Buyer Guides · Intermediate
How to Choose a PAM Solution
By SWI Community Team · Updated 2026-06-12 · 8 min
Privileged Access Management protects your highest-risk accounts, so the selection bar is high. Use this framework.
1. Inventory privileged access
List your privileged account types: domain and cloud admins, service accounts, non-human identities, database and network gear. The mix drives which PAM strengths matter.
2. Decide your priorities
- Vaulting and rotation for credentials.
- Session recording and isolation for compliance and forensics.
- Just-in-time / zero standing privileges to shrink the attack surface.
- Secrets for apps and CI/CD, which overlaps with secrets management.
- Discovery of unmanaged privileged accounts.
3. Weigh deployment and operations
PAM can be operationally heavy. Confirm SaaS vs self-hosted fit, agent requirements, and how much day-two effort the platform demands. Model cost with the TCO calculator.
4. Shortlist and verify
Compare scores in the capability checker, then validate session and break-glass workflows in a pilot.
Where to start
Browse PAM vendors and CyberArk vs Delinea or CyberArk vs BeyondTrust.