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Symantec Siteminder vs Symantec VIP Access Manager comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 11, 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

Symantec Siteminder
Ranking in Access Management
11th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
75
Ranking in other categories
Single Sign-On (SSO) (12th), Web Access Management (1st)
Symantec VIP Access Manager
Ranking in Access Management
19th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Authentication Systems (15th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2025, in the Access Management category, the mindshare of Symantec Siteminder is 2.9%, down from 3.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec VIP Access Manager is 1.0%, down from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Access Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Symantec Siteminder2.9%
Symantec VIP Access Manager1.0%
Other96.1%
Access Management
 

Featured Reviews

Muzi Lubisi - PeerSpot reviewer
Improved user experience with seamless integration and easy installation
The feature that I mostly valued is the ease of installation on different systems, especially on Windows. Additionally, it is very beneficial for deploying single sign-on sessions between different windows on a web browser, provided I am connected to the right identity provider. That seamless integration significantly improves user experience and efficiency.
Berk Onur - PeerSpot reviewer
With its mobile application, this tool offers a convenient and user-friendly experience to its users
To improve the tool, I think that the solution should consider integrations with other cybersecurity and IT technologies, such as Privileged Access Management and Site Integration. Additionally, the implementation of second-factor authentication via Symantec VIP Access Manager, CyberArk, and Delinea, among other technologies, could be best for the product. While the existing technology is okay, improving the integration capabilities for Symantec VIP Access Manager would benefit the product. I would like to see the solution meet the integration needs at our company. While many cybersecurity solutions can function independently, they often lack integration with our systems due to missed integration points. Improving the solution's integration feature would be beneficial.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"As our identity model continues to mature, probably the Federation is most valueable."
"You can quickly deploy the entire product with a basic config within couple of hours."
"Siteminder allows us to manage identity and portability control efficiently."
"The solution is easy to use for our managers."
"It is reliable."
"We almost never have outages nor see slowdowns."
"It's agent-based. It's convenient to deploy and integrate."
"It has considerably reduced the amount of time that new users would take to join into the organization. Previously, it was a lengthy, manual process because it's a very secure environment, where they need to verify the user before they can actually grant him a user-ID and password. Integrating with the built-in custom application, and exposing CA Single Sign On to the internet, we were able to get the employees onboard. The time that we gained was: previously it would generally take from four to eight weeks for each employee, we brought it to one to two days."
"The product is useful for providing user access from an in-built office server as we follow the work-from-home model."
"Other than it provides us with remote access, so it's fairly easy to install, fairly easy to set up, and provides us the ability to get into our corporate environment."
"Cloud-based service and management."
"It's a good tool. It's pretty straightforward."
"The two-factor authentication is most definitely valuable and moves us closer to being able to check off those important boxes for compliance."
"It is easy to use."
"It offers more platform support, like Apple, Android, and Microsoft."
"In this version 9.1, lots of changes are done for the dashboard, User Store etc."
 

Cons

"An area Siteminder could improve on is that there are a few limitations, in terms of new protocols for OpenID. If I want to have different scopes, the features are limited. They also do not have APIs exposed, which is a major drawback. API is a feature I would like to see included in the next release."
"Better documentation. I went through some sessions on single sign-on for version 12.7."
"If the reporting feature can be integrated into SSO itself that will be an icing on the cake."
"The support team could work on their response time and overall competence."
"CA has reporting at the moment. With the reporting, every particular segmented product has a reporting engine. I would like to see centralized reporting for all of them together."
"In future releases, I would like to see maybe more capabilities with some more modern authentication."
"The maintenance cost has increased significantly, and we are concerned about this."
"We would like to the OAuth be more stable, more issues being fixed rather than not."
"If they had dashboards or a report for managers or executives, then it would allow them to see the status and have it make sense to them."
"In the next release, I would like the ability to work offline with remote access."
"The gateway server is a RADIUS server, but it lacks the functionality of returning RADIUS attributes other than those that are required for the gateway to authenticate the users."
"It is challenging to use when installing a new version."
"Maybe Symantec could consider providing a step-by-step guide for first-time users."
"Geofencing needs improvement."
"It gets out of sync with Active Directory or whatever it might be, whatever the authentication piece is on Active Directory, and they just reset it on the backend. I never have to contact the vendor."
"Every time that I have a new phone or computer, it takes a little longer to deploy it."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution's pricing is competitive."
"Symantec Siteminder is expensive; they could definitely do better on the price."
"CA solutions are generally expensive but for the customer the ROI is big."
"I recommend conducting a PoC on every available product before choose one."
"Siteminder is a little costly. You pay for licensing, and they offer packages, so if you have less users, then you have to buy different products at different prices. If you have more of a user base, then the package is different. They also include other features—for example, if you have a database and you're using Siteminder, then it's good to use a Semantic-specific database, but if you are using less, then you have to purchase the database separately. Whereas if you are going for a bigger license, then it comes within the package. It depends on which plan you are using."
"The price is quite comparable to the other enterprise-level solutions in that market."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"The licensing is fair for this solution."
"Licensing and pricing seems very fair."
"There are additional costs for maintenance."
"There is a one-time setup fee plus the licenses are provided as per the number of users. For SMS and voice calls, the costs are separate."
"I can say that the solution is worth the money."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
29%
Insurance Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Healthcare Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise69
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise10
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Symantec Siteminder?
It's agent-based. It's convenient to deploy and integrate.
What needs improvement with Symantec Siteminder?
Symantec Siteminder needs to have adaptive authentication and multi-factor authentication as integrated features. Currently, multi-factor authentication is available as a separate solution, and it ...
What do you like most about Symantec VIP Access Manager?
The product is useful for providing user access from an in-built office server as we follow the work-from-home model.
What needs improvement with Symantec VIP Access Manager?
The product's connection speed needs improvement. Sometimes, I need help connecting my mobile to the main office's system due to a version upgrade. It is challenging to use when installing a new ve...
What is your primary use case for Symantec VIP Access Manager?
We use the product to access a virtual computer, hosted by our IT sector while working remotely.
 

Also Known As

SiteMinder, CA SSO, Layer7 SiteMinder
Symantec VIP
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

British Telecom, CoreBlox, DBS, HMS, Itera ASA and Simeo
Maine Medical Center, Aria S.p.A
Find out what your peers are saying about Symantec Siteminder vs. Symantec VIP Access Manager and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
872,869 professionals have used our research since 2012.