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SWOT PAM vs BeyondTrust: an evaluation guide

If BeyondTrust is on your shortlist, use this guide to compare it with SWOT PAM on the questions that decide a privileged access project, with SWOT PAM’s documented answers and the questions to put to BeyondTrust.

These guides compare documented capabilities; they are not benchmarks, and say nothing about another vendor that its own material does not. Product names are trademarks of their owners.

BeyondTrust describes its Jump Clients as installable agents for reaching unattended machines. SWOT PAM reaches targets through its proxy, with nothing installed on them.

Source: BeyondTrust product documentation

The evaluation guide

  1. Agents on targets

    SWOT PAM

    None. All inspection happens at the proxy for SSH, RDP, PostgreSQL and Oracle Net.

    Ask BeyondTrust

    Which components or agents must be installed on servers, desktops or endpoints for the features we need?

  2. Just-in-time access

    SWOT PAM

    Time-bound grants with ticket, justification and auto-expiry; approvals in Slack, Teams or email.

    Ask BeyondTrust

    How are temporary privileges requested, approved and removed, and is removal automatic?

  3. Live enforcement

    SWOT PAM

    PAMGuard scores the session: 40 watched, 70 input frozen until an admin decides, 150 ended; blocking rules drop commands before they run.

    Ask BeyondTrust

    Can a risky session be frozen or ended automatically while it is live, or only reviewed afterwards?

  4. Windows desktop actions

    SWOT PAM

    Agentless analysis of RDP keystrokes, clipboard, mouse-driven actions and window titles.

    Ask BeyondTrust

    What is captured from a graphical desktop session, and does it need an agent on the target?

  5. Credential vault and rotation

    SWOT PAM

    AES-256-GCM vault with check-out and check-in, scheduled rotation, rotation after use and dual approval.

    Ask BeyondTrust

    How are shared credentials stored, checked out and rotated?

  6. Tamper-evident audit

    SWOT PAM

    SHA-256 hash chain over events, insert-only audit tables, a hash per recording, Object Lock storage.

    Ask BeyondTrust

    How can an auditor verify that recordings and logs have not been changed?

  7. Plain-language requests

    SWOT PAM

    An AI access assistant raises requests from plain English, checked against policy.

    Ask BeyondTrust

    Can users request access in natural language, and how is the request validated?

  8. Deployment

    SWOT PAM

    Self-hosted: cloud, on-premises or hybrid, on Docker Compose or Kubernetes, including air-gapped sites.

    Ask BeyondTrust

    Which deployment options are available, and what infrastructure does each need?

  9. Identity providers

    SWOT PAM

    SAML 2.0 and OIDC with Entra ID, Okta, Google, OneLogin and PingFederate; TOTP MFA; LDAP and AD sync.

    Ask BeyondTrust

    Which identity providers and MFA methods are supported in the edition we would buy?

Questions

Is SWOT PAM an alternative to BeyondTrust?
SWOT PAM covers privileged access to servers and databases with a vault, just-in-time grants and recorded sessions, and reaches every target through its proxy without installing anything on it. Compare both against your own requirements.
Does this page benchmark the two products?
No. It compares documented capabilities and gives you the questions to settle the rest in a proof of concept.
How do contractors connect with SWOT PAM?
In a browser tab, through the web terminal, HTML5 desktop or browser SQL, scoped to one approved system for a set time, with the session recorded and the password never shown.

Put SWOT PAM to the test

Bring your checklist. We will run the same scenarios on your systems in a proof of concept.

Book a demoExplore SWOT PAM