Privileged Access Management is undergoing its most significant transformation as the boundary between PAM and broader identity security dissolves. The pending Palo Alto Networks acquisition of CyberArk for $25B, the largest PAM deal in history, signals that privileged access is becoming a core platform security capability rather than a standalone discipline. Meanwhile, the explosion of machine identities (service accounts, API keys, CI/CD credentials, AI agent tokens) has shifted PAM from managing hundreds of human admin accounts to managing millions of non-human identities.
The 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Privileged Access Management confirmed CyberArk’s continued dominance while recognizing the rapid rise of cloud-native and just-in-time access providers.
How We Evaluated
We assessed vault and credential management including security of credential storage, rotation, and lifecycle management. Session management mattered, covering recording, monitoring, and controlling privileged sessions. Cloud and multi-cloud coverage across AWS, Azure, GCP IAM, and cloud-native services was important. Machine identity management for service accounts, API keys, certificates, and secrets counted heavily. Just-in-time access, meaning ability to provide time-limited, ephemeral access instead of standing privileges, was key. Zero trust alignment through integration with identity governance, conditional access, and continuous verification rounded out the criteria.
1. CyberArk
Score: 97/100
CyberArk is the undisputed PAM market leader, named a Leader in every Gartner MQ for PAM since the quadrant’s inception. With $1.0B in FY2024 revenue and $1.17B ARR, CyberArk has the scale, R&D investment, and customer base to maintain leadership. The Venafi acquisition at $1.5B in 2024 added machine identity management covering certificates, keys, and workload identities, creating the most comprehensive privileged and machine identity platform.
Leader in every Gartner MQ for PAM with the longest tenure in the category. Venafi integration adds certificate lifecycle management, code signing, and machine identity governance. Identity Security Platform unifies PAM, workforce identity, endpoint identity, and secrets management. Self-hosted and SaaS deployment options with the most mature vault technology. Over 8,800 customers including over 50% of the Fortune 500. Pending Palo Alto acquisition at $25B will integrate PAM into the Palo Alto security platform.
Best for: Enterprise organizations needing the most comprehensive PAM platform with machine identity management and the deepest feature set
2. BeyondTrust
Score: 92/100
BeyondTrust provides a broad privileged security portfolio covering PAM, endpoint privilege management, and secure remote access. Named a Leader in the 2025 Gartner MQ for PAM, BeyondTrust differentiates with its endpoint privilege management capabilities, controlling application elevation and access on endpoints without requiring local admin rights.
Named a Leader in the 2025 Gartner MQ for PAM. Endpoint Privilege Management removes local admin rights while enabling required application access. Secure Remote Access provides privileged access for remote vendors and employees without VPN. Password Safe and Privileged Remote Access cover core vault and session management. Identity Security Insights correlates identity risks across the BeyondTrust portfolio. Strong for organizations prioritizing endpoint privilege reduction alongside traditional PAM.
Best for: Organizations wanting combined PAM and endpoint privilege management to eliminate local admin rights across the enterprise
3. Delinea
Score: 89/100
Delinea (formed from the 2021 merger of Thycotic and Centrify) provides cloud-native PAM with an emphasis on usability and rapid deployment. The platform’s Secret Server is one of the most widely deployed credential vaults, and the cloud-native Platform combines vault, privilege elevation, and access governance.
Cloud-native PAM platform with rapid deployment where customers report weeks, not months. Secret Server is one of the most widely deployed credential vaults globally. Server PAM provides privilege elevation and delegation for Unix/Linux and Windows servers. Privilege Manager controls application privileges on endpoints. Connection Manager provides session management with recording and real-time monitoring. Strong mid-market and mid-enterprise presence with competitive pricing.
Best for: Organizations wanting cloud-native PAM with rapid deployment and strong credential vaulting at competitive pricing
4. HashiCorp Vault (IBM)
Score: 87/100
HashiCorp Vault, now under IBM following the $6.4B acquisition closed in February 2025, is the de facto standard for secrets management in DevOps and cloud-native environments. Vault manages secrets, encryption keys, and certificates for applications, infrastructure, and CI/CD pipelines, addressing the machine identity problem at scale.
Industry standard for application and infrastructure secrets management. Dynamic secrets generate short-lived credentials on demand with no standing secrets. Encryption as a service provides application-level data encryption without code changes. PKI secrets engine manages certificate issuance and rotation. Over 300 integrations across cloud providers, databases, CI/CD, and orchestration platforms. Open-source community edition with enterprise features in Vault Enterprise and HCP Vault.
Best for: DevOps and cloud-native organizations needing programmatic secrets management for applications, infrastructure, and CI/CD pipelines
5. One Identity (Quest)
Score: 85/100
One Identity provides PAM alongside identity governance and Active Directory management, offering a unified identity security platform. The Safeguard PAM suite covers credential vaulting, session management, and privileged analytics.
Unified identity platform combining PAM, IGA, and Active Directory management. Safeguard credential vault with automated password rotation. Privileged session recording and monitoring with keystroke logging. Privileged analytics detect anomalous behavior during privileged sessions. Active Roles integration for Active Directory and Entra ID governance. Strong for organizations wanting PAM and identity governance from a single vendor.
Best for: Organizations wanting unified PAM and identity governance from a single vendor, particularly those with complex Active Directory environments
6. Saviynt
Score: 83/100
Saviynt provides cloud-native identity governance and PAM in a converged platform. The platform’s strength is its cloud-native architecture and ability to govern access across cloud infrastructure, SaaS applications, and on-premises systems from a single policy engine.
Cloud-native converged identity governance and PAM platform. Cloud PAM provides just-in-time privileged access for AWS, Azure, and GCP. Fine-grained entitlement management for cloud infrastructure access. Separation of duties and access certification for privileged access governance. Cross-application access intelligence identifies toxic access combinations. Strong for organizations adopting cloud IAM governance alongside traditional PAM.
Best for: Organizations wanting converged identity governance and cloud PAM, particularly for multi-cloud privilege management
7. Teleport
Score: 81/100
Teleport provides infrastructure access management built on zero trust principles, replacing VPNs, bastion hosts, and shared credentials with identity-based, certificate-authenticated access to servers, Kubernetes, databases, and applications. The open-source heritage and developer-friendly approach differentiate it from traditional PAM.
Certificate-based access eliminates standing credentials with no shared passwords or long-lived keys. Unified access to SSH, Kubernetes, databases, Windows desktops, and web applications. Session recording and audit logging for compliance. Just-in-time access requests with approval workflows. Open-source Community Edition with commercial Enterprise and Cloud editions. Developer-friendly CLI and native integration with infrastructure-as-code tools.
Best for: DevOps and platform engineering teams wanting modern, zero-trust infrastructure access that replaces bastion hosts and shared credentials
8. StrongDM
Score: 79/100
StrongDM, acquired by Delinea in January 2026, provides privileged access to infrastructure through a proxy architecture that eliminates direct network access. The acquisition extends Delinea’s cloud PAM capabilities with StrongDM’s infrastructure access broker.
Proxy architecture means users never get direct network access to infrastructure. Just-in-time access workflows with approval chains and time-limited grants. Comprehensive query-level audit logging for databases. Over 100 supported protocols including SSH, RDP, databases, Kubernetes, and cloud consoles. Dynamic access rules based on user context, time, and approval status. Now integrating with Delinea’s Secret Server and Server PAM for unified cloud and on-prem PAM.
Best for: Organizations wanting proxy-based just-in-time infrastructure access, now backed by Delinea’s broader PAM platform
9. Britive
Score: 77/100
Britive specializes in cloud-native just-in-time and just-enough-privilege access for multi-cloud environments. The platform grants temporary, time-limited cloud IAM permissions rather than maintaining standing privileged access.
Purpose-built for cloud JIT/JEP, granting temporary cloud IAM roles and permissions. Multi-cloud coverage across AWS, Azure, GCP, and SaaS applications. Zero standing privileges with all access time-limited and revoked automatically. Environment access modeling predicts required permissions based on user roles. Compliance reporting for access patterns, approvals, and privilege usage. Effective for organizations implementing cloud least-privilege access.
Best for: Multi-cloud organizations wanting to eliminate standing cloud IAM privileges with automated just-in-time access
10. ARCON
Score: 75/100
ARCON provides PAM with a focus on regulatory compliance and governance, particularly strong in financial services, healthcare, and government sectors in APAC and EMEA markets.
Strong regulatory compliance coverage for SWIFT, PCI DSS, HIPAA, and regional regulations. Credential vaulting with automated password rotation. Session monitoring and recording with real-time alerting. Privileged user behavior analytics for anomaly detection. On-premises and cloud deployment options. Established presence in financial services and government in APAC and EMEA.
Best for: Financial services and government organizations in APAC/EMEA needing PAM with strong regulatory compliance capabilities
Where the Market Is Heading
Several trends are shaping the PAM market in 2026.
Machine identity is exploding. Service accounts, API keys, CI/CD tokens, and AI agent credentials now outnumber human privileged accounts 50:1. PAM must scale to manage millions of non-human identities.
PAM is meeting platform security. Palo Alto’s $25B CyberArk acquisition and CrowdStrike’s SGNL deal demonstrate that PAM is becoming a component of security platforms, not a standalone category.
Just-in-time is replacing standing access. Zero standing privilege is the target architecture. Teleport, StrongDM, and Britive lead this shift while traditional vendors add JIT capabilities.
PAM and IGA are converging. The line between PAM and identity governance is dissolving as organizations need unified policies for who can access what, including privileged access.
Secrets management is PAM for machines. HashiCorp Vault’s ubiquity in DevOps proves that secrets management is the machine-identity equivalent of traditional PAM. IBM’s $6.4B acquisition validates this market.