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Cybersecurity · head to head

Delinea vs Visual Studio Code

Delinea logo

Delinea

Cybersecurity

Privileged access management from the merged Thycotic and Centrify

From
On request
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite
Visual Studio Code logo

Visual Studio Code

Developer Tools

Code editing. Redefined.

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Visual Studio Code 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.; Visual Studio Code requires extension installation for language-specific features and tooling
  • They diverge on capability: Delinea covers Secret Server, Visual Studio Code covers IntelliSense.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Delinea and Visual Studio Code actually diverge.

Attributes where Delinea and Visual Studio Code differ
AttributeDelineaVisual Studio Code
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelquoteUnknown
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, Windows, Linux, macOSWindows, macOS, Linux, Web (via GitHub Codespaces)
CategoryCybersecurityDeveloper Tools
FoundedUnknown2015

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 Visual Studio Code

  • IntelliSense
  • Debugging
  • Built-in Git
  • Extensions
  • Integrated terminal
  • Syntax highlighting
  • Code refactoring
  • Snippets

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

Visual Studio Code

  • Code editingnot Delinea
  • Web developmentnot Delinea
  • Debuggingnot Delinea
  • Version controlnot Delinea
  • Remote developmentnot 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.

Visual Studio Code

  • Requires extension installation for language-specific features and tooling
  • Performance can degrade with very large codebases (100,000+ files)
  • Git integration is basic; requires extensions for advanced version control workflows

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

Visual Studio Code

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the Visual Studio Code review.

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 Visual Studio Code if

  • You need intellisense.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Windows, macOS, Linux, Web (via GitHub Codespaces).
  • You also want debugging.
Visual Studio Code review

Questions people ask

Is Delinea or Visual Studio Code better?
Neither clearly leads. Delinea starts at On request and Visual Studio Code at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Delinea or Visual Studio Code?
Visual Studio Code has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Delinea and Free for Visual Studio Code.
Does Delinea or Visual Studio Code run on more platforms?
Delinea runs on Web, Windows, Linux, macOS. Visual Studio Code runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, Web (via GitHub Codespaces).
Can I use Visual Studio Code for free?
Yes. Visual Studio Code 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 Visual Studio Code is typically brought in for.
What can Delinea do that Visual Studio Code cannot?
Delinea covers Secret Server, Privileged session recording, Privilege Manager, Server PAM. Visual Studio Code covers IntelliSense, Debugging, Built-in Git, Extensions.

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.

Visual Studio Code: Is Visual Studio Code free?

Yes. Visual Studio Code is completely free to use under the MIT license. There are no subscription fees or paid tiers.

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.

Visual Studio Code: Can I use VS Code for remote development?

Yes. The Remote Development extension pack allows development on remote machines via SSH, in containers, or in Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) while using the full VS Code feature set.

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.

Visual Studio Code: How many extensions are available?

The VS Code Marketplace contains thousands of extensions from Microsoft and the community for language support, debuggers, themes, formatters, and productivity tools.

Source
Visual Studio Code: Does VS Code support debugging?

Yes. VS Code includes built-in debugging for JavaScript, TypeScript, and Node.js, and supports debugging for Python, C++, C#, Java, Ruby, Go, PHP, and other languages via extensions.

Source
Visual Studio Code: What operating systems does VS Code support?

VS Code runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux with identical features and keybindings across all platforms.

Source
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