CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Akeyless vs BeyondTrust

Akeyless is an Identity Security Platform for securing machine, AI agent, and human identities across cloud, hybrid, and on-prem environments. BeyondTrust sells privileged access management and identity security solutions, and says it discovers, onboards, secures, and right-sizes privileges across an enterprise. CISO Tribune files both under Non-human identity security and Privileged access management. This page sets the two records side by side: what each sells, where it is based, who owns and funds it, the customers it names and its recent news, each fact numbered to its source.

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Up to four companies side by side.

  • Akeyless
  • BeyondTrust
Akeyless vs BeyondTrust: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
AkeylessAkeyless is an Identity Security Platform for securing machine, AI agent, and human identities across cloud, hybrid, and on-prem environments.akeyless.ioBeyondTrustBeyondTrust sells privileged access management and identity security solutions, and says it discovers, onboards, secures, and right-sizes privileges across an enterprise.beyondtrust.com
What it sells
  • SecretlessAI®[4]Brokers just-in-time access without exposing credentials to the agent.
  • Agentic Runtime Authority[4][6][10]Controls and audits runtime agent access to supported Dynamic Secrets.
  • Password Safe[6][9]Enterprise password management for privileged credentials and secrets.
  • Endpoint Privilege Management[6][10]Enforces least privilege dynamically to prevent malware, ransomware, and identity-based attacks.
  • Privileged Remote Access[7][11][13][18][20]Provides just-in-time access to cloud, on-premises, and OT environments.
  • AI Agent Security[6][16][21]Extends privileged-action enforcement to AI agents at runtime.
  • Entitle[6][7]Automates cloud permissions management.
Categories
Headquarters
Not stated on its pagesJohns Creek, United States[3]
Founded
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Ownership and funding
Privately held[3]Owned by Francisco Partners since 2018[2][14][15]
Named customers
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Recent news
  • October 26, 2026Akeyless announced its first inclusion in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Privileged Access Management.[11]
  • March 31, 2026Akeyless announced Agentic Runtime Authority, a runtime control capability for AI agents, and Agentic Identity Intelligence, extending its AI Agent Identity Security solution.[10]
  • October 21, 2026BeyondTrust announced general availability of AI Agent Security on its Pathfinder Platform, together with new Phantom Labs research on AI agent activity.[21]
  • July 9, 2026BeyondTrust announced NHI Governance, a new solution on its Pathfinder platform for governing non-human identities across cloud, SaaS, endpoint and on-premises environments.[4]
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: listed, seen November 10, 2026[3]
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
Who it fits
Akeyless describes a clientele that ranges from startups to multinational corporations. Akeyless is designed for cloud, multi-cloud, hybrid and on-prem environments, with a SaaS control plane and customer-deployed Gateways. Akeyless provides deployment guidance for organizations that deploy Gateway on cloud-managed compute platforms.From its own pages, BeyondTrust sells mainly to organizations that need to secure privileged access for human, machine, and AI agent identities. BeyondTrust also addresses vendors, outsourcers, and managed service providers that need access tools for customer systems. BeyondTrust also offers OT security solutions for industrial networks and critical infrastructure. Password Safe secures credentials across cloud, hybrid, and on-premises environments.
Last verified
October 7, 2026November 2, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Akeyless and BeyondTrust are both filed under Non-human identity security and Privileged access management.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Akeyless's primary category is Non-human identity security; BeyondTrust's is Privileged access management.
  • Akeyless is also filed under Machine identity and PKI and Encryption, tokenization and key management.
  • Akeyless lists SecretlessAI® and Agentic Runtime Authority. BeyondTrust lists Password Safe, Endpoint Privilege Management, Privileged Remote Access, AI Agent Security and Entitle.
  • BeyondTrust is headquartered in Johns Creek, United States.
  • Akeyless is privately held. BeyondTrust is owned by Francisco Partners, since 2018.

What it sells: Akeyless

What SecretlessAI® does[4]
SecretlessAI® brokers just-in-time access without exposing credentials to the agent. Akeyless keeps credentials out of AI agents and governs their access to enterprise systems.
What Agentic Runtime Authority does[4][6][10]
Agentic Runtime Authority controls and audits runtime agent access to supported Dynamic Secrets. Agentic Runtime Authority evaluates and enforces what agents are allowed to do at runtime. Akeyless tracks every agent session from prompt to action.

What it sells: BeyondTrust

What Password Safe does[6][9]
Password Safe onboards and manages the privileged credentials and secrets that employees depend on. It stores privileged credentials, including DevOps secrets and SSH keys, and rotates privileged passwords by policy. Password Safe also monitors, audits, and manages privileged sessions.
What Endpoint Privilege Management does[6][10]
Endpoint Privilege Management removes local admin rights and controls root access across Windows and Mac desktops and Linux and Windows Servers. It is described as reducing the cyberattack surface and protecting against malware, ransomware, insider threats and identity-based attacks.
What Privileged Remote Access does[7][11][13][18][20]
Privileged Remote Access gives IT teams automated, rule-based access provisioning without VPN setups. It connects employees, contractors, and vendors to critical systems from anywhere while enforcing least privilege access.
What AI Agent Security does[6][16][21]
AI Agent Security provides vendor-agnostic governance across Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, internal models, and other agentic tools. Policies for AI agents are applied at the endpoint, before the action completes.
What Entitle does[6][7]
Entitle automates cloud permissions management with just-in-time access controls. It offers self-service access requests, permission bundling, and 100+ integrations.

Questions about Akeyless and BeyondTrust

What do Akeyless and BeyondTrust sell?
Akeyless sells SecretlessAI® and Agentic Runtime Authority. BeyondTrust sells Password Safe, Endpoint Privilege Management, Privileged Remote Access, AI Agent Security and Entitle.
Are Akeyless and BeyondTrust in the same category?
They share Non-human identity security and Privileged access management. Akeyless's primary category is Non-human identity security and BeyondTrust's is Privileged access management.
Where are Akeyless and BeyondTrust headquartered?
BeyondTrust is headquartered in Johns Creek, United States.
Who owns Akeyless and BeyondTrust?
Akeyless is privately held. BeyondTrust is owned by Francisco Partners, since 2018.
Who are Akeyless and BeyondTrust sold to?
Akeyless describes a clientele that ranges from startups to multinational corporations. From its own pages, BeyondTrust sells mainly to organizations that need to secure privileged access for human, machine, and AI agent identities.
What have Akeyless and BeyondTrust announced recently?
October 26, 2026: Akeyless announced its first inclusion in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Privileged Access Management. October 21, 2026: BeyondTrust announced general availability of AI Agent Security on its Pathfinder Platform, together with new Phantom Labs research on AI agent activity.

About Akeyless

Akeyless is an Identity Security Platform for securing machine, AI agent, and human identities across cloud, hybrid, and on-prem environments. Akeyless combines secrets management, Modern PAM, certificate lifecycle management, encryption and KMS, Multi-Vault Governance, and AI agent security in one platform. Akeyless manages secrets, keys, certificates and machine identities through a single policy engine, operational model and interface.[1][4][5]

Akeyless describes a situation in which AI agents, workloads and services now perform most system access, while security tools still assume a human behind the keyboard. Akeyless states that the result is secrets everywhere, standing privileges, and identities no one can fully track. Akeyless gives applications, workloads, automation and AI agents secure access to the resources they need without relying on long-lived credentials. Akeyless provides short-lived, identity-based access while centrally managing the secrets, certificates and keys that still need to exist across cloud, hybrid and on-prem environments.[4][5]

Akeyless includes enterprise secrets management, and the platform extends beyond storing and rotating secrets. Akeyless supports short-lived, identity-based access, privileged access, certificates, encryption keys, machine identities and AI agent security. Akeyless secures, stores and delivers secrets dynamically. Secretless access in Akeyless lets applications, workloads and other identities authenticate and access resources without storing long-lived credentials. Akeyless can issue short-lived, just-in-time credentials when access is required and automatically expire or revoke them afterward. Akeyless supports authentication and access for applications, workloads, services, automation and other non-human identities using methods including cloud identities, Kubernetes identities, certificates and SPIFFE/SPIRE. Akeyless centralizes and secures credentials, certificates and keys across the CI/CD pipeline.[1][4][5]

Akeyless provides multiple AI-focused capabilities across the identity security platform. Akeyless keeps credentials out of AI agents and governs their access to enterprise systems. SecretlessAI® brokers just-in-time access without exposing credentials to the agent. Agentic Runtime Authority evaluates and enforces what agents are allowed to do at runtime, and Akeyless states that every agent action is validated, scoped and enforced in session. Agentic Runtime Authority controls and audits runtime agent access to supported Dynamic Secrets. Akeyless tracks every agent session from prompt to action. Akeyless AI Insights enables natural-language interaction with Akeyless resources. Identity and Secrets Intelligence provides AI-related visibility and governance surfaces in the Console. Akeyless MCP Server integrates MCP clients and tools with Akeyless services.[4][5][6]

Akeyless automates certificate issuance, renewal and compliance, and offers automated certificate lifecycle monitoring. Akeyless centralizes visibility and policy across all vaults and environments, and provides centralized governance across distributed secrets vaults. Akeyless offers a browser plugin for creating and securing employee passwords. Akeyless centralizes and automates encryption, tokenization and key management, with centralized encryption and key management across cloud platforms. Akeyless offers customers control of their encryption keys and encrypted data.[4][5]

Akeyless uses patented Distributed Fragments Cryptography™ as the foundation of its Zero-Knowledge Architecture. Akeyless includes hybrid post-quantum encryption alongside patented Distributed Fragments Cryptography™. Akeyless is designed for cloud, multi-cloud, hybrid, and on-prem environments, with a SaaS control plane and customer-deployed Gateways for local access, policy enforcement, and cryptographic operations. Akeyless provides deployment guidance for organizations that deploy Gateway on cloud-managed compute platforms. Across EKS, AKS, GKE, and Azure Container Apps, the core Gateway model is consistent. Akeyless provides a command, eventForwarderUpdateServiceNow, that updates a service now event forwarder.[4][5][7][8]

Akeyless describes a clientele that ranges from startups to multinational corporations. Akeyless offers applications, workloads, automation and AI agents secure access to resources without long-lived credentials.[1][2][4][5][9]

Akeyless on the record

Sources

Akeyless full record

  1. [1]akeyless.ioAkeyless · akeyless.io · undated page, accessed October 7, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Press releaseAkeyless · akeyless.io · published September 10, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Akeyless Identity Security Platform Reviews & Product Details - G2G2 · undated page, accessed October 31, 2026 · Tier C
  4. [4]Akeyless DocumentationAkeyless · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Identity Security for Machines, AI Agents & Humans | AkeylessAkeyless · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]AI Security With AkeylessAkeyless · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Cloud-Managed Kubernetes PlatformsAkeyless · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]/event-forwarder-update-servicenowAkeyless · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Customer JourneysAkeyless · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Akeyless Launches Runtime Authority for AI Agents, Introducing Intent-Aware Security for Autonomous Systems | AkeylessAkeyless · published March 31, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Akeyless Recognized in the 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Privileged Access ManagementPRNewswire · published October 26, 2026 · Tier A

BeyondTrust full record

  1. [1]OverviewBeyondTrust · beyondtrust.com · published March 23, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Beyondtrust completes transaction with clearlake capital and francisco partnersBeyondTrust · beyondtrust.com · published August 17, 2021 · Tier A
  3. [3]Beyondtrust recognized in the atlanta business chronicles 2021 pacesetters awards for fastest growing companiesBeyondTrust · beyondtrust.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]BeyondTrust Extends Privileged Access Leadership with Release of NHI Governance for Every Non-Human and AI IdentityBeyondTrust · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Identity Security and Privileged Access Management (PAM) Solutions | BeyondTrustBeyondTrust · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Identity and Access SecurityBeyondTrust · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Pathfinder Platform | BeyondTrustBeyondTrust · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]SaaS | BeyondTrustBeyondTrust · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Enterprise Password Management | Password Safe | BeyondTrustBeyondTrust · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Endpoint Privilege Management | BeyondTrustBeyondTrust · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Align with IT Compliance Mandates | BeyondTrustBeyondTrust · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Industry Solutions | BeyondTrustBeyondTrust · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]Operational Technology (OT) Security Solutions | BeyondTrustBeyondTrust · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]BeyondTrust Remote Support Reviews & Product Details - G2G2 · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier C
  15. [15]BeyondTrust Reviews, Ratings & Features 2026 | Gartner Peer InsightsGartner Peer Insights · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier C
  16. [16]AI Agent Security | BeyondTrustBeyondTrust · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  17. [17]AI Security Solutions for Agents and Workloads | BeyondTrustBeyondTrust · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  18. [18]Third Party Remote Access | BeyondTrustBeyondTrust · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  19. [19]Zero Trust Solutions | Privileged Access & Identity Security | BeyondTrustBeyondTrust · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  20. [20]Privileged Remote Access | BeyondTrustBeyondTrust · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  21. [21]BeyondTrust AI Agent Security Now Generally AvailableBeyondTrust · published October 21, 2026 · Tier A

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