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AWS Secrets Manager vs CyberArk Privileged Access Manager comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 16, 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

AWS Secrets Manager
Ranking in Enterprise Password Managers
3rd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
CyberArk Privileged Access ...
Ranking in Enterprise Password Managers
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
223
Ranking in other categories
User Activity Monitoring (1st), Privileged Access Management (PAM) (1st), Mainframe Security (2nd), Operational Technology (OT) Security (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Enterprise Password Managers category, the mindshare of AWS Secrets Manager is 18.7%, down from 20.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of CyberArk Privileged Access Manager is 7.8%, down from 9.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Password Managers
 

Featured Reviews

Atul-Yadav - PeerSpot reviewer
Ensures dynamic secret retrieval and automates security measures
AWS Secrets Manager is a fully managed service that allows our applications to retrieve secrets dynamically at runtime. This protects sensitive information, such as keys or credentials, from being compromised. It also automates the secrets, eliminating the need for manual rotation, thereby providing significant security and efficiency benefits. Furthermore, secrets are encrypted at rest using the AES 256-bit standard encryption algorithm.
Lasantha Wijesinghe - PeerSpot reviewer
We have visibility and control through real-time user behavior analytics
It took us some time to realize its benefits because there was a learning curve for us. It took us about a year to get our heads around this product and start effectively using it. It is a journey. It takes at least five years for any company to make this product very useful and reach maturity. It is not only the product's fault. The company needs to have a vision, and the company culture needs to go with it. Senior leadership needs to support the vision. You need to have lots of ingredients for success. If everything is in place, you will see success after one year. In the first year, it is a struggle for everybody. My company was bought by a bigger company, and they were very new to privileged access management. Everybody was struggling. The advice I would give is to have a good vision for privileged access management. You need dedicated teams, senior management support, and proper company policies and standards before implementing the solution. Start building knowledge slowly and avoid jumping into the deep end without preparation. I would rate CyberArk Privileged Access Manager a nine out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution is very scalable."
"All our workloads are running on AWS, so integration with our workload is much easier on AWS Secrets Manager than going with another solution such as Thycotic."
"The most valuable feature is the management of credentials."
"Secrets Manager helps in retrieving the enrollment variables used by the code."
"The most valuable feature is usability, as it is quite user-friendly."
"It's highly scalable, so I'd rate it a ten out of ten."
"I would highly recommend AWS Secrets Manager for secret management in AWS."
"The API is fine and works well."
"CyberArk Privileged Access Manager makes it easy for users to retrieve and manage their passwords."
"The established sessions on the target systems are fully isolated and the privileged account credentials are never exposed to the end-users or their client applications and devices."
"The feature that I like the most is the Privileged Session Manager."
"The best feature of CyberArk Privileged Access Manager is its core function: automatically managing and securing credentials."
"The most valuable features of CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault are password rotations and password encryptions."
"The risk of lost password and forbidden access to resources has been drastically reduced which increased the security level for the entire company,"
"I would rate CyberArk Privileged Access Manager nine out of ten."
"The solution is scalable."
 

Cons

"An area for improvement in AWS Secrets Manager could be expanding integration options beyond AWS services."
"There is room for improvement in the pricing model."
"The solution's initial setup process is complicated."
"We occasionally have problems with rate limits, although that is a problem more generally with AWS."
"There is room for improvement in terms of integrating with certain other platforms."
"AWS Secrets Manager could support hybrid infrastructure."
"The price of the solution could improve."
"It would be good if the AWS Secrets Manager were more customizable."
"I'm not a fan of technical support with CyberArk. It's like jumping through red tape and hoops. Quite frankly, it's almost like when you call CyberArk you get the Help Desk or the level-one. I'm a level-one. I got the CCD, I know how to do the initial troubleshooting. When I call CyberArk it's because I can't figure the problem out. So I need a level-two, three, four. I don't need you to tell me, "Hey, open a ticket and then give me logs.""
"The license is expensive."
"It could be more user-friendly. Sometimes I encounter issues, and I do not know what the issue is. It takes a lot of time to find the error and fix it. Sometimes it gives an error, but I do not know what the error is. I have to find the documents, but it does not provide all the details needed to fix the error. This is one of the day-to-day issues with CyberArk."
"The current interface is not very intuitive."
"There is a learning curve when it comes to planning out the deployment strategy, but once it is defined, it runs itself."
"The session monitoring and recording feature is also a good feature feature, but we're currently experiencing an issue with session monitoring not working correctly. We're working with CyberArk to resolve it. We aren't able to view active sessions or historical recordings of sessions."
"They could improve CyberArk Privileged Access Manager by providing more reports. If I need to know the 10 most-used accounts for this week, that functionality can be made available in the reports."
"The solution is too complicated to use and should be simplified. It took me a long time to understand how to use it. There is a lot that the solution can improve for the future."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost is somewhat high."
"We've observed that AWS Secrets Manager pricing is based on a per-secret-per-month model. As a result, we prefer to divide our secrets into individual pieces to increase security and grant specific access permissions to certain secrets, systems, or individuals. However, this approach results in higher costs. Therefore, we have been exploring ways to combine our secrets into groups to reduce expenses and simplify management. Nonetheless, we acknowledge that this issue may not be related to the secret manager's functionality."
"I don't believe there is a license cost for the solution."
"We purchase a monthly license for the product."
"The solution is expensive."
"My company always complains about the cost of CyberArk Privileged Access Manager because it's too high."
"The cost is high compared to other products."
"The price of CyberArk Privileged Access Manager could be less expensive."
"It is in line with its competitors, but all such solutions cost too much money."
"CyberArk Privileged Access Manager is on the expensive side. It is very expensive."
"The pricing is slightly higher compared to other solutions, but it is reasonable because there are better security features."
"With reducing the privileged account access, there has been a huge improvement. They are now bringing more accounts on a little at a time."
"I would rate the cost of CyberArk Privileged Access Manager seven out of ten with ten being the most expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Insurance Company
6%
Educational Organization
33%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Which is better - Azure Key Vault or AWS Secrets Manager?
Azure Key Vault is a SaaS solution. You can easily store passwords and secrets securely and encrypt them. Azure Key Vault is a great solution to ensure you are compliant with security and governanc...
Which is better - HashiCorp Vault or AWS Secrets Manager?
HashiCorp Vault was designed with your needs in mind. One of the features that makes this evident is its ability to work as both a cloud-agnostic and a multi-cloud solution. As a cloud-agnostic sol...
What do you like most about AWS Secrets Manager?
The most valuable feature of AWS Secrets Manager is its seamless integration with various AWS services.
How does Sailpoint IdentityIQ compare with CyberArk PAM?
We evaluated Sailpoint IdentityIQ before ultimately choosing CyberArk. Sailpoint Identity Platform is a solution to manage risks in cloud enterprise environments. It automates and streamlines the m...
What do you like most about CyberArk Privileged Access Manager?
The most valuable features of the solution are control and analytics.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for CyberArk Privileged Access Manager?
With the current model of licensing, for my use cases, sometimes it's hard to convince the management and get budget approvals for it. It's expensive and you're not getting anything new. It's just ...
 

Also Known As

No data available
CyberArk Privileged Access Security, CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Autodesk, Clevy, Stackery
Rockwell Automation
Find out what your peers are saying about AWS Secrets Manager vs. CyberArk Privileged Access Manager and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
851,491 professionals have used our research since 2012.