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

Gane Index, October 2026 Edition. Asked as "privileged access management platform" and as "PAM tool", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/identity/privileged-access-management/2026-10/enterprise

This is the permanent record of the October 2026 Edition, published October 1, 2026 and superseded since.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 56% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 48 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) | 56% | 24% | 71 |
| 2 | [ManageEngine PAM360](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/manageengine-pam360/index.md) | 12% | 15% | 26 |
| 3 | [BeyondTrust](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/beyondtrust/index.md) | 10% | 16% | 68 |
| 4 | [Delinea Secret Server](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/delinea-secret-server/index.md) | 8% | 9% | 66 |
| 5 | [KeeperPAM](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/keeperpam/index.md) | 4% | 12% | 16 |
| 7 | [StrongDM](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/strongdm/index.md) | 2% | 19% | 16 |
| 9 | [Teleport](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/teleport/index.md) | 0% | 8% | 13 |
| 12 | [Microsoft Entra Privileged Identity Management](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/microsoft-entra-privileged-identity-management/index.md) | 0% | 27% | 11 |
| 15 | [One Identity Safeguard](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/one-identity-safeguard/index.md) | 0% | 33% | 18 |
| 19 | [HashiCorp Vault](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/hashicorp-vault/index.md) | 0% | 37% | 27 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 54 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, KeeperPAM, Microsoft Entra Privileged Identity Management
- 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, ManageEngine PAM360, One Identity Safeguard
- Llama 4 Maverick: CyberArk Privileged Access Manager; alternatives Xton Access Manager
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: CyberArk Privileged Access Manager; alternatives Akeyless, BeyondTrust, SailPoint
- Kimi K2: CyberArk Privileged Access Manager; alternatives BeyondTrust, Delinea Secret Server
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: CyberArk Privileged Access Manager; alternatives BeyondTrust, Delinea Secret Server, Teleport
- MiniMax M2.5: CyberArk Privileged Access Manager; alternatives BeyondTrust, Delinea Secret Server, Microsoft Azure AD Privileged Identity Management, Okta Privileged Access
- GPT-6 Luna: CyberArk Privileged Access Manager; alternatives BeyondTrust, Delinea Secret Server
- Muse Glimmer 30B: CyberArk Privileged Access Manager; alternatives BeyondTrust, Delinea Secret Server

## Sources the answers cite

79 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- netwrix.com: 39 answers, 48 citations
- startwithidentity.com: 38 answers, 55 citations
- cybersecuritynews.com: 35 answers, 45 citations
- expertinsights.com: 31 answers, 33 citations
- delinea.com: 29 answers, 42 citations
- aimultiple.com: 23 answers, 25 citations
- beyondtrust.com: 20 answers, 25 citations
- securden.com: 20 answers, 25 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://netwrix.com/en/resources/blog/pam-solutions (38 answers)
- https://cybersecuritynews.com/best-pam-solutions (28 answers)
- https://expertinsights.com/identity-and-access-management/the-top-privileged-access-management-pam-solutions (27 answers)
- https://aimultiple.com/pam-solutions (23 answers)
- https://startwithidentity.com/rankings/best-pam-for-enterprises (23 answers)
- https://heimdalsecurity.com/blog/privileged-access-management-pam-software-solutions (19 answers)
- https://jumpserver.com/blog/top-10-pam (16 answers)
- https://tech-insider.org/cyberark-vs-beyondtrust-vs-delinea-pam-2026 (16 answers)
- https://learn.g2.com/best-pam-software (13 answers)
- https://startwithidentity.com/articles/top-10-pam-solutions-2026 (13 answers)

## Warned against

- CyberArk Privileged Access Manager: 17 of 71 labels negative. "What to Avoid for Predictable Costs | CyberArk | Highest cost ($600-1,400/user/year), complex modular licensing" (Kimi K2, budget prompt)
- BeyondTrust: 11 of 68 labels negative. "BeyondTrust ⚠️ HIGH PRIORITY CONCERN ... Prioritize vendors with clean security records - BeyondTrust's recent breaches are particularly concerning" (Kimi K2, negative prompt)
- HashiCorp Vault: 10 of 27 labels negative. "Open Source Tools Without Dedicated Commercial Backing Examples: Unsupported builds of HashiCorp Vault" (Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt)
- One Identity Safeguard: 6 of 18 labels negative. "users frequently highlight inconsistencies in deployment, noticeable maturity gaps in their SaaS-based offerings, and a steep configuration learning curve" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt)

## Movement since September 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: CyberArk Privileged Access Manager at 57%.

- BeyondTrust: 0% to 12%, +12. Cleared the floor by 1 point · rank 9 → 2 of 49.
- CyberArk Privileged Access Manager: 66% to 57%, −9. Inside the floor by 2 points · rank 1 of 49, unchanged.
- ManageEngine PAM360: 3% to 10%, +7. Inside the floor by 4 points · rank 8 → 4 of 49.
- Delinea Secret Server: 16% to 10%, −6. Inside the floor by 5 points · rank 2 → 3 of 49.
- One Identity Safeguard: 3% to 0%, −3. Inside the floor by 8 points · rank 4 → 26 of 49.
- KeeperPAM: 3% to 5%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 6 → 5 of 49.
- StrongDM: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 11 → 7 of 49.
- Teleport: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 38 → 8 of 49.
- Microsoft Entra Privileged Identity Management: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 15 → 11 of 49.
- HashiCorp Vault: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 41 → 17 of 49.
- WALLIX Bastion: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 10 → 28 of 49.

## Record

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