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Identity security vendors – compare the differences

Delinea  vs. Microsoft


Delinea secures privileged access across the full enterprise, integrating with Microsoft to extend protection beyond the Microsoft estate.

Delinea is the identity security platform for privileged access for the whole estate across human, machine and AI identities, spanning multicloud, Linux and Windows, databases, Kubernetes and on-premise. It integrates with Microsoft Entra ID as the identity provider rather than replacing it.

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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.

The Delinea Platform secures privileged access across the whole estate and extends the Microsoft investment you already have.

Delinea unifies Privileged Access Management (PAM) on one platform: vaulting, session control, endpoint privilege, multicloud entitlements and runtime authorization across human, machine and AI identities, and is fully integrated with Microsoft Entra ID.

Compare the differences between Delinea and Microsoft

Delinea seamless security

Delinea Logo

Microsoft

Privileged access management

   

Enterprise credential vault with rotation

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Available, passwords, keys, service and database accounts 

poor
Windows LAPS rotates one local-admin password per machine

Just-in-time privilege activation

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Available across the estate

good
Entra PIM, for Microsoft Entra and Azure roles

Privileged session recording and command control

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Available, command-level replay

poor
Not native

Endpoint privilege management

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Available, Windows and macOS

good
Intune EPM, Windows only

Credential injected so the user never sees it

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Available, injected at the proxy

poor
Not offered

Coverage across the estate

 

 

Native protocol access to servers, databases, Kubernetes, and cloud

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Available, in the connection 

poor
Not offered

Linux and Unix privileged access and least privilege

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Available 

poor
Microsoft-centric, limited

Multicloud entitlement management (CIEM) across AWS, Azure, and GCP

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Available 

good
Entra Permissions Management retired in 2025; basic discovery remains in Defender for Cloud

Per-action database control

good
Available, block or redact on Postgres and SQL Server

poor
Not offered

AI agent identity

    

Agent identity and governance

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Available

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Entra Agent ID, at the identity-provider layer

Per-tool-call authorization for AI agents in the connection (MCP)

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Available  

poor
Not offered

Credential separation for agents (never reaches the agent)

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Available, injected at the proxy

poor
Not offered

Platform and integration  

    

One platform for privileged access across human, machine and AI

delinea-icon-strong-purple
Available

good
Assembled across Entra PIM, ID Governance, Intune EPM, LAPS and Defender

Integrates with Microsoft Entra ID (federation, SCIM, Conditional Access, MFA)

delinea-icon-strong-purple
Available

delinea-icon-strong-purple
Native

Independent control over the Microsoft estate (segregation of duties)

delinea-icon-strong-purple
Available

good
Microsoft secures Microsoft

On-premise and air-gapped deployment

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Available, air-gapped

good
Cloud-first 

 Recognized by analysts, trusted by you.  

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

Delinea Platform
"Working with Delinea to deploy their Cloud Platform PAM Solution was a seamless and highly efficient experience, thanks to their expert team guiding us through every step."
 
 
 
 
 
Senior IAM Manager - Services (non-Government)
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
"Exceptional channel and solution ease of use. Also, vendor has a clear development path."
 
 
 
 
 
BDM FOR Cyber Security - Miscellaneous
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
delinea-icon-just-in-time-teal

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
delinea-icon-ai-agent-teal

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 Microsoft matter

One platform, not five consoles

Microsoft's privileged access controls are spread across several products and licenses.

  • Microsoft splits privileged access across Entra PIM for role activation, Entra ID Governance for reviews, Intune EPM for endpoint elevation, Windows LAPS for local-admin passwords and Defender for Cloud for residual entitlement discovery, each with its own console and licensing.
  • Delinea delivers vaulting, rotation, just-in-time access, session recording, endpoint privilege, multicloud entitlements and AI-agent authorization on a single platform, with a single policy and a single audit trail. Delinea also forwards privileged access events to Microsoft Sentinel, giving security teams visibility into privileged activity in the SIEM they already use for detection and response.

Built for the whole estate

Privileged access does not stop at the edge of the Microsoft world.

  • Entra PIM governs Microsoft Entra and Azure roles; Intune EPM and LAPS are Windows-only; and Microsoft stepped back from standalone multicloud entitlement management when it retired Entra Permissions Management in 2025.
  • Delinea secures privileged access across Windows, macOS, Linux and Unix, databases, Kubernetes, network devices, AWS, Azure, GCP and on-premise, enforced in the connection.

Independent control over the Microsoft estate

The people who run Microsoft should not be the only ones who can govern privileged access to it.

  • Microsoft's privileged controls live inside the same identity platform they govern, so a compromise of that platform can reach them.
  • Delinea adds an independent control layer over the Microsoft estate, enforcing segregation of duties over Microsoft administrators through its identity governance capabilities. It integrates with Entra ID as the identity provider, and was Microsoft's named transition path when Entra Permissions Management retired.

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.

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Microsoft secures the Microsoft world

Microsoft protects its own estate well. Entra ID is a strong identity provider. Inside Azure, Microsoft 365 and Windows the native controls are deep and well-integrated. Rather than fighting that, Delinea builds upon integrating with Entra ID for federation, provisioning, Conditional Access, MFA and running on Azure.

The enterprise reaches far past Microsoft. Privileged access lives on Linux and Unix servers, in AWS and GCP, in databases and Kubernetes, on network devices and on-premise, alongside Windows. Delinea is one platform for it all, across all identities (human, machine and AI): vaulting and dependency-aware rotation, just-in-time access, command-level session recording, endpoint privilege on Windows and macOS, multicloud entitlement management and runtime authorization for AI agents, under one identity, one policy and one audit trail.

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Governing a role is not the same as controlling privileged access

Microsoft Entra PIM activates Microsoft Entra and Azure roles just-in-time, which is useful for Microsoft cloud administration. It does not vault and rotate the shared, service and database credentials that most of an estate runs on, it doesn't inject them so a user never sees them, nor does it record what happens command by command inside a session. Delinea does all of that across Windows, Linux, databases, Kubernetes and cloud environments, not only within Microsoft.

Delinea provides an independent control layer over the Microsoft estate, rather than concentrating that control within the platform it protects. This enforces segregation of duties (SoD) so Microsoft Global Administrators are not also the unchecked controllers of privileged access. The two are still built to work together: Delinea integrates with Entra ID, runs on Azure, and when Microsoft retired Entra Permissions Management in 2025 it worked with Delinea as a path forward for multicloud entitlement management. Delinea extends the Microsoft investment rather than competing with it.

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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 human, machine and AI identity.

Delinea Platform Demo Screen

Frequently Asked Questions

How is Delinea different from Microsoft Entra?

Microsoft Entra is the identity provider; it authenticates users and activates Microsoft Entra and Azure roles. Delinea is the privileged access control layer that sits above the directory and reaches the systems Entra does not, enforcing vaulting, session control and per-action authorization across the whole estate. They are complementary, not alternatives.

Does Delinea replace Microsoft Entra ID?

Delinea keeps Entra ID as your identity provider and integrates with it for federation, provisioning, Conditional Access and MFA. It adds the privileged access controls that live above the directory and reach non-Microsoft systems, so you extend the Microsoft investment rather than swap it out.

We already run Microsoft E5. Where does Delinea add value?

E5 gives you Entra PIM for role activation, Intune EPM for Windows endpoint elevation and Entra ID Governance for the Microsoft world. Delinea adds what stops at the Microsoft boundary: an enterprise credential vault, command-level session recording, endpoint privilege on macOS as well as Windows, privileged access to Linux, databases, Kubernetes and multicloud, and an independent control layer over the Microsoft estate itself.

What replaced Microsoft Entra Permissions Management for multicloud CIEM?

Microsoft retired Entra Permissions Management in 2025 and worked with Delinea as a transition path. Delinea Privilege Control for Cloud Entitlements provides multicloud entitlement management and least privilege across AWS, Azure and GCP. Microsoft kept basic permissions discovery in Defender for Cloud.

How does Delinea secure AI agents differently from Microsoft Entra Agent ID?

Entra Agent ID issues and governs agent identities at the identity-provider layer, which is the right place to establish who an agent is and who is accountable for it. Delinea authorizes what the agent does, checking each tool call in the connection and injecting the credential at the proxy so it never reaches the agent. The two operate at different layers and complement each other.

Can Delinea and Microsoft run side by side?

Delinea is designed to run with Microsoft. It runs on Azure and integrates with Entra ID for federation, SCIM provisioning, Conditional Access and MFA, as well as Active Directory, Azure Key Vault, Microsoft Defender for Identity, SCCM, Azure DevOps, Microsoft Sentinel, and Intune. Delinea is a member of the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association (MISA) and extends privileged access control across systems Microsoft’s native tools do not reach.