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BeyondTrust Endpoint Privilege Management vs Symantec Privileged Access Manager comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

BeyondTrust Endpoint Privil...
Ranking in Privileged Access Management (PAM)
4th
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
28
Ranking in other categories
Anti-Malware Tools (10th)
Symantec Privileged Access ...
Ranking in Privileged Access Management (PAM)
22nd
Average Rating
7.8
Number of Reviews
50
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2024, in the Privileged Access Management (PAM) category, the mindshare of BeyondTrust Endpoint Privilege Management is 4.9%, down from 6.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Privileged Access Manager is 1.8%, down from 1.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Privileged Access Management (PAM)
 

Featured Reviews

FA
Nov 2, 2022
Improves security and provides the flexibility to meet the needs of users for application installation
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. Their support members should be very proactive in responding and providing the resolution. Their support team takes a lot of time to resolve the issues. When it comes to whitelisting and implementing policy changes, if the application doesn't have the complete set of parameters based on which you whitelist an application or application is still under development and the versions keep on changing, that sometimes creates problems because you have to revisit the rules again and again. That could be simpler.
Muhammad Baber - PeerSpot reviewer
May 6, 2022
Allows IT and consultants to access the infrastructure environment but needs more security and better support
Initial setup was very straightforward. It's basically a hardware appliance. It's a software appliance, but it's a hard-coded appliance. It's just a black and white screen, and it has everything inside. BeyondTrust is a Windows-based server, and they usually harden the machine and have their own patches on it, even though it's a Windows machine, so we can easily log into it. With the current solution, it's very difficult to log in. It's just a black and white screen, and you need a support account to log in onto it. It feels more secure. It's a shell, and the database is embedded. But with BeyondTrust, it's SQL-based and Windows-based, so it's vulnerable. When we first set up the solution, it was only a few endpoints to give access to the vendors. Now, it's around 400-500 machines. It required a lot of maintenance. There were a lot of new patches and new versions of the appliance, and then the appliances would move out of support very quickly, which is another reason we are moving to BeyondTrust. At the moment, we are using the version which is very stable, but it is out of support within six to seven months. They keep asking you to upgrade to the new version, which is challenging. Once we upgraded, we had a lot of issues that support couldn't fix.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"BeyondTrust has very good integrations with quite a lot of security vendors such as SailPoint, IBM, FortiGuard, Splunk, etc."
"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."
"Logs that get collected on the Privilege Management console from the agents are very good. They help us to identify the aspects from which we have to whitelist an application."
"It scales easily and the product is stable."
"It's relatively straightforward to set up, especially if you are deploying to the cloud."
"I would say session management on the go is the most valuable feature. When the session is going on, you can stop the session without terminating it for justification. You can cancel it. The recording takes very little space. Those are some things which the customers are worried about when they talk about session recording."
"I find the comprehensive Privilege Access Management features valuable, including automation, and the ability to integrate with applications and the Windows operating system."
"One of the key things for us about the product is around its simplicity. Being able to put in the technology that allows the business to remove complexity and also allow the security improvements."
"We can check the activities in the server for fragile files and documents in case of any issues."
"CA PAM is working well for us."
"It is great for identity governance."
"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."
"The two factor authentication, and the single most important capability was it supported PIV and CAC as one of the two factors. That was pretty huge for us."
"The interface is very friendly, colorful, and bold."
"Comprehensive coverage of the required features for the PAM solution."
 

Cons

"The program updates are very rare and the frequency is too far apart to take care of bug fixes and adding the latest features."
"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."
"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."
"There are three types of endpoints. If we need to use them in the solution, then we need to purchase the licenses separately. The tool needs to improve its licensing."
"If you don't get the implementation right at the outset, you will struggle with the product."
"What's bothering me, which is true of all of them, is that sometimes, the error codes that come up don't necessarily get reflected in the searches within their support sites or they're out of date. I would rather search by an error code than type in the text and search for it by text because the error code means that it is programmatic, and it is known. It might not be desired, but it at least is not unexpected. If you don't have an error code, you just get an anomalous error, and if it is lengthy, it can be difficult to search and find the specific instance you're looking for. This is something I would like all of them to improve. BeyondTrust, CyberArk, Centrify, and Thycotic could do some improvements in staying up to date and actually allowing you to search based on the product version. They are assuming that everybody is on their way to release. They put out a new release, but it is not reflected on the support site, which makes no sense to me, especially when they revamp all the error codes. They all have been guilty of this in some way."
"The other area to improve is that they rely on MS SQL servers only. You cannot have any other database behind them. They have to be on MS SQL. If they can do something about these issues, this would be a better alternative for some customers."
"The help system should be improved to provide a quick help guide with each tab within the solution, which explains what each particular function does."
"I would like this solution to be simpler. It should have a one-click access that works together with AWS."
"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."
"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."
"They need to do a little bit more on the mainframe side.​"
"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 need to have zero tier and active-active setup ​with zero minimum downtime, which they are working on it. ​"
"We have to do a lot of manual work to automate features."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"It was very expensive."
"It is relatively more cost-effective compared to the competing product."
"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 product’s licensing is different for Windows, Linux, and Mac. The tool’s licensing is yearly."
"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."
"This solution is expensive compared to its competitors."
"Cost-wise, CA was better compared to others in the market. ​"
"It is more expensive than other solutions on the market."
"The prices are not low, but one can ask for a discount. It’s not the cheapest PAM solution."
"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."
"They offer per-device, per-user, or monthly and yearly licensing models."
"I would prefer better licensing options for the 20-100 users we have at a given time."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
19%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Manufacturing Company
16%
Government
9%
 

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?
The product's pricing depends on the agreement. They offer per-device, per-user, or monthly and yearly licensing models.
What needs improvement with Symantec Privileged Access Manager?
There should be some training platform similar to Microsoft and IBM. We can't find useful documentation or YouTube videos to learn about the process. They should include some assignments in the tes...
 

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: September 2024.
801,634 professionals have used our research since 2012.