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IBM Resource Access Control Facility vs Idira Privileged Access Manager comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 2, 2026

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

IBM Resource Access Control...
Ranking in Mainframe Security
6th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Idira Privileged Access Man...
Ranking in Mainframe Security
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
231
Ranking in other categories
User Activity Monitoring (2nd), Enterprise Password Managers (3rd), Privileged Access Management (PAM) (1st), Operational Technology (OT) Security (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Mainframe Security category, the mindshare of IBM Resource Access Control Facility is 10.5%, down from 14.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Idira Privileged Access Manager is 5.8%, up from 4.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Mainframe Security Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Idira Privileged Access Manager5.8%
IBM Resource Access Control Facility10.5%
Other83.7%
Mainframe Security
 

Featured Reviews

KC
Senior systems engineer at Unum
We're able to do role-based security so when new people join the company we're able to quickly add them to the proper security through role-based security groups.
It's completely secure. That's the best answer I can give you. We're able to do role-based security so when new people join the company we're able to quickly add them to the proper security through role-based security groups. Our resources are secured with this product I would welcome something…
Mahmudul Hoque Khan - PeerSpot reviewer
Lead Engineer at intelQong Technology
Centralized access has improved privileged control and visibility yet still needs better integrations
While the access control capabilities are useful, streamlining some configuration and policy management workflows could enhance the user experience for administrators. A simpler interface for creating access policies and quickly identifying unusual activities would make day-to-day administration more efficient. Stronger integration with existing identity data and secret management could be a significant improvement for Idira Privileged Access Manager. Deeper integration with cloud solutions would make it easier to correlate privileged access activity with other security events. I would also appreciate more flexible reporting and dashboards so administrators can swiftly see access patterns and unusual privileged access from a single view.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It's completely secure."
"Perfectly integrated with the z/OS operating system and all the other products in the IBM z/OS family."
"Technical support is exceptional."
"CyberArk Privileged Access Manager has helped our organization remain compliant in the privileged access management space."
"The combination of CPM and PSM resolves a lot of use cases."
"The best feature is vaulting. CyberArk has a separate vault, which is their proprietary vault, which provides multiple encryptions for every password object, as well as tamper-proof recording."
"I find the threat analytics is an important feature, as CyberArk can look at the log details and analyze who is using the applications, which are their locations, and which are the IP locations from which they are accessing, enabling the solution to find the exact location the threat is emanating from, which we really value."
"Our most valuable features would probably be key rotation, the SKM or SSH key manager, and account discovery."
"CyberArk Privileged Access Manager is cool."
"Increased our insight into how privileged accounts are being used and distributed within our footprint."
"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."
 

Cons

"I would welcome something that is more easily integrated with distributor platforms."
"The way to pull security logs could be better."
"I would like the generation of RACF on-screen listings and reports to be more flexible."
"They can work on the pricing part. Its pricing is a big challenge here."
"I think having a distributed architecture would certainly help this solution."
"It can be made user-friendly, in the sense of the console is pretty outdated."
"Having a centralized place to manage the solution has been something that I have always wanted, and they are starting to understand that and bring things back together."
"It is easily customized, and that customization makes it very easy to start trying to shoehorn the solution into roles it was never intended to fill."
"Integration with the ticketing system should allow any number of fields to be used for validation before allowing a user to be evaluated and able to access a server."
"The lead product has a slow process. There are some reports and requirements from CyberArk which are not readily available as an applicable solution. We have made consistent management requests in the logs."
"This product needs professional consulting services to onboard accounts effectively based user profiles."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"Pricing is a problem. CyberArk is expensive compared to other products I know. It is similar to buying a German car. It comes with all the bells and whistles, but some companies may find it too expensive."
"If you are looking at implementing this solution, buy the training and go to it."
"My company always complains about the cost of CyberArk Privileged Access Manager because it's too high."
"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."
"Although CyberArk Privileged Access Management is expensive, its protection capabilities outweigh the cost."
"Compared to other solutions, it is costly."
"I'm a technician so I don't handle the licensing for CyberArk Privileged Access Manager, but I know that the price for the core license is about €140 per year. There's another type of license, the external vendor license, and that's about €600 and you can manage twenty devices. From what I know, the price for one device in a subscription is about €65 per year. You can buy the CyberArk Endpoint Privilege Manager too, or you can buy some other application or application license with CyberArk Privileged Access Manager, but all other features, such as the Analytics Server is included in the basic CyberArk license. With WALLIX, you need to buy separate licenses for the features."
"The price of this solution is quite reasonable."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Government
18%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Outsourcing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business59
Midsize Enterprise43
Large Enterprise175
 

Questions from the Community

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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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for CyberArk Privileged Access Manager?
The pricing is reasonable compared to other software options we evaluated, and it is straightforward. However, overall costs depend on deployment size and licensing requirements.
What needs improvement with CyberArk Privileged Access Manager?
While the access control capabilities are useful, streamlining some configuration and policy management workflows could enhance the user experience for administrators. A simpler interface for creat...
 

Also Known As

IBM RACF
CyberArk Privileged Access Security, CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Rockwell Automation
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Resource Access Control Facility vs. Idira Privileged Access Manager and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.