CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Akeyless vs CyberArk

Akeyless is an Identity Security Platform for securing machine, AI agent, and human identities across cloud, hybrid, and on-prem environments. CyberArk sells the Idira Identity Security Platform, which brings together modern privileged access management (PAM), machine identity security and agentic identity security. 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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  • Akeyless
  • CyberArk
Akeyless vs CyberArk: 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.ioCyberArkCyberArk sells the Idira Identity Security Platform, which brings together modern privileged access management (PAM), machine identity security and agentic identity security.cyberark.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.
  • Modern PAM[12]Provides discovery of privileged access and dynamic privileged access for human identities.
  • Secrets Management[1][3][12]Secures machine identities from secrets to workloads.
  • Agentic identity security[12]Discovers, controls and governs agentic identities at scale.
Categories
Headquarters
Not stated on its pagesPetach-Tikva, Israel[4]
Founded
Not stated on its pages1999[4]
Ownership and funding
Privately held[3]Owned by Palo Alto Networks since 2026[1][14]
Named customers
Not stated on its pages
  • Northern Trust[5]
  • Healthfirst[6]
  • Carnival Corporation[7]
  • Aflac[8]
  • Webster Bank[9]
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]
  • June 2, 2026Palo Alto Networks reported fiscal third quarter 2026 revenue of $3.0 billion, including $388 million from CyberArk and Chronosphere combined.[10]
  • May 12, 2026Palo Alto Networks launched Idira, an identity security platform built on CyberArk's privileged access products, adding new capabilities for existing CyberArk customers.[11]
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: listed, seen November 10, 2026[3]
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • Gartner Peer Insights: listed, seen October 24, 2026[14]
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, the company sells mainly to organizations that want to secure human, machine and agentic identities on one platform. It names customers such as a group of dental practices, a government services organization and an organization with vault sprawl to control. Its pages address existing CyberArk customers moving to Idira.
Last verified
October 7, 2026September 27, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Akeyless and CyberArk 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; CyberArk's is Privileged access management.
  • Akeyless is also filed under Machine identity and PKI and Encryption, tokenization and key management. CyberArk is also filed under Identity governance and administration.
  • Akeyless lists SecretlessAI® and Agentic Runtime Authority. CyberArk lists Modern PAM, Secrets Management and Agentic identity security.
  • CyberArk is headquartered in Petach-Tikva, Israel.
  • CyberArk was founded in 1999.
  • Akeyless is privately held. CyberArk is owned by Palo Alto Networks, since 2026.
  • CyberArk publicly names Northern Trust, Healthfirst, Carnival Corporation, Aflac and Webster Bank.

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: CyberArk

What Modern PAM does[12]
Modern PAM provides discovery with continuous visibility and AI-driven analytics. It eliminates always-on standing privileges. A unified command center streamlines deployment through automation and embeds threat detection directly into privileged workflows.
What Secrets Management does[1][3][12]
The Idira platform includes discovery, risk analytics and modern secrets management. It includes governance and reporting for all vaults and workloads.
What Agentic identity security does[12]
Idira secures agentic identities alongside human and machine identities. Machine and agentic identities are often referred to as nonhuman identities.

Questions about Akeyless and CyberArk

What do Akeyless and CyberArk sell?
Akeyless sells SecretlessAI® and Agentic Runtime Authority. CyberArk sells Modern PAM, Secrets Management and Agentic identity security.
Are Akeyless and CyberArk in the same category?
They share Non-human identity security and Privileged access management. Akeyless's primary category is Non-human identity security and CyberArk's is Privileged access management.
Where are Akeyless and CyberArk headquartered?
CyberArk is headquartered in Petach-Tikva, Israel.
When were Akeyless and CyberArk founded?
CyberArk was founded in 1999.
Who owns Akeyless and CyberArk?
Akeyless is privately held. CyberArk is owned by Palo Alto Networks, since 2026.
Which customers do Akeyless and CyberArk name?
CyberArk publicly names Northern Trust, Healthfirst, Carnival Corporation, Aflac and Webster Bank.
Who are Akeyless and CyberArk sold to?
Akeyless describes a clientele that ranges from startups to multinational corporations. From its own pages, the company sells mainly to organizations that want to secure human, machine and agentic identities on one platform.
What have Akeyless and CyberArk announced recently?
October 26, 2026: Akeyless announced its first inclusion in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Privileged Access Management. June 2, 2026: Palo Alto Networks reported fiscal third quarter 2026 revenue of $3.0 billion, including $388 million from CyberArk and Chronosphere combined.

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

CyberArk full record

  1. [1]Palo alto networks completes acquisition of cyberark to secure the ai eraPalo Alto Networks · paloaltonetworks.com · published February 11, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]CyberArk is now Idira Frequently Asked QuestionsCyberArk (Idira Team) · community.cyberark.com · published September 21, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]IdiraPalo Alto Networks · paloaltonetworks.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Zk2532806CyberArk Software Ltd. via SEC EDGAR · sec.gov · undated page, accessed May 1, 2025 · Tier A
  5. [5]Northern trustPalo Alto Networks · paloaltonetworks.com · undated page, accessed October 10, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]HealthfirstPalo Alto Networks · paloaltonetworks.com · undated page, accessed October 10, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Carnival corporationPalo Alto Networks · paloaltonetworks.com · undated page, accessed October 10, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]AflacPalo Alto Networks · paloaltonetworks.com · undated page, accessed October 10, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Webster bankPalo Alto Networks · paloaltonetworks.com · undated page, accessed October 10, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Palo alto networks reports fiscal third quarter 2026 financial resultsPalo Alto Networks · paloaltonetworks.com · published June 2, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Palo alto networks introduces idira the next generation identity security platform built for the ai enterprisePalo Alto Networks · paloaltonetworks.com · published May 12, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Idira | The Identity Security Platform - Palo Alto NetworksCyberArk · undated page, accessed October 24, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]CyberArk Introduces First Identity Security Solution Purpose-Built to Protect AI Agents with Privilege ControlsBusiness Wire · published November 4, 2025 · Tier A
  14. [14]Palo Alto Networks (CyberArk) Reviews - GartnerGartner Peer Insights · undated page, accessed October 24, 2026 · Tier C

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