# Privileged access management: 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 a mid-market B2B company. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/identity/privileged-access-management/

**Standing:** ManageEngine PAM360 leads with 21% of first choices; verdict contested. 47 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| # | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ManageEngine PAM360 | 21% | 6% | 35 |
| 2 | Delinea | 19% | 14% | 44 |
| 3 | Securden Unified PAM | 15% | 11% | 18 |
| 4 | KeeperPAM | 11% | 9% | 23 |
| 5 | Delinea Secret Server | 11% | 30% | 10 |
| 6 | Teleport | 4% | 9% | 22 |
| 7 | BeyondTrust | 4% | 41% | 44 |
| 8 | miniOrange PAM | 2% | 0% | 12 |
| 9 | StrongDM | 0% | 6% | 17 |
| 10 | Netwrix Privilege Secure | 0% | 0% | 12 |
| 11 | HashiCorp Vault | 0% | 18% | 11 |
| 12 | CyberArk | 0% | 63% | 51 |

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

- Claude Haiku 4.5: Delinea; alternatives BeyondTrust, ManageEngine PAM360, miniOrange PAM
- GPT-5.4 mini: Delinea; alternatives BeyondTrust, ManageEngine PAM360
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Securden Unified PAM; alternatives Delinea, Delinea Secret Server, KeeperPAM, StrongDM
- Perplexity Sonar: Securden Unified PAM; alternatives ManageEngine PAM360
- Grok 4.1 Fast: Delinea; alternatives ManageEngine PAM360, Netwrix Privilege Secure, Securden Unified PAM, miniOrange PAM
- Mistral Small: ManageEngine PAM360, Securden Unified PAM; alternatives JumpCloud, miniOrange PAM
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Delinea; alternatives Britive, ManageEngine PAM360, Securden Unified PAM
- Llama 4 Maverick: Securden Unified PAM
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Securden Unified PAM; alternatives Delinea, ManageEngine PAM360, Netwrix Privilege Secure
- Kimi K2: Delinea; alternatives ManageEngine PAM360, Netwrix Privilege Secure
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Delinea Secret Server; alternatives BeyondTrust, ManageEngine PAM360, miniOrange PAM
- MiniMax M2.5: Securden Unified PAM; alternatives ManageEngine PAM360, Netwrix Privilege Secure, Thycotic+Centrify, miniOrange PAM

## 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:

- netwrix.com: 28 answers, 33 citations
- startwithidentity.com: 25 answers, 34 citations
- oneidentity.com: 24 answers, 24 citations
- aimultiple.com: 21 answers, 24 citations
- expertinsights.com: 21 answers, 21 citations
- heimdalsecurity.com: 19 answers, 22 citations
- gartner.com: 17 answers, 29 citations
- cybervendorguide.com: 16 answers, 19 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

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

## Warned against

- CyberArk: 32 of 51 labels negative. "What to Avoid ... CyberArk | Highest cost, requires dedicated PAM team, lengthy implementation" (Kimi K2, paraphrase prompt)
- BeyondTrust: 18 of 44 labels negative. "High-Risk Platforms to Avoid or Be Extremely Cautious About ... BeyondTrust (Critical Concern - February 2026)" (Kimi K2, negative prompt)
- Delinea: 6 of 44 labels negative. "Avoid pricier ones like Delinea/StrongDM ($70+/user/mo) unless scaling fast." (Grok 4.1 Fast, budget prompt)
- One Identity: 5 of 8 labels negative. "Typically less deep in advanced controls, analytics, and scale than the enterprise leaders" (GPT-5.4 mini, comparative 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.