PAM Pricing Calculator & Vendor Comparison 2025

Calculate privileged access management costs, compare 10 PAM vendors side-by-side, and get real Q3 2025 pricing data. Built from analyzing 180+ enterprise PAM deployments.

10 Vendors Q3 2025 Pricing Vault & Session Mgmt Free PDF Download

What is PAM and Why Sizing Matters

Privileged Access Management (PAM) secures, controls, and monitors access to critical systems and data. PAM vaults store privileged credentials (admin passwords, SSH keys, API tokens), manages privileged sessions with recording and monitoring, and provides just-in-time access elevation for administrators and service accounts.

🔐 Why PAM Sizing is Critical

Under-licensing leaves privileged accounts unmanaged—the #1 attack vector. Over-licensing wastes $60K-250K annually. Our calculator helps you size based on privileged accounts, not total users. Typical: 5-15% of users have privileged access.

💰 Pricing Models Explained

PAM vendors charge per privileged account (not user). One admin with 10 privileged accounts = 10 licenses. We normalize pricing to accounts for apples-to-apples comparison across vault, session management, and secrets management tiers.

📊 Real Production Data

Our sizing comes from 180+ enterprise PAM deployments. We account for service accounts (50-70% of total privileged accounts), application-to-application credentials, and cloud infrastructure accounts (AWS/Azure IAM roles).

Key Factors in PAM Sizing

  • Privileged Account Count: Human admins (5-15% of employees) + Service accounts (2-3x human accounts) + Cloud accounts. A 1000-employee company typically has 200-500 privileged accounts total.
  • Account Types: Windows/Linux admins ($100-150/account/year), Database admins ($120-180/account/year), Service accounts ($80-120/account/year), Cloud accounts ($100-150/account/year).
  • Session Management: Basic vaulting only vs. full session recording. Session recording adds 40-60% to costs but provides forensic evidence and compliance.
  • Secrets Management: Application secrets (API keys, certificates) need DevOps-friendly PAM. Traditional PAM doesn't work for CI/CD pipelines—budget for HashiCorp Vault or CyberArk Conjur.
  • Discovery: Most companies don't know how many privileged accounts they have. Discovery tools find 3-5x more accounts than expected. Budget for discovery before licensing.

Common PAM Sizing Mistakes to Avoid

❌ Mistake #1: Licensing based on user count instead of account count. One admin with 10 privileged accounts needs 10 licenses, not 1.

❌ Mistake #2: Forgetting service accounts. Applications and automation use 50-70% of privileged accounts. A 200-human-admin deployment often needs 500-700 total licenses.

❌ Mistake #3: Not running discovery first. Companies estimate 500 accounts and discovery finds 2000. Run discovery before licensing to avoid shortfall.

❌ Mistake #4: Using traditional PAM for DevOps secrets. CI/CD pipelines can't use vaulted passwords. DevOps secrets need API-driven solutions like HashiCorp Vault.

Interactive PAM Pricing Calculator

Adjust the sliders below to match your environment. Get instant pricing from 10 leading PAM vendors.

📝 Your Privileged Access Requirements

200
20 SMB (100) Mid (500) Enterprise (2K) 10K+

💡 Total privileged accounts including human admins + service accounts + cloud accounts

💡 Session recording adds compliance but increases cost by 40-60%

💡 SaaS PAM simplifies deployment but may not support legacy systems

Ready to Calculate

Adjust the parameters on the left and click Calculate to see your personalized PAM pricing and vendor comparison.

PAM Vendor Comparison (Q3 2025 Pricing)

Compare all 10 vendors side-by-side for 200 privileged accounts with session management

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