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Government · head to head

CKAN vs Delinea

CKAN logo

CKAN

Government

Open Source Data Portal Platform

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite
Delinea logo

Delinea

Cybersecurity

Privileged access management from the merged Thycotic and Centrify

From
On request
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only CKAN has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: CKAN the package install path requires Ubuntu 20.04 or 22.04 64-bit specifically; other operating systems must use the source install; 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: CKAN covers Dataset Management, Delinea covers Secret Server.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which CKAN and Delinea actually diverge.

Attributes where CKAN and Delinea differ
AttributeCKANDelinea
Starting priceFreeOn request
Pricing modelfreequote
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWebWeb, Windows, Linux, macOS
CategoryGovernmentCybersecurity
Founded2006Unknown

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

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 CKAN

  • Dataset Management
  • Data Harvesting
  • API Access
  • Visualization
  • Extensions
  • DataPusher
  • Harvester
  • Third-party Tools

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.

CKAN

  • Publishing open government datasets in a searchable public data portalnot Delinea
  • Self-hosting a data catalogue with harvesting and an APInot Delinea

Delinea

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

Where each one falls short

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

CKAN

  • The package install path requires Ubuntu 20.04 or 22.04 64-bit specifically; other operating systems must use the source install
  • Only Solr 9 and Solr 8 are supported, and from CKAN 2.10 they are the only Solr versions supported at all
  • A working deployment requires PostgreSQL, Solr, Redis, nginx, supervisor and uWSGI to be installed and maintained separately
  • Python 3.10 or later is required

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

CKAN

Free
  • Open SourceFree
    • Data Management
    • API Access
    • Visualization

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 CKAN if

  • You need dataset management.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You also want data harvesting.
CKAN 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 CKAN or Delinea better?
Neither clearly leads. CKAN 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, CKAN or Delinea?
CKAN has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for CKAN and On request for Delinea.
Does CKAN or Delinea run on more platforms?
CKAN runs on Web. Delinea runs on Web, Windows, Linux, macOS.
Can I use CKAN for free?
Yes. CKAN has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Delinea starts at On request.
What is CKAN best used for?
CKAN is most often used for publishing open government datasets in a searchable public data portal, self-hosting a data catalogue with harvesting and an api. Of those, publishing open government datasets in a searchable public data portal and self-hosting a data catalogue with harvesting and an api are not what Delinea is typically brought in for.
What can CKAN do that Delinea cannot?
CKAN covers Dataset Management, Data Harvesting, API Access, Visualization. Delinea covers Secret Server, Privileged session recording, Privilege Manager, Server PAM.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

CKAN: Is CKAN open-source and what license is it available under?

Yes, CKAN is an open-source data management system built on Python and available on GitHub. The license terms are available on their GitHub repository.

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.

CKAN: Does CKAN offer commercial support for organizations?

Yes, CKAN offers commercial support through certified providers including Link Digital and Datopian. Support includes advisory services, application development, integration, managed hosting, and web development.

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.

CKAN: Who is responsible for hosting costs when running CKAN?

Organizations deploying CKAN are responsible for their own hosting infrastructure. Commercial providers like Datopian and Link Digital offer managed hosting services if organizations prefer not to self-host.

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.

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