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OpenText Access Manager with Managed Services vs Symantec Siteminder comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 29, 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

OpenText Access Manager wit...
Ranking in Web Access Management
2nd
Ranking in Access Management
26th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Symantec Siteminder
Ranking in Web Access Management
1st
Ranking in Access Management
15th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
75
Ranking in other categories
Single Sign-On (SSO) (13th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Web Access Management category, the mindshare of OpenText Access Manager with Managed Services is 17.2%, up from 11.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Siteminder is 21.3%, up from 18.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Web Access Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Symantec Siteminder21.3%
OpenText Access Manager with Managed Services17.2%
Other61.5%
Web Access Management
 

Featured Reviews

MS
Senior Specialist: Solution Architecture at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
A mature, powerful product with good integration capabilities
Since we use it to access a number of mission-critical applications, it means that we have multiple sites. We have independent instances of Access Manager deployed. What's very important for us is to ensure that the configurations across the various sites are 100% aligned. If they had a mechanism to ensure that's the case, that would be great. For example, the worst thing to do is if you run into an issue, and then you fail over to your disaster recovery environment, and then you find out that you've got a missing configuration there, it'll be great if one could easily compare configurations across instances of NetIQ Access Manager to ensure consistency. It's just about ensuring consistent configuration across various instances. Having the ability to easily extract and view and compare and version control configurations would be ideal. If you consider our scenario whereby, let's say, we've got an instance for our retail environment, and for that instance, we've got a disaster recovery environment. We need to ensure the amount of service at each of those sites. Now yes, they serve different purposes, however, for us, it's very important that site A and site B are 100% aligned. And so if there was a way to easily extract the configuration and to compare it across sites, to me, that would just make everything from an operational perspective significantly easier.
Muzi Lubisi - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior technical Consultant at CA Africa
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It's a very powerful product."
"There are lots of options to customize the solution to your needs."
"The features that we have found most valuable with NetIQ Access Manager are its single sign-on and two factor two second factor database."
"The most valuable features of NetIQ Access Manager are SSO and Multi-Factor Authentication."
"It's very easy to integrate with applications."
"I would recommend NetIQ Access Manager; it is a very, very good alternative to Microsoft, Micro Focus is very big and offers good technical services, and the solution is very good, fast, simple to operate, and has very good production time to market."
"The integration is quite easy because there are a lot of options for integrating with different applications, so it is very versatile."
"The single sign-on feature is excellent."
"It restricts cookie replacement and provides enhanced ones, so the applications are safer, helping keep our data secure in a much better way without affecting user experience."
"It really improved the speed to market from account creation through provisioning and onboarding, and as users move from system to system, their account access follows them so you don't need to create new credentials every time."
"I really like the robust functionality that this solution offers, such as federation, OAuth, security, and multi-tenancy, just to name a few."
"SAML is the best thing we're using right now because there is no need for creating an external account."
"We're able to have one single centralized way of logging in when you have shared sessions across all applications."
"It is one of the most stable products in the banking organization that I am in."
"If they want to have a secure, stable solution for a single sign-on that supports Java, ASP .Net, and most of the web-based applications, I encourage them to go with this product."
"Its flexibility and ease-of-use are the most valuable features."
 

Cons

"Occasionally, it's very difficult to get the solution running."
"There is a major release going from version three to four or four to five. There seem to be issues up front, and then once you get to the third or fourth service pack to address those various issues, you're fine again."
"The application portal could be improved with more options and easier customization."
"Classification of junctions and new versions of applications, such as APIs, can be added to enable the use of more devices that utilize biometrics for Multi-Factor Authentication to improve the solution."
"Having the ability to easily extract and view and compare and version control configurations would be ideal."
"In terms of what could be improved, I would say the security of the infrastructure and the server and the working networking device."
"I would love to see the upgrade procedure handled more effectively. I would prefer to have OVS installation possibilities, although the upgrade procedures should include the OS as well. You should be able to use the whole application as an appliance."
"The installation process was complex. There are a lot of different moving pieces, and the main complaint is that it's hard to automate any of it."
"All the problems that we reported actually have never been resolved. We could not capture enough information for CA to be able to debug the problem."
"There are certain integration points that can be leveraged and made more easy to deploy, like the REST APIs and things like that."
"The documentation is not good enough, particularly the installation documentation could be improved."
"I'd like to see the federation piece made a little simpler."
"Not great. The first level of support is not up to the mark or able to understand the actual problem."
"The main thing is we do not have the traceability and good monitoring that CA can provide us to capture problems when they occur."
"It's a hit and miss thing, like all support organizations. For the most part, for simple problems they can get to a resolution fairly quickly, but if the problem is a little more complicated, they really struggle with getting us a solution."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of the solution is average."
"CA solutions are generally expensive but for the customer the ROI is big."
"Symantec Siteminder is expensive; they could definitely do better on the price."
"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."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"The licensing is fair for this solution."
"I recommend conducting a PoC on every available product before choose one."
"The solution's pricing is competitive."
"The price is quite comparable to the other enterprise-level solutions in that market."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
13%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Transportation Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Outsourcing Company
15%
Construction Company
12%
Marketing Services Firm
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise69
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
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 ...
What is your primary use case for Symantec Siteminder?
I deploy and support Symantec Siteminder ( /products/symantec-siteminder-reviews ). I have been a partner and reseller.
 

Also Known As

No data available
SiteMinder, CA SSO, Layer7 SiteMinder
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Bancomext, Bouwend Nederland, Camera dei Deputati, CGT, Coopservice Group, Court of Appeals of Georgia, Etnic, European Automotive Manufacturer, FDM Document Dynamics, Hainan Province Information Center, Highland Community College, Huntington Bank, Johnsonville Sausage, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Mazars, Mexico's Tax Administration Service, Owens Community College, Pasco Risk, RDC, School District of Hartford, Senckenberg Nature Research Society, Sheetz, Spanish Public Employment Service, SUNY Orange County Community College, Swisscard, The Municipality of Siena, The University of Westminster, UMB Financial Corporation Invests in Identity Management, University of Dayton, University of Groningen, Vodacom, World Wide Technology
British Telecom, CoreBlox, DBS, HMS, Itera ASA and Simeo
Find out what your peers are saying about OpenText Access Manager with Managed Services vs. Symantec Siteminder and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
913,924 professionals have used our research since 2012.