JIT Access — Head-to-Head

Delinea vs. One Identity

Delinea is PAM that does PAM. One Identity is identity governance and administration (IGA) that includes PAM, via its Safeguard product, as part of a broader lifecycle management suite. The comparison only matters if governance and PAM are both live requirements; if PAM is the only need, this isn't really a contest.

The fault line between them

Delinea treats JIT and privileged session management as the whole product. Secret Server and Privilege Manager are purpose-built for vaulting, rotation, and session brokering, with the Centrify-derived Linux/Unix strength as a differentiator. There's no governance layer bundled in; if an organization needs IGA, it's a separate purchase and a separate integration.

One Identity's Safeguard provides session brokering and JIT workflows, but it's positioned inside a broader identity governance and lifecycle management framework, access certification, entitlement reviews, joiner/mover/leaver automation. For an organization already running or evaluating One Identity for IGA, Safeguard is the path of least resistance for PAM. For an organization that doesn't need IGA, it's bringing a governance platform along for the ride.

Criteria	Delinea	One Identity (Safeguard)
Architecture
PAM depth	Purpose-built PAM platform; JIT and session management are the core product	JIT depth is secondary to the governance and compliance use case
Governance integration	Not included; requires separate IGA platform if needed	PAM lives inside the same governance umbrella as access certification and lifecycle management
Access type coverage	Human and service-account access	Primarily human access
Operational
Linux/Unix coverage	Strong, inherited from the Centrify lineage	Standard PAM coverage; not a specialization
Compliance and governance reporting	PAM-specific audit trail	Unified governance and compliance reporting across PAM and IGA
Deployment scope	PAM-only deployment	Typically a broader IGA program deployment with PAM as one module

Capability assessments based on publicly available vendor documentation and independent coverage. Validate specific feature depth against your environment before purchase.

When each wins

Delinea wins when

PAM is the entire requirement; there's no current or planned IGA initiative to align with
Deployment speed and a lighter footprint matter more than governance integration
The Linux/Unix server fleet is a significant part of the environment

One Identity wins when

The organization already runs or is evaluating One Identity for IGA
Unified governance, access certification, and PAM reporting under one compliance umbrella is a requirement
JIT depth for PAM specifically is secondary to the broader identity governance program

Finding

This comparison resolves almost entirely on whether IGA is in scope. If it is, and especially if One Identity is already the governance platform, Safeguard is the lower-friction path even with shallower PAM-specific depth. If PAM is the standalone requirement, Delinea's purpose-built platform delivers more capability without the governance-suite overhead.