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Cybersecurity · head to head

Delinea vs HID Global

Delinea logo

Delinea

Cybersecurity

Privileged access management from the merged Thycotic and Centrify

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
HID Global logo

HID Global

Cybersecurity

Physical access control, credential issuance and workforce authentication hardware and software

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • 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.; HID Global sales run through integrators, so the price you get depends on which partner quotes it and there is no published list to negotiate against.
  • They diverge on capability: Delinea covers Secret Server, HID Global covers Physical access readers.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Delinea and HID Global actually diverge.

Attributes where Delinea and HID Global differ
AttributeDelineaHID Global
PlatformsWeb, Windows, Linux, macOSWeb, Windows, iOS, Android

Identical on both: starting price (On request), pricing model (quote), free tier (No), 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 Delinea

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

Only in HID Global

  • Physical access readers
  • Mobile access
  • Seos credential technology
  • Card issuance
  • Workforce authentication
  • Visitor management

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

HID Global

  • An enterprise moving from plastic badges to phone-based credentials without replacing every reader in the estatenot Delinea
  • A government agency needing card issuance and PKI credentials under a national identity programmenot Delinea
  • A hospital consolidating access control, visitor screening and clinician authentication onto one credentialnot Delinea
  • An organisation retiring cloneable legacy proximity cards after a physical penetration test found them trivially copiednot 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.

HID Global

  • Sales run through integrators, so the price you get depends on which partner quotes it and there is no published list to negotiate against.
  • Mobile credentials are charged per identity as an ongoing fee, which converts a one-off card cost into a recurring per-employee subscription that budgets rarely anticipate.
  • Large estates run mixed generations of readers, so a credential upgrade is a multi-year hardware programme and the software licence is a small fraction of the true cost.
  • Legacy credential technologies still widely deployed have documented cloning weaknesses, and HID commercial interest in selling the replacement does not remove your exposure in the interim.
  • The portfolio spans hardware, firmware and several acquired software products, so integration between HID own components is less consistent than the single-vendor pitch implies.

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

HID Global

On request
  • HID Access and Identity Products$undefined/year
    • Hardware, credentials and software quoted through channel partners
    • Credential costs charged per card or per mobile identity
    • Reader hardware and installation quoted separately

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 HID Global if

  • You need physical access readers.
  • You work on Web, Windows, iOS, Android.
  • You also want mobile access.
HID Global review

Questions people ask

Is Delinea or HID Global better?
Neither clearly leads. Delinea starts at On request and HID Global at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Delinea or HID Global?
Delinea starts at On request and HID Global at On request.
Does Delinea or HID Global run on more platforms?
Delinea runs on Web, Windows, Linux, macOS. HID Global runs on Web, Windows, iOS, Android.
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 HID Global is typically brought in for.
What can Delinea do that HID Global cannot?
Delinea covers Secret Server, Privileged session recording, Privilege Manager, Server PAM. HID Global covers Physical access readers, Mobile access, Seos credential technology, Card issuance.

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.

HID Global: Do we have to replace readers to use mobile credentials?

Often yes, at least in part. Reader capability determines which credential technologies work, and that hardware cost dominates the business case.

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.

HID Global: Are mobile credentials cheaper than cards?

Not necessarily. Cards are a one-off cost per employee, mobile identities are typically a recurring charge, so the crossover depends on staff turnover.

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.

HID Global: Can we buy directly from HID?

Generally not for access control deployments. Products are sold and installed through channel partners, so partner selection is part of the buying decision.

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