KeeperPAM®: The best Delinea alternative

Choose KeeperPAM, a modern Privileged Access Management (PAM) solution that delivers quicker time to value without the complexity that comes with Delinea.

What makes Keeper the best Delinea alternative?

Keeper = Super Secure
Delinea
Fast, hassle-free PAM deployment and seamless scaling to fit organizations of any size

KeeperPAM offers seamless infrastructure access through its secure vault. Simply log in with Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for one-click, passwordless access to servers, databases, web apps and SaaS platforms.

KeeperPAM is zero-knowledge and zero-trust, meaning Keeper never has access to your network, infrastructure or secrets. With a lightweight, containerized gateway, Keeper eliminates on-prem complexity while providing full auditing, session logging and flexible access through a UI, CLI or isolated web browsing.

Deploying Keeper Security is fast, flexible and designed to scale with your organization’s needs. Keeper's innovative cloud-native architecture ensures rapid implementation with minimal IT overhead, and professional services are never required.

There are just three steps to deploy KeeperPAM:

  1. Deploy the vault with your SSO and provision through SCIM, SAML or AD
  2. Set policy
  3. Install a Keeper Gateway in the target environments

Delinea’s platform stems from the merger of Centrify and Thycotic, resulting in a product assembled from separate components rather than built with the customer experience at its core. As a result, Delinea’s PAM solution combines legacy systems with a partially converged cloud platform, leading to multiple tools, interfaces and a more complex administrative experience for end users.

Delinea lacks comprehensive Command-Line Interface (CLI) support across its core products, including Secret Server, Privilege Manager and Server Suite. While CLI tools are a critical component for automation, scripting and integration into DevOps workflows, Delinea provides only a very limited CLI – available only for its DevOps Secrets Vault – which requires a separate purchase and is not integrated with the rest of the platform. This splintered approach hinders operational efficiency and automation capabilities, particularly for organizations seeking a unified, scriptable interface across their PAM tools.

Due to its complexity, costly professional services are almost always needed to deploy Delinea PAM.

Seamless session management

Keeper enables users to securely and instantly access resources within their infrastructure, such as servers, databases, web applications and workloads, directly from the Keeper Vault. Connections are configured through specific PAM record types, including PAM Machine, PAM Database, PAM Directory and PAM Remote Browser, and can be launched directly from these records once set up.

Screen and keyboard activity can be recorded during remote sessions across all protocols, including SSH, RDP, VNC, databases and web browser sessions. Recordings are encrypted and stored in the cloud, and events can be logged to any SIEM.

KeeperPAM ensures complete privacy and security through its zero-knowledge architecture, where all sessions are end-to-end encrypted between the user's vault and the target resource. Session recordings are encrypted and stored by the customer-managed Keeper Gateway, and only authorized users with proper access can view them. Recordings are decrypted locally in the user's vault using unique keys per session, maintaining strict least-privilege access control.

Delinea’s session management introduces complexity and coverage gaps that can hinder full visibility into privileged activity.

Achieving complete session auditing requires additional components and configuration. For example, a message queue (RabbitMQ) is recommended for reliable session video streaming. This adds deployment complexity.

Session recordings stop after a fixed duration – two hours by default, up to eight hours maximum with configuration. Long-running admin sessions may not be fully captured, leaving gaps in the activity log.

Simplified secrets management with a fully cloud-based, easy-to-deploy solution

Keeper Secrets Manager – part of the KeeperPAM platform – is a fully managed, cloud-based solution that secures infrastructure secrets, access keys and other confidential data. Secrets Manager integrations do not require any on-premises components to be installed, and you can easily integrate with your CI/CD and build systems out of the box.

Easy-to-use rotation capabilities leverage a lightweight gateway to perform actions locally, which prevents the need to open any firewall ports to the outside. By combining passwords and secrets into a single, user-friendly UI, IT admins can easily manage complex policies and quickly create detailed reports.

KeeperPAM supports both static and dynamic secret workflows within a single platform, along with zero-knowledge security and built-in JIT capabilities.

Delinea provides a secrets management solution via Secret Server for cloud and on-premises environments that is complex to deploy and difficult to maintain.

Gartner stated that Secret Server needs additional customization through PowerShell, burdening its users. In addition to these hurdles, customers often complain about Delinea’s technical support response times.

Delinea’s Secret Server issues static credentials. It does not natively generate dynamic, short-lived secrets for just-in-time use. In Secret Server, passwords are pre-created and rotated on a schedule – not generated on demand per session.

Comprehensive password management for all users

Keeper Enterprise Password Manager, part of KeeperPAM, is a highly rated, cloud-based password manager trusted by millions. Designed for all users, it is accessible via a web-based interface, browser plugins, mobile apps and desktop apps for seamless access across devices.

Keeper SSO Connect enhances security by enabling federated authentication into a user’s Keeper Vault, securing access to apps and websites not typically covered by SSO. KeeperFill simplifies authorization by autofilling passwords, passkeys and 2FA codes.

For administrators, Keeper provides role-based enforcement, delegated administration and detailed visibility. The Keeper Admin Console offers advanced reporting via CLI or APIs, while the Risk Management Dashboard ensures proper configuration, adoption and compliance. BreachWatch® provides dark web monitoring to detect breached credentials.

Delinea’s Secret Server is built and marketed for large enterprises, with a heavy focus on technical teams and complex IT environments. As a result, smaller organizations are overlooked, and non-technical users may find it unintuitive and difficult to adopt. The emphasis on enterprise-scale deployments creates barriers for organizations seeking a straightforward, more inclusive approach.

Delinea targets IT administrators and is not user-friendly for non-IT users. This may explain the negative reviews from users who have struggled with its mobile apps and browser plug-ins.

Delinea lacks key security features such as comprehensive passkey management, one-time sharing and self-destructing shares. It also does not use zero-knowledge encryption and lacks desktop applications for end users.

Unlike Keeper Enterprise Password Manager, Delinea does not offer free family plans for each enterprise user.

*Data as of April 17, 2025

Keeper vs Delinea: Product capabilities comparison

Plugins + SDKs for Accessing Secrets
Vault and Client Auto Updates Configured by Default
Strong DevOps Integrations
Simple Licensing
Cross-Platform Support
Strong SaaS App Coverage
Easy Disaster Recovery
Built-In Protection Against Memory Attacks
AD Provisioning
Account Discovery
AD Bridging
Remote Browser Isolation
Intuitive Workflow Automation
Session (Connection) Management
Clientless access to RDP, SSH, database and Kubernetes endpoints !
Only supports RDP and SSH - requires a local client !
File Attachments
Import/Export
Folders and Permissions
Easily Customizable Reports
Vendor Access Prohibited*
Browser Extension
Mobile App for Vault
Password Autofill
Consistent Interface
Comprehensive Documentation Support
Free Family Plan
Password Vault
Password Rotation
SSH Key Management
Unified Password and Secrets Management
Cloud-Based Secrets Management
Role-Based Access Control

*Keeper is fully zero-knowledge and cannot access client environments. | Data as of April 17, 2025

Keeper vs Delinea: Security features comparison

Full Zero Knowledge
FedRAMP Authorized
GovRAMP Authorized
FIPS 140-3
International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR)
FDA 21 CFR Part 11
FSQS-NL
Elliptic Curve Encryption
ISO 27001, 27017 and 27018 Compliant
PBKDF2 Encryption
GDPR
HIPAA
Zero-Trust Security Framework
SOC 2 Compliant

*Data as of April 17, 2025

Frequently asked questions

Why choose Keeper over Delinea?

For too long, organizations have been required to purchase complex and painful professional services to deploy a solution that doesn’t fit their needs. KeeperPAM is a zero-trust PAM solution that brings ease of use and security to organizations of all sizes. With Keeper, enterprise-grade security can be extended to all privileged users, including those in HR, finance, marketing and more.

How does Keeper simplify PAM deployment compared to Delinea?

PAM solutions like Delinea have been cobbled together as a sum of parts rather than built from the ground up with the customer in mind. Originating from a merger of Centrify and Thycotic, Delinea has focused more on business restructuring than product development. Delinea’s PAM offering is a combination of legacy capabilities, and the new converged Delinea cloud platform consists of multiple tools and interfaces, resulting in a complex administrative experience for users.

Complex dependencies are required for the full Delinea PAM offering. Delinea’s Server Suite or Server PAM requires Active Directory, whereas its workstation PAM product does not. Because of this, Delinea is not able to have a truly unified security policy between workstations and servers. This results in duplicate efforts by the IT administrator to create security policies. All Delinea PAM components have their own "discovery" mechanism, which causes confusing results that the administrator must resolve to eliminate conflicts and remove duplicates.

Delinea claims to have a strategy that presents PAM as simple to deploy and use, but several common PAM requirements need customization through PowerShell, driving customers to purchase expensive and complex professional services plans that slow adoption and increase frustration.

Keeper works directly out of the box. No professional services are required to get started, and deployment takes only minutes. All that’s required is deploying the cloud vault to your users, setting role policies and installing a gateway in target environments. After that, you can manage access to resources such as machines, databases, web apps and service accounts.

Why is Keeper the best Delinea alternative?

Keeper’s next-gen, zero-trust, zero-knowledge PAM solution deploys quickly and easily – all while providing industry-leading security that is trusted by thousands of organizations and millions of people globally. Access Keeper anywhere, on any device, while always maintaining the highest levels of security.

Keeper is FedRAMP and GovRAMP Authorized, making it the clear choice for public sector agencies and organizations that require their cloud solutions to adhere to the strictest security and compliance standards.

Struggling with a complex Delinea setup? Switch to KeeperPAM for seamless security and control.

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