# Privileged access management for small business 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 a small B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/identity/privileged-access-management/2026-10/smb

This is the permanent record of the October 2026 Edition, published October 1, 2026 and superseded since.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/smb/index.md

**Standing:** ManageEngine PAM360 leads with 33% of first choices; verdict contested. 52 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [ManageEngine PAM360](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/manageengine-pam360/index.md) | 33% | 8% | 51 |
| 2 | [KeeperPAM](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/keeperpam/index.md) | 29% | 0% | 45 |
| 3 | [Delinea Secret Server](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/delinea-secret-server/index.md) | 6% | 24% | 38 |
| 4 | [Teleport](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/teleport/index.md) | 6% | 6% | 16 |
| 5 | [Securden Unified PAM](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/securden-unified-pam/index.md) | 4% | 0% | 20 |
| 6 | [JumpCloud](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/jumpcloud/index.md) | 4% | 0% | 17 |
| 17 | [miniOrange PAM](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/miniorange-pam/index.md) | 0% | 0% | 17 |
| 18 | [StrongDM](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/strongdm/index.md) | 0% | 11% | 19 |
| 43 | [Okta Privileged Access](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/okta-privileged-access/index.md) | 0% | 30% | 10 |
| 74 | [BeyondTrust](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/beyondtrust/index.md) | 0% | 80% | 41 |
| 75 | [CyberArk Privileged Access Manager](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cyberark-privileged-access-manager/index.md) | 0% | 88% | 49 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 75 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: KeeperPAM; alternatives Delinea Secret Server, JumpCloud, ManageEngine PAM360
- GPT-5.4 mini: JumpCloud, KeeperPAM
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: KeeperPAM; alternatives Devolutions Server, Securden Unified PAM, StrongDM
- Perplexity Sonar: JumpCloud; alternatives BeyondTrust, ManageEngine PAM360, Microsoft Entra ID
- Grok 4.20: ManageEngine PAM360; alternatives KeeperPAM
- Mistral Small: ManageEngine PAM360, Xton Access Manager; alternatives AWS Secrets Manager, SSH PrivX
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: KeeperPAM; alternatives ManageEngine PAM360
- Llama 4 Maverick: no first choice
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: ManageEngine Password Manager Pro; alternatives Azure Privileged Identity Management, BeyondTrust, HashiCorp Vault, Microsoft Entra ID
- Kimi K2: KeeperPAM; alternatives AWS Secrets Manager, HashiCorp Boundary, ManageEngine PAM360, Securden Unified PAM
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: KeeperPAM, ManageEngine PAM360; alternatives Delinea Secret Server, Teleport
- MiniMax M2.5: Delinea Secret Server, Microsoft Entra ID Privileged Identity Management; alternatives ManageEngine PAM360
- GPT-6 Luna: KeeperPAM; alternatives 1Password, StrongDM
- Muse Glimmer 30B: ManageEngine PAM360; alternatives Delinea Secret Server

## Sources the answers cite

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

- aimultiple.com: 43 answers, 49 citations
- thectoclub.com: 40 answers, 40 citations
- startwithidentity.com: 27 answers, 33 citations
- securden.com: 25 answers, 34 citations
- keepersecurity.com: 22 answers, 36 citations
- netwrix.com: 20 answers, 23 citations
- learn.g2.com: 20 answers, 20 citations
- getapp.com: 19 answers, 21 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://aimultiple.com/pam-solutions (43 answers)
- https://thectoclub.com/tools/best-privileged-access-management-solutions (40 answers)
- https://startwithidentity.com/rankings/best-pam-for-smb (26 answers)
- https://learn.g2.com/best-pam-software (20 answers)
- https://heimdalsecurity.com/blog/privileged-access-management-pam-software-solutions (19 answers)
- https://netwrix.com/en/resources/blog/pam-solutions (19 answers)
- https://getapp.com/security-software/privileged-access-management (17 answers)
- https://expertinsights.com/identity-and-access-management/the-top-privileged-access-management-pam-solutions (16 answers)
- https://petronellatech.com/blog/privileged-access-management-pam-guide-small-business (15 answers)
- https://securden.com/blog/cost-effective-pam-for-sme.html (15 answers)

## Warned against

- CyberArk Privileged Access Manager: 43 of 49 labels negative. "Small businesses should generally avoid or exercise extreme caution with enterprise-grade Privileged Access Management (PAM) platforms like CyberArk" (Grok 4.20, negative prompt)
- BeyondTrust: 33 of 41 labels negative. "avoid or exercise extreme caution with ... BeyondTrust (especially legacy or full enterprise deployments)" (Grok 4.20, negative prompt)
- Delinea Secret Server: 9 of 38 labels negative. "~$5K/year minimum; better fit for mid-market than true small business" (Kimi K2, direct prompt)
- ManageEngine PAM360: 4 of 51 labels negative. "while ManageEngine PAM360 is feature-rich, its full deployment may be more than a small business needs" (Mistral Small, negative prompt)

## Movement since September 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
New leader: KeeperPAM (27%) to ManageEngine PAM360 (29%). Margin 2 points, within noise.

- Delinea Secret Server: 15% to 7%, −8. Inside the floor by 3 points · rank 3 of 68, unchanged.
- StrongDM: 5% to 0%, −5. Inside the floor by 6 points · rank 5 → 18 of 68.
- Teleport: 11% to 7%, −4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 4 of 68, unchanged.
- Securden Unified PAM: 0% to 4%, +4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 14 → 5 of 68.
- JumpCloud: 0% to 4%, +4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 13 → 6 of 68.
- ManageEngine PAM360: 27% to 29%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 2 → 1 of 68.
- BeyondTrust: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 11 → 67 of 68.
- CyberArk Privileged Access Manager: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 12 → 68 of 68.
- KeeperPAM: 27% to 27%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 1 → 2 of 68.
- miniOrange PAM: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 15 → 17 of 68.

## 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.