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CyberArk Privileged Access Manager vs Top Secret comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 4, 2025

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 Mainframe Security
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
230
Ranking in other categories
User Activity Monitoring (1st), Enterprise Password Managers (3rd), Privileged Access Management (PAM) (1st), Operational Technology (OT) Security (3rd)
Top Secret
Ranking in Mainframe Security
3rd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
8.4
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Mainframe Security category, the mindshare of CyberArk Privileged Access Manager is 4.8%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Top Secret is 12.0%, down from 14.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Mainframe Security Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
CyberArk Privileged Access Manager4.8%
Top Secret12.0%
Other83.2%
Mainframe Security
 

Featured Reviews

Atul-Gujar - PeerSpot reviewer
CyberArk manager at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Secures critical infrastructures with essential user session audit records
A potential area for improvement is enhancing support for cluster environments and distributed Vaults. Clients in multiple countries that need central access have different challenges that require better solutions from CyberArk. For financial services, CyberArk can improve incident response by ensuring fast support for critical priority tickets to meet compliance requirements. Providing more documentation on CyberArk is recommended for new team members to enhance their troubleshooting capabilities. I understand it's up to the client, but 99% fail to change the demo key, so it's crucial for CyberArk to emphasize changing the key and documenting it as part of the installation process.
it_user814482 - PeerSpot reviewer
Information Security Engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
All the features help ensure we are compliant with banking regulations
Top Secret is our external security manager for our mainframe systems It's an integral part of all of our mainframe security functions. It's the core of our mainframe security functions. It helps ensure that we are compliant with all of the various banking regulations, security regulations and…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The DNA scan is very helpful and provides a security baseline for your environment."
"For me, CyberArk Privileged Access Manager is the best product, and even Gartner says the same."
"It has become one of the primary components that we have."
"In terms of stability, there are no complaints."
"There is a lot of return on investment in CyberArk."
"It is a leading solution and one of the best SaaS solutions in the market."
"I appreciate CyberArk's real-time capabilities. I can secure critical sessions, such as SSH or database sessions. As a security professional, I have real-time visibility into ongoing sessions. If anything suspicious occurs, I can terminate or freeze the session, which is part of user behavior analytics."
"CyberArk Privileged Access Manager's abilities to safeguard the infrastructure are important, as protecting credentials provides us with security and visibility."
"In banking, security is a priority, and we constantly get updates that meet our needs."
"Customer service is excellent, as any issue that we have had in working with the product received the best response that we could have hoped for, with technicians who have great knowledge of how the product works and who promptly responded with solutions to any problems that we have had over the years."
"We have an ongoing relationship with technical support; they are excellent."
"It protects our enterprise by providing an access monitor authentication protocol."
"We have implemented two-factor authentication, which is a new piece of CA Top Secret."
"When selecting a vendor, the most important thing is support."
"It centralizes all the user security on a single tool, which has truly been the best part for us."
"The stability of the product is wonderful."
 

Cons

"The installation is not straightforward. It's complex."
"More than the product itself, there is room for improvement in the documentation. The documentation should be very detailed and very structured. It has a lot of good information, on one level, but I feel that it could be more elaborate and more structured."
"The graphical user interface could be simplified and harmonized for better usability. It should be consistent. Its GUI is very confusing."
"We don't often contact technical support, but when we do it, the response could be faster and better."
"Sometimes the infrastructure team is hesitant to provide more resources."
"There is room for improvement in the pricing model."
"As we have not yet moved to the core licensing model, we don't have the benefit of PSM and a few other things that were not previously included."
"Their post-sale support area requires a big improvement."
"As an IT auditor, the UI is the tough part. From the IT auditing standpoint, it needs to be more simple to use."
"I'd like to see integration with LDAP's services, because today we have the mainframe and Windows AD separated."
"I would like to see better reporting, more emphasis on audit reporting, and better scrubbing of the canned reports."
"I'd like to see that more granular, see where you could get the passwords that are being enforced, but you can enforce it at different hierarchical layers between the product."
"It would be helpful if they removed limitations on user record sizes."
"The user interface could be improved. Sometimes, it is not simple to understand where a certain definition should be defined, and I go through a number of screens until I find where to do some of them."
"That is an area where I have a concern, because I don't see them keeping pace with what we're doing."
"Make sure that there is a post-sale department in your country. We have experienced some post-sale problems to do with integration of CA products into our systems."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of CyberArk Privileged Access Manager could be less expensive."
"Cost efficiency is the number one thing that can be improved in my mind. This would change lots of companies minds on purchasing the product."
"CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault is a very expensive product."
"If you want a Ferrari, it will cost you. The solution is really nice, so it costs the client, but in the long run, it is very good. If you buy a solution that costs a lot to maintain because it is not stable, and you are frequently asking for consultant support, it costs more."
"Quite expensive"
"I would rate CyberArk's pricing a nine out of ten, with one being cheap and ten being expensive. It's one of the most expensive solutions in the market, but it's worth it."
"It can be an expensive product."
"I believe that this solution is priced well. It's the market leader and I think that it's the best solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Financial Services Firm
19%
Real Estate/Law Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business59
Midsize Enterprise42
Large Enterprise174
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business1
Large Enterprise8
 

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.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for CyberArk Privileged Access Manager?
My thoughts on the pricing of CyberArk Privileged Access Manager depend entirely on the vendors' requirements. If they want their things to be secure, they have to spend accordingly. We have four t...
Ask a question
Earn 20 points
 

Also Known As

CyberArk Privileged Access Security, CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault
CA Top Secret
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Rockwell Automation
First Tennessee Bank
Find out what your peers are saying about CyberArk Privileged Access Manager vs. Top Secret and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,164 professionals have used our research since 2012.