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IBM Tivoli Federated Identity Manager [EOL] vs Symantec Siteminder comparison

IBM and Broadcom are both solutions in the Web Access Management category. IBM is ranked #3, while Broadcom is ranked #1 with an average rating of 6.6. IBM holds a 14.1% mindshare in WAM, compared to Broadcom’s 23.1% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of Broadcom users who would recommend it.
IBM Tivoli Federated Identi...
Read 1 IBM Tivoli Federated Identity Manager [EOL] review
  • 142 Views
  • 142 Comparison Views
100% willing to recommend
Symantec Siteminder
Read 75 Symantec Siteminder reviews
  • 1,481 Views
  • 74 Comparison Views
91% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary
We performed a comparison between IBM Tivoli Federated Identity Manager [EOL] and Symantec Siteminder based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Broadcom, Entrust Datacard, IBM and others in Web Access Management.

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To learn more, read our detailed OpenText Access Manager with Managed Services vs. Symantec Siteminder Report (Updated: August 2025).
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OpenText Access Manager with Managed Services vs. Symantec Siteminder
August 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

IBM Tivoli Federated Identi...
Ranking in Web Access Management
3rd
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Symantec Siteminder
Ranking in Web Access Management
1st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
75
Ranking in other categories
Single Sign-On (SSO) (13th), Access Management (12th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Web Access Management category, the mindshare of IBM Tivoli Federated Identity Manager [EOL] is 14.1%, down from 14.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Siteminder is 23.1%, up from 17.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Web Access Management
 

Featured Reviews

AN
A stable and scalable web security and identity management solution.
The solution is good, but it's pretty complex. So, I wouldn't recommend this solution to anyone without extensive security knowledge. The administration and configuration aren't straightforward. If the implementation takes up to six months, it will be costly. On a scale from one to ten, I would give IBM Tivoli Federated Identity Manager an eight.
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Muzi Lubisi - PeerSpot reviewer
Improved user experience with seamless integration and easy installation
The feature that I mostly valued is the ease of installation on different systems, especially on Windows. Additionally, it is very beneficial for deploying single sign-on sessions between different windows on a web browser, provided I am connected to the right identity provider. That seamless integration significantly improves user experience and efficiency.
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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"IBM Tivoli Federated Identity Manager is a good solution. It's both stable and scalable."
"The most valuable feature is that it meets the requirements of the customer. You have a lot of features in the product. Every product has them, but the question is, are these products going to meet the requirement of the customer?"
"As our identity model continues to mature, probably the Federation is most valueable."
"Ease of use is very good, for administrating it. It's very well known."
"It has considerably reduced the amount of time that new users would take to join into the organization. Previously, it was a lengthy, manual process because it's a very secure environment, where they need to verify the user before they can actually grant him a user-ID and password. Integrating with the built-in custom application, and exposing CA Single Sign On to the internet, we were able to get the employees onboard. The time that we gained was: previously it would generally take from four to eight weeks for each employee, we brought it to one to two days."
"It is pretty easy to learn."
"All of our applications get a point, click, and you are in, while we increase security at the same time."
"It is very scalable. We have a very large customer base: 75 million customers."
"A valuable feature of Siteminder is the way it handles bulk traffic. The features it has, in terms of routing the traffic and load balancing, are good."
More Symantec Siteminder pros
 

Cons

"It would be better if the administration and configurations were more straightforward. The architectural level is also quite complex."
"The support could be faster."
"We would like to the OAuth be more stable, more issues being fixed rather than not."
"The initial setup was complex, painful. But that is to be expected of any new setup. When you're a big bank like us, any kind of migration to a new product is hard. I expect it to be painful, and it was painful. But it's not something that you can avoid."
"While I have some integration with a few major providers, support for more would be advantageous."
"Siteminder needs to improve its user experience."
"The Federation part of CA Single Sign On, it's a bit complex to implement because it involves the SSL certificates, exchange of certificates, and lot of technical details. The documentation misses some important parts of this, so that's the reason it took some time for us to go live."
"Some of the new protocols, like OAuth 2.0, could be improved."
"The maintenance cost has increased significantly, and we are concerned about this."
More Symantec Siteminder cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Our customers pay for the license every year or every three years. It's not available on a monthly basis."
"The licensing is fair for this solution."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"CA solutions are generally expensive but for the customer the ROI is big."
"The solution's pricing is competitive."
"Siteminder is a little costly. You pay for licensing, and they offer packages, so if you have less users, then you have to buy different products at different prices. If you have more of a user base, then the package is different. They also include other features—for example, if you have a database and you're using Siteminder, then it's good to use a Semantic-specific database, but if you are using less, then you have to purchase the database separately. Whereas if you are going for a bigger license, then it comes within the package. It depends on which plan you are using."
"I recommend conducting a PoC on every available product before choose one."
"The price is quite comparable to the other enterprise-level solutions in that market."
"Symantec Siteminder is expensive; they could definitely do better on the price."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
30%
Insurance Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Transportation Company
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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What do you like most about Symantec Siteminder?
It's agent-based. It's convenient to deploy and integrate.
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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Symantec Siteminder?
My experience with pricing is that it is all good.
See all answers
What needs improvement with Symantec Siteminder?
Symantec Siteminder needs to have adaptive authentication and multi-factor authentication as integrated features. Currently, multi-factor authentication is available as a separate solution, and it ...
See all answers
 

Comparisons

No data available
Ping Identity Platform vs Symantec Siteminder Logo
Ping Identity Platform vs Symantec Siteminder
Compared 39% of the time
ForgeRock vs Symantec Siteminder Logo
ForgeRock vs Symantec Siteminder
Compared 30% of the time
Microsoft Entra ID vs Symantec Siteminder Logo
Microsoft Entra ID vs Symantec Siteminder
Compared 15% of the time
Okta Workforce Identity vs Symantec Siteminder Logo
Okta Workforce Identity vs Symantec Siteminder
Compared 10% of the time
OpenText Access Manager with Managed Services vs Symantec Siteminder Logo
OpenText Access Manager with Managed Services vs Symantec Siteminder
Compared 6% of the time
More Symantec Siteminder Competitors
 

Product Reports

No data available
Buyer's Guide
Symantec Siteminder
July 2025
Symantec Siteminder reportDownload Symantec Siteminder product report
 

Also Known As

Tivoli Federated Identity Manager
SiteMinder, CA SSO, Layer7 SiteMinder
 

Overview

IBM Tivoli Federated Identity Manager provides web and federated single sign-on (SSO) to users across multiple applications. It uses federated SSO for security-rich information sharing for private, public and hybrid cloud deployments. With it you can enable security-rich business collaboration in the cloud.

IBM

Symantec® SiteMinder is designed to secure the modern enterprise through a unified access management platform that applies the appropriate authentication mechanism to positively identify users; provides single sign-on and identity federation for seamless access to any application; enforces granular security policies to stop unauthorized access to sensitive resources; and monitors and manages the entire user session to prevent session hijacking. Finally, Symantec SiteMinder is battle-tested and has been deployed in the largest IT environments in the world.

Broadcom
 

Sample Customers

EXA Corporation
British Telecom, CoreBlox, DBS, HMS, Itera ASA and Simeo
Buyer's Guide
OpenText Access Manager with Managed Services vs. Symantec Siteminder
August 2025
Free Report: OpenText Access Manager with Managed Services vs. Symantec Siteminder
Find out what your peers are saying about OpenText Access Manager with Managed Services vs. Symantec Siteminder and other solutions. Updated: August 2025.
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