Softwr

Cybersecurity · head to head

Akeyless vs Delinea

Akeyless logo

Akeyless

Cybersecurity

Runtime identity security at agentic scale

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Delinea logo

Delinea

Cybersecurity

Privileged access management from the merged Thycotic and Centrify

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Akeyless has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Akeyless pricing is usage-based and complex, requires sales consultation; Delinea the Thycotic and Centrify lineages are integrated unevenly, so buying the full portfolio means running consoles and agents that do not share one administrative model as cleanly as the marketing suggests.
  • They diverge on capability: Akeyless covers Secrets management, Delinea covers Secret Server.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Akeyless and Delinea actually diverge.

Attributes where Akeyless and Delinea differ
AttributeAkeylessDelinea
Starting priceFreeOn request
Pricing modelUsage-based pricing units that vary by product modulequote
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsCloud, Hybrid, On-PremisesWeb, Windows, Linux, macOS

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Cybersecurity).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Akeyless

  • Secrets management
  • Machine identity
  • AI agent identity
  • Certificate management
  • Privileged access management
  • Multi-vault governance
  • Encryption and KMS
  • Password manager

Only in Delinea

  • Secret Server
  • Privileged session recording
  • Privilege Manager
  • Server PAM
  • Discovery
  • DevOps secrets
  • Behaviour analytics

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Akeyless

  • Securing AI agents with dedicated identity trackingnot Delinea
  • Managing machine-to-machine credentials at scalenot Delinea
  • Automating PKI and certificate lifecyclenot Delinea
  • Implementing just-in-time privileged accessnot Delinea

Delinea

  • An organisation whose cyber insurer now requires privileged credentials to be vaulted and rotatednot Akeyless
  • A mid-market IT team that abandoned a heavier PAM rollout and needs a vault that can be in production in weeksnot Akeyless
  • A company removing local administrator rights from every workstation after a ransomware incidentnot Akeyless
  • An audit finding that shared service account passwords are stored in a spreadsheet and used by contractorsnot Akeyless

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Akeyless

  • Pricing is usage-based and complex, requires sales consultation
  • Free tier is very limited with restricted access
  • No transparent pricing published for enterprise features
  • Pricing model varies significantly by product module

Delinea

  • The Thycotic and Centrify lineages are integrated unevenly, so buying the full portfolio means running consoles and agents that do not share one administrative model as cleanly as the marketing suggests.
  • Modules are licensed separately by different units, per privileged user for the vault and per endpoint for privilege management, which makes total cost hard to model and easy to underestimate at scale.
  • Delinea does not publish rates, so buyers benchmark against third party and public sector listings; expect list prices to be negotiable by a wide margin, which means the first quote is not the price.
  • Thoma Bravo ownership since 2021 has coincided with firmer renewal pricing, and buyers with a single-vendor PAM estate have little leverage once credentials are inside the vault.
  • Migrating out of a privileged access vault is a genuinely hard project because every automated process that fetches a secret has to be repointed, so the switching cost is real and the vendor knows it.

Pricing, plan by plan

Akeyless

Free
  • FreeFree
    • Limited feature access
    • Restricted usage quotas
  • Enterprise$undefined/custom
    • Custom pricing based on usage
    • Unlimited resource quotas
    • Full feature access

Delinea

On request
  • Secret Server$undefined/year
    • Priced per privileged user, tiered by edition
    • Cloud or on premises deployment
    • Session recording in higher editions
  • Privilege Manager$undefined/year
    • Priced per endpoint
    • Local admin rights removal and application elevation
    • Licensed separately from Secret Server
  • Server PAM$undefined/year
    • Priced per managed server or per privileged user
    • Just-in-time server access
    • Licensed separately

Which should you pick?

Choose Akeyless if

  • You need secrets management.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Cloud, Hybrid, On-Premises.
  • You also want machine identity.
Akeyless review

Choose Delinea if

  • You need secret server.
  • You work on Web, Windows, Linux, macOS.
  • You also want privileged session recording.
Delinea review

Questions people ask

Is Akeyless or Delinea better?
Neither clearly leads. Akeyless starts at Free and Delinea at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Akeyless or Delinea?
Akeyless has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Akeyless and On request for Delinea.
Does Akeyless or Delinea run on more platforms?
Akeyless runs on Cloud, Hybrid, On-Premises. Delinea runs on Web, Windows, Linux, macOS.
Can I use Akeyless for free?
Yes. Akeyless has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Delinea starts at On request.
What is Akeyless best used for?
Akeyless is most often used for securing ai agents with dedicated identity tracking, managing machine-to-machine credentials at scale, automating pki and certificate lifecycle, implementing just-in-time privileged access. Of those, securing ai agents with dedicated identity tracking and managing machine-to-machine credentials at scale are not what Delinea is typically brought in for.
What can Akeyless do that Delinea cannot?
Akeyless covers Secrets management, Machine identity, AI agent identity, Certificate management. Delinea covers Secret Server, Privileged session recording, Privilege Manager, Server PAM.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Akeyless: What pricing model does Akeyless use?

Akeyless uses usage-based pricing units that vary by product. For example, Secrets Management is priced by clients, Certificate Management by managed certificates, Encryption by transactions, and PAM by users. Contact sales for a custom quote.

Source
Delinea: Is Delinea the same as Thycotic?

Delinea is the merged company formed from Thycotic and Centrify in 2021. Secret Server is the former Thycotic product; the server access products come from Centrify.

Akeyless: Does Akeyless support hybrid deployment?

Yes, Akeyless offers Pure SaaS cloud-managed deployment and Hybrid SaaS with on-premise gateways and zero-knowledge encryption for sensitive environments.

Source
Delinea: Is pricing published?

Not by Delinea. Public sector frameworks have listed Secret Server Cloud around 348 GBP per user per year, which is a reference point, not a quote.

Akeyless: How does Akeyless handle AI agent identities?

Akeyless provides dedicated AI agent identity tracking with runtime access control, allowing organizations to manage AI agent access separately from human and machine identities.

Source
Delinea: Does one licence cover endpoints and servers?

No. Secret Server, Privilege Manager and Server PAM are separately licensed on different units. Scope all three if your requirement spans them.

Share

Related pages

More on Akeyless

More on Delinea

Keep looking

Other head to heads