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Cybersecurity · head to head

Delinea vs GitLab CI/CD

Delinea logo

Delinea

Cybersecurity

Privileged access management from the merged Thycotic and Centrify

From
On request
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite
GitLab CI/CD logo

GitLab CI/CD

Developer Tools

Automatically build, test, deploy, and monitor your applications with GitLab CI/CD

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only GitLab CI/CD has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: 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.; GitLab CI/CD compute minute quotas for Premium and Ultimate tiers not disclosed in documentation
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Delinea and GitLab CI/CD actually diverge.

Attributes where Delinea and GitLab CI/CD differ
AttributeDelineaGitLab CI/CD
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelquotefreemium
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, Windows, Linux, macOSWeb
CategoryCybersecurityDeveloper Tools

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 Delinea

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

Only in GitLab CI/CD

Nothing recorded that Delinea does not also cover.

What people use each for

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

Delinea

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

GitLab CI/CD

  • Reducing open source project infrastructure costs with public project discountsnot Delinea
  • Enforcing monthly CI/CD spending limits and quota notificationsnot Delinea
  • Allocating compute minutes to open source contributors affordablynot Delinea
  • Forecasting CI/CD spending patterns across multiple projectsnot Delinea
  • Providing private runners for cost control without owning infrastructurenot Delinea

Where each one falls short

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

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.

GitLab CI/CD

  • Compute minute quotas for Premium and Ultimate tiers not disclosed in documentation
  • Additional compute minutes beyond quota incur charges; exact pricing not specified

Pricing, plan by plan

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

GitLab CI/CD

Free
  • FreeFree
    • 400 compute minutes per month for free tier namespaces
    • Linux x86-64 runners at 1x cost factor
  • Premium$null/tiered
    • Higher monthly compute minute quotas than free tier
    • Additional compute minutes available for purchase
  • Ultimate$null/tiered
    • Highest monthly compute minute allocations
    • Additional compute minutes available for purchase

Which should you pick?

Choose Delinea if

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

Choose GitLab CI/CD if

  • You want to start without paying.
GitLab CI/CD review

Questions people ask

Is Delinea or GitLab CI/CD better?
Neither clearly leads. Delinea starts at On request and GitLab CI/CD at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Delinea or GitLab CI/CD?
GitLab CI/CD has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Delinea and Free for GitLab CI/CD.
Does Delinea or GitLab CI/CD run on more platforms?
Delinea runs on Web, Windows, Linux, macOS. GitLab CI/CD runs on Web.
Can I use GitLab CI/CD for free?
Yes. GitLab CI/CD has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Delinea starts at On request.
What is Delinea best used for?
Delinea is most often used for an organisation whose cyber insurer now requires privileged credentials to be vaulted and rotated, a mid-market it team that abandoned a heavier pam rollout and needs a vault that can be in production in weeks, a company removing local administrator rights from every workstation after a ransomware incident, an audit finding that shared service account passwords are stored in a spreadsheet and used by contractors. Of those, an organisation whose cyber insurer now requires privileged credentials to be vaulted and rotated and a mid-market it team that abandoned a heavier pam rollout and needs a vault that can be in production in weeks are not what GitLab CI/CD is typically brought in for.
What can Delinea do that GitLab CI/CD 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.

GitLab CI/CD: How many GitLab CI compute minutes does the free tier include?

The free tier of GitLab CI includes 400 compute minutes per month for free tier namespaces on GitLab.com.

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.

GitLab CI/CD: What is the cost factor for different GitLab CI runner types?

Linux x86-64 small runners cost 1x; medium runners cost 2x; large runners cost 3x. macOS and Windows runners have cost factors of 6-12x and are in beta status.

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.

GitLab CI/CD: Do public open-source projects get discounts on GitLab CI compute minutes?

Public open-source projects receive a 0.5x discount on compute minutes. Public forks of GitLab open-source projects receive a 0.008x discount.

Source
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