Identity security vendors - compare the differences

Delinea  vs. Teleport


 Authenticating the connection is not the same as authorizing everything that happens inside it. 

Compare Delinea and Teleport across infrastructure access, identity-based access, privileged access, Kubernetes and SSH access, session controls and runtime authorization.

Delinea’s runtime authorization stays in the path for the life of the session, authorizing every action as it happens. Teleport authenticates the connection and can lock or moderate the session, but it does not authorize the individual actions taken inside it.

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 reduces risk and simplifies operations

Delinea extends access control into continuous, in-session authorization across AI agents, humans and machines.

Compare the differences between Delinea and Teleport

Criteria

Delinea Logo

Teleport

Traditional PAM buyer 

   

Session recording and control 

delinea-icon-strong-purple
 Command-level replay, video for RDP 

strong
 Session recording and replay 

Works with your existing vault

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Vault Agnostic

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 Vault-free by design, no integration with a vault you already run

Per-action authorization inside the session

delinea-icon-strong-purple
 Blocks or redacts the specific action live 

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Session-level lock or moderation only, not per-action

Credential separation (never reaches the requester) 

delinea-icon-strong-purple
 Default

good
 Reachable, but requires operating your own certificate authority and agent fleet 

Real-time blocking or redaction 

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 Postgres, SQL Server today 

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 Detailed record after the fact, not blocked live

Modern workload access buyer 

 

 

Zero standing privilege, ChatOps-driven JIT

delinea-icon-strong-purple
 Available

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 Available 

Infrastructure and database breadth

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 Servers, Kubernetes, cloud, network, 47+ DB types documented  

good
 Same major categories, database depth not published 

AI agent identity

   

AI agent / MCP governance

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 MCP Gateway, per-tool-call policy 

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 MCP proxy + Agentic Identity Framework, Beams runtime in public beta as of its most recent update

Deployment and ecosystem 

   

 Deployment footprint

delinea-icon-strong-purple
 Agentless, nothing installed on targets

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 Agent runs alongside every protected resource 

 Recognized by analysts; trusted by you  

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

“You don't even know [Delinea runtime authorization] StrongDM is there once it's installed. It just works. It's that simple.”

“We used [Delinea] StrongDM to instantly deliver results to our auditors, which really simplified the SOC 2 process.”

“The effort to achieve SOC 2 without [Delinea] StrongDM would have been monumental from a cost & labor perspective.”

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 Teleport matter

Faster to deploy, easier to use

Delinea is consistently recognized for requiring fewer resources to manage and less time to achieve full functionality, and it works with the stack you already run.

  • Provisioning time cut from 48 hours to 30 minutes
  • Access requests consolidated from 50 tickets to 1

Zero standing privilege, available now

Delinea ships ephemeral access with proxy injection, JIT entitlement, runtime authorizations and full session recording for AI agent, human and machine identities, with each action authorized at runtime and the credential never exposed.

  • Native tools, broker invisible
  • Credential rotation time cut from 90–365 days to 10 hours

Identity security built for the AI era

Delinea centralizes authorization with runtime enforcement across every AI agent in your stack, authorizing each action as it happens rather than monitoring it after.

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

Thousands of customers. One easy choice.

Industry leaders and innovative disruptors 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 run 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. Teleport authenticates the connection with certificate-based identity and can lock or moderate the session, but it does not authorize the individual action. Credentials are injected at the moment of connection and revoked the instant the task ends — nothing is left standing for an attacker to find.

  • 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 your teams already use, so nothing about the workflow gets slower.
  • Gateways and relays run redundant, with automatic failover, so the control plane doesn't go down with a single node.
delinea-photo-team

Identity security built for the AI era

Delinea centralizes authorization across AI agent, human and machine identities, enforcing it at runtime instead of reviewing it after the fact.

  • 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 Cod 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.
delinea-photo-ai-era

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 and machine identity.

Delinea Platform Demo Screen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Delinea a Teleport alternative? How do they differ?

Teleport authenticates at connection time. It issues a certificate, checks it against policy and grants access to the resource. Delinea stays in the path for the life of the session, authorizing what happens after the connection opens, not just deciding whether to allow it.

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 they run. Teleport gives you a detailed recording of the session, but stopping an action live means adding separate database monitoring on top. 

Is Delinea runtime authorization cloud-native, and does it cover infrastructure outside the cloud?

Yes to both. Delinea’s control plane is cloud-native and reaches servers, Kubernetes, network devices and 47+ database engines without installing an agent on any of them. Teleport covers similar major categories but requires deploying and maintaining an agent alongside each protected resource.

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. Teleport's Agentic Identity Framework takes a different approach, isolating each agent in its own runtime through Beams rather than authorizing tool calls against workflows you already run. MCP Gateway is GA today; Teleport's Beams runtime is in public beta as of its most recent update, so it's a newer infrastructure to stand up and operate.

What does the Delinea runtime authorization integrate with?

Delinea's runtime authorization works with the vault you already run (Palo Alto Networks, HashiCorp and others) and streams every authorization decision, blocked action and session event to the SIEM you already use, including Splunk, Datadog, CloudWatch and standard syslog. Teleport is vault-free by design, which means adopting its model instead of extending the vault infrastructure you've already invested in.

How long does a Delinea runtime authorization 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.

Teleport offers a free, self-hostable Community Edition. Does that mean Delinea’s solution costs more?

Teleport's open-source edition is real and worth acknowledging directly if a free, self-hostable, inspectable option is a requirement for your team. Delinea pricing is published and indicative rather than sales-contact-only, and the trade-off is what you get for it: an agentless proxy model, in-session blocking, supported databases and one policy and audit trail across the infrastructure. Teleport's agent model doesn't reach the same way.

What does migrating from Teleport to Delinea involve?

Typically, discovering and onboarding existing resources (Delinea's cloud resource discovery can surface and dedupe what's already running), a parallel-run period where both platforms are live, then cutting over proxy endpoints and decommissioning Teleport agents resource by resource. Credentials can route through Delinea Secret Server or whatever vault you already run, so the platform migration doesn't force a vault migration on top of it. Talk to a solutions engineer for a runbook specific to your environment.

Can Delinea run alongside Teleport during a transition?

Yes. Delinea’s proxy model doesn't require removing Teleport first; resources can be onboarded incrementally while Teleport continues protecting anything not yet migrated, with a full cutover once the transition is complete. 

Does Delinea support Windows and RDP access the same way Teleport does?

Both support RDP with session recording. Teleport additionally offers a browser-based RDP client with no separate desktop client required; confirm current parity on this point with a solutions engineer before treating it as a differentiator either way. 

What happens to our audit history if we switch from Teleport?

Switching platforms doesn't automatically carry historical audit logs forward. Export and archive Teleport's audit log and session recordings per your retention requirements before decommissioning; audit history in Delinea begins accruing from cutover. 

Does Delinea support air-gapped or fully on-premise deployments?

Yes, Delinea deploys on-premise, in the cloud or in hybrid environments. Teleport also explicitly markets air-gapped support; confirm Delinea's current air-gapped certification status with a solutions engineer before a regulated-environment deal.