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GigaOm has recognized Keeper Security in the Enduring Innovators quadrant of its 2026 Radar Report for Enterprise Password Management. This marks the fifth consecutive year that
5 min read
Published on September 03, 2026
Keeper Security has been named an Exemplary provider in the 2026 ISG Buyers Guide for Identity and Access Management (IAM) platforms — ISG’s highest classification. ISG Research evaluated 31 software providers across authentication, authorization, identity lifecycle management and access governance. Keeper earned an A- grade in every category ISG measures and an overall performance score of 83.0%. Only 13 providers achieved Exemplary status, with Keeper ranking among the top six providers for both Product Experience and Customer Experience.
Why IAM recognition matters
IAM has shifted from a primarily administrative function to an essential security layer that enables modern organizations to govern access across hybrid, multi-cloud and partner ecosystems. The IAM market has expanded drastically to match the fast pace of security advances like AI agents and Non-Human Identities (NHIs), and the vendor landscape has expanded quickly as well. ISG evaluated 20 providers in its 2025 Buyers Guide for IAM, compared with 31 in 2026, including identity governance specialists, privileged access vendors and broader identity platforms. Since IAM decisions now impact nearly every part of the technology stack, choosing the wrong solution can have long-lasting consequences for both organizations and customers if security, governance, scalability, user experience and operational impact aren’t prioritized. A guide like ISG’s is valuable to organizations considering an IAM solution because it applies the same criteria to every provider, uses submitted evidence to support its scoring and publishes the methodology behind its findings.
What “Exemplary” means to ISG
ISG places each evaluated provider into one of four categories based on weighted performance across two dimensions: Product Experience and Customer Experience.
| Classification | What it means |
|---|---|
| Exemplary | Performed above the median in both Product and Customer Experience |
| Innovative | Above the median in Product Experience but not Customer Experience |
| Assurance | Above the median in Customer Experience but not Product Experience |
| Merit | Performed below the median in both Product and Customer Experience |
Product Experience, composed of Capability at 50% and Platform at 30%, accounts for 80% of the overall evaluation. Customer Experience represents the remaining 20%, measured through provider validation, Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and Return on Investment (ROI). Achieving Exemplary status, therefore, requires more than just strong features; Exemplary providers must also demonstrate product strength and the ability to provide measurable value to customers.
Where Keeper stands out in the 2026 ISG Buyers Guide
The 2026 report marks Keeper’s first appearance in the ISG Buyers Guide for IAM, and Keeper debuted at the Exemplary level. Here is how Keeper performed across ISG’s evaluation categories:
| Category | Performance | Grade |
|---|---|---|
| Product Experience | 83.1% | A- |
| Capability | 85.4% | A- |
| Platform | 81.5% | A- |
| Customer Experience | 82.7% | A- |
| Overall | 83.0% | A- |
Keeper ranked among the top six out of 31 providers for both Product Experience and Customer Experience. Keeper also outperformed several established Privileged Access Management (PAM) providers that ISG evaluated, including CyberArk, Delinea, BeyondTrust and One Identity, in all four categories. These results demonstrate Keeper’s ability to meet – and exceed – critical identity security requirements while maintaining a strong customer experience.
Product Experience
Keeper scored 83.1% on Product Experience, behind only Microsoft, AWS, Okta, Oracle and Google Cloud. This rating reflects Keeper’s growth well beyond credential storage into broader identity and privileged access security. KeeperPAM® combines privileged session management, credential rotation, enterprise password management, secrets management, connection management, remote browser isolation and endpoint privilege management through a unified, cloud-native platform. As a result, Keeper helps organizations protect human and machine identities, infrastructure secrets and privileged sessions without requiring multiple disconnected tools.
Capability
Capability is the heaviest component in ISG’s evaluation at 50% of the total score, and Keeper scored 85.4% in this category, placing ahead of IBM, SAP, CyberArk, Entrust, ManageEngine, One Identity and BeyondTrust. ISG assesses IAM capabilities across access management and governance, use of AI and machine learning, API and application connector integration, auditing and reporting, identity verification, Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), self-service functionality and user provisioning. Keeper supports these requirements through capabilities such as enforced MFA, RBAC, delegated administration, Single Sign-On (SSO), SCIM provisioning, automated onboarding and offboarding, granular audit logging with SIEM export and AI-enabled threat detection through KeeperAI®. Together, these capabilities help organizations enforce access policies, improve visibility and reduce identity-related security risks across complex environments.
Platform
With a score of 81.5% – ranking fourth out of the 31 evaluated providers – Keeper landed within 0.1 percentage point of ISG’s Leader designation. ISG evaluates 16 function points to determine how well a product behaves as part of an organization’s security infrastructure once it’s deployed at scale. Platform specifically covers adaptability, manageability, reliability and usability. ISG named Platform one of Keeper’s two standout areas, citing KeeperPAM’s configurability and its functionality for managing performance and scalability.
This category is where Keeper’s zero-trust, zero-knowledge architecture thrives at enterprise scale. Encryption and decryption happen locally on the user’s device, ensuring that no one – not even Keeper – can ever access customer vault data in plaintext, keeping the attack surface small without asking end users to change how they already work. KeeperPAM also centralizes privileged access across on-premises, hybrid and cloud infrastructure, using the Keeper Gateway to establish secure access to target environments without requiring inbound firewall rules. Combined with FedRAMP High Certification and GovRAMP High Authorization, Keeper supports organizations under strict security and compliance requirements.
Customer Experience
Keeper scored 82.7% for Customer Experience, ranking ahead of Okta, SailPoint, CyberArk and SAP. ISG evaluates this category on provider validation of customer success, TCO and ROI. This part of the evaluation helps buyers look beyond technical functionality and consider what adoption, deployment and long-term use of a platform may look like. For buyers evaluating IAM solutions, a strong Customer Experience score demonstrates that security capabilities are only beneficial when organizations can successfully manage and scale them. ISG specifically rated Keeper’s Customer Experience highly for the support available to help employees and prospective customers calculate TCO and ROI.
What Keeper’s Exemplary recognition means for you
ISG recommends that organizations evaluating IAM solutions prioritize capabilities including unified identity lifecycle management, strong authentication, consistent access governance, adaptive access controls, MFA, auditability, scalability and AI-enabled risk analysis. Keeper’s performance highlights three main considerations for organizations evaluating their identity security strategy:
- Reduce security tool complexity: ISG specifically warns that having too many capabilities can be a downside if they introduce unnecessary complexity. Platforms that consolidate privileged access, secrets and credential management reduce the number of disconnected systems security teams need to deploy and manage.
- Build access controls on a strong, zero-knowledge foundation: Least-privilege access enforcement and zero-trust security depend on protecting the credentials, secrets and privileged sessions that grant access to critical infrastructure.
- Evaluate the customer experience alongside technical features: Product functionality is only part of a successful security deployment, according to ISG’s evaluation categories. Organizations must also consider implementation, ongoing management, TCO and measurable ROI when assessing IAM vendors, not after signing.
Enhance your IAM strategy with Keeper
Being named Exemplary in the 2026 ISG Buyers Guide validates Keeper’s approach to modern identity security: combining privileged access, secrets management, endpoint privilege management and enterprise password management within a zero-knowledge architecture. For organizations seeking to reduce complexity while strengthening control over privileged access, KeeperPAM provides a cloud-native platform for protecting sensitive credentials, secrets, infrastructure and privileged sessions. Request a demo of KeeperPAM today to see how Keeper can help improve your organization’s identity security strategy.
