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Modern PAM Alternatives to CyberArk for Cloud-Native Infrastructure

Modern PAM solutions take a fundamentally different approach to privileged access, replacing traditional credential vaulting with identity-based, zero-trust access models.

4 Modern PAM Solutions, side by side

Featured listings are paid placements.

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

These tools are designed for cloud-native environments where infrastructure is dynamic, developers need seamless access, and standing credentials are considered a liability. They offer faster deployments, better developer experience, and infrastructure-as-code compatibility, though they may lack the deep compliance features and broad enterprise capabilities of traditional PAM platforms like CyberArk.

By use case

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

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

SplitSecure

Best for organizations that need zero vendor dependency and cryptographic separation of duties. SplitSecure's Shamir Secret Sharing architecture ensures no single device holds a complete credential, making it ideal for highest-sensitivity accounts in regulated industries where traditional vaulting introduces unacceptable risk.

Cloud, Self-hosted

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

Teleport

Best overall modern PAM alternative with open-source transparency, certificate-based access, and strong Kubernetes support. Ideal for engineering-driven organizations wanting to eliminate standing credentials.

Open source, Cloud, Self-hosted

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

StrongDM

Best for teams that need comprehensive audit logging with minimal workflow disruption. Its transparent proxy approach lets developers keep their existing tools while adding full access controls and query-level logging.

Cloud

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

HashiCorp Boundary

Best for organizations already invested in the HashiCorp ecosystem. Its native integration with Vault and Terraform makes it the natural choice for infrastructure-as-code teams managing dynamic environments.

Open source, Cloud, Self-hosted

Featured

SplitSecure

Distributed secrets management. No vault, no vendor dependency

Founded
2024
Pricing
Tiered (free / per-seat / enterprise)
Deployment
Cloud, Self-hosted
Learn moreView full listing

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.

Capabilities

  • Shamir Secret Sharing across devices
  • Zero vendor dependency architecture
  • Automatic audit trail generation
  • No vault infrastructure required
  • Cryptographic separation of duties
  • Multi-device secret distribution
  • Built-in regulatory compliance (DORA, NYDFS, PCI DSS 4.0, SOX)
  • MSP-safe credential management

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

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

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

For cloud-native organizations with primarily modern infrastructure, tools like Teleport and StrongDM can serve as a complete replacement for CyberArk's access management capabilities. However, they do not provide the same depth of credential vaulting, identity governance, or legacy system support that CyberArk offers. Organizations with significant on-premises infrastructure or strict regulatory requirements may need to use modern PAM alongside or in addition to traditional PAM.

Traditional PAM, as exemplified by CyberArk, centers on credential vaulting, session proxying, and managing privileged accounts. Modern PAM solutions focus on identity-based access, eliminating standing credentials through certificate-based or just-in-time access, and providing developer-friendly interfaces. Modern PAM is better suited for dynamic cloud environments, while traditional PAM excels in regulated enterprise environments with legacy systems.

Yes, modern PAM solutions provide session recording, audit logging, and access controls that satisfy many compliance frameworks including SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, and PCI-DSS. However, some highly regulated industries may require the specific credential management and vaulting capabilities that traditional PAM platforms like CyberArk provide. Always verify that your specific compliance requirements can be met.

Modern PAM tools like StrongDM and Teleport provide direct, audited database access through proxy connections, allowing users to use their native database clients while maintaining full query-level audit logging. CyberArk manages database access primarily through credential vaulting and rotation. The modern approach offers better user experience and more granular auditing, while CyberArk provides deeper credential lifecycle management.

View all Privileged Access Management tools

About this listing

Modern PAM Solutions 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 →