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Identity security vendors – compare the differences

Delinea  vs. Apono


Delinea stays in the connection path for the life of the session, authorizing every action as it happens. Apono authorizes the grant, then steps back.

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Identity security vendors – compare the differences

Delinea Logo        
vs          
cyberark-idira-logo

Delinea delivers one platform built for the way modern enterprises actually run

Easier to implement - Easier to use – Easier to manage

The Delinea Platform serves both traditional PAM and modern workload-access buyers through one identity,
one policy, and one audit. CyberArk (now Idira) ties your choice of vault to Palo Alto Networks' broader SOC and security platform commitment.

Delinea reduces risk and simplifies operations

The Delinea Platform extends access control into continuous, in-session authorization across AI, human and machine identities.

Compare the differences between Delinea and Apono

Criteria

Delinea Logo

Apono

Traditional PAM buyer 

   

 Session recording and control

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Available 

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Not offered

 Works with your existing vault 

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 Available 
Vault agnostic 

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 Built around 1Password's vault 

Modern workload access buyer 

 

 

 Real-time blocking or redaction 

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 Postgres, SQL Server today 

poor
 Detection only after the fact 

 Zero standing privilege, ChatOps-driven JIT 

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Available 

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 Available   

 Infrastructure breadth beyond cloud IAM 

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 Servers, Kubernetes, network, 47+ DBs 

good
 Cloud IAM + named databases  

AI agent identity

    

In-session enforcement, not just at the grant 

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 Proxy in the connection path 

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 Proxy not in the connection path

 Per-tool-call policy enforcement 

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 MCP Gateway   

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 Intent-vs-behavior drift detection, no tool call evaluation 

Credential separation (never reaches the requestor or agent) 

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 Available 

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 Time-boxed native credential

 Data-path enforcement of agent actions

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Available

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 Decision layer, not in the connection path

Deployment and ecosystem 

    

 Compliance and certifications

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 PCI DSS, SOC 2, HIPAA, ISO 27001, CCPA, GDPR, VPAT

good
 SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, GDPR

 Recognized by analysts, trusted by you.  

Leading industry analysts consistently recognize Delinea, but the most meaningful endorsements come from our customers.  

Delinea Platform
"Discovery works well for AD (for all our domains), Azure Entra and Unix/Linux. We can see all the discovered users, groups, computers, and roles."
 
 
 
 
 
IT Security & Risk Management Associate - Retail
Gartner® and Peer Insights™ are trademarks of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Gartner Peer Insights content consists of the opinions of individual end users based on their own experiences, and should not be construed as statements of fact, nor do they represent the views of Gartner or its affiliates. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in this content nor makes any warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this content, about its accuracy or completeness, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose
Secret Server
"A superb privileged access management pam solution, Delinea pam offers smooth security, scalability, and manageability."
 
 
 
 
 
Marketing Executive - IT Services
Gartner® and Peer Insights™ are trademarks of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Gartner Peer Insights content consists of the opinions of individual end users based on their own experiences, and should not be construed as statements of fact, nor do they represent the views of Gartner or its affiliates. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in this content nor makes any warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this content, about its accuracy or completeness, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose


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Why the differences between Delinea and CyberArk matter

delinea-icon-lightning

Faster to deploy: Easier to use

Delinea is consistently recognized for requiring fewer resources to manage and less time to achieve full functionality.

  • • 99.995% uptime SLA
  • • No multi-year commitment required to start
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Zero standing privilege—available now

Delinea ships ephemeral access with proxy injection, JIT entitlement, and full session recording for human, machine, and AI agent identities - today.

  • • Native tools, broker invisible
  • • Time to value in weeks
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Identity security built for the AI era

Delinea centralizes authorization with runtime enforcement across every AI agent in your stack.

  • • MCP-native connectivity
  • • Customers are using this in production today

Why the differences between Delinea and Apono matter

Granting access is not the same as controlling the session

Apono's job is to decide what to grant, evaluate the request, create a native cloud credential or IAM role and hand it over. Delinea does that too, then stays in the session.

  • Once Apono issues the credential, it’s out of the connection path. Intent-based control monitors behavior from outside the session, not inside it.
  • Delinea brokers the connection and stays in the data path for the life of the session, so enforcement continues after the grant.
A grant summary is not a session recording

A risk score or an AI-generated summary can tell you a grant happened. It doesn't show you what actually ran inside the session.

  • Apono summarizes the request and grant after the fact, with no full record of what ran.
  • Delinea records command-level replay and video for RDP, so the session can be reconstructed, not just described.
Cloud IAM is not the only place privileged access lives

Apono is purpose-built for AWS, Azure, GCP and Kubernetes IAM. Most environments still run servers, network devices and databases that sit outside cloud IAM entirely.

  • A cloud-IAM-only tool doesn't reach servers, network devices or the 47+ database engines that Delinea brokers.
  • Delinea runs one access model across cloud and on-premise infrastructure instead of a separate tool for each.

Thousands of customers. One easy choice.

Industry leaders and innovative disrupters agree: our PAM solutions are the easiest to try, buy, implement, and own.
With Delinea, privileged access is more accessible.

CISCO LogoExxonMobil LogoIBM LogoHarvard LogoHubSpot LogoBP Logo Zynga Logo  Macmillan LogoSAAB LogoValero LogoBeazley LogoUS Department of Defense SealJohnson & Johnson LogoNIST Logo

Delinea is built for the way modern teams actually manage access

Delinea brokers and controls access sessions across your infrastructure, injecting credentials at the point of connection instead of handing them out, all through one identity, one policy and one audit trail. Apono ties access decisions to your cloud provider's own identity and access management (IAM), then steps in after the grant. 

  • Credentials are injected at the moment of connection and revoked the instant the task ends.
  • Delinea has MCP-native connectivity.
  • Every command, query or tool call is checked against policy while the session is live, not just at the door.
  • Enforcement runs underneath the tools teams already use so it doesn't slow down the workflow.
  • Gateways and relays run redundant with automatic failover, so the control plane doesn't go down with a single node.
Colleagues viewing monitors

Identity security built for the AI era

Delinea centralizes authorization across every AI agent, human or machine identity, and enforces it at runtime. It brokers the connection and injects the credential at the proxy, so the requester never sees or handles it. It checks every command or tool call against policy while the session runs and can record and terminate the session if something goes wrong. Apono evaluates a request and creates a native cloud IAM role or credential. Its Intent-Based Access Control then compares the agent's declared intent to its real-time behavior and can narrow or revoke access if the behavior drifts. Apono doesn't sit in the connection path, so it can't inspect or block individual commands or queries the way Delinea's proxy does.

  • MCP Gateway. Authorizes each tool call an AI agent makes before it executes. Live today for Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex CLI, GitHub Copilot in VS Code and Kiro.
  • No credential in the agent. The agent never holds a credential; only the action gets authorized.
  • Same policy for machines. Service accounts and pipelines get the same policy and audit treatment as human users.
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See the Platform in action

The Delinea Platform enforces policy at execution, reduces risk, simplifies operations, and ensures every action is authorized, auditable and defensible across every AI agent, human or machine identity.

Delinea Platform Demo Screen

Frequently Asked Questions

How is Delinea different from Apono?
Apono decides at the door. It writes a grant into your cloud provider's IAM system, then monitors the agent's behavior against its declared intent and can narrow or revoke access if that behavior drifts. Delinea stays in the path for the life of the session, authorizing each command, query or tool call as it happens, not just deciding whether to grant access. 

Does Delinea enforce privileged actions in real time?
Yes, on Postgres and Microsoft SQL Server today, with more database engine coverage on the roadmap. Delinea can block a destructive query or redact specific columns before the query runs. Apono's Intent-Based Access Control narrows or revokes access after it detects behavior drifting from what was authorized. It doesn't intercept individual queries or commands the way a proxy in the data path does.  

Is Delinea cloud-native?
Delinea’s control plane is cloud-native and reaches infrastructure that a pure cloud-IAM tool can't: servers, Kubernetes, network devices and 47+ database engines, not just cloud provider consoles. Apono is specifically for AWS, Azure, GCP and Kubernetes IAM plus a named set of databases. That’s a different architectural approach.

Does Delinea support AI agents and non-human identities? 
Yes. MCP Gateway authorizes each tool call live today for Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex CLI, GitHub Copilot in VS Code and Kiro. Service accounts and pipelines get the same policy and audit treatment as human users. Apono's Intent-Based Access Control compares an agent's declared intent to its real-time behavior and narrows or revokes access on drift. It’s a different mechanism aimed at the same problem.  

What does Delinea integrate with? 
Delinea integrates with the major identity providers (Okta, Microsoft Entra, Google Cloud Identity), cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP), Kubernetes, databases (Postgres, Redis, Mongo), DevOps pipelines, and security tools (SIEM, SOAR, ITSM). Full integration list is available in the Integration Marketplace.

How long does a Delinea deployment take?
Customers switching from other access tools have gone from proof of concept to production without requiring professional services hours; larger environments typically phase in by system type rather than with a single cutover event.

Can Delinea create native AWS, Azure or GCP IAM roles the way Apono does?

Not the same way. Delinea brokers the connection to a resource through a proxy rather than authoring a native cloud IAM policy directly. If native, on-the-fly cloud IAM role creation is the specific job you're hiring for, that's Apono's purpose-built strength. Delinea's strength is a single model that also covers servers, databases and infrastructure outside pure cloud IAM.  

Is Apono still Apono now that 1Password owns it?
1Password acquired Apono in June 2026 and is assembling it into 1Password Unified Access alongside a vault and a new credential broker. That combination of a vault plus just-in-time access and credential brokering is the model Delinea already runs today. The question for a buyer is whether to wait on an early integration or standardize now on a platform that already brokers the session, injects the credential so the requester never handles it and reaches infrastructure outside cloud IAM.