BeyondTrust Password Safe vs HashiCorp Vault comparison

BeyondTrust and HashiCorp are both solutions in the Enterprise Password Managers category. BeyondTrust is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.9, while HashiCorp is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.4. BeyondTrust holds a 3.5% mindshare in EPM, compared to HashiCorp’s 11.6% mindshare. Additionally, 84% of BeyondTrust users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 89% of HashiCorp users who would recommend it.

BeyondTrust Password Safe

Read 26 BeyondTrust Password Safe reviews

1,893 Views
899 Comparison Views

84% willing to recommend

HashiCorp Vault

Read 18 HashiCorp Vault reviews

6,969 Views
4,318 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

BeyondTrust Password Safe

HashiCorp Vault

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 16, 2024

BeyondTrust Password Safe and HashiCorp Vault are strong contenders in the enterprise security software market. BeyondTrust seems to have the upper hand due to its comprehensive feature set, session management capabilities, and cost-effectiveness.

Features: BeyondTrust Password Safe offers password vaulting, session recording, and Smart Rules for automated account onboarding. It supports integration of assets, databases, and applications, offering detailed analytics and reporting, high scalability, and effective session management. HashiCorp Vault focuses on secret management with features like token sharing, dynamic secrets, and key revocation. It also excels in encryption management, secrets engine integration, and cloud compatibility.

Room for Improvement: BeyondTrust Password Safe needs enhancements in documentation, error reporting, and deployment simplicity. Users experience issues with database onboarding and RDP access, and desire better application integration. HashiCorp Vault could improve its graphical user interface and documentation, particularly for public cloud service integrations. Simplifying implementation and providing better pricing transparency are also necessary improvements.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: BeyondTrust supports various deployment environments, including Private Cloud, On-premises, and Hybrid Cloud. Customer service is responsive but occasionally slow to resolve issues. HashiCorp Vault, available for On-premises and Hybrid Cloud, benefits from a supportive community and documentation. Users find the system straightforward to deploy, though some support interactions could improve.

Pricing and ROI: BeyondTrust Password Safe is considered cost-effective with its asset-based pricing model, delivering rapid ROI. HashiCorp Vault, though initially costly due to scalability needs, offers an open-source version that reduces basic costs. Organizations with extensive needs may find Vault's pricing in line with its advanced capabilities, realizing ROI more quickly.

To learn more, read our detailed BeyondTrust Password Safe vs. HashiCorp Vault Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

BeyondTrust Password Safe vs. HashiCorp Vault

June 2025

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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 Password Safe

Ranking in Enterprise Password Managers

7th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Privileged Access Management (PAM) (9th)

HashiCorp Vault

Ranking in Enterprise Password Managers

4th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Enterprise Password Managers category, the mindshare of BeyondTrust Password Safe is 3.5%, up from 3.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HashiCorp Vault is 11.6%, down from 13.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Enterprise Password Managers

Featured Reviews

Ali Hatamleh

IT operations manager at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Smart tooling streamlines account organization and access through advanced grouping features

The features I find valuable in Password Safe include password retention and management, session privilege monitoring, live monitoring and recording, and the use of PS automation scripts for creating connections. The smart tooling and smart group features are also important as, after finalizing discovery, they auto-collect accounts in the environment and organize them in Smart Groups for easy access.

Read full review

Anand-Awasthi

Cloud Solutions Architect at IBM

Offers dynamic secrets and certificate management for proactive security measures

The best features in HashiCorp Vault are its dynamic certificate management and dynamic secret management, which are the key features that use data effectively. These are very targeted use cases that cut across multiple solutions. I have utilized Vault's encryption capabilities for securing data in transit and at rest, especially for dynamically consuming database encryption, which covers the requirements of various scenarios where databases do not have encryption capability. HashiCorp Vault provides security by rotating the keys and taking all the burden of securing the data from the database. These are key core features that many users employ in this solution. Vault's audit logs provide insights into access patterns and help ensure compliance. These facilities are configurable, and the logs are encrypted, ensuring that anything recorded in the logs is secure. We could use systems that comply with specific standards for audit logging and scanning, especially when working with them. The benefits from HashiCorp Vault include significant advantages in security lifecycle management itself. The value becomes apparent when security incidents occur. It has substantial value in proactively protecting from adverse situations, providing resilience and appreciation by customers in complete security lifecycle management solutions for core infrastructure applications.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Smart Rules is a nice feature in BeyondTrust. It is a unique feature that BeyondTrust has as compared to other vendors such as CyberArk. With Smart Rules, you can do automatic onboarding of accounts. There are a lot of options and features. For example, you can do onboarding based on different AD attributes. It is a nice feature in BeyondTrust that some of the other PAM vendors don't have. With other vendors, we have to create our own scripts, whereas, with BeyondTrust, we can just use the in-built Smart Rules."

"The ability to manage privileged account passwords is the most valuable feature."

"It provides integrated password and session management in one solution, which is important for us because, from an auditing standpoint, we are accountable for the type of access being used. We need to ensure that accounts are securely stored and there is the right type of accountability around who is gaining the access. After gaining it, how they're using it, where they're using it, etc."

"The most valuable feature is the architecture capabilities, which allow designated server components for high availability and failover. It works well with identity and access management solutions, allowing users to be automatically onboarded and offboarded. The account mapping feature makes rollout seamless. The session monitoring capabilities are excellent, with keystroke and graphical monitoring. This enhanced our security posture by providing detailed accounts of user actions. It helped us pass our SOX audits."

"BeyondTrust Password Safe is a good PAM tool."

"The product has improved security and login due to the system recordings. In case, there is a doubt that someone has done something which they shouldn't have been doing, we can just go back and check what the user actually did."

"It is very easy to deploy. It's easy to use. That's the major thing I like about it."

"The time-saving benefits come from no longer having to remember multiple device passwords."

More BeyondTrust Password Safe pros

"It can still be configured by a separate team other than developers. That's why I think it's more secure."

"The solution is stable. It has been working perfectly without any problem."

"It is a good product to consider for companies who are looking to build on-premise or hybrid infrastructure."

"The benefits from HashiCorp Vault include significant advantages in security lifecycle management itself."

"For me, the most valuable features include that it's easy to manage and maintain the password API for retrieving passwords and other things."

"The most valuable feature of HashiCorp Vault is version control."

"This solution is easy to use and to integrate."

"The product is free and easy to use. It is well documented with an easy implementation process."

More HashiCorp Vault pros

Cons

"I think that BeyondTrust Password Safe could be improved with more testing. In the beginning, they were practically using customers as beta testers. Maybe the product has evolved since I last used it, but if you look at PAM, privileged access management, whatever's out there has already been done. I don't see there being any other enhancements that are being made regarding PAM, except to support more cloud-based applications."

"We'd like to have incremental backups to ensure the solution's information is protected regularly."

"The only improvement I could suggest would be standardizing documentation, but that's more the responsibility of the implementing engineer rather than BeyondTrust Password Trust itself. The documentation must be specific and narrow for implementation, not just broad guidelines."

"Adding user behavior analysis to the server or messaging would be beneficial."

"The database instance onboarding should be simplified. The problem is that you can scan the assets and databases inside a server, but you cannot onboard them or manage them with the smart tools. It has to be done manually. I think they should try to include more custom platforms."

"The effectiveness of BeyondTrust Password Safe's session management capabilities for SSH and RDP is pretty much robust, but it needs more improvement for other applications and web-based applications."

"If they can create a single platform to create a connector, it would be better than using the RBS server."

"There are multiple features that have issues, although they could be specific to our environment. What we have seen is that whenever a user gets added to the authentication store, the sync between Password Safe and the authentication store, which is generally easy, takes a lot of time. It does not occur immediately."

More BeyondTrust Password Safe cons

"It would be helpful to have more advanced features."

"We could use more documentation, primarily to do with integrations."

"The solution's initial setup process is complicated."

"There could be a plugin for the database to change the secret automatically. It would be an efficient feature for password security."

"The product is complicated to install."

"A drawback for some clients who have to be PCI compliant is that they still need to use and subscribe to an HSM (Hardware Security Module) solution."

"The onboarding is a challenge. It should be more self-service, but it involves reviews and approvals."

"The solution could be much easier to implement."

More HashiCorp Vault cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It has subscription-based licensing. BeyondTrust is three times less expensive than CyberArk."

"The product is quite affordable."

"At the time, BeyondTrust was significantly cheaper than CyberArk. Pricing-wise, if I remember correctly, it goes by assets. The pricing was negotiated for our instances based on the number of assets that we onboard into the system. It is a little different from CyberArk, where the pricing is by users. So, it depends. If you have a lot of assets, it can get very expensive."

"We just pay for Password Safe. Session management is included, but we don't use it. There aren't any additional costs besides the standard licensing fees. We pay for an annual license."

"The pricing structure is better than the competitors. It's much cheaper than CyberArk. They do the licensing on the basis of assets, not on the number of users. For CyberArk, they base the licensing on the number of users, and they have an expensive model of pricing. BeyondTrust has a cheaper model."

"I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive."

"The pricing of BeyondTrust is very good as compared to other products. That was the main reason we decided to go with BeyondTrust at first."

"When you buy Password Safe and perform your initial Discovery, you have all these servers that are added to your assets in BeyondTrust, but you're not using a license until you actually start managing the systems. BeyondTrust's licensing is based on the systems when they're managed, which means when an administrator is able to connect to the server through BeyondTrust with a managed account. There would be a privileged account on the endpoint when the licensing starts. A significant advantage to that is that there are many organizations that want to evaluate their environment prior to automatic management."

More BeyondTrust Password Safe pricing and cost advice

"It could do everything we wanted it to do and it is brilliant, but it is super pricey. To be fair to HashiCorp, we drove the price up with our requirements around resiliency. Because of the nature of our company, we don't really operate in the cloud."

"In my case, the open-source version works well. It's advisable for small to medium-scale organizations, but for large-scale organizations, you should go with the enterprise version."

"The solution's cost is reasonable."

"I am using the open-source version of Vault and I would have to buy a license if I want to get support."

"The product is expensive."

"The AWS version is much cheaper than HashiCorp Vault."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

15%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

20%

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for BeyondTrust Password Safe?

My experience with BeyondTrust Password Safe's pricing, setup cost, and licensing has been positive, primarily due to its asset-based licensing model. This is a significant advantage for us because...

See all answers

What needs improvement with BeyondTrust Password Safe?

While generally a strong product, BeyondTrust Password Safe has a few areas that could use some polish. From an administrator's viewpoint, we sometimes see keystroke capturing fail. More significan...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for BeyondTrust Password Safe?

The main purpose of BeyondTrust Password Safe is for Privileged Access Management, with session monitoring being very effective for risk mitigation. It ensures we adhere to the control standards se...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

What do you like most about HashiCorp Vault?

The feature I find most beneficial in HashiCorp Vault is the secret engine. It integrates smoothly with many applications, making it easy to set up and implement quickly. This allows you to test it...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HashiCorp Vault?

If I were to set it up in AWS Secret Management, I would have to manage it, pay, and create secrets without being cloud agnostic. The advantage with Vault is that it is cloud agnostic. I can deploy...

See all answers

Comparisons

Delinea Secret Server vs BeyondTrust Password Safe

Compared 16% of the time

BeyondTrust Privileged Remote Access vs BeyondTrust Password Safe

Compared 11% of the time

CyberArk Privileged Access Manager vs BeyondTrust Password Safe

Compared 10% of the time

Azure Key Vault vs BeyondTrust Password Safe

Compared 9% of the time

LastPass vs BeyondTrust Password Safe

Compared 6% of the time

More BeyondTrust Password Safe Competitors

Bitwarden vs HashiCorp Vault

Compared 26% of the time

AWS Secrets Manager vs HashiCorp Vault

Compared 15% of the time

Keeper vs HashiCorp Vault

Compared 12% of the time

Delinea Secret Server vs HashiCorp Vault

Compared 11% of the time

LastPass vs HashiCorp Vault

Compared 2% of the time

More HashiCorp Vault Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

BeyondTrust Password Safe

April 2025

Download BeyondTrust Password Safe product report

Buyer's Guide

HashiCorp Vault

June 2025

Download HashiCorp Vault product report

Also Known As

BeyondTrust PowerBroker Password Safe

No data available

Overview

Beyond Trust Password Safe is an automated solution that combines password and privileged session management into a single platform. Password Safe delivers secure access control, auditing, alerting, recording, and monitoring.

This free and open-source password manager supports Windows and Linux, and some ports are available for other platforms as well. Their proprietary algorithm, Twofish, is considered highly secure, with the advantage that it is not affiliated with NIST. The Twofish algorithm secures the data while keys are delivered using SHA-256 authentication.

The application is easy to use, and you can download the Windows app from several sites. Additionally, the application is available in 14 languages.

Beyond Trust Password Safe Key Features

Continuous automated account discovery: Scan, identify and profile assets with the discovery engine. The solution has dynamic categorization that enables the automated onboarding of assets into groups.
Application-to-application password management: Password Safe offers an adaptable API interface including an unlimited number of password caches, therefore providing scalability and redundancy.
Secure SSH key management: The system automatically rotates SSH keys to enforce granular access control and workflow. Private keys securely log users onto systems without exposing them.
Adaptive access control: Evaluates context and provides access requests by considering factors such as time of access and location to determine the user’s authorization level.
Enhanced privileged session management: Admins can record, lock, and document suspicious behavior without disrupting productivity by managing sessions live.
Advanced privileged threat analytics: Password Safe monitors assets and user behavior every day, analyzing what are normal patterns and detecting deviations.
Multi-factor authentication: Password Safe supports 2FA (two-factor authentication) using Yubikey 4, Nano, or Neo.

What can you do with Password Safe?

Cross-device and cross-platform syncing: You can safely store encrypted password files online, where you can access them via Password Safe-compatible apps.
Drag and drop password: Password Safe has a “Dragbar,” which you can use to complete forms by dragging and dropping icons over the form - for example, passwords, usernames, design tiles, and emails.
Autotype: With Password Safe, when you click on a web page or login box, the autotype feature will try to fill in your credentials automatically for you.
Import and export: You can import passwords from text, XML, or CSV fails. You can also export passwords in text, XML, and the PSAFE format.
Password generator: Generate secure passwords by using the algorithm. You can also define your password rules.

Beyond Trust Password Safe Benefits

Controls third-party access: Password Safe secures the connection and automatically checks privileged credentials. The solution records all sessions.
Uses context to determine access: Password Safe considers risk factors like location, day, or time of access and uses them to adjust the permissions and privileges of each user.
Manages access for privileged and non-privileged accounts: By integrating with SailPoint IdentityIQ, Password Safe effectively manages user access for privileged as well as non-privileged accounts.
Reduces cloud risk: Password Safe simplifies secure storage and session management. It supports major cloud providers such as Azure, Amazon, Google, Rackspace, and GoGrid. It also supports social networks - Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
Integrates password and privilege management: Integrates with Endpoint Privilege Management to control the resources users can access and the actions they are allowed to take

Reviews from Real Users

A PAM Architect at a tech services company says, "BeyondTrust Password Safe's features that I have found most valuable are really those that are knitted in. That is their Smart Rules and Smart Groups, where you design your administration model so you create your AD groups and your asset groups, and configure Password Safe."

An I.S. Architect at a insurance company mentions that "Session recording, password rotation, and password vaulting are the most valuable features."

"One of the most valuable features is that this is a product designed with enterprises in mind," adds a Cybersecurity Architect at a tech vendor.

BeyondTrust

HashiCorp Vault is a cloud-agnostic solution used for security and secret management. Its valuable features include integration with other HashiCorp tools, token sharing, open source nature, cloud agnosticism, and on-the-fly encryption management.

The solution provides encryption of data at rest, in use, in transit, on the fly, and linked with applications. It is free to use, and the interface is simple to navigate. HashiCorp Vault has helped organizations with its multiple authentication methods and RESTful API.

HashiCorp Vault Features

Data encryption: The solution is capable of encrypting and decrypting data, and will not store it. Organizations’ security personnel define their own encryption protocols; developers can store the encrypted data where they choose and are not obligated to design specific encryption processes.
Robust secrets: For systems such as AWS or SQL databases, Vault is able to generate secrets automatically. HashiCorp Vault is able to generate AWS keypairs with all the appropriate permissions when necessary, and when the approved time expires, will nullify them.
Secure secret storage: Any type of value or key secrets can be stored in the Vault. The Vault automatically encrypts the desired secrets before recording them into persistent storage, keeping them safe and secure. Users can record data using HCP Vault’s Consul service or disk, or choose from other options.
Nullification: Vault is able to nullify single secrets or all secrets from a particular group or specific user. This process is integral in securing systems in the event of an attack or inappropriate access.

Reviews from Real Users

“The greatest benefit of HashiCorp is its ability to manage encryption on the fly. It provides encryption of data at rest, in use, in transit, on the fly, and linked with applications, which was really attractive. The lifecycle of a key is so easy to manage in terms of rotating, revoking, and issuing. They have different auth methods, and I tried all different auth methods. It is seamless.”- Project Manager at a comms service provider.

“The most valuable feature of HashiCorp Vault is that it's an open source solution. Second, it's cloud-agnostic, so it's very easy to maintain and control, which is why we prefer HashiCorp. “ - Mohamed A., Lead DevOps Engineer at Etisalat.

HashiCorp

Sample Customers

Aera Energy LLC, Care New England, James Madison University

Adobe, SAP Ariba, Citadel, Spaceflight, Cruise

Buyer's Guide

BeyondTrust Password Safe vs. HashiCorp Vault

June 2025

Free Report: BeyondTrust Password Safe vs. HashiCorp Vault

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