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StrongDM vs UserLock comparison

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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

StrongDM
Ranking in Access Management
9th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
Privileged Access Management (PAM) (5th)
UserLock
Ranking in Access Management
34th
Average Rating
10.0
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Authentication Systems (30th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Access Management category, the mindshare of StrongDM is 0.8%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of UserLock is 1.1%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Access Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
StrongDM0.8%
UserLock1.1%
Other98.1%
Access Management
 

Featured Reviews

AmitRathod - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Analyst at Toll Holdings Limited
Secure access has transformed our audits and weekend operations run smoothly
StrongDM does not support multi-port and distributed clusters, as the raw TCP resource type is strictly single-port and cannot handle protocols requiring multiple concurrent ports or distributed brokers like Kafka. Third-party client compatibility is another area for improvement, as StrongDM is designed to work with the standard Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection on Windows but may not fully support alternative RDP clients like the Windows Store Remote Desktop.Additionally, StrongDM has limited MFA and passwordless options, relying heavily on time-based one-time passwords (OTP) or Duo, lacking support for true passwordless setups like biometrics or hardware YubiKeys, and it does not support per-session MFA. These are the drawbacks that need improvement for StrongDM.
Bill H. - PeerSpot reviewer
Information Technology at City Of Keizer
Affordable, easy to use, and integrates well with Active Directory
The product and service are already great as it is but if I could add one feature, I guess it would be nice to have another factor of authentication (two additional factors) like your phone and a token for example, for when people forget their phone at home. It’s not that I mind not having two factors, but I do get that question from time to time from some of our users who think it would be really useful. From what I’ve heard, they’re working on it and it should be coming in the next version so that’s great news.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"StrongDM has positively impacted my organization by ensuring that every developer has access to cloud resources, which are audited by the organization, allowing us to keep track of who accesses what and control the access."
"By adopting StrongDM, we have achieved benefits such as eliminating our weekend outages, streamlining ongoing on-call workflows, enabling seamless migration with POC transitions directly into production with minimal effort, allowing our engineers to use their preferred SQL clients like MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Workbench, and facilitating compliance through detailed session logs and query capture for SOC 2 and ISO audits."
"StrongDM positively impacts my organization by helping with compliance and audit functions."
"StrongDM has positively impacted my organization by saving me a lot of time as a security auditor, because I have to navigate settings and configurations to check the presence of certain security controls in place."
"Since using StrongDM, I estimate around a 60% reduction in effort compared to other PAM tools."
"StrongDM positively impacts our organization in many ways, mainly in cost savings from the time saved, and it has significantly improved both security and operational efficiency for us."
"We primarily used StrongDM for access to resources on private networks like EC2 machines, Kubernetes clusters, and various databases."
"The best features in StrongDM are that it is the easiest product in the market for this situation with easy access."
"We mainly implemented UserLock for multi-factor authentication, but the user login insights are also nice."
"It is affordable, integrates easily with Active Directory, and is simple to install and maintain."
"UserLock was pretty easy to set up and simple to use, and the documentation covered everything."
"The most valuable features are two-factor authentication and real-time logon monitoring."
 

Cons

"It would be beneficial to have better control and alignment between frequent updates and improved communication regarding possible negative effects on existing customer bases."
"My thoughts on the pricing of StrongDM is that it is expensive."
"StrongDM lacks the capability for web application injections or password injections, so we need to rely on other tools such as HashiCorp for non-human accounts or DevOps scenarios."
"I think the stability of StrongDM is about four to five due to the occasional crashes that I mentioned."
"We've had a few issues with the stability of this product in the past."
"I think StrongDM could improve by focusing more on network device management by allowing the addition of PAM for network devices, managing legacy network equipment, or helping to initiate enterprise onboarding where a lot of complex environments and initial setup are required."
"Integration, however, is something which admins configure with StrongDM, and in that area, it can be improved."
"I rate the stability of the product five out of ten because crashes sometimes happen when we are working on it."
"The product and service are already great as it is but if I could add one feature, I guess it would be nice to have another factor of authentication (two additional factors) like your phone and a token for example, for when people forget their phone at home."
"I would like to see UserLock add the ability to automatically create a group policy in Active Directory. That might streamline the setup process."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing is per user per month."
"You will be hard-pressed to find better pricing."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
19%
Construction Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Outsourcing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise9
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for StrongDM?
I cannot disclose the pricing details, but I find it competitive compared to other solutions.
What needs improvement with StrongDM?
StrongDM can be improved in many ways. For example, the access approval workflow could be faster. We face a challenge where we sometimes need temporary access to production but have to wait for an ...
What is your primary use case for StrongDM?
In our environment, we have managed Linux servers, cloud resources, and production systems, and we use StrongDM as a privileged access management solution. StrongDM authenticates users through the ...
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Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Barclays, US Department of Justice, National Bank of Kuwait, Turkish Aerospace, New York Albany School District, Regtransfers, University of Kent, Camden City School District, Oklahoma City Public Schools, Bank of Cyprus, Detran-PE: Pernambuco State Traffic Department
Find out what your peers are saying about StrongDM vs. UserLock and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
915,341 professionals have used our research since 2012.