# Privileged access management for enterprise buyers: what AI models recommend, September 2026

Gane Index, September 2026 Edition. Asked as "privileged access management platform" and as "PAM tool", six framings each, to twelve models with search on, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/identity/privileged-access-management/2026-09/enterprise

This is the permanent record of the September 2026 Edition, published September 17, 2026 and superseded since. The current standing: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/identity/privileged-access-management/enterprise/index.md

**Standing:** CyberArk Privileged Access Manager leads with 66% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 38 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [CyberArk Privileged Access Manager](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cyberark-privileged-access-manager/index.md) | 66% | 25% | 59 |
| 2 | [Delinea Secret Server](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/delinea-secret-server/index.md) | 16% | 15% | 52 |
| 4 | [One Identity Safeguard](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/one-identity-safeguard/index.md) | 3% | 6% | 16 |
| 6 | [KeeperPAM](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/keeperpam/index.md) | 3% | 33% | 15 |
| 8 | [ManageEngine PAM360](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/manageengine-pam360/index.md) | 3% | 40% | 15 |
| 9 | [BeyondTrust](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/beyondtrust/index.md) | 0% | 17% | 52 |
| 10 | [WALLIX Bastion](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/wallix-bastion/index.md) | 0% | 9% | 11 |
| 41 | [HashiCorp Vault](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/hashicorp-vault/index.md) | 0% | 64% | 11 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 41 products named; products with the same share are tied, and the order among them carries no meaning. The table lists those with at least 10 labels.

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: no first choice
- GPT-5.4 mini: CyberArk Privileged Access Manager; alternatives BeyondTrust, Delinea Secret Server
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Idira; alternatives BeyondTrust, Delinea Secret Server, KeeperPAM, Saviynt
- Perplexity Sonar: CyberArk Privileged Access Manager; alternatives BeyondTrust, Delinea Secret Server, One Identity Safeguard, WALLIX Bastion
- Grok 4.20: CyberArk Privileged Access Manager; alternatives BeyondTrust, Delinea Secret Server
- Mistral Small: CyberArk Privileged Access Manager; alternatives BeyondTrust, Delinea Secret Server
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: CyberArk Privileged Access Manager; alternatives BeyondTrust, Delinea Secret Server
- Llama 4 Maverick: no first choice
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: CyberArk Privileged Access Manager; alternatives BeyondTrust, HashiCorp Vault, Microsoft Entra ID
- Kimi K2: CyberArk Privileged Access Manager; alternatives BeyondTrust, Delinea Secret Server
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: CyberArk Privileged Access Manager, One Identity Safeguard; alternatives BeyondTrust, Delinea Secret Server
- MiniMax M2.5: CyberArk Privileged Access Manager; alternatives BeyondTrust, Delinea Secret Server

## Sources the answers cite

64 of 72 answers came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- startwithidentity.com: 37 answers, 63 citations
- netwrix.com: 33 answers, 36 citations
- expertinsights.com: 29 answers, 29 citations
- gartner.com: 23 answers, 29 citations
- delinea.com: 21 answers, 42 citations
- heimdalsecurity.com: 21 answers, 24 citations
- cybervendorguide.com: 20 answers, 25 citations
- oneidentity.com: 17 answers, 21 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://netwrix.com/en/resources/blog/pam-solutions (30 answers)
- https://startwithidentity.com/rankings/best-pam-for-enterprises (28 answers)
- https://expertinsights.com/identity-and-access-management/the-top-privileged-access-management-pam-solutions (27 answers)
- https://heimdalsecurity.com/blog/privileged-access-management-pam-software-solutions (20 answers)
- https://cybervendorguide.com/guides/privileged-access-management (18 answers)
- https://gartner.com/reviews/market/privileged-access-management (17 answers)
- https://tech-insider.org/cyberark-vs-beyondtrust-vs-delinea-pam-2026 (17 answers)
- https://oneidentity.com/learn/top-5-privileged-access-management-tools-in-2025.aspx (16 answers)
- https://startwithidentity.com/rankings/best-pam-tools (16 answers)
- https://compliancestronghold.com/best-pam-solution (13 answers)

## Warned against

- CyberArk Privileged Access Manager: 15 of 59 labels negative. "Platforms to Avoid for Predictable Costs | CyberArk | $1,800–$12,000 per user/year; modular pricing" (Kimi K2, budget prompt)
- BeyondTrust: 9 of 52 labels negative. "High Caution: Major Vendors with Recent Serious Security Incidents ... BeyondTrust ... December 2024 nation-state breach" (Kimi K2, negative prompt)
- Delinea Secret Server: 8 of 52 labels negative. "September 2026 disclosure of two unauthenticated critical vulnerabilities (CVE-2026-15638, CVE-2026-15640) in Secret Server" (Kimi K2, negative prompt)
- ManageEngine PAM360: 6 of 15 labels negative. "frequently cited in reviews for scalability limits in large deployments (e.g., session bottlenecks, high resource usage)" (Grok 4.20, negative prompt)

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, September 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/it.