No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

Delinea Secret Server vs Symantec Privileged Access Manager comparison

Why PeerSpot?
 

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)
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
62
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Password Managers (8th), Secrets Management Tools (5th)
Symantec Privileged Access ...
Ranking in Privileged Access Management (PAM)
12th
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 October 2026, in the Privileged Access Management (PAM) category, the mindshare of Delinea Secret Server is 3.5%, down from 7.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Privileged Access Manager is 2.0%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Privileged Access Management (PAM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Delinea Secret Server3.5%
Symantec Privileged Access Manager2.0%
Other94.5%
Privileged Access Management (PAM)
 

Featured Reviews

SP
Adjunct Assistant Professor at a university with 5,001-10,000 employees
Robust credential management has improved security and simplifies privileged access control
I would characterize common frustrations related to Delinea Secret Server rather than using the term dislike. One area is the complexity for the administrative part. While it is straightforward in core values, configuring advanced policies, custom templates, and other areas including discovery scans and detailed reporting have a steep learning curve and may require extra training. The user interface and terminology present another challenge. Some users feel that the user interface can feel dated or overly complex, with terminology around secrets and folder structures taking time to master. Pricing perception is another point where some costs are mixed, while many others find Delinea Secret Server more affordable and flexible than tier one competitors. However, smaller teams still view enterprise licensing as a significant investment. I have observed poor technical support, particularly in multiple reviews. The support can be slow, limited, and sometimes unhelpful when troubleshooting complex configurations or stability issues. Aggressive or untransparent sales practices also present a concern. Some customers on G2 have cited frustrations with hidden costs, such as unexpected EC2 instance fees and core features being unbundled or oversold during contract negotiation. Complex implementation and setup is another significant challenge. The initial configuration, deployment, and managing advanced policies or connectors requires specialized expertise that most organizations do not have, and the steep learning curve compounds this issue. Users transitioning to the cloud-hosted version frequently complain that the updated interface and permissions structure feel slow and problematic compared to the legacy on-premise setup. Integration and API challenges represent the final area of concern. The platform points out challenges with API tokenization and external system integration, and the lack of documentation is one of the key points I would highlight. This limitation affects the ability to integrate with external systems effectively.
Muzi Lubisi - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior technical Consultant at CA Africa
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

"Provides us with the ability to control access [to secrets] by groups."
"The product provides a native user experience without requiring users to install additional software or agents."
"Support is helpful."
"The discovery engine is really robust and flexible. It had some session management features that are better compared to some other vendors. Overall the GUI is very good and straightforward to operate compared to other solutions. For example, CyberArk and Hitachi tend to be hard to navigate."
"The initial setup of Delinea Secret Server is straightforward and easy for development purposes."
"In general, I would recommend the product; it's very good and is cheaper than CyberArk."
"Secret Server has improved security, productivity and helped achieve a much higher state of compliance."
"Thycotic is a product that is so friendly that it can be used by nearly anyone and everyone, and that is a good place to be."
"The reason we chose CA PAM is it worked in the scenarios that we wanted it to, and it just worked without problems."
"We can enforce complicated password policies and very important frequent password changes."
"Transparent login for users of privileged IDs (Linux, Windows). This prevents sharing of the password because it is never seen."
"The most important feature is that we do not need to know the passwords any more; just having access to the end point; and that it’s easy to manage users and the account."
"It has been reliable down the line with new features and updates."
"The password manager is a valuable feature."
"Used for securing privileged accounts."
"For me, it is the robust API which is the most valuable feature. This allows for low maintenance costs and allows applications to automatically connect. This is great to automate security of the DevOps pipeline for shared secrets across environments. Also, being on Linux and a virtual appliance is great."
 

Cons

"The tool should integrate additional features like OCR."
"The biggest challenge with this solution is the usability."
"The setup for this solution is complex. I'm not going to lie, you need a specialized system security engineer to deploy it."
"Attempting to do that is almost impossible because of the low quality of the API."
"I would like to see improvement with the integration with Azure Active Directory. This would mean that we can have support on multiple platforms such as Windows, Linux, and Mac."
"Delinea Secret Server can improve by extending the monitoring policies and making the performance better."
"I have observed poor technical support, particularly in multiple reviews. The support can be slow, limited, and sometimes unhelpful when troubleshooting complex configurations or stability issues."
"On a scale of one to ten, I would rate Delinea Secret Server an eight. Everything seems to be working really well, and I don't believe it would be the perfect solution, but I don't believe there is a perfect solution either."
"I believe continued expansion of integration to multiple systems including SSO and SAML technologies will provide a more-expansive, enterprise view of access orchestration, which will in turn strengthen the security of the environment."
"Some rollover credentials often do not work or you need a more complex configuration."
"It was a challenge for our newer staff members to install."
"The integration with AS/400 Endpoint via Transparent Login could be better and useful for some users."
"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."
"I would like this solution to be simpler. It should have a one-click access that works together with AWS."
"A better discovery interface of accounts. It does do discovery of accounts for Windows servers, and you could do UNIX servers as well, but it's kind of clunky how it does it."
"The first setup was complex. The implementation, to me, was very bad."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"When comparing the price of Thycotic Secret Server with other solutions it is reasonable."
"The pricing is standard in this business and we have no complaints about it."
"They are priced quite well."
"In the Nigerian market, the adoption of Delinea depends largely on an organization's budget. If they have the financial capacity, they might consider Delinea as a viable option."
"The solution is low-cost than other vendors."
"It isn't terribly expensive."
"The price of this solution is good."
"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."
"It is reasonably priced."
"The version we are using is affordable compared to BeyondTrust, which is maybe three to four times as expensive, but it depends on the features."
"Cost-wise, CA was better compared to others in the market. ​"
"I would prefer better licensing options for the 20-100 users we have at a given time."
"Appliances are relatively cheap, don’t skimp. Make sure you have redundancy, high availability, and enough appliances to manage the concurrent workload."
"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 licensing is simple and scalable."
"The prices are not low, but one can ask for a discount. It’s not the cheapest PAM solution."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Privileged Access Management (PAM) solutions are best for your needs.
917,433 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Construction Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
19%
Construction Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business25
Midsize Enterprise11
Large Enterprise29
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...
Which PAM tool do you prefer: CyberArk Privileged Access Manager, One Identity Safeguard, Delinea Secret Server, or BeyondTrust Privileged Remote A
For a banking or financial services use case you should check out SplitSecure. Very easy to deploy and use and splits secrets across devices rather than on cloud servers so you get full cryptograph...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Thycotic Password Reset Server?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing in Delinea Secret Server was very straightforward and easy to work with.
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...
What is your primary use case for Symantec Privileged Access Manager?
With the customers that I have so far, I help them broker RDP sessions to sensitive servers, particularly those that manage aspects like physical access. I have also done it for backend databases, ...
 

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: September 2026.
917,433 professionals have used our research since 2012.