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CyberArk Privileged Access Manager vs StrongDM comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 29, 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

CyberArk Privileged Access ...
Ranking in Privileged Access Management (PAM)
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
230
Ranking in other categories
User Activity Monitoring (1st), Enterprise Password Managers (3rd), Mainframe Security (1st), Operational Technology (OT) Security (3rd)
StrongDM
Ranking in Privileged Access Management (PAM)
18th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
Access Management (18th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Privileged Access Management (PAM) category, the mindshare of CyberArk Privileged Access Manager is 10.4%, down from 18.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of StrongDM is 2.5%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Privileged Access Management (PAM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
CyberArk Privileged Access Manager10.4%
StrongDM2.5%
Other87.1%
Privileged Access Management (PAM)
 

Featured Reviews

Atul-Gujar - PeerSpot reviewer
CyberArk manager at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Secures critical infrastructures with essential user session audit records
A potential area for improvement is enhancing support for cluster environments and distributed Vaults. Clients in multiple countries that need central access have different challenges that require better solutions from CyberArk. For financial services, CyberArk can improve incident response by ensuring fast support for critical priority tickets to meet compliance requirements. Providing more documentation on CyberArk is recommended for new team members to enhance their troubleshooting capabilities. I understand it's up to the client, but 99% fail to change the demo key, so it's crucial for CyberArk to emphasize changing the key and documenting it as part of the installation process.
reviewer2804475 - PeerSpot reviewer
Iam Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Access management has improved privileged logins while still needing fewer crashes and less upkeep
The best features in StrongDM are the password rotation capabilities, which I think are pretty cool, and also how you can literally log in to any of the privileged servers through a single platform. You just copy-paste the IP and the port number and log in over there through RDP, so I think that's pretty cool. I have used CyberArk before, but I think StrongDM as a product has pretty good potential. My impression of the credential-less access control is that it's pretty good because it reduces the attack surface. Basically, if you cannot see the password and everything, even the privileged users cannot see the password. It's a password-less system where you just log in to the servers without knowing your password, and even if you know your password, it's probably going to be rotated after a while. So, I think that's a pretty good use case for reducing the attack surface and maintaining zero trust throughout an identity perimeter. StrongDM helps with runtime features in a twenty-four-seven dynamic environment. Whenever I try to access at maybe two a.m. or three a.m. at night and I have a production issue on a server located in a different continent, I can access it right at that moment. I think the application works pretty much like a charm. It's readily available, and I think the runtime feature is pretty cool, although the application sometimes crashes when it's downloaded locally on your machine. Regarding pricing, I find StrongDM to be definitely cost-efficient. We used to use CyberArk before, but StrongDM is more cost-effective, which is why we are using it. Our director is a board member at StrongDM, allowing us to utilize the product and the flexibility it provides, which tailor-suits our needs based on the organization and is something we do not get from other PAM products.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Implementing the CyberArk solution helps these companies to think about their privileged accounts, organize them in the CyberArk solution, and then get control of their privileged accounts to safely store and manage these, knowing that only the correct persons can access these accounts and that the different devices can only be managed via one central entry point to the datacenter."
"The feature that I like the most is the Privileged Session Manager."
"The DNA scan is very helpful and provides a security baseline for your environment."
"Their legacy of more than 20 years is very valuable; it brings a lot of stability to the product and a wide variety of integration with the ecosystem, and because of these factors it has been very successful in deployment, making the PAM platform very stable and strong."
"Lessens the risk with privileged access."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is session recording."
"CyberArk Privileged Access Manager's abilities to safeguard the infrastructure are important, as protecting credentials provides us with security and visibility."
"Super stable and easy to scale"
"All of the logging is handled for us, including for auditing purposes. Looking through the audit logs is not a painful experience."
"The best features in StrongDM are that it is the easiest product in the market for this situation with easy access."
"I absolutely would say that the best features of StrongDM and what I appreciate about the solution is that time to onboard is absolutely minimal."
"StrongDM replaced the puzzle of different solutions with one single product, which made managing resources more efficient."
"The best features in StrongDM are the password rotation capabilities, which I think are pretty cool, and also how you can literally log in to any of the privileged servers through a single platform."
"We primarily used StrongDM for access to resources on private networks like EC2 machines, Kubernetes clusters, and various databases."
 

Cons

"The reporting should be improved. There should be more customization. The report should show how we are going to mitigate the risk because we cannot show the system environment to each and every auditor."
"The solution that they proposed was not straightforward because of the backend processes of CyberArk."
"Integration of this tool with SAML is a problem, as there is a bug."
"The initial setup of CyberArk is a challenge if you do not have prior experience with it."
"The product is very vaulting-focused. I'd love to see it expanding its capabilities a bit further into areas like just-in-time elevation, and access with non-vaulted credentials."
"The reporting should be improved. There should be more customization."
"More than the product itself, there is room for improvement in the documentation."
"CyberArk Privileged Access Manager could improve the integration docking, it should have more layers, for example, integration with OpenShift."
"My thoughts on the pricing of StrongDM is that it is expensive."
"We've had a few issues with the stability of this product in the past."
"It would be beneficial to have better control and alignment between frequent updates and improved communication regarding possible negative effects on existing customer bases."
"I think the stability of StrongDM is about four to five due to the occasional crashes that I mentioned."
"It would be beneficial to have better control and alignment between frequent updates and improved communication regarding possible negative effects on existing customer bases."
"I rate the stability of the product five out of ten because crashes sometimes happen when we are working on it."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Cost efficiency is the number one thing that can be improved in my mind. This would change lots of companies minds on purchasing the product."
"Before we bought it, they were licensing each function individually, which got complicated and very expensive. When we decided to buy it, it was much more straightforward and still quite expensive, but it brings a lot of value and risk reduction to the organization."
"If you are looking at implementing this solution, buy the training and go to it."
"The price of CyberArk Privileged Access Manager could be less expensive."
"Its price can be reduced."
"Generally, I don't get involved in the licensing or the purchasing side of it, but I do know that the licenses are expensive."
"I focus more on the technical side, but I hear customers say that if CyberArk was more affordable, they might have acquired more licenses. Some clients consider alternative solutions due to pricing concerns."
"No, I do not have any advice on the price of the product."
"The licensing is per user per month."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
15%
University
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business59
Midsize Enterprise42
Large Enterprise174
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise3
 

Questions from the Community

How does Sailpoint IdentityIQ compare with CyberArk PAM?
We evaluated Sailpoint IdentityIQ before ultimately choosing CyberArk. Sailpoint Identity Platform is a solution to manage risks in cloud enterprise environments. It automates and streamlines the m...
What do you like most about CyberArk Privileged Access Manager?
The most valuable features of the solution are control and analytics.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for CyberArk Privileged Access Manager?
My thoughts on the pricing of CyberArk Privileged Access Manager depend entirely on the vendors' requirements. If they want their things to be secure, they have to spend accordingly. We have four t...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for StrongDM?
The leadership chose StrongDM after comparative research, which suggests economic benefits. It was mentioned that while the product is rapidly gaining features, it might become cost-prohibitive for...
What needs improvement with StrongDM?
In StrongDM, I think the installation was hard, and they want to be more flexible in the initial setup. I think they want to add more features like traditional PAM. It is difficult to find document...
What is your primary use case for StrongDM?
My use case involves a company I'm working in that wants to secure the connectivity between the DevOps team and the backend server in the company.
 

Also Known As

CyberArk Privileged Access Security, CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Rockwell Automation
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about CyberArk Privileged Access Manager vs. StrongDM and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,164 professionals have used our research since 2012.