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Cybersecurity · head to head

Delinea vs Nixpacks

Delinea logo

Delinea

Cybersecurity

Privileged access management from the merged Thycotic and Centrify

From
On request
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite
Nixpacks logo

Nixpacks

Developer Tools

Build system that turns a source directory into an OCI image, now in maintenance mode

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Nixpacks 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.; Nixpacks the project is in maintenance mode with no commits on the default branch since May 2026 and no release since October 2025, so support for new language versions arrives only if someone forks it.
  • They diverge on capability: Delinea covers Secret Server, Nixpacks covers Automatic language detection.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Delinea and Nixpacks actually diverge.

Attributes where Delinea and Nixpacks differ
AttributeDelineaNixpacks
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelquoteOpen source, no licence fee
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, Windows, Linux, macOSLinux, macOS, CLI, Docker
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 Nixpacks

  • Automatic language detection
  • No Dockerfile required
  • Nix toolchains
  • Configuration escape hatches
  • Docker layer caching

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

Nixpacks

  • Understanding the build behaviour of a platform that adopted Nixpacks before it was frozennot Delinea
  • Producing container images from a polyglot monorepo where nobody wants to own several Dockerfilesnot Delinea
  • Reproducing an existing Railway build locally while planning a migration to Railpacknot Delinea
  • Comparing what a Nix based builder does differently from a buildpack before choosing a successornot 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.

Nixpacks

  • The project is in maintenance mode with no commits on the default branch since May 2026 and no release since October 2025, so support for new language versions arrives only if someone forks it.
  • Build determinism is softer than it appears, because providers pin a nixpkgs archive commit and bumping that archive silently moves compiler and runtime versions underneath a build that looks unchanged.
  • Caching is limited to Docker layers rather than a content addressed graph, so a small change early in the build invalidates everything after it, which is exactly the limitation Railpack was rewritten to fix.
  • Images carry Nix store layers and come out larger than an equivalent tuned Dockerfile or buildpack output, which costs registry storage and slows cold pulls on scale-out.
  • There is no specification, no vendor neutral governance and no third party provider ecosystem, so a single company was able to redirect strategy and leave every downstream user with a frozen build tool.

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

Nixpacks

Free
  • NixpacksFree
    • MIT licensed, no usage limits
    • No commercial edition and no support contract
    • In maintenance mode, superseded by Railpack

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 Nixpacks if

  • You need automatic language detection.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS, CLI, Docker.
  • You also want no dockerfile required.
Nixpacks review

Questions people ask

Is Delinea or Nixpacks better?
Neither clearly leads. Delinea starts at On request and Nixpacks at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Delinea or Nixpacks?
Nixpacks has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Delinea and Free for Nixpacks.
Does Delinea or Nixpacks run on more platforms?
Delinea runs on Web, Windows, Linux, macOS. Nixpacks runs on Linux, macOS, CLI, Docker.
Can I use Nixpacks for free?
Yes. Nixpacks 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 Nixpacks is typically brought in for.
What can Delinea do that Nixpacks cannot?
Delinea covers Secret Server, Privileged session recording, Privilege Manager, Server PAM. Nixpacks covers Automatic language detection, No Dockerfile required, Nix toolchains, Configuration escape hatches.

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.

Nixpacks: Should I start a new project on Nixpacks?

No. The documentation and README both say it is in maintenance mode and recommend Railpack. Choose Railpack, Cloud Native Buildpacks or a Dockerfile instead.

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.

Nixpacks: Will my existing Nixpacks builds stop working?

Not immediately. Pinned nixpkgs archives keep resolving, so builds continue. What you lose is support for new runtime major versions and any fix for a provider bug.

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.

Nixpacks: What replaces it?

Railpack, also from Railway and also MIT licensed, rebuilt as a BuildKit custom frontend for finer grained caching and parallel steps.

Nixpacks: Is it still open source?

Yes, MIT, and the repository is not archived. Being open source does not help much when nobody is merging provider updates.

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