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Cybersecurity · head to head

Delinea vs Helix

Delinea logo

Delinea

Cybersecurity

Privileged access management from the merged Thycotic and Centrify

From
On request
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite
Helix logo

Helix

Developer Tools

Post-modern modal text editor for the terminal, written in Rust

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Helix 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.; Helix no official GUI application yet, so it requires comfort with terminal workflows.
  • They diverge on capability: Delinea covers Secret Server, Helix covers Multiple Selections.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Delinea and Helix actually diverge.

Attributes where Delinea and Helix differ
AttributeDelineaHelix
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelquoteopen-source
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, Windows, Linux, macOSlinux, mac, windows
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 Helix

  • Multiple Selections
  • Tree-sitter Syntax Trees
  • Built-in LSP Support
  • Fuzzy File Finder
  • Project-wide Search

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 Helix
  • A mid-market IT team that abandoned a heavier PAM rollout and needs a vault that can be in production in weeksnot Helix
  • A company removing local administrator rights from every workstation after a ransomware incidentnot Helix
  • An audit finding that shared service account passwords are stored in a spreadsheet and used by contractorsnot Helix

Helix

  • Editing code over SSH or in tmux sessionsnot Delinea
  • Working with syntax-aware selection and navigationnot Delinea
  • Getting IDE-like completion and diagnostics without plugin setupnot Delinea
  • Lightweight, low-resource code editing on laptopsnot 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.

Helix

  • No official GUI application yet, so it requires comfort with terminal workflows.
  • Plugin ecosystem is far smaller than Vim's or Neovim's, limiting customization.
  • Keybindings differ from both Vim and Kakoune, adding a learning curve for users of either.
  • Configuration is more limited than Neovim's Lua-based extensibility.

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

Helix

Free
  • FreeFree
    • Full editor, no paid tiers

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 Helix if

  • You need multiple selections.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on linux, mac, windows.
  • You also want tree-sitter syntax trees.
Helix review

Questions people ask

Is Delinea or Helix better?
Neither clearly leads. Delinea starts at On request and Helix at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Delinea or Helix?
Helix has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Delinea and Free for Helix.
Does Delinea or Helix run on more platforms?
Delinea runs on Web, Windows, Linux, macOS. Helix runs on linux, mac, windows.
Can I use Helix for free?
Yes. Helix 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 Helix is typically brought in for.
What can Delinea do that Helix cannot?
Delinea covers Secret Server, Privileged session recording, Privilege Manager, Server PAM. Helix covers Multiple Selections, Tree-sitter Syntax Trees, Built-in LSP Support, Fuzzy File Finder.

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.

Helix: Is Helix free to use?

Yes, Helix is free and open source, licensed under the Mozilla Public License 2.0 (MPL-2.0), with no paid tiers or subscriptions.

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.

Helix: How do I install Helix?

Install via your operating system's package manager, or download pre-built binaries from GitHub Releases; the nightly version requires building from source.

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.

Helix: Does Helix support plugins?

Not yet. Helix currently has no plugin system, though the project intends to add one eventually; it instead ships with built-in LSP and tree-sitter support out of the box.

Source
Helix: How do I configure Helix?

Helix ships with sane modern defaults requiring much less config-file fiddling than Vim, though settings can still be customized in a config.toml file.

Source
Helix: Where can I get help or support?

Support is community-driven via GitHub for code and issues, the Matrix chat for discussion, and OpenCollective for funding ongoing development.

Source
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