CyberArk vs BeyondTrust: PAM Platform Comparison for 2025
Privileged Access Management (PAM) platforms protect the credentials and sessions that matter most to attackers: domain administrator accounts, service accounts with broad database access, cloud root credentials, and SSH keys to production servers. CyberArk and BeyondTrust are the two platforms that consistently appear in enterprise PAM evaluations, with both offering mature vault capabilities, session recording, and cloud credential management.
The distinction between them is more about platform breadth and architecture philosophy than raw vault capability. CyberArk is the deeper, more complex platform that dominates the largest enterprise and regulated industry deployments. BeyondTrust combines PAM with endpoint privilege management (reducing local admin rights on workstations) in a way CyberArk does not natively address.
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Vault Architecture and Credential Management
CyberArk's Digital Vault is the most mature privileged credential repository in the market. Its multi-layered security architecture (dedicated vault server, encrypted credential storage, dual-control checkout workflows, automated credential rotation) has been deployed in the most demanding regulated environments (financial services, defense contractors, critical infrastructure) for over 20 years.
CyberArk's Privileged Access Manager (PAM) provides credential checkout with configurable approval workflows, automatic password rotation after each use (eliminating standing credentials), application-to-application credential management (so developers and service accounts do not embed passwords in code), and session isolation (privileged sessions proxied through the CyberArk system so credentials are never exposed to the initiating workstation).
BeyondTrust Password Safe provides comparable vault capabilities for most enterprise use cases, with a simpler deployment model than CyberArk. Where CyberArk's vault requires dedicated infrastructure and significant professional services investment to deploy correctly, BeyondTrust Password Safe is generally faster to deploy and has a lower administrative overhead in steady state. For organizations without a large security engineering team to operate a complex PAM deployment, BeyondTrust's operational simplicity is a meaningful advantage.
Session Recording and Monitoring
Session recording captures everything that happens during a privileged session: keystrokes, commands executed, files accessed, and screen activity. Recordings serve two purposes: forensic investigation when a privileged account is involved in an incident, and compliance evidence for auditors requiring proof that privileged access is monitored.
CyberArk Privileged Session Manager (PSM) is the market leader for enterprise session recording at scale. It proxies privileged sessions through a session manager that records the full session to the vault, making recordings immutable and tamper-evident. Recorded sessions are indexed and searchable, making it practical to search 'all sessions where whoami was executed on domain controllers' across thousands of recorded sessions.
BeyondTrust Privileged Remote Access and Password Safe both provide session recording capabilities that are competitive for most enterprise use cases. BeyondTrust's integration of session recording with its remote support platform (often used for vendor access management) is a differentiated capability: third-party vendors accessing your environment can be channeled through BeyondTrust with session recording and just-in-time access controls applied.
Endpoint Privilege Management
One of the most common privilege-related security improvements is removing local administrator rights from workstations. When endpoints run with standard user rights, an attacker who compromises a workstation through phishing or browser exploitation cannot immediately escalate to local admin, install persistence mechanisms, or access credential stores that require admin rights.
BeyondTrust Privilege Management for Windows and Mac (formerly Avecto Defendpoint) is the strongest product in the market for endpoint privilege management. It removes local admin rights while allowing specific applications to run with elevated privileges when needed (application whitelisting for specific tasks), with a policy framework that reduces helpdesk tickets from users who legitimately need elevation for specific tasks.
CyberArk does not have a native endpoint privilege management product that competes with BeyondTrust in this space. Organizations that need both PAM (vault-based privileged account protection) and EPM (removing local admin from workstations) often deploy CyberArk for the former and BeyondTrust for the latter, or standardize entirely on BeyondTrust when EPM is a primary driver.
Cloud PAM and JIT Access
Cloud privileged access management is now a core PAM requirement. Managing AWS IAM roles, Azure privileged identities, GCP service accounts, and Kubernetes cluster admin access requires cloud-native capabilities that on-premises vault architectures were not designed for.
CyberArk's Cloud Entitlements Manager provides visibility into cloud permissions, identifies over-privileged cloud identities, and integrates with CyberArk's vault to manage cloud credential rotation. CyberArk's JIT (just-in-time) access capabilities allow temporary elevation of cloud permissions for a specific task with automatic revocation, eliminating standing cloud admin access.
BeyondTrust Privilege Management for Cloud is competitive for AWS and Azure access management. BeyondTrust's integration with AWS IAM Identity Center and Azure PIM provides JIT elevation flows that are comparable to CyberArk's in most deployments.
For organizations standardizing on Microsoft Entra ID PIM (Privileged Identity Management) for Azure and M365 privileged access, the native Entra PIM capabilities may reduce the need for a third-party PAM platform for cloud access specifically, potentially limiting the PAM platform deployment to on-premises infrastructure.
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The bottom line
CyberArk is the right choice for enterprises that need the deepest vault security, complex credential orchestration for applications and services, and the highest-assurance session recording architecture. BeyondTrust is the right choice for organizations that need PAM plus endpoint privilege management in a single platform, or for deployments where operational simplicity and faster time-to-value matter alongside vault capability. Both vendors have mature cloud PAM stories; evaluate them against your specific cloud provider mix.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between PAM and IAM?
IAM (Identity and Access Management) manages the identities and access rights of all users, including their access to applications and resources. PAM (Privileged Access Management) is a subset of IAM specifically focused on accounts with elevated permissions: administrator accounts, service accounts, and other credentials with the ability to make system-level changes. PAM platforms add controls that general IAM systems do not: credential vaulting, session recording, just-in-time privilege elevation, and checkout/check-in workflows.
What is just-in-time privileged access?
Just-in-time (JIT) privileged access grants elevated permissions only for the duration of a specific task, then automatically revokes them. Instead of a user having standing admin rights 24/7 (creating risk during the 99% of time those rights are not needed), JIT access requires the user to request elevation, which is approved and granted for a time-limited window, then revoked automatically. JIT access is now a standard component of mature PAM programs and is supported natively by CyberArk, BeyondTrust, Delinea, and Microsoft Entra PIM.
Does Microsoft Entra PIM replace CyberArk or BeyondTrust?
Microsoft Entra Privileged Identity Management provides JIT access and access reviews for Azure and M365 privileged roles. It is a strong native option for cloud-only Microsoft environments. It does not provide credential vaulting for on-premises privileged accounts, session recording for non-Microsoft systems, application credential management, or endpoint privilege management. For hybrid environments with significant on-premises infrastructure, a dedicated PAM platform complements Entra PIM rather than being replaced by it.
How does session recording help with compliance?
Regulations including PCI DSS, HIPAA, NERC CIP, and SOX require evidence that privileged access to sensitive systems is monitored and auditable. Session recording provides immutable, timestamped records of every privileged session: what commands were executed, what data was accessed, and what changes were made. During a compliance audit, session recordings provide direct evidence of privileged access oversight. During an incident investigation, recordings allow forensic reconstruction of what a threat actor (or malicious insider) did during a privileged session.
Sources & references
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