Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

BeyondTrust Endpoint Privilege Management vs Symantec Privileged Access Manager comparison

 

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

BeyondTrust Endpoint Privil...
Ranking in Privileged Access Management (PAM)
7th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
31
Ranking in other categories
Anti-Malware Tools (14th)
Symantec Privileged Access ...
Ranking in Privileged Access Management (PAM)
16th
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 August 2025, in the Privileged Access Management (PAM) category, the mindshare of BeyondTrust Endpoint Privilege Management is 3.8%, down from 4.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Privileged Access Manager is 1.5%, down from 1.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Privileged Access Management (PAM)
 

Featured Reviews

Md Abdul Hakim - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers solid performance and user adaptability but needs better pricing options and local support
BeyondTrust is a strong, compliance-driven solution with excellent market recognition (Gartner, Peers, etc.), making it appealing for Bangladeshi enterprises. However, some key improvements could accelerate adoption: Areas for Improvement: Pricing & Local Affordability While the product’s capabilities justify its value, cost remains a barrier for many Bangladeshi organizations. Competitive pricing or regional discounts would make it more accessible. Local Support & Partnerships Currently, lack of local partners or trainers creates delays in support, implementation, and pricing negotiations. Establishing a Bangladesh-based support team or authorized resellers would improve responsiveness and trust. Enhanced Onboarding & Training Offering localized training programs (in Bengali/English) and documentation would help IT teams deploy and manage the solution more efficiently. Recommendations for Next Release: Introduce tiered pricing for emerging markets like Bangladesh. Develop a partner network in Bangladesh for faster service and sales. Add simplified dashboards for easier monitoring by non-technical staff. Final Note: BeyondTrust is already a top-tier PAM solution, but addressing these gaps would solidify its leadership in Bangladesh’s growing cybersecurity market.
Muzi Lubisi - PeerSpot reviewer
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

"Scalability is good. I would rate the scalability a nine out of ten."
"The asset discovery feature is the solution's most valuable aspect. It's very easy to pull assets into the database of the solution manager."
"The solution's least privilege enforcement has helped us ensure access is given to only the required people."
"The privileged access and the application control are helpful in making sure we have good, robust challenge responses. Blacklisting with trusted application protection is also beneficial for us."
"The implementation is quite easy because the documents are always online."
"BeyondTrust has very good integrations with quite a lot of security vendors such as SailPoint, IBM, FortiGuard, Splunk, etc."
"It has some features that other products don't have yet, differentiation that sets it apart in the marketplace... Those features are a centralized dashboard and the ability to issue and revoke entitlements within minutes. That makes a difference."
"Overall, I would rate this solution a nine out of ten."
"It is great for identity governance."
"CA PAM is working well for us."
"We found that the architecture is scalable and very resilient."
"Transparent login for users of privileged IDs (Linux, Windows). This prevents sharing of the password because it is never seen."
"You can do A2A integration. You can have your own script, which can then run outside of PA to retrieve the password and perform other tasks."
"The two factor authentication, and the single most important capability was it supported PIV and CAC as one of the two factors. That was pretty huge for us."
"The agent-based credential management solution allows clients to programmatically use the agent to collect passwords during runtime from Symantec Privileged Access Manager."
"We can enforce complicated password policies and very important frequent password changes."
 

Cons

"If you don't get the implementation right at the outset, you will struggle with the product."
"Its feature for establishing workflows needs improvement."
"What's bothering me, which is true of all of them, is that sometimes, the error codes that come up don't necessarily get reflected in the searches within their support sites or they're out of date. I would rather search by an error code than type in the text and search for it by text because the error code means that it is programmatic, and it is known. It might not be desired, but it at least is not unexpected. If you don't have an error code, you just get an anomalous error, and if it is lengthy, it can be difficult to search and find the specific instance you're looking for. This is something I would like all of them to improve. BeyondTrust, CyberArk, Centrify, and Thycotic could do some improvements in staying up to date and actually allowing you to search based on the product version. They are assuming that everybody is on their way to release. They put out a new release, but it is not reflected on the support site, which makes no sense to me, especially when they revamp all the error codes. They all have been guilty of this in some way."
"The other area to improve is that they rely on MS SQL servers only. You cannot have any other database behind them. They have to be on MS SQL. If they can do something about these issues, this would be a better alternative for some customers."
"How the accounts are presented in the solution's UI can be improved."
"The weaknesses are related to the effort required to migrate from existing technologies or having no Privilege Access Management (PAM) at all to adopting technologies like BeyondTrust. It involves changes in processes and can take a significant amount of time, typically six to twelve months."
"Improvements could focus on adding more AI features to automate processes that are currently manual or challenging for end users."
"There is room for improvement in having the solution align more with standards. We're always shoehorning the product into the standards. It's not that it doesn't work for standards, it does. But Quick Start Policies are pretty close to what we need. The vendor needs to keep looking at GDPR, 27001, and 27701. That's why our clients buy the product."
"We experience stability issues after every patch upgrade. This is a place where CA needs to improve drastically."
"Bring more technology into the portfolio and being able to collapse those products into a much more integrated way."
"Instead of just giving passwords to the user based on job function, from auditing perspective, turn that cycle around. That would really help from an auditing standpoint."
"I wish it could create local accounts on desktops."
"The service account management functionality needs to be extended to application pools, SQL database, PowerShell scripts, service account discovery, etc."
"We have to do a lot of manual work to automate features."
"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 handled well by the system."
"What I hope happens with the new product CA PAM is to keep all the useful features that exist in PA, but what I’ve noticed with many new products is the UI gets polished but systems lags stability and performance or it adds additional complexity instead of simplifying the user experience."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Price-wise, it is very competitive. In our area, government entities and banks don't go for the monthly payment. It is a headache even for us in terms of finance and procurement to go for monthly payments. Quarterly might be more logical and reasonable, but the minimum that we go for is one year, and sometimes, we even try to compile and give one offering for three years."
"PowerBroker for a Mac client is three times the price of the Windows version."
"Its pricing and licensing are okay. We were in the perpetual model when it was on-prem, and now, with the SaaS service, we have a subscription model. As a customer, I would always like to see a lower price, but it seems to be priced at the right model currently, and we are trying to get the maximum benefits out of it."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a seven out of ten."
"It was very expensive."
"This solution is expensive compared to its competitors."
"What BeyondTrust was providing was user-based licensing which was a great benefit from the client point of view. Recently, I don't know why, the licensing model has been changed, and that is the reason that they have lost a bit of their edge when it comes to the PAM, against our competition. The asset-based licensing, from the user's point of view, is not beneficial. The licensing should be based on the users. The greater the number of users, the greater will be the load and the greater the scalability problems. I presume that is why the licensing model has changed."
"It is relatively more cost-effective compared to the competing product."
"Appliances are relatively cheap, don’t skimp. Make sure you have redundancy, high availability, and enough appliances to manage the concurrent workload."
"The prices are not low, but one can ask for a discount. It’s not the cheapest PAM solution."
"Pricing is fair compared to other top vendors."
"It is reasonably priced."
"The licensing is simple and scalable."
"They offer per-device, per-user, or monthly and yearly licensing models."
"It is more expensive than other solutions on the market."
"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."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Privileged Access Management (PAM) solutions are best for your needs.
865,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
19%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Government
7%
Comms Service Provider
15%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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...
What do you like most about BeyondTrust Endpoint Privilege Management?
The solution's least privilege enforcement has helped us ensure access is given to only the required people.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for BeyondTrust Endpoint Privilege Management?
BeyondTrust's pricing is premium but negotiable for Bangladesh. Expect 20-30% extra costs from currency/import factors. Start with modular licensing (EPM first), demand emerging market discounts, a...
What do you like most about Symantec Privileged Access Manager?
We can check the activities in the server for fragile files and documents in case of any issues.
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...
 

Also Known As

BeyondTrust PowerBroker, BeyondTrust Endpoint Privilege Management for Windows, BeyondTrust Endpoint Privilege Management for Mac, BeyondTrust Endpoint Privilege Management for Linux, BeyondTrust Endpoint Privilege Management for Unix, Avecto Defendpoint
CA PAM, Xceedium Xsuite, CA Privileged Access Manager
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Aera Energy LLC, Care New England, James Madison University
NEOVERA, Telesis, eSoft
Find out what your peers are saying about BeyondTrust Endpoint Privilege Management vs. Symantec Privileged Access Manager and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.