No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

IBM Tivoli Access Manager [EOL] vs Symantec VIP Access Manager comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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 Tivoli Access Manager [...
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
3.8
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Symantec VIP Access Manager
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Authentication Systems (12th), Access Management (22nd)
 

Featured Reviews

it_user711612 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Consultant at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Reverse proxy provides central control over authentication and authorization.
It is a single product that caters for all the business needs throughout the organization. It provides a seamless integration that in turn encourages most of the applications to use the SSO features Reverse proxy is the most valuable feature as it provides central control over authentication and…
Berk Onur - PeerSpot reviewer
Presales Consultant at Cyberwise
With its mobile application, this tool offers a convenient and user-friendly experience to its users
To improve the tool, I think that the solution should consider integrations with other cybersecurity and IT technologies, such as Privileged Access Management and Site Integration. Additionally, the implementation of second-factor authentication via Symantec VIP Access Manager, CyberArk, and Delinea, among other technologies, could be best for the product. While the existing technology is okay, improving the integration capabilities for Symantec VIP Access Manager would benefit the product. I would like to see the solution meet the integration needs at our company. While many cybersecurity solutions can function independently, they often lack integration with our systems due to missed integration points. Improving the solution's integration feature would be beneficial.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It provides good scalability and reliability, not to mention the overall availability of the service."
"It is a very stable and good product."
"Single Sign-On functionality is valuable because the core purpose of the product is to allow universal (or bespoke) SSO for application suites."
"It is a totally secure way of accessing clients through various application portals for more than ten EU countries, just by using single sign-on."
"Before the solution was implemented it took around 2-3 weeks to get all the necessary account information for a new employee in my organization, and since implementation this now only takes a few minutes."
"We have managed to automate the creation of all employees, and the company's clients and then assign the accounts/accesses according to business need."
"It provided a secure and robust end to end security solution."
"Provided more secure computing."
"The two-factor authentication is most definitely valuable and moves us closer to being able to check off those important boxes for compliance."
"The tool has been very stable, in my experience. Also, I haven't faced any issues or problems with integration or connectivity."
"Pricing was about 25% of the old solution, saving us about $500,000 over three years for 10,000 users."
"The VPN we are using is good and working quite well."
"After the initial integration, the overall support calls dropped, and customer satisfaction for VPN increased."
"In this version 9.1, lots of changes are done for the dashboard, User Store etc."
"It's a good tool. It's pretty straightforward."
"Mostly from a product expert's point of view, it provides solutions for my clients."
 

Cons

"There is only a single step-up authentication path, but I have sometimes seen the need for several steps or a divergent path."
"The pricing is always costly."
"There were endless issues with stability in version 8.0.1."
"It was complex for us as we have multiple domains."
"Web Portal Manager does not implement the full set of functions found in the command line"
"I have not tested the stability yet."
"This product is also available in the appliance offering which has not yet matured and has many issues."
"Older TAM versions are not compatible for connecting to a DB."
"The VIP Manager can be accessed from the outside which is a security vulnerability."
"At times, the relay server could not contact Symantec; it would fail open and allow access without a passcode."
"Our only issue was with user training. The additional challenge was not well received."
"It gets out of sync with Active Directory or whatever it might be, whatever the authentication piece is on Active Directory, and they just reset it on the backend. I never have to contact the vendor."
"In my opinion, for this solution, the technical support is not so expert when we talk about integration using the API."
"The gateway server is a RADIUS server, but it lacks the functionality of returning RADIUS attributes other than those that are required for the gateway to authenticate the users."
"Every time that I have a new phone or computer, it takes a little longer to deploy it."
"I would like to see the solution meet the integration needs at our company...Improving the solution's integration feature would be beneficial."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The IBM prices are, as ever, extortionate, even with a business partnership, and high levels of discounts."
"I can say that the solution is worth the money."
"Licensing and pricing seems very fair."
"There are additional costs for maintenance."
"There is a one-time setup fee plus the licenses are provided as per the number of users. For SMS and voice calls, the costs are separate."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Single Sign-On (SSO) solutions are best for your needs.
908,877 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
14%
Outsourcing Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Marketing Services Firm
11%
Construction Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Outsourcing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise18
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise10
 

Also Known As

Tivoli Access Manager, IBM Security Access Manager
Symantec VIP
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Essex Technology Group Inc.
Maine Medical Center, Aria S.p.A
Find out what your peers are saying about Okta, Microsoft, Cisco and others in Single Sign-On (SSO). Updated: July 2026.
908,877 professionals have used our research since 2012.