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OpenIAM Identity Governance 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

OpenIAM Identity Governance
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
User Provisioning Software (13th), Identity Management (IM) (27th)
Symantec Privileged Access ...
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
53
Ranking in other categories
Privileged Access Management (PAM) (16th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Identity and Access Management solutions, they serve different purposes. OpenIAM Identity Governance is designed for User Provisioning Software and holds a mindshare of 3.0%, up 1.3% compared to last year.
Symantec Privileged Access Manager, on the other hand, focuses on Privileged Access Management (PAM), holds 1.7% mindshare, up 1.6% since last year.
User Provisioning Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
OpenIAM Identity Governance3.0%
SailPoint Identity Security Cloud19.1%
One Identity Manager9.3%
Other68.6%
User Provisioning Software
Privileged Access Management (PAM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Symantec Privileged Access Manager1.7%
CyberArk Privileged Access Manager9.8%
One Identity Safeguard4.3%
Other84.2%
Privileged Access Management (PAM)
 

Featured Reviews

SM
Lead Consultant at a security firm with 51-200 employees
Manages user identities and application access in a centralized way from a single console/portal
OpenIAM provides an Identity and Access Management platform which includes identity and access management (i.e., SSO, Multi-factor Authentication, password synchronization, and RBAC). Below are the features : Lower Cost of Implementation & Total Cost of Ownership: * OpenIAM uses tools, such as Groovy script to implement business rules, Grails to create new UI functionality, Activiti for workflow, PowerShell, etc. It also support web services. So it is important to find skilled technical resources readily and at reasonable cost in comparison to the large vendors, which use proprietary tools for developing custom connector or product customization as per business requirement. * OpenIAM is also based on Open Source technologies (i.e., JBoss, Apache, MySQL, CentOS), so Total Cost of Ownership is very low in comparison to other IAM products. * Compliance with standards simplifies integration. * Subscription-based license model. Ease of Use: OpenIAM offers a single unified Admin console and a single unified self-service portal for customers to use and manage the IAM suite (i.e. Identity Management, Access Management, and Multi-Factor Authentication). Modern Architecture: * Built from the ground up, not through acquisitions and proprietary technology. * SOA architecture * Cloud-enabled Enterprise Grade Product: Even though OpenIAM is based on Open Source technologies, it is: * Built on industry standards * Simplified integration * Uses established industry frameworks
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

"Customer support is very good and available in almost all time zones."
"The exposure of sensitive usernames and passwords has been limited in a massive way."
"The interface is very friendly, colorful, and bold."
"Transparent login and cluster synchronization are quite stable compared with other products, and it is easy to manage for the administrator."
"The access control component is solid, adding another layer of security beyond the basic OS security of Linux and Windows while keeping administration costs the same across different operating systems."
"The possibility to control the remote activity and establish different policies, because it depends on the position of workers, how much access they needed, and in what platforms they connect, and the possibility to separate this in an easy way is very useful."
"The credential injection feature is highly valued, particularly for RDP sessions."
"I like the fact that passwords are checked-in automatically."
"Transparent login for users of privileged IDs (Linux, Windows). This prevents sharing of the password because it is never seen."
 

Cons

"OpenIAM should improve the product/API documentation on portal which gives more flexibility to developers for product customization and connector development."
"They need to have zero tier and active-active setup ​with zero minimum downtime, which they are working on it. ​"
"I wish it could create local accounts on desktops."
"The demonstration and consideration portion does not work the best. It's not that intuitive."
"Yeah, it still does not support HA in Multi AZ subnets."
"The live session recording is still not in the features."
"Evaluations are not just about features and functions of this specific product, but it is taking that holistic view around what else we can get out of it in the next three to five years."
"So far, with the functionality of what we had, there has not been much improvement at this point of time."
"The setup was complex."
 

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."
"I would prefer better licensing options for the 20-100 users we have at a given time."
"It is more expensive than other solutions on the market."
"They offer per-device, per-user, or monthly and yearly licensing models."
"It is reasonably priced."
"Appliances are relatively cheap, don’t skimp. Make sure you have redundancy, high availability, and enough appliances to manage the concurrent workload."
"Don’t go with an agent model. Don’t go with a model that has you buying a thousand different parts. Go with PAM that gives you everything, or you’ll just be paying costs of implementing another tool that PAM would have just given you up front."
"Cost-wise, CA was better compared to others in the market. ​"
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
University
16%
Government
10%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Construction Company
9%
Construction Company
14%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business14
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise30
 

Questions from the Community

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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

OpenIAM, OpenIAM IGA
CA PAM, Xceedium Xsuite, CA Privileged Access Manager
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Citicorp, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, Marsh and McLennan, SBC Warburg, GE Electric Insurance, Tata Communications, NettBuss, AMSCAN, Time Warner, MultiPlan, Stater Bros., County of Orange - California, TUI Hotels, NV Energy, EMCOR Group, Previred
NEOVERA, Telesis, eSoft
Find out what your peers are saying about One Identity, SailPoint, Omada and others in User Provisioning Software. Updated: June 2026.
902,417 professionals have used our research since 2012.