. We are in the middle of integrating One Identity Safeguard with the IGA solution, Identity Manager. We have some A2A setups, but it is not optimal. We are using RPA for developers, not actually RPA accounts, but that is something we are working on. We are also using the service account password rotation on the asset to some degree, and we are exploring options there. For integrating One Identity Safeguard, figuring out how password rotation works is a bit difficult because we have to make custom integrations. After that, it was no problem really. For the A2A use, it is not as easy as using something like HashiCorp's password management tools. It is mostly for certain features in One Identity Safeguard that I would like some improvements. Some of the things you can do in entitlements, there is a lot you can do there, but not everything is optimal. You have to have duplicates of a lot of things to make it work the way you want.
Muzi Lubisi - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior technical Consultant at CA Africa
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

"All sessions are audited and they are indexed/searchable through the GUI."
"It is the life of our customers because it brings a lot of security."
"We use the solution’s Approval Anywhere feature which enables us to add an extra layer of security for critical passwords without adding time-consuming approval processes. By using this platform, if someone goes on a vacation, out of office, or needs urgent/planned leave, then our setup will select the functions tied to that person and automatically delegate them to the next person. That person can start performing that duty based on their access. No sharing of passwords is required."
"There are numerous valuable data protection features, including the content and information that offer us more scalable protection as needed."
"It provides secure and centralized access to both on-prem and cloud servers, which we did not have before. Previously, there were myriad ways to access our servers, so this centralizing feature is beneficial."
"Safeguard is a next-generation tool when it comes to privileged access management."
"One Identity Safeguard has positively impacted my organization by improving our security posture, eliminating shared privileged credentials, increasing visibility into admin activity, and making compliance audits faster and more reliable."
"It has greatly helped improve our security posture. Safeguard has an option where it will reset passwords on service accounts, then go out to those servers where that service account is running as a service and update the password on it. That makes password changes very easy. We can regularly change passwords now and are planning on making it an annual activity, where all the people who own service accounts will go in and make sure all their passwords get changed, updated, and reset."
"Transparent login for users of privileged IDs (Linux, Windows). This prevents sharing of the password because it is never seen."
"The CA PAM product can help companies or organizations who are looking for Privilege Access Management, and CA PAM is an industry leader; a powerful, easy to use solution."
"We have received good support from the tech support team."
"The most valuable element is the keystroke tracking feature."
"The most important feature is that we do not need to know the passwords any more; just having access to the end point; and that it’s easy to manage users and the account."
"It reduces the viral attacks on my website. It also allows certain users access to see what happens daily."
"The password manager is a valuable feature."
"It gives you list of servers, so you can see which users have access to which servers. This is really useful, so we can make sure nobody is getting extra access than what is needed."
 

Cons

"Some of the out-of-the-box reporting isn't that rich."
"On a scale of one to ten, the stability is an eight."
"Cost-wise, it is a little bit expensive, which makes it difficult to get management approval. Its price should be reduced."
"The GUI has room for improvement because it is confusing and cumbersome."
"We have issues using Safeguard to connect to and record from the cloud. Currently, they don't have a mechanism to record this type of connection."
"I find it complicated to implement HTTPS monitoring because the documentation is unclear."
"For some users, the physical appliance has been a bit buggy."
"It needs more marketing."
"What I hope happens with the new product CA PAM is to keep all the useful features that exist in PA, but what I’ve noticed with many new products is the UI gets polished but systems lags stability and performance or it adds additional complexity instead of simplifying the user experience."
"There is already a feature for that. It is not too great to use."
"I believe continued expansion of integration to multiple systems including SSO and SAML technologies will provide a more-expansive, enterprise view of access orchestration, which will in turn strengthen the security of the environment."
"The demonstration and consideration portion does not work the best. It's not that intuitive."
"Now, the reporting feature on CA PAM only shows the basic information in white-black table format."
"I’m no fan of Java as an application front-end, as it tends to have issues depending on what browser one’s using."
"Recent releases need improvement in webpage management."
"I wish it could create local accounts on desktops."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Its subscription cost is too much, and sometimes, it is very difficult to pitch the solution to the management for cost approval. If the cost is reduced a little bit, it would be easier. If its cost was less, many other organizations that currently cannot afford it would be able to use this technology. I'm sure many organizations around the globe are having issues with identity management, and it is a very difficult task for IT to manage privileged accounts."
"The pricing is about $80,000 per 100 servers. There are few elective costs."
"The pricing depends on our perspective, our budget, and, of course, the competitors we are taking into account."
"We bought their other products, so it was not that expensive. It is one of those where the more you buy, the cheaper it is."
"Setup cost, pricing and licensing are all very expensive."
"As compared to other products, it is reasonable, but the training sessions are too expensive."
"The license is around $3,000 per month."
"One Identity Safeguard is expensive and the cost goes up as we scale."
"It is more expensive than other solutions on the market."
"They offer per-device, per-user, or monthly and yearly licensing models."
"The prices are not low, but one can ask for a discount. It’s not the cheapest PAM solution."
"Cost-wise, CA was better compared to others in the market. ​"
"It is reasonably priced."
"The licensing is simple and scalable."
"I would prefer better licensing options for the 20-100 users we have at a given time."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
University
12%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Marketing Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business33
Midsize Enterprise22
Large Enterprise20
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business14
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise30
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for One Identity Safeguard?
We have a separate department that studies setup costs for each product, but as far as my information goes, the pricing and setup costs are very good.
What needs improvement with One Identity Safeguard?
The most common improvement needed is for upgrades. One Identity Safeguard's desktop client should have a faster and easier upgrade process that ensures compatibility.
What is your primary use case for One Identity Safeguard?
One Identity Safeguard serves as our Privileged Access Management solution to enforce session management for administrators and allow them to access our systems in recorded sessions, which secures ...
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...
What is your primary use case for Symantec Privileged Access Manager?
With the customers that I have so far, I help them broker RDP sessions to sensitive servers, particularly those that manage aspects like physical access. I have also done it for backend databases, ...
 

Also Known As

No data available
CA PAM, Xceedium Xsuite, CA Privileged Access Manager
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Cavium
NEOVERA, Telesis, eSoft
Find out what your peers are saying about One Identity Safeguard vs. Symantec Privileged Access Manager and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,933 professionals have used our research since 2012.