IT AI Index
Index › Identity and access › September 2026 Edition

Privileged access management

Asked as “privileged access management platform”, and as “PAM tool”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 47 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
ManageEngine PAM360
Contested
21% of first choices, contested.
ShowinginAll 67 categories →

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.
Small businessKeeperPAM27%ContestedStanding →Mid-marketManageEngine PAM36021%ContestedThis pageEnterpriseCyberArk58%Clear leaderStanding →

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01ManageEngine PAM36021%6%35accepted challenger
02Delinea19%14%44accepted challenger
03Securden Unified PAM15%11%18accepted challenger
04KeeperPAM11%9%23accepted challenger
05Delinea Secret Server11%30%10criticized challenger
06Teleport4%9%22accepted challenger
07BeyondTrust4%41%44criticized challenger
08miniOrange PAM2%0%12accepted challenger
Show the four products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
12CyberArk0%63%51criticized challenger
11HashiCorp Vault0%18%11accepted challenger
09StrongDM0%6%17accepted challenger
10Netwrix Privilege Secure0%0%12accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.
Head to head
ManageEngine PAM360 vs DelineaManageEngine PAM360 vs Securden Unified PAMDelinea vs Securden Unified PAM

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative40%
Key
01ManageEngine PAM36021%
02Delinea19%
03Securden Unified PAM15%
04KeeperPAM11%
05Delinea Secret Server11%
06Teleport4%
07BeyondTrust4%
08miniOrange PAM2%
09StrongDM0%
10Netwrix Privilege Secure0%
11HashiCorp Vault0%
12CyberArk0%

02What they warned about

Zero of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
CyberArk
63%
32 of 51 labels negative · 11 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“What to Avoid ... **CyberArk** | Highest cost, requires dedicated PAM team, lengthy implementation” Kimi K2, paraphrase prompt
BeyondTrust
41%
18 of 44 labels negative · 10 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“High-Risk Platforms to Avoid or Be Extremely Cautious About ... BeyondTrust (Critical Concern - February 2026)” Kimi K2, negative prompt
Delinea
14%
6 of 44 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Avoid pricier ones like Delinea/StrongDM ($70+/user/mo) unless scaling fast.” Grok 4.1 Fast, budget prompt
One Identity
62%
5 of 8 labels negative · 5 of 12 models
“Typically less deep in advanced controls, analytics, and scale than the enterprise leaders” GPT-5.4 mini, comparative prompt

03What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: twelve of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

64 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 6 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 754 links across 183 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

netwrix.com
vendor site · Netwrix28 answers · 33 citations · 10 models
startwithidentity.com
25 answers · 34 citations · 10 models
oneidentity.com
vendor site · One Identity24 answers · 24 citations · 10 models
aimultiple.com
21 answers · 24 citations · 9 models
expertinsights.com
vendor site · Expert Insights21 answers · 21 citations · 10 models
heimdalsecurity.com
vendor site · Heimdal Security19 answers · 22 citations · 9 models
gartner.com
17 answers · 29 citations · 9 models
cybervendorguide.com
16 answers · 19 citations · 9 models
decryptiondigest.com
15 answers · 21 citations · 8 models
mitigata.com
15 answers · 15 citations · 9 models
learn.g2.com
13 answers · 13 citations · 7 models
delinea.com
vendor site · Delinea12 answers · 16 citations · 6 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

netwrix.com/en/resources/blog/pam-solutions
27 answers · 10 models
oneidentity.com/learn/top-5-privileged-access-management-tools-in-2025.aspx
22 answers · 10 models
aimultiple.com/pam-solutions
21 answers · 9 models
expertinsights.com/identity-and-access-management/the-top-privileged-access…
19 answers · 10 models
heimdalsecurity.com/blog/privileged-access-management-pam-software-solutions
18 answers · 9 models
cybervendorguide.com/guides/privileged-access-management
15 answers · 9 models
mitigata.com/blog/best-pam-tools
15 answers · 9 models
learn.g2.com/best-pam-software
13 answers · 7 models
ecommercefastlane.com/best-privileged-access-management-platform
12 answers · 8 models
gartner.com/reviews/market/privileged-access-management
12 answers · 8 models

04How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ModelDirect“What is the best privileged access management platform for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which PAM tool would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top privileged access management platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best privileged access management platform for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a privileged access management platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which privileged access management platforms should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Delinea
Three alternativesBeyondTrust, ManageEngine PAM360, miniOrange PAM
no first choiceChangedagainst: CyberArkno first choiceManageEngine PAM360
Two alternativesJumpServer, miniOrange
against: CyberArkno first choiceagainst: ARCON PAM, BeyondTrust, CyberArk
GPT-5.4 miniDelinea
Two alternativesBeyondTrust, ManageEngine PAM360
against: CyberArkBeyondTrustChanged
Two alternativesCyberArk, Delinea
against: MicrosoftBeyondTrust, CyberArk
Two alternativesDelinea, Microsoft Entra Privileged Identity Management
against: ManageEngine, One IdentityMicrosoft Entra ID
Two alternativesCyberArk, Delinea
no first choiceagainst: Symantec Privileged Access Manager
Gemini 3.5 FlashSecurden Unified PAM
Four alternativesDelinea, Delinea Secret Server, KeeperPAM, StrongDM
against: CyberArkKeeperPAMChanged
Two alternativesDelinea, Securden Unified PAM
against: CyberArkIdira
Four alternativesBeyondTrust, Delinea, KeeperPAM, Saviynt
KeeperPAM
Four alternativesJumpServer, ManageEngine PAM360, Securden Unified PAM, Teleport
against: BeyondTrust, CyberArkDelinea, KeeperPAM, Securden Unified PAM
Three alternativesOpal, StrongDM, Teleport
against: BeyondTrust, CyberArk, One Identityagainst: CyberArk, Delinea Secret Server, ManageEngine PAM360, Okta Privileged Access
Perplexity SonarSecurden Unified PAM
One alternativeManageEngine PAM360
Delinea Secret ServerChanged
Three alternativesManageEngine PAM360, Netwrix Privilege Secure, Securden Unified PAM
CyberArk
Five alternativesBeyondTrust, Delinea, One Identity Safeguard, StrongDM, Teleport
against: KeeperPAMManageEngine PAM360
Three alternativesDevolutions Starter Pack, JumpCloud, KeeperPAM
against: AWS Secrets Manager, SSH PrivXno first choiceagainst: Apono, Britive, HashiCorp Boundary, HashiCorp Vault, Microsoft Entra Privileged Identity Management, Okta Privileged Access, P0 Security, Ping Identity, Teleport
Grok 4.1 FastDelinea
Four alternativesManageEngine PAM360, Netwrix Privilege Secure, Securden Unified PAM, miniOrange PAM
against: BeyondTrust, CyberArkDelinea Secret ServerChanged
Three alternativesBeyondTrust, ManageEngine PAM360, miniOrange PAM
against: CyberArkCyberArk
Four alternativesBeyondTrust, Delinea, One Identity Safeguard, StrongDM
ManageEngine PAM360
Two alternativesKeeperPAM, Teleport
against: BeyondTrust, CyberArk, Delinea, StrongDMno first choiceagainst: ARCON PAM, BeyondTrust, CyberArk, One Identity, WALLIX
Mistral SmallManageEngine PAM360, Securden Unified PAM
Two alternativesJumpCloud, miniOrange PAM
ManageEngine PAM360, miniOrange PAMChanged
One alternativeNetwrix Privilege Secure
against: BeyondTrust, CyberArkBeyondTrust, CyberArk
Four alternativesDelinea, HashiCorp Boundary, Okta Privileged Access, Teleport
KeeperPAM, ManageEngine PAM360
Three alternativesDelinea, StrongDM, Teleport
against: BeyondTrust, CyberArkno first choicenothing named
DeepSeek V4 FlashDelinea
Three alternativesBritive, ManageEngine PAM360, Securden Unified PAM
against: CyberArkManageEngine PAM360Changed
Two alternativesDelinea, Netwrix Privilege Secure
against: BeyondTrust, CyberArkCyberArk
Eight alternativesBeyondTrust, Delinea, HashiCorp Boundary, ManageEngine PAM360, One Identity Safeguard, Securden Unified PAM, StrongDM, Teleport
JumpServer, Teleport
Three alternativesAWS Secrets Manager, KeeperPAM, ManageEngine PAM360
against: BeyondTrust, CyberArk, Delinea, One IdentityDelinea
Five alternativesBeyondTrust, KeeperPAM, ManageEngine PAM360, StrongDM, Teleport
against: CyberArkagainst: BeyondTrust, CyberArk, Delinea, ManageEngine (Zoho) PAM360 / Password Manager Pro / Access Manager Plus, Securden Unified PAM, Symantec Privileged Access Manager
Llama 4 MaverickSecurden Unified PAMDelinea Secret ServerChanged
Two alternativesManageEngine PAM360, miniOrange PAM
against: BeyondTrust, CyberArkCyberArk
One alternativeBeyondTrust
Heimdal Privileged Access Managementno first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashSecurden Unified PAM
Three alternativesDelinea, ManageEngine PAM360, Netwrix Privilege Secure
ManageEngine PAM360Changed
Two alternativesDelinea, Netwrix Privilege Secure
against: CyberArkCyberArk
Six alternatives12Port, ARCON PAM, BeyondTrust, Devolutions, One Identity, Segura
ManageEngine Privilege Manager
Three alternativesHashiCorp Vault, Lokad, Teleport
against: 1Password, BeyondTrust, Bitwarden, CyberArk, LastPassno first choice
Five alternativesAvatier, Bitwarden, Delinea, Imperva, KeeperPAM
against: CyberArkagainst: CyberArk, CyberArk Conjur, Delinea, HashiCorp Vault, IBM Security Identity and Access Manager, Onapsis, Ping Identity, SailPoint, SunGard
Kimi K2Delinea
Two alternativesManageEngine PAM360, Netwrix Privilege Secure
against: BeyondTrust, CyberArkDelinea Secret ServerChanged
Three alternativesManageEngine PAM360, Securden Unified PAM, miniOrange PAM
against: BeyondTrust, CyberArkCyberArk
Six alternativesARCON PAM, BeyondTrust, Delinea, HashiCorp Vault, Teleport, WALLIX
JumpServer, Teleport
Three alternativesHashiCorp Vault, Mamori.io, ManageEngine PAM360
against: Delinea Secret Serverno first choiceagainst: ARCON PAM, BeyondTrust, CyberArk, Delinea, Hitachi ID, ManageEngine
GLM 4.7 FlashXDelinea Secret Server
Three alternativesBeyondTrust, ManageEngine PAM360, miniOrange PAM
against: CyberArk Privileged Access ManagerManageEngine PAM360Changed
One alternativeminiOrange PAM
against: BeyondTrust, CyberArk, Delinea, Securden Unified PAMno first choice
Five alternativesBeyondTrust, CyberArk, Delinea, ManageEngine PAM360, Safeguard
against: KeeperPAM, Microsoft Entra Privileged Identity Management, TeleportJumpServer
Six alternativesAdmin By Request, CyberFOX AutoElevate, ManageEngine PAM360, Okta Privileged Access, StrongDM, Teleport
against: CyberArk Privileged Access Manager, Warpgateno first choicenothing named
MiniMax M2.5Securden Unified PAM
Four alternativesManageEngine PAM360, Netwrix Privilege Secure, Thycotic+Centrify, miniOrange PAM
against: CyberArkDelinea, ManageEngine PAM360Changed
Two alternativesNetwrix Privilege Secure, miniOrange
against: CyberArkCyberArk
Two alternativesBeyondTrust, Delinea
against: One Identity, WALLIXKeeperPAM
Four alternativesAWS Secrets Manager, ManageEngine PAM360, SSH PrivX, Teleport
BeyondTrust, Delinea
One alternativeCyberArk
against: BeyondTrust, CyberArk, Delinea Secret Server, ManageEngine PAM360
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 13:10yes97 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 13:11yes36 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 12:18yes1222 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 11:33yes206 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 12:13yes3517 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 11:15yes57 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 09:37yes1816 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 10:12yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 14:15yes530 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 09:31yes1029 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 12:34yes1030 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 09:32yes521 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 11:21no05 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 12:09yes46 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 13:53yes1322 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 13:35yes176 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 12:00yes148 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 10:55yes54 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 10:48yes711 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 10:23yes52 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 13:53yes529 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 14:09yes1542 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 14:12yes927 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 13:47yes523 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 12:01yes99 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 11:15yes58 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 13:52yes2826 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 09:27yes209 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 12:21yes2916 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 14:12yes2013 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 13:46yes1822 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 12:15yes52 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 13:02yes527 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 14:04yes1337 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 10:36yes2594 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 09:23yes2446 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 10:49yes97 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 11:38yes35 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 11:53yes1721 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 09:41yes207 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 13:35yes1710 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 14:05yes54 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 10:10yes1518 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 10:27yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 14:10no034 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 12:10yes1531 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 13:34yes1264 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 12:54yes517 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 10:13no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 12:42no09 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 09:59yes1525 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 12:02yes209 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 13:53no07 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:00no09 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 13:03yes1829 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 09:52yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 10:58no036 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 13:00yes1025 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 13:37yes1573 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 13:41yes1039 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 09:45yes2712 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 09:41yes46 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 10:50yes1926 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 12:20yes207 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 11:58yes4017 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 10:51yes55 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 12:29yes2244 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 09:36yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 11:00no045 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 12:33yes2936 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 12:58yes2757 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 09:43yes765 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

Category-scoped readings
ARCON read as ARCON PAM
Arcon read as ARCON PAM
Keeper read as KeeperPAM
Keeper Business read as KeeperPAM
Keeper Security read as KeeperPAM
Keeper Security (BPM/PAM module) read as KeeperPAM
Keeper Security (KeeperPAM) read as KeeperPAM
Keeper Security Enterprise read as KeeperPAM
Securden read as Securden Unified PAM
Thycotic (Dassault Systems) read as Delinea
Unresolved, counted raw
12Port
Apache Guacamole
Avatier
BeyondTrust PAM / EPM
BeyondTrust Privilege Management
CyberFOX AutoElevate
Devolutions Hub (Free)
Heimdal Privileged Access Management
IBM Security Identity and Access Manager (SAM)
Lokad
ManageEngine (Zoho) PAM360 / Password Manager Pro / Access Manager Plus
ManageEngine Privilege Manager
Microsoft Defender for Identity/PAM
Onapsis
P0 Security
SailPoint Privileged Access
Segura
SunGard
Thycotic+Centrify
WALLIX Bastion
Warpgate
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in identity and access

The other categories of this function, with the leader in each.
← MFASecrets →