PAM alternatives
Looking for PAM alternatives? Secure privileged access at scale—without a vault.
Most PAM projects stall before they deliver, because vault-based approaches require enrolling every identity before protection begins. Silverfort protects privileged access at the moment of authentication, so you can reduce risk from day one—not at the end of a multi-year rollout.
- Automatically discover and protect every privileged identity at scale
- Enforce security at the moment of access
- Deploy fast with minimal operational overhead
Why you would use Silverfort alongside or instead of traditional PAM
If you're struggling with slow, complex deployments
With Silverfort, you can discover and protect privileged access across your environment within days, without internal resistance and friction. Protection isn't tied to vault enrollment.
If coverage gaps are undermining your risk posture
Immediately reduce risk by shifting enforcement to the authentication layer with Identity Security at runtime. Evaluate every request in real time and apply inline controls to reduce the blast radius of compromised credentials.
If you've only deployed a portion of your PAM licenses
Silverfort can extend protection to everything outside the vault while you right-size your existing investment, so unused licenses don't mean unprotected identities.
How Silverfort compares to vault-based PAM solutions
A side-by-side look at how Silverfort compares to vault-based PAM solutions such as CyberArk, Delinea, and BeyondTrust.
| Capability | Silverfort | Traditional PAM (CyberArk, Delinea, BeyondTrust) | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Comprehensive privileged access coverage | Yes | Vault enrollment required per account | Most environments have thousands of unvaulted identities, including NHIs. |
| Runtime authentication enforcement | Yes | Controls primarily applied through vault and session workflows | Enforcement at the authentication layer across protocols vaults can't see (Kerberos, NTLM, LDAP, legacy SSH). |
| Risk reduction | Yes | Partial | Privileged access is the most-targeted attack path — partial coverage leaves the highest-impact identities exposed. |
| Fast and automated onboarding | Yes | Often takes months to years, per environment | Every month spent onboarding is a month identities stay unprotected — fast time to protection collapses the window attackers can exploit. |
| NHI and service account protection | Yes | Requires manual discovery, onboarding and rotation | Service accounts are among the hardest and highest-risk identity types to secure at scale. |
| Seamless integration | Yes | Often complex, agent-based architectures | Infrastructure changes increase deployment friction and risk of breaking production systems. |
| Fast time to ROI | Yes | Typically multi-year rollouts; high professional services dependency | Traditional PAM rollouts can burn millions in licenses and professional services before any privileged identity is actually protected. |
| Legacy applications coverage | Yes | Partial | OT, legacy apps, and homegrown systems rarely make it into a traditional vault. |
| Built-in Zero Standing Privileges | Yes | JIT access available as add-on or limited scope | Standing privileges remain the primary attack path; JIT needs to be universal, not selective. |
| Capability | Silverfort | Traditional PAM (CyberArk, Delinea, BeyondTrust) |
|---|---|---|
| Comprehensive privileged access coverage | Vault enrollment required per account | |
| Runtime authentication enforcement | Controls primarily applied through vault and session workflows | |
| Risk reduction | Partial | |
| Fast and automated onboarding | Often takes months to years, per environment | |
| NHI and service account protection | Requires manual discovery, onboarding and rotation | |
| Seamless integration | Often complex, agent-based architectures | |
| Fast time to ROI | Typically multi-year rollouts; high professional services dependency | |
| Legacy applications coverage | Partial | |
| Built-in Zero Standing Privileges | JIT access available as add-on or limited scope |
Silverfort Vaultless Privileged Access Management (PAM)
Traditional PAM primarily secures privileged credentials inside the vault. Silverfort extends protection to the authentication layer itself, so even if credentials are compromised, attackers can't move. With MFA, Just-in-Time access, tier segmentation, and access block, Silverfort delivers scalable protection and measurable risk reduction across all identity types.
MFA for every admin tool.
Stop credential misuse at the source. Silverfort enforces MFA across PowerShell, PsExec, WMI, RDP, SSH and homegrown applications that traditional PAM solutions can’t reach.
Service account protection without disruption.
Apply virtual fencing to restrict where and how service accounts authenticate — no password rotation, no application rewrites.For organizations where rotation isn't operationally viable, this extends meaningful protection to accounts that were previously uncontrolled.
Just-in-Time access, without the project.
Eliminate standing privileges across your environment in days, not quarters. Silverfort enforces JIT access at the authentication layer so access is granted only when needed and disabled at the moment it isn’t.
"Silverfort enabled us to reduce privileged risk within days — without deploying a complex PAM infrastructure."
See how Silverfort compares to traditional PAM solutions.
Book a demo with our team, or take a self-guided product tour to see Vaultless PAM in action.
FAQs
Is Silverfort a replacement for our existing PAM solution?
Silverfort can replace or complement traditional PAM, depending on your needs. Some customers replace their traditional PAM to scale coverage and add protection capabilities, while others use Silverfort alongside their vault to unblock stuck PAM projects and extend protection to all other privileged identities (Tier-1, Tier-2, service accounts and NHIs). In both scenarios, the outcome is broader coverage, faster risk reduction, and the ability to right-size unused vault licenses.
If there’s no vault, how does Silverfort control privileged access?
Silverfort evaluates and controls privileged access at the authentication layer using its patented Runtime Access Protection (RAP) technology. Every request is assessed in real time so that Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), Just-in-Time access, and other controls are enforced before access is ever granted. These controls prevent unauthorized activity and credential misuse and enforce tier segmentation for admin users. In addition, Silverfort’s capabilities to monitor every privileged activity help you to identify how access is actually used, and when excessive privileges exist, thus supporting the principles of Least Privilege.
How is Silverfort’s Vaultless PAM different from password rotation?
Password rotation changes credentials periodically but does not stop attackers from misusing valid credentials between rotations. Silverfort proactively reduces risk by validating risk context and enforcing access controls at the exact moment of authentication to contain attacks and block lateral movement in real time.
Does Silverfort cover human admins, service accounts, and non-human identities (NHIs)?
Yes. Vaultless PAM automatically discovers and protects privileged identities across your environment, including domain and cloud admins, break-glass accounts, service accounts, and other NHIs. Since protection is not dependent on vault rollouts, security controls apply to every identity that performs privileged activity and can scale as the environment expands. This ensures comprehensive, scalable protection for every privileged account, even those that never made it into a traditional vault.
Does Silverfort discover privileged identities based on actual usage?
Yes. Silverfort’s discovery process is driven by actual authentication behavior, not only static configurations. This automatic and continuous discovery eliminates manual guesswork, log-stitching, and one-off onboarding projects – and is key to identifying shadow admins and protecting them.
Does Silverfort support Just-In-Time (JIT) access and Zero Standing Privileges (ZSP)?
Absolutely. Silverfort enables JIT access for privileged users, making Zero Standing Privilege (ZSP) practical and easily enforceable across your environment.
Can Silverfort protect service accounts without breaking applications?
Yes. Silverfort applies virtual fencing policies to safely restrict where and how service accounts authenticate, without password rotation or credential checkout. Your systems continue operating without application rewrites or operational disruption.
Does Silverfort work with Active Directory and Entra ID?
Yes. Silverfort integrates natively with both Active Directory and Microsoft Entra ID, covering the full spectrum of hybrid identity environments. Every authentication request flowing through AD or Entra ID is evaluated in real time, so MFA enforcement, JIT access, and access block policies apply automatically across your entire user base, including human admins, service accounts, and non-human identities. For organizations running hybrid environments, this means there are no gaps between on-prem and cloud. Silverfort sees and protects both, without proxies or changes to your existing directory infrastructure.
Does Silverfort provide ITDR capabilities for privileged identities?
Yes. Silverfort’s Vaultless PAM uses continuous authentication telemetry to identify credential theft, misuse, and abnormal privileged behavior (such as impossible travel, MFA bombing and protocol anomalies). It detects and stops identity-based attacks in real time, without manual intervention.
Does Silverfort require agents or application rewrites?
No. Silverfort uses a lightweight domain controller component that evaluates authentication requests in real time — not a network proxy. There is no single point of failure in the authentication flow: Silverfort operates in a fail-open mode so that if the service is unavailable, authentication continues uninterrupted. This is different from a reverse proxy or authentication gateway, which would block access if unavailable.
What is the typical deployment time for Vaultless PAM with Silverfort?
Vaultless PAM with Silverfort typically deploys in days to a few weeks, with meaningful privileged access controls in place almost immediately. Because there’s no vault to stand up, no agents to roll out, and no application changes required, customers start reducing privileged risk on day one rather than at the end of a multi-year program.
How does Silverfort compare to CyberArk?
CyberArk is the most common vault-based PAM platform on the market, but is known for significant deployment complexity, specialist resource requirements, and multi-year rollout timelines. Silverfort enforces privileged access controls at the authentication layer, delivering protection across privileged identities — without vault enrollment, application changes, or dedicated PAM engineers.
How does Silverfort compare to BeyondTrust?
BeyondTrust provides strong privilege management, but protection depends on what’s been onboarded and enrolled. Identities that haven’t made it into the vault remain exposed. Silverfort protects every privileged identity at the moment of authentication, including service accounts and NHIs that vault-dependent solutions routinely leave uncovered.
How does Silverfort compare to Delinea?
Delinea offers PAM solutions that are focused on credential storage and rotation. Silverfort removes that dependency entirely by enforcing controls at the authentication layer. It protects identities that were never vaulted, can’t be rotated, or sit outside the scope of a traditional PAM rollout.
How does Silverfort support compliance and audit requirements for privileged access?
Silverfort generates audit evidence of every privileged authentication, authorization decision, and policy enforcement across human admins, service accounts, and NHIs. This supports significant legislative frameworks (such as SOX, PCI-DSS 4.0, HIPAA, ISO 27001, and NIS2) and cyber-insurance requirements for privileged access monitoring, MFA enforcement, and Least Privilege. For frameworks that reference credential rotation as a specific control (such as PCI-DSS 8.6), Silverfort’s behavioral fencing and authentication-layer enforcement serve as compensating controls.
