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Best Infrastructure Access Management Alternatives to CyberArk in 2026

Infrastructure access management platforms secure and audit access to servers, databases, Kubernetes clusters, and cloud infrastructure.

4 Infrastructure Access Management Tools, side by side

ToolDeploymentPricing modelOpen source
HashiCorp BoundaryCloud + Self-hostedOpen Source + HCP cloud tiersYes
SplitSecureCloud + Self-hostedTiered (free / per-seat / enterprise)—
StrongDMCloudPer-user (contact sales)—
TeleportCloud + Self-hostedOpen Source + Per-user tiersYes

Unlike traditional PAM tools that focus on vault-based credential management, these platforms provide identity-aware access proxies, session recording, and just-in-time access without requiring users to check out credentials. They are ideal for DevOps and platform teams that need secure, auditable access to dynamic cloud infrastructure.

By use case

Our read on which tool suits which job. Editorial, not paid, and separate from the listing below.

DevOps and SRE teams replacing bastion hosts, VPNs, and shared SSH keys

Teleport

A leading open-source infrastructure access platform with certificate-based authentication, session recording, and support for SSH, Kubernetes, databases, and web apps. Best for engineering teams that want a unified access gateway with strong audit capabilities and the transparency of open-source code.

Open source, Cloud, Self-hosted

Growing engineering teams that want a polished, turnkey alternative to building PAM themselves

StrongDM

A highly rated infrastructure access proxy that provides a single point of control for databases, servers, Kubernetes, and cloud resources. Best for organizations that need to enforce least-privilege access and generate detailed audit logs across heterogeneous infrastructure without changing existing workflows.

Cloud

Teams already invested in HashiCorp tooling who want unified secrets + session access

HashiCorp Boundary

An open-source, identity-aware access proxy from HashiCorp that integrates with Vault for credential brokering. Best for organizations already invested in the HashiCorp ecosystem that want session-based, identity-driven access to dynamic infrastructure targets.

Open source, Cloud, Self-hosted

HashiCorp Boundary

Privileged Access Management
Best fit for

Teams already invested in HashiCorp tooling who want unified secrets + session access

HashiCorp Boundary is an identity-aware session broker for remote access to infrastructure. It pairs naturally with HashiCorp Vault to provide just-in-time credential brokering: users authenticate with Boundary using their identity provider, Boundary requests short-lived credentials from Vault, and injects them into the session without exposing them. Boundary is open source (MPL 2.0) with a commercial HCP Boundary cloud offering.

Pricing

Free and open source; paid tiers on the vendor site.

Open Source + HCP cloud tiers

Deployment

Cloud, Self-hosted, Open source

Standards & certifications

SOC 2 Type 2

Visit HashiCorp BoundaryView listing

SplitSecure

Privileged Access Management
Best fit for

Highest-sensitivity accounts, regulated industries, and MSPs needing zero vendor dependency

SplitSecure is a distributed secrets management platform that splits credentials across multiple devices you control using Shamir Secret Sharing. No single device holds a complete credential, and secrets never leave your environment. Designed for highest-sensitivity accounts in regulated industries where vendor dependency is unacceptable.

Pricing

Free ($0) for orgs under $10M revenue; Starter $149/mo (5 seats); Enterprise custom

Tiered (free / per-seat / enterprise)

Deployment

Cloud, Self-hosted

Visit SplitSecureView listing

StrongDM

Privileged Access Management
Best fit for

Growing engineering teams that want a polished, turnkey alternative to building PAM themselves

StrongDM is an infrastructure access platform that provides a single proxy layer for databases, servers, Kubernetes, and internal web apps. Engineers authenticate once with their SSO identity and StrongDM handles credential injection, session recording, and fine-grained authorization. It is positioned between Teleport (cloud-native, OSS-first) and traditional PAM (CyberArk, BeyondTrust) as a modern but polished commercial solution.

Pricing

Quote-based on the vendor site. AWS Marketplace list: Essentials $840/yr, Enterprise $1,200/yr, additional users from $100 per user/yr (2026).

Per-user (contact sales)

Deployment

Cloud

Standards & certifications

SOC 2 Type 2, HIPAA, ISO 27001

Visit StrongDMView listing

Teleport

Privileged Access Management
Best fit for

DevOps and SRE teams replacing bastion hosts, VPNs, and shared SSH keys

Teleport is a modern infrastructure access platform that unifies SSH, Kubernetes, database, and application access behind a single identity-aware proxy. It replaces VPNs, bastion hosts, and shared credentials with short-lived certificates tied to SSO identity. Teleport is open source at its core (Apache 2.0), with a commercial Enterprise tier that adds FedRAMP support, IdP hosting, and advanced policies. It is popular with DevOps and SRE teams operating at cloud-native scale.

Pricing

Community edition free for companies under 100 employees and under $10M revenue. AWS Marketplace entry $50,000/yr (25-user minimum, 2026); usage-based quote (active users, workloads, resources) otherwise.

Open Source + Per-user tiers

Deployment

Cloud, Self-hosted, Open source

Standards & certifications

SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, HIPAA

Visit TeleportView listing

Comparisons

CyberArk vs HashiCorp Boundary

HashiCorp Boundary is best for organizations already in the HashiCorp ecosystem that need dynamic, identity-driven acces...

Read Comparison

Akeyless vs SplitSecure

Choose SplitSecure for your highest-sensitivity accounts where vendor independence and regulatory compliance are non-neg...

Read Comparison

CyberArk vs Teleport

Teleport is the top alternative for cloud-native and engineering-driven organizations that want modern, zero-trust infra...

Read Comparison

Delinea vs StrongDM

Choose Delinea if faster and simpler deployment than legacy PAM is your priority and organizations wanting a faster PAM ...

Read Comparison

CyberArk vs StrongDM

StrongDM is ideal for organizations that want auditable infrastructure access with minimal friction for developers. It d...

Read Comparison

1Password (Business) vs SplitSecure

Choose 1Password Business if you want a single platform for team password management and basic developer secrets with a ...

Read Comparison

Shortlists

Editorial lists and deep dives covering these tools.

Frequently Asked Questions

Traditional PAM tools like CyberArk focus on vaulting and rotating privileged credentials. Users check out passwords or SSH keys from a vault. Infrastructure access platforms take a different approach: they act as an identity-aware proxy between users and infrastructure, often eliminating standing credentials entirely. Users authenticate once (via SSO/MFA), and the platform brokers short-lived certificates or tokens for each session. This approach is better suited to dynamic cloud environments where infrastructure is ephemeral.

For organizations whose primary PAM use case is securing access to servers, databases, and Kubernetes, yes. Tools like Teleport and StrongDM can replace traditional PAM. However, if you need to manage privileged credentials for applications, service accounts, network devices, or Windows desktops, a traditional PAM tool may still be required. Many organizations use infrastructure access tools for DevOps workflows alongside a PAM solution for legacy and application-level privileged accounts.

Teleport provides the deepest Kubernetes integration with role-based access to clusters, namespaces, and pods, plus full session recording of kubectl commands. StrongDM supports Kubernetes access through its proxy model with policy-based controls. HashiCorp Boundary supports Kubernetes targets but is more focused on general TCP/HTTP session brokering. If Kubernetes access is your primary concern, Teleport is widely considered the strongest option.

Yes. All three platforms provide session recording, audit logging, and access request workflows that map to SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, and HIPAA requirements. Teleport and StrongDM both offer detailed session replay for SSH and database sessions. StrongDM emphasizes workflow-based access approvals. These capabilities satisfy auditor requirements around privileged access monitoring and the principle of least privilege.

View all Privileged Access Management tools

About this listing

Infrastructure Access Management tools, compared on public information. The comparison table and the full entries follow our editorial order, with any paid Featured listing shown first and labelled. How we work →