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

CyberArk Privileged Access Manager vs HashiCorp Vault 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

CyberArk Privileged Access ...
Ranking in Enterprise Password Managers
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
225
Ranking in other categories
User Activity Monitoring (1st), Privileged Access Management (PAM) (1st), Mainframe Security (2nd), Operational Technology (OT) Security (3rd)
HashiCorp Vault
Ranking in Enterprise Password Managers
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Enterprise Password Managers category, the mindshare of CyberArk Privileged Access Manager is 8.0%, down from 8.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HashiCorp Vault is 11.3%, down from 13.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Password Managers
 

Featured Reviews

Abdul Durrani - PeerSpot reviewer
Enables granular and secure access with just-in-time access and Zero Trust model
CyberArk provides a good amount of control over access types. However, as a future enhancement, having additional features for cross-platform integration would be beneficial. It would be good to have integrations with other tools and firewalls, such as Zscaler and CrowdStrike. Although I am not fully aware of recent updates, more cross-platform integration would be valuable. A SOC analyst would like to have centralized access in terms of information flowing in even for privileged access management. They would like to have control over everything instead of opening four to five tabs for different sorts of information. Cross-platform integration would help with that. Customers also want CyberArk's pricing to be better so that they can implement it further and have more licenses. Implementing a privileged access management solution can be challenging. It would be great if CyberArk could provide recommendations based on the compliance standards of an organization. It would help system admins ensure that all the required ports are closed and the systems are being managed properly. If any system is not being used anymore, any ports opened for that system need to be closed. Having such recommendations would be helpful.
Anand-Awasthi - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We found the initial setup to be easy."
"It is an extremely scalable solution."
"The logs and reporting features are impressive."
"There are no issues with scalability. Our clients are very happy to use the product."
"All access to our servers by both staff and vendors is monitored and recorded."
"Creating policies and the password rotation feature have been valuable. We don't have to memorize our password for the ADM account."
"We have accomplished our security goals. We have two-factor authenticated and vaulted our important accounts, so people can't just steal stuff from us."
"We can make a policy that affects everybody instantly."
"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 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 easily and see good results rapidly. When you integrate an internal API or application, it quickly manages that application's secrets."
"It is user-friendly and easy to implement from any application point."
"The most valuable feature of HashiCorp Vault is the management of tickets in the pipeline."
"The product is free and easy to use. It is well documented with an easy implementation process."
"The interface is very simple to navigate."
"The most valuable feature of HashiCorp Vault is version control."
"It is a good product to consider for companies who are looking to build on-premise or hybrid infrastructure."
 

Cons

"Occasionally, there are lagging issues. Sometimes users have to re-login. When users copy passwords, there is sometimes a lag, so they have to log out and log in, but these are very rare cases."
"Over the past seven years, I have seen a lot of ups and downs with the product."
"I think having a distributed architecture would certainly help this solution."
"There were a lot of manual steps in the initial setup which could have been automated. I read the 10.4 release that was sent out about a month or two ago, and I saw the steps required for upgrade have been reduced by about 90%. That was a big thing for me, but I still haven't seen that yet because we have not upgrade past 9.9.5."
"When I was a component owner for PAM's Privileged Threat Analytics (PTA) component, what I wanted was a clear mapping to the MITRE ATT&CK framework, a framework which has a comprehensive list of use cases. We reached out to the vendor and asked them how much coverage they have of the uses cases found on MITRE, which would have given us a better view of things while I was the product owner. Unfortunately they did not have the capability of mapping onto MITRE's framework at that time."
"Customers also want CyberArk's pricing to be better so that they can implement it further and have more licenses."
"The continuous scanning of the assets is limited to Windows and Unix. We like to have the solution scan any databases, network devices, and security devices for privileged accounts. That would be very helpful."
"This is probably a common thing, but they do ask for a lot of log files, a lot of information. They ask you to provide a lot of information to them before they're willing to give you anything at all upfront. It would be better if they were a little more give-and-take upfront: "Why don't you try these couple of things while we take your log files and stuff and go research them?" A little bit of that might be more helpful."
"I would rate the stability a six out of ten. There are some bugs and glitches. We are in touch with the vendor to resolve them."
"I don't think there are any major improvements required—so far, so good. However, I think that having more training materials, such as videos, and documentation available would be helpful. I would prefer to have more videos available either on the official site or on YouTube."
"We could use more documentation, primarily to do with integrations."
"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."
"It would be helpful to have more advanced features."
"I would like to see better integration of HashiCorp Vault with SAP products."
"An improvement needed is the ability for auto-initialization. There should be an inbuilt option for automatic initialization rather than running it manually."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I believe that this solution is priced well. It's the market leader and I think that it's the best solution."
"The SaaS version of CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault is very expensive, but the on-premises version is relative, e.g. depending on the size of the environment, it can be a bit pricey, but it's relatively okay compared to the others."
"The price of this solution is quite reasonable."
"No, I do not have any advice on the price of the product."
"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."
"There are no additional costs other than the standard licensing fees."
"It's per-company, license-based."
"The price of CyberArk Privileged Access Manager could be less expensive."
"The AWS version is much cheaper than HashiCorp Vault."
"The product is expensive."
"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."
"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."
"I am using the open-source version of Vault and I would have to buy a license if I want to get support."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Enterprise Password Managers solutions are best for your needs.
865,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
20%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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.
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 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...
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...
 

Also Known As

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

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Rockwell Automation
Adobe, SAP Ariba, Citadel, Spaceflight, Cruise
Find out what your peers are saying about CyberArk Privileged Access Manager vs. HashiCorp Vault and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.