Keeper vs Delinea: Comparing privileged access management solutions
KeeperPAM® delivers enterprise-grade Privileged Access Management (PAM) from one unified, cloud-native platform, rather than a set of separately deployed products.
Keeper® vs Delinea: Which PAM solution is right for you?
Analysis is based on publicly available documentation and information as of August 12, 2026.
Delinea
Platform architecture and encryption model
KeeperPAM brings together enterprise password management, privileged session management, secrets management, Remote Browser Isolation (RBI) and endpoint privilege management into a single cloud-native solution.
Keeper is built on a zero-knowledge, zero-trust architecture. Keeper has no ability to access your vault, your secrets or your infrastructure. All encryption is performed client-side before data ever reaches Keeper's servers, and session recordings are encrypted and decrypted locally using unique per-session keys managed by the customer-controlled Keeper Gateway.
Delinea was formed through the 2021 merger of Thycotic and Centrify and has continued to expand through acquisition, most recently acquiring StrongDM in March 2026.
While Delinea is actively working to converge its product line under the Delinea Platform, the result is still a collection of components — Secret Server, Privilege Manager, Server Suite, DevOps Secrets Vault and now StrongDM — each with its own interface, deployment model and administrative experience.
Based on publicly available documentation, Delinea does not use zero-knowledge encryption. Delinea has the technical capability to access customer data stored on its platform, which is a meaningful distinction for organizations in regulated industries or those with strict data sovereignty requirements.
Deployment
Keeper deploys in four steps: provision users through your SSO and SCIM, SAML or AD; deploy the endpoint agent to control local admin rights; install a lightweight gateway in each target environment; and apply MFA, RBAC and least-privilege policies. The containerized gateway is outbound-only by design, eliminating the need to open firewall ports or expose internal systems.
Keeper's cloud-native architecture is built to scale with your organization from day one, whether you're securing 10 privileged accounts or 10,000.
Keeper also offers purpose-built tooling and a dedicated migration team to enable organizations to fully migrate off legacy PAM vendors in hours, not months.
Based on Delinea's published documentation, each product has its own setup requirements, dependencies and discovery mechanisms. Server Suite requires Active Directory, while the workstation PAM product does not, so administrators maintain separate policies across servers and workstations.
Reaching a fully unified deployment across multiple products can involve professional services engagements.
Certifications and compliance
Keeper is FedRAMP High Certified and GovRAMP High Authorized, FIPS 140-3 validated, SOC 2 Type II, SOC 3 and ISO 27001, 27017 and 27018 certified.
Keeper supports ITAR compliance through its dedicated GovCloud environment with U.S.-only data storage and a sequestered U.S. Persons-only support team.
Delinea Secret Server is FedRAMP High Certified. However, Delinea currently documents FIPS 140-2 compliance for Secret Server, with no publicly documented FIPS 140-3 validation.
Based on publicly available information, Delinea holds SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certifications and maintains a strong compliance posture for commercial enterprise environments.
Privileged session management and recording
Keeper provides complete privileged session management across all protocols — SSH, RDP, VNC, database sessions and remote browser sessions — with every session fully recorded, encrypted and stored in the customer-managed vault. Session recordings are end-to-end encrypted between the user's vault and the target resource, with unique per-session keys ensuring that only authorized users can decrypt and review recordings. There are no time limits on session recording length, no auxiliary components required for reliable capture and no gaps in coverage across protocols.
Administrators can search session content, review keystroke logs and replay recordings directly from the vault and log every event to any SIEM platform.
Based on Delinea's published documentation, Delinea's session recording introduces notable coverage gaps. By default, session recordings stop after two hours (extendable to eight hours with configuration), meaning long-running administrative sessions may not be fully captured.
Achieving complete session auditing requires additional components and configuration, including a message queue (RabbitMQ) recommended for reliable video streaming, which adds deployment complexity.
AI-powered threat detection
Built on Keeper's data sovereignty principles, KeeperAI continuously monitors active sessions, analyzes keystroke logs and command execution in real time and classifies behavior by risk level. When a threat is detected, KeeperAI can automatically terminate the session without waiting for human review.
Each organization retains full sovereignty over its data and AI infrastructure, with support for on-premises and cloud LLM deployment, including OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, Google Vertex AI and Anthropic. KeeperAI integrates directly with the Advanced Reporting & Alerts Module (ARAM) for real-time SIEM alerting.
Delinea has introduced Delinea Iris AI, an authorization agent that uses identity and risk context to automate access decisions at the policy level.
Delinea Iris AI operates primarily at the authorization layer rather than providing continuous, real-time behavioral monitoring and automated response within active privileged sessions.
Database access and management
KeeperDB is a built-in database management interface inside the Keeper Vault that lets privileged users securely access, query and manage MySQL, PostgreSQL and Microsoft SQL Server databases, without credentials ever touching a local device.
Sessions are fully recorded, policy-governed and run inside Keeper Remote Browser Isolation, which can be accessed directly through the Keeper Vault, eliminating the unmanaged desktop tools and shared credentials that create blind spots in most organizations' database security programs.
Based on publicly available documentation, Delinea supports database credential management through Secret Server, including automated rotation and access controls for database accounts.
Database sessions through Delinea typically use local client tooling, so credentials reach the user's local device rather than staying brokered within the platform.
Secrets management
Keeper Secrets Manager is a fully cloud-based secrets management solution that requires no on-premises components whatsoever. KSM secures infrastructure secrets, API keys, SSH keys, certificates and CI/CD pipeline credentials under Keeper's zero-knowledge architecture.
Credential rotation is built in, leveraging the lightweight gateway to perform rotations locally without opening any inbound firewall ports. Keeper Secrets Manager integrates natively with Terraform, Kubernetes, GitHub Actions, Jenkins and other DevOps toolchains and supports the Model Context Protocol (MCP) so AI tools and agents can securely retrieve secrets.
Delinea's Secret Server stores and rotates passwords on a schedule; it does not generate dynamic, short-lived credentials on demand. Dynamic secrets are a feature of DevOps Secrets Vault, a separate product, which adds licensing and administrative overhead for organizations that need both capabilities.
Extensibility in Secret Server, including custom password changers, dependency management and third-party integrations, relies on PowerShell scripting.
Non-Human Identity (NHI) governance
Keeper, named an Overall Leader, Product Leader and Innovation Leader in KuppingerCole's Leadership Compass for Non-Human Identity Management, manages NHIs including AI agents, API keys, tokens, certificates and SSH keys. Secrets can be rotated automatically, delivered at runtime and governed with time-limited access, helping reduce standing privilege across workloads, applications and AI agents.
With PAM, service account passwords and other privileged credentials on servers, databases and network devices are discovered and rotated through the Keeper Gateway running inside the customer network, where the credential is injected at access time and never exposed. Keeper Endpoint Privilege Manager detects and governs AI agent activity on endpoints, setting policy for what agents can run, what they can reach and when they can elevate.
Like Keeper, Delinea is also named a Leader in KuppingerCole's Leadership Compass for Non-Human Identity Management. Its platform covers discovery, privileged identity visibility and lifecycle governance across service accounts, workloads and AI-related identities.
The difference is how that coverage is delivered. Delinea's NHI functionality is delivered across multiple products and deployment models, including Secret Server, DevOps Secrets Vault, Account Lifecycle Manager and the recently acquired StrongDM. Delinea also does not publicly document a zero-knowledge, client-side-only encryption architecture, meaning customers rely on Delinea-managed vaulting, infrastructure and key management controls rather than a model where the provider is cryptographically unable to access protected secrets. Keeper delivers NHI governance from a single platform, with an architecture that keeps secrets out of Keeper's reach by design.
Based on publicly available information, Delinea governs AI agents through the runtime authorization capabilities it gained with StrongDM in March 2026, paired with Delinea Iris AI to support least-privilege enforcement for human and non-human identities at the moment of action. Because that runtime governance came through acquisition, Delinea is still positioning it as part of a broader platform unification effort.
Password management
Keeper Enterprise Password Manager is designed for everyone, not just IT administrators and security teams. It delivers a highly rated, intuitive experience for all users across web, desktop, mobile and browser extension.
KeeperFill autofills passwords, passkeys and 2FA codes seamlessly, while Keeper SSO Connect® extends federated authentication to apps not covered by your identity provider.
BreachWatch® monitors the dark web for exposed credentials in real time and enables organizations to change exposed passwords before they can be used in a breach.
Delinea is primarily a PAM platform. Credential Manager adds browser-based autofill and access to vaulted credentials, but password management isn't its core focus, and it lacks dedicated dark web monitoring.
Reporting, SIEM integration and audit readiness
Keeper's Advanced Reporting & Alerts Module tracks over 200 events across every layer of the platform, including vault activity, privileged sessions, secrets access and policy changes with customizable reports and real-time alerting.
KeeperAI enables admins to view encrypted activity summaries of each privileged session, with behaviors automatically categorized into risk levels.
ARAM integrates directly with CrowdStrike Falcon Next-Gen SIEM, Microsoft Sentinel, Google Security Operations, Splunk and other leading platforms.
Keeper's Compliance Reporting module provides audit-ready reports for regulatory frameworks, including SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI DSS and ISO 27001, all from the same console that manages access and policy.
Delinea provides audit logs, session recording and SIEM integrations across its platform. However, because Delinea's products maintain separate event logging and reporting interfaces, organizations often need to aggregate data across multiple tools to get a complete picture of privileged activity.
Achieving unified compliance reporting across Secret Server, Privilege Manager and Server Suite requires additional configuration and, in many cases, professional services to implement effectively.
Platform consolidation and financial ROI
KeeperPAM is a single platform with a single vault and a single policy engine, ensuring ease of use for both admins and end users. There are no hidden integration costs, no professional services required to reach a functional state and no sprawling vendor relationships to manage.
Consolidating onto a single platform can reduce redundant tooling and the administrative effort of maintaining several products. Keeper delivers password management, secrets, sessions, RBI and endpoint privilege from one vault and one policy engine.
Reaching a fully consolidated Delinea deployment often requires purchasing and integrating multiple products, engaging professional services and investing significant time in configuration before the platform delivers on its consolidation promise.
Customer support and ease of use
Keeper provides 24/7 customer support via phone and live chat, with dedicated customer success managers and professional services teams available for enterprise deployments.
Keeper's admin experience is consistent across all capabilities on the platform. There is no context-switching between products, no duplicate discovery mechanisms to reconcile and no need to develop specialized expertise across multiple tools.
Delinea offers tiered support plans and regional customer advisory boards. Because its capabilities span multiple products, each with its own interface, discovery mechanism and administrative model, administrators manage across several tools rather than one.
Keeper vs Delinea: User ratings and reviews
Delinea
iOS App Store
Microsoft Store
No dedicated app
Chrome Extension
Android
The PAM platform that works the way you work
KeeperPAM is zero-trust, zero-knowledge and zero-complexity — built from the ground up to protect every identity, every session and every secret across your organization.
Frequently asked questions
Why choose Keeper over Delinea?
Keeper was built as a single, unified platform from day one — one vault, one policy engine, one admin console covering password management, secrets management, privileged session management, remote browser isolation and endpoint privilege management. Delinea is a collection of products assembled through mergers and acquisitions that are still being converged into a unified platform.
In practice, that means one console for every user from the front-line employee to the most privileged admin, and a single view of privileged activity for security teams. With Delinea, capabilities live in separate products, each with its own console and administrative model, so teams adopting multiple use cases configure and maintain them separately.
How does Keeper simplify PAM deployment compared to Delinea?
Keeper deploys in four steps: provision users through your SSO and SCIM, SAML or AD; deploy the endpoint agent to control local admin rights; install a lightweight gateway in each target environment; and apply MFA, RBAC and least-privilege policies.
Delinea's deployment spans multiple products, each with its own installation requirements, dependencies and discovery mechanisms, so reaching a complete, unified deployment involves configuration across all of them. Server Suite requires Active Directory while the workstation PAM product does not, which means administrators maintain separate policies across servers and workstations. A unified deployment across products can require professional services.
Is Keeper compliant with government and industry regulations?
Yes, Keeper is FedRAMP High Certified and GovRAMP High Authorized, cleared for use by U.S. federal, state and local government agencies. Keeper's cryptographic module is validated to the newer FIPS 140-3 standard by the NIST Cryptographic Module Validation Program. Delinea currently documents FIPS 140-2 validation, which remains acceptable under FedRAMP during the transition period. Keeper is also SOC 2 Type II, SOC 3, and ISO 27001, 27017, and 27018 certified and supports ITAR compliance programs through a dedicated GovCloud environment with U.S.-only data storage and a sequestered U.S. Persons-only support team.
Delinea maintains a SOC 2 Type 2 report and ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification, and Secret Server is FedRAMP High Certified. However, Delinea does not currently document FIPS 140-3 validation.
How do I migrate from Delinea to Keeper?
Migrating from Delinea to Keeper is straightforward, and Keeper's team is experienced in supporting organizations through the transition. As part of its Platinum support, Keeper offers a dedicated migration engineering team that uses custom-built CLI tooling to migrate your entire legacy PAM instance in a few hours. Contact our team to discuss your migration.