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Safeguard by One Identity vs Symantec Privileged Access Manager comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 20, 2026

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

Safeguard by One Identity
Ranking in Privileged Access Management (PAM)
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
90
Ranking in other categories
User Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) (1st), Non-Human Identity Management (NHIM) (2nd)
Symantec Privileged Access ...
Ranking in Privileged Access Management (PAM)
15th
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 September 2026, in the Privileged Access Management (PAM) category, the mindshare of Safeguard by One Identity is 4.3%, up from 3.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Privileged Access Manager is 1.9%, 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 (%)
Safeguard by One Identity4.3%
Symantec Privileged Access Manager1.9%
Other93.8%
Privileged Access Management (PAM)
 

Featured Reviews

Mahesh Malve - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Business Development Associate at DigitalTrack Solutions ind pvt ltd
Centralized control has strengthened privileged security and simplified audit investigations
While One Identity Safeguard is a strong and reliable PAM solution, there are a few areas where it can be further improved to enhance user experience and scalability. Regarding the user interface and experience, the UI, while functional, can be a bit complex for new users. A more intuitive and modern dashboard with simplified navigation would improve adoption, especially for non-technical stakeholders. Regarding integration flexibility, although it supports major integrations, expanding out-of-the-box connectors for more cloud-native apps, DevOps tools, and SaaS platforms would be beneficial. Faster and simpler API-based integrations could reduce deployment efforts. Regarding scalability and performance in large enterprise environments, performance tuning and scaling can require additional efforts. Enhancing seamless scalability and high availability configuration would improve enterprise readiness.
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

"I have found One Identity Safeguard to be stable."
"Overall, it has helped us save time, improve security, and reduce manual effort across the team."
"Now, once they are logged into the organization and are registered on our ERP system, their complete access will be ready within five seconds, and they will receive an SMS with their username and password so they can start working, which has increased efficiency and effectiveness of the access control function and reduced operational costs while providing services 24/7 on a platform that can be used anytime and anywhere for investigation."
"The customer service and technical support are very good."
"Since using One Identity Safeguard, we have more control over who accesses what, especially regarding vendors, and we have seen billing actually go down because we now know how long vendors have been on the server and how long they have worked on it."
"This is an extremely stable product."
"One Identity Safeguard has positively impacted our organization by contributing to a significant drop in compliance and audit overhead, aiding in the preparation of security audits that were previously chaotic, making the process much simpler now, and improving operational efficiency and admin satisfaction."
"The auditing and approval mechanisms are features we did not have before and are greatly appreciated."
"CA PAM is working well for us."
"The reason we chose CA PAM is it worked in the scenarios that we wanted it to, and it just worked without problems."
"The most valuable element is the keystroke tracking feature."
"CA PAM has session recording, which is a very valuable feature."
"The best features are the comprehensive coverage of the required features for the PAM solution like a credential vault, a session recording, an endpoint agent, security analytics."
"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."
"Transparent login for users of privileged IDs (Linux, Windows). This prevents sharing of the password because it is never seen."
"It is the best product for monitoring the recorded session of your IT admins and external consultants."
 

Cons

"I think One Identity Safeguard could be improved by making the UI more user-friendly and simplifying some configurations, as it can feel a bit complex at times."
"Now, I think the best way to improve it will be to optimize the software, because the software begins to consume more resources (physical)."
"One Identity's support is not appropriately structured, and it has a lot of room to improve."
"Many team members feel that the biggest friction with One Identity Safeguard relates to access requests, session approvals, and policy changes, which require more clicks than expected."
"Transparent mode was too cumbersome, so I don't foresee us being able to use it."
"Safeguard by One Identity's user interface could be more modern and intuitive, especially for new administrators, and the initial deployment and configuration can be complex."
"I find it challenging mostly when managing complex work, especially when trying to implement it on a larger scale; sometimes it becomes slow, and the automation process also slows down."
"The product uses a lot of resources in current sessions."
"We have encountered stability issues at various software and hardware versions, but we worked with the support team to quickly stabilize our environment."
"Bring more technology into the portfolio and being able to collapse those products into a much more integrated way."
"I would like it to support more types of integration."
"Recent releases need improvement in webpage management."
"There is already a feature for that. It is not too great to use."
"I don't really know much on the pricing side."
"The first setup was complex. The implementation, to me, was very bad."
"Stability is a problem that we fight every day."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing depends on our perspective, our budget, and, of course, the competitors we are taking into account."
"It is more expensive than Secret Server but way less expensive than CyberArk. As a customer, I would like the pricing to be lower, but it has a good price point."
"The license is very expensive for us, partly due to inflation and partly because of the exchange rate between the Dollar and the Iranian Rial. We purchased a perpetual license that we've been using up until now, but I believe that we are not going to update it in the future. Instead, we plan to find another third-party to support us with the license, in the sense that we would have access to their license as a shared agreement."
"One Identity Safeguard is expensive and the cost goes up as we scale."
"The full license is expensive but if you plan to use it in a big organization then it is the best option because it is more flexible."
"The pricing is about $80,000 per 100 servers. There are few elective costs."
"Setup cost, pricing and licensing are all very expensive."
"It is a bit on the pricey side, but you get what you pay for. You don't want to get anything too cheap because then you get cheap stuff and cheap support. That really never helps anybody."
"It is more expensive than other solutions on the market."
"The licensing is simple and scalable."
"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."
"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."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
13%
Retailer
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
University
8%
Outsourcing Company
19%
Construction Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business88
Midsize Enterprise27
Large Enterprise40
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?
Our experience with the pricing and licensing was generally positive. The initial setup costs were reasonable considering the security and access control benefits we are getting. The licensing mode...
What needs improvement with One Identity Safeguard?
I think Safeguard by One Identity could be improved by making the user interface a little simpler and more intuitive, especially for new administrators. Some configurations and advanced features ta...
What is your primary use case for One Identity Safeguard?
My main use case for Safeguard by One Identity is to manage a secure privileged account and access a critical system. It helps us to control who can access sensitive resources and monitor privilege...
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 Safeguard by One Identity vs. Symantec Privileged Access Manager and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
911,839 professionals have used our research since 2012.