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Delinea Secret Server 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

Delinea Secret Server
Ranking in Privileged Access Management (PAM)
2nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
54
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Password Managers (5th)
Symantec Privileged Access ...
Ranking in Privileged Access Management (PAM)
16th
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 2025, in the Privileged Access Management (PAM) category, the mindshare of Delinea Secret Server is 7.5%, down from 11.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Privileged Access Manager is 1.5%, down from 1.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Privileged Access Management (PAM) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Delinea Secret Server7.5%
Symantec Privileged Access Manager1.5%
Other91.0%
Privileged Access Management (PAM)
 

Featured Reviews

Avinash Gopu. - PeerSpot reviewer
Effective for password rotation policies triggered by audit requirements, it helps maintain compliance standards and seamless integration with third-party tools
The "App to App" feature has been most impactful. It allows secure communication between applications without requiring direct user access, which is crucial for several applications. Additionally, working in the finance department, we are heavily focused on enhancing audit reporting and compliance. So, the GRC (Governance, Risk & Compliance) capabilities of Delinea Secret Server have also been crucial for us. We implemented a custom reporting system that can automatically send reports to auditors daily, weekly, or according to your organization's needs. We also upgraded the audit role within Secret Server, allowing auditors to access and analyze the reports directly. Additionally, Secret Server provides comprehensive logging capabilities. Auditors can see what data users access, their access levels, and their activities, including check-in and check-out times. Furthermore, Secret Server helped us manage privileged, elevated access, which we call "K2K." As the lead for this project, I could identify users with the highest access levels and implement specific policies to monitor their activity on servers.
Muzi Lubisi - PeerSpot reviewer
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

"The privileged access management module is the most reliable feature."
"The GUI interface is well-designed and user-friendly."
"There has been no downtime this year."
"Its most valuable feature is its main purpose - the password changing and the Heartbeat so the user has access to only their SVN and does not have access to any other. Thycotic's access privileged management tool allows you to grant access to users for a specific period of time and with specific attributes and privileges."
"The "App to App" feature has been most impactful. It allows secure communication between applications without requiring direct user access, which is crucial for several applications."
"The ability to give some groups access to different kind of databases with the storage of a password is the most valuable feature."
"It is able to manage storage and use of personal passwords."
"It is a stable solution."
"We know we can scale up with what we have, and we probably will not need to buy any further appliances down the road."
"It is great for identity governance."
"CA PAM is working well for us."
"Symantec PAM is easier to deploy compared to its competitors, such as BeyondTrust."
"The key benefits are we improve our governance. We ensure we can build more trust in the way we run and operate our environment, and most of all is the accountability."
"Comprehensive coverage of the required features for the PAM solution."
"It reduces the viral attacks on my website. It also allows certain users access to see what happens daily."
"The agent-based credential management solution allows clients to programmatically use the agent to collect passwords during runtime from Symantec Privileged Access Manager."
 

Cons

"Delinea Secret Server can improve in areas like statistics and notifications, and risk scoring, especially for highly privileged accounts where financial transactions occur."
"Support could be better. I have heard about a lot of problems in the Bangladesh market. People are saying that there are support issues. So, Delinea should focus on support and services."
"What needs improvement? The product can be improved by reducing the number of updates provided."
"The technical support needs improvement. For example, if you have any problems on the server configuring the IIS, they would provide you very limited details and they would tell you the problem is on your end."
"I'd prefer a better commercial model that includes partners and options for consulting around it. Where I've worked with my customers, we've only been able to use their professional services, and that has been a risk and constraint."
"In many PAM tools, when users request a password checkout, they need to provide justification. However, in my experience across four organizations, nobody actually reads the justifications. Users can simply type anything and get the password. This becomes a risk and compliance issue. There needs to be continuous improvement in this area, focusing on problem identification and mitigation strategies."
"Delinea Secret Server can improve by extending the monitoring policies and making the performance better."
"Cybersecurity is constantly evolving, so there will be features needed in the future."
"They need to have zero tier and active-active setup ​with zero minimum downtime, which they are working on it. ​"
"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 handled well by the system."
"They need to do a little bit more on the mainframe side.​"
"The service account management functionality needs to be extended to application pools, SQL database, PowerShell scripts, service account discovery, etc."
"I would like this solution to be simpler. It should have a one-click access that works together with AWS."
"Bring more technology into the portfolio and being able to collapse those products into a much more integrated way."
"We have to do a lot of manual work to automate features."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have an enterprise license as well as a user license and a support license."
"There is an annual license fee per user and the price is fair."
"Its price is okay. We don't compete on pricing. We seldom use price to win over our competitors. We prefer it this way because if we can sustain the price, we make more margin as well. We don't want the price to go down to the bottom where despite the win, there's no margin at all."
"They are priced quite well."
"The tool's pricing is expensive."
"The pricing is standard in this business and we have no complaints about it."
"I would give the price a four on a scale from one to ten, with one being the cheapest and ten being the most expensive. We pay for the license on a yearly basis, and we paid for three years. It costs around 5000 a year."
"When comparing the price of Thycotic Secret Server with other solutions it is reasonable."
"Cost-wise, CA was better compared to others in the market. ​"
"It is reasonably priced."
"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 prices are not low, but one can ask for a discount. It’s not the cheapest PAM solution."
"The licensing is simple and scalable."
"Pricing is fair compared to other top vendors."
"Appliances are relatively cheap, don’t skimp. Make sure you have redundancy, high availability, and enough appliances to manage the concurrent workload."
"I would prefer better licensing options for the 20-100 users we have at a given time."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
Comms Service Provider
16%
Computer Software Company
15%
Government
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business20
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise24
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business14
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise30
 

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 Thycotic Password Reset Server?
The "App to App" feature has been most impactful. It allows secure communication between applications without requiring direct user access, which is crucial for several applications.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Thycotic Password Reset Server?
The price of Delinea Secret Server is okay, however, the solution is considered expensive when compared to others.
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?
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...
 

Also Known As

Thycotic Secret Server, Delinea Password Reset Server
CA PAM, Xceedium Xsuite, CA Privileged Access Manager
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Secure-24, University of San Diego, International Rescue Committee, San Francisco Ballet, Perkins Coie, University of San Diego, D.S.S. Limited, Turbo's Hoet, Eclipse Computing, Cathay Bank, Stellarise, J&R Consulting
NEOVERA, Telesis, eSoft
Find out what your peers are saying about Delinea Secret Server vs. Symantec Privileged Access Manager and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
867,497 professionals have used our research since 2012.