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BeyondTrust Endpoint Privilege Management 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

BeyondTrust Endpoint Privil...
Ranking in Privileged Access Management (PAM)
9th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
Anti-Malware Tools (12th)
Symantec Privileged Access ...
Ranking in Privileged Access Management (PAM)
21st
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
52
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Privileged Access Management (PAM) category, the mindshare of BeyondTrust Endpoint Privilege Management is 4.5%, down from 6.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Privileged Access Manager is 1.6%, down from 1.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Privileged Access Management (PAM)
 

Featured Reviews

Marlin B Pohlman - PeerSpot reviewer
Admin rights can be granted and revoked within minutes and that is what everything comes down to, for us
The most important factor is the ability to invoke least privilege, which is required under 27701 and GDPR. We have used the solution to remove users' administrative rights and instead provide on-demand, token-based administrative rights. The latter is an option for a single, temporary increase in privileges for a trusted user for a specific time. We use it in a medical environment for HIPAA compliance or medical compliance in a GDPR case. For example, if you have a clinician who needs access to a specific piece of medical information, or if there is an administrator who needs to have administrator rights to a particular database for a limited period of time, we can give it and then revoke it. That's another reason the tool is useful. Also, the fact that we are able to add events straight from event logs and/or the database is important for crisis management and rapid reaction. This ability helps us meet our SLA requirements. In addition, we can elevate approved applications and actions without broad administrative rights. We can temporarily increase privilege based on tasks. If someone puts in a ticket, we increase their privilege for that ticket. We then watch to see if that ticket has been resolved and then we decrease it. Another feature of the platform is instant risk reduction solutions. We can do a risk metric with it, and we do that as part of our risk evaluation. We can increase and decrease privilege and we can actually show that in the ISO 13485 risk metric. And it provides a single solution for managing endpoint security preferences. It does a good job of that.
Krishnan Srinivasan - PeerSpot reviewer
Enhances credential management and relatively inexpensive but needs feature improvements
I work for a service provider company, and we implement Symantec Privileged Access Manager solutions for our clients, which include various banking and mining clients We have implemented both the remote access and credential management features. The agent-based credential management solution…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"What I liked about this solution is that it can also integrate for tracking malicious use or sending analytics to a host that can process them. I don't know if CyberArk, Centrify, or Thycotic can do that. The analytics was something the client really wanted, and they already had BeyondTrust. It is very scalable. The agent on the workstation is very thin, and the processing power required on a server is nothing out of the ordinary. It is also very stable and easy to deploy."
"Reduces major vulnerabilities by removing local administrator privileges."
"BeyondTrust has very good integrations with quite a lot of security vendors such as SailPoint, IBM, FortiGuard, Splunk, etc."
"The most valuable feature is the asset discovery, which makes it very easy to locate and identify assets and pull them into the manager."
"The features related to application elevate is amazing. It helped the company to remove almost all admin local users."
"Scalability is good. I would rate the scalability a nine out of ten."
"The asset discovery feature is the solution's most valuable aspect. It's very easy to pull assets into the database of the solution manager."
"The solution's least privilege enforcement has helped us ensure access is given to only the required people."
"We have received good support from the tech support team."
"For me, it is the robust API which is the most valuable feature. This allows for low maintenance costs and allows applications to automatically connect. This is great to automate security of the DevOps pipeline for shared secrets across environments. Also, being on Linux and a virtual appliance is great."
"We can enforce complicated password policies and very important frequent password changes."
"The RDP-gateway: For limiting which server an operator can access."
"Transparent login for users of privileged IDs (Linux, Windows). This prevents sharing of the password because it is never seen."
"The interface is very friendly, colorful, and bold."
"Symantec PAM is easier to deploy compared to its competitors, such as BeyondTrust."
"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."
 

Cons

"It keeps on breaking every now and then. It is not yet mature. Every time something new comes up or we run into some new issues, the culprit is BeyondTrust because the agents and the adapter are not mature. The new development process goes on, and they're not able to handle things. It should be mature. It shouldn't break every now and then."
"Improvements could focus on adding more AI features to automate processes that are currently manual or challenging for end users."
"It only has limited support for Mac."
"The deployment process should be clarified or made simpler. It would be helpful if the solution had in-app tutorials for users to look at as they progress through the system. Sometimes we get lost and need to go back to check what exactly the function was. There should be small hints around major key functions. It would go a long way in speeding up the deployment process."
"Reporting analytics is one of the areas that can be improved. It is a new cloud-based solution. So, many more specific reports can come out natively. Currently, we get all the events, and we put them in plug-ins. From there, we generate our own design of reports. If there is a much more solid or robust reporting analytics framework within the product itself, it would be helpful."
"They are doing good for now, but they should start to consider tight integration with Mac solutions. There should be more integration with Mac. There should be Active Directory (AD) Bridging. Thycotic and Centrify have it currently because they merged and joined forces, and it was a feature available in Centrify. So, basically, they joined forces to create a kind of perfect product. If you have a hybrid or mixed environment with Windows and Mac, your Active Directory can only manage or enforce policies on Windows, but what about your Mac devices? How do you control them? So, AD Bridging will act as a bridge to bring all your Mac devices into your Active Directory. This way you have full control over your entire environment."
"The initial setup was very difficult. Even if you are an expert in EPM, it is still very difficult."
"How the accounts are presented in the solution's UI can be improved."
"I’m no fan of Java as an application front-end, as it tends to have issues depending on what browser one’s using."
"They should include some assignments in the test environment to explore the product's features."
"The response time for support could be faster. Some features should be added: cloud-based, VPN-less, more secure, and it should be adjusted in a hybrid environment."
"Instead of just giving passwords to the user based on job function, from auditing perspective, turn that cycle around. That would really help from an auditing standpoint."
"Bring more technology into the portfolio and being able to collapse those products into a much more integrated way."
"The setup is complex."
"An improvement for this solution is that it should not be constantly based on user name and password. There should be a condition to edit and update your username."
"I wish it could create local accounts on desktops."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product’s licensing is different for Windows, Linux, and Mac. The tool’s licensing is yearly."
"Its pricing and licensing are okay. We were in the perpetual model when it was on-prem, and now, with the SaaS service, we have a subscription model. As a customer, I would always like to see a lower price, but it seems to be priced at the right model currently, and we are trying to get the maximum benefits out of it."
"The solution's pricing is high."
"It is relatively more cost-effective compared to the competing product."
"What BeyondTrust was providing was user-based licensing which was a great benefit from the client point of view. Recently, I don't know why, the licensing model has been changed, and that is the reason that they have lost a bit of their edge when it comes to the PAM, against our competition. The asset-based licensing, from the user's point of view, is not beneficial. The licensing should be based on the users. The greater the number of users, the greater will be the load and the greater the scalability problems. I presume that is why the licensing model has changed."
"I'm sure everyone should have the cluster environment, which means more expensive, anyway, cheaper than the other solutions."
"This solution is expensive compared to its competitors."
"Price-wise, it is very competitive. In our area, government entities and banks don't go for the monthly payment. It is a headache even for us in terms of finance and procurement to go for monthly payments. Quarterly might be more logical and reasonable, but the minimum that we go for is one year, and sometimes, we even try to compile and give one offering for three years."
"It is more expensive than other solutions on the market."
"I would prefer better licensing options for the 20-100 users we have at a given time."
"The licensing is simple and scalable."
"Pricing is fair compared to other top vendors."
"It is reasonably priced."
"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."
"Cost-wise, CA was better compared to others in the market. ​"
"They offer per-device, per-user, or monthly and yearly licensing models."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Manufacturing Company
16%
Government
11%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Looking for recommendations and a pros/cons template for software to detect insider threats
This is an inside-out --- outside-in --- inside-in question, as an insider can be an outsider as well. There is no short answer other than a blend of a PAM tool with Behavioral Analytics and Endpo...
What do you like most about BeyondTrust Endpoint Privilege Management?
The solution's least privilege enforcement has helped us ensure access is given to only the required people.
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?
Symantec Privileged Access Manager is potentially cheaper than other solutions. I am not involved in the business side, so I do not have specific cost details.
What needs improvement with Symantec Privileged Access Manager?
Comparing Symantec Privileged Access Manager with market leaders like CyberArk and Delinea, CyberArk is the market leader. Delinea is better than Symantec Privileged Access Manager in terms of secu...
 

Also Known As

BeyondTrust PowerBroker, BeyondTrust Endpoint Privilege Management for Windows, BeyondTrust Endpoint Privilege Management for Mac, BeyondTrust Endpoint Privilege Management for Linux, BeyondTrust Endpoint Privilege Management for Unix, Avecto Defendpoint
CA PAM, Xceedium Xsuite, CA Privileged Access Manager
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Aera Energy LLC, Care New England, James Madison University
NEOVERA, Telesis, eSoft
Find out what your peers are saying about BeyondTrust Endpoint Privilege Management vs. Symantec Privileged Access Manager and other solutions. Updated: December 2024.
831,020 professionals have used our research since 2012.