# Privileged access management for enterprise buyers: what AI models recommend, September 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition. Asked as "privileged access management platform" and as "PAM tool", six framings each, to twelve models with search on, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/identity/privileged-access-management/enterprise/

**Standing:** CyberArk leads with 58% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 38 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| # | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CyberArk | 58% | 25% | 53 |
| 2 | Delinea | 16% | 12% | 50 |
| 3 | One Identity Safeguard | 3% | 0% | 11 |
| 4 | KeeperPAM | 3% | 33% | 15 |
| 5 | ManageEngine PAM360 | 3% | 36% | 14 |
| 6 | BeyondTrust | 0% | 17% | 52 |
| 7 | WALLIX | 0% | 9% | 11 |
| 8 | HashiCorp Vault | 0% | 64% | 11 |

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: no first choice
- GPT-5.4 mini: CyberArk; alternatives BeyondTrust, Delinea
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Idira; alternatives BeyondTrust, Delinea, KeeperPAM, Saviynt
- Perplexity Sonar: CyberArk; alternatives BeyondTrust, Delinea, One Identity Safeguard, WALLIX
- Grok 4.1 Fast: CyberArk; alternatives BeyondTrust, Delinea
- Mistral Small: CyberArk; alternatives BeyondTrust, Delinea
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: CyberArk; alternatives BeyondTrust, Delinea
- Llama 4 Maverick: no first choice
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: CyberArk; alternatives BeyondTrust, HashiCorp Vault, Microsoft Entra ID
- Kimi K2: CyberArk; alternatives BeyondTrust, Delinea
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: CyberArk, One Identity Safeguard; alternatives BeyondTrust, Delinea
- MiniMax M2.5: CyberArk; alternatives BeyondTrust, Delinea

## Sources the answers cite

64 of 72 answers came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- startwithidentity.com: 35 answers, 61 citations
- netwrix.com: 29 answers, 32 citations
- expertinsights.com: 29 answers, 29 citations
- gartner.com: 21 answers, 27 citations
- cybervendorguide.com: 20 answers, 25 citations
- heimdalsecurity.com: 19 answers, 22 citations
- delinea.com: 18 answers, 38 citations
- tech-insider.org: 17 answers, 17 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://expertinsights.com/identity-and-access-management/the-top-privileged-access-management-pam-solutions (27 answers)
- https://startwithidentity.com/rankings/best-pam-for-enterprises (27 answers)
- https://netwrix.com/en/resources/blog/pam-solutions (26 answers)
- https://cybervendorguide.com/guides/privileged-access-management (18 answers)
- https://heimdalsecurity.com/blog/privileged-access-management-pam-software-solutions (18 answers)
- https://tech-insider.org/cyberark-vs-beyondtrust-vs-delinea-pam-2026 (17 answers)
- https://gartner.com/reviews/market/privileged-access-management (16 answers)
- https://startwithidentity.com/rankings/best-pam-tools (16 answers)
- https://oneidentity.com/learn/top-5-privileged-access-management-tools-in-2025.aspx (14 answers)
- https://compliancestronghold.com/best-pam-solution (13 answers)

## Warned against

- CyberArk: 13 of 53 labels negative. "Platforms to Avoid for Predictable Costs | CyberArk | $1,800–$12,000 per user/year; modular pricing" (Kimi K2, budget prompt)
- BeyondTrust: 9 of 52 labels negative. "High Caution: Major Vendors with Recent Serious Security Incidents ... BeyondTrust ... December 2024 nation-state breach" (Kimi K2, negative prompt)
- HashiCorp Vault: 7 of 11 labels negative. "Tools designed for SSH/DevOps secrets (like raw Vault or Teleport) often lack the governance, workflow approval, and audit trail depth" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt)
- ManageEngine PAM360: 5 of 14 labels negative. "frequently cited in reviews for scalability limits in large deployments (e.g., session bottlenecks, high resource usage)" (Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt)

## Record

- Method: https://it-ai-index.com/methodology/
- Raw judge labels and full responses: https://it-ai-index.com/data/
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as IT AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition, it-ai-index.com.