Softwr

Developer Tools · head to head

Claude Code vs Delinea

Claude Code logo

Claude Code

Developer Tools

AI-powered CLI for developers

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 Claude Code has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Claude Code live anthropic.com/pricing fetched (checked 19 Aug 2026): Claude Code has no standalone price, only bundled into Pro, Max and Team seat tiers; 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.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Claude Code and Delinea actually diverge.

Attributes where Claude Code and Delinea differ
AttributeClaude CodeDelinea
Starting priceFreeOn request
Pricing modelfreemiumquote
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWebWeb, Windows, Linux, macOS
CategoryDeveloper ToolsCybersecurity
Founded2021Unknown

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 Claude Code

Nothing recorded that Delinea does not also cover.

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.

Claude Code

No use cases recorded yet. See the Claude Code review.

Delinea

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

Where each one falls short

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

Claude Code

  • Live anthropic.com/pricing fetched (checked 19 Aug 2026): Claude Code has no standalone price, only bundled into Pro, Max and Team seat tiers
  • Team self-serve plan has a hard 75-seat cap; larger teams must use Enterprise, sold by quote

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

Claude Code

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the Claude Code review.

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 Claude Code if

  • You want to start without paying.
Claude Code 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 Claude Code or Delinea better?
Neither clearly leads. Claude Code 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, Claude Code or Delinea?
Claude Code has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Claude Code and On request for Delinea.
Does Claude Code or Delinea run on more platforms?
Claude Code runs on Web. Delinea runs on Web, Windows, Linux, macOS.
Can I use Claude Code for free?
Yes. Claude Code has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Delinea starts at On request.
What can Claude Code do that Delinea cannot?
Delinea covers Secret Server, Privileged session recording, Privilege Manager, Server PAM.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

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.

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.

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 Claude Code

More on Delinea

Keep looking

Other head to heads