Privileged Access Management Solutions for Small Business: 6 Options Compared

Privileged access management (PAM) solutions control the accounts that can change your systems: Microsoft 365 and server administrators, the local admin account on every laptop, service accounts, firewall logins and vendor remote access. For a small business, look for a vault that stores and rotates shared admin passwords, admin rights granted for a set time instead of held permanently, a log or recording of privileged sessions, and vendor access that expires on its own. Start with what you may already have: Windows LAPS rotates local admin passwords at no charge, and Microsoft Entra PIM is included wherever you license Entra ID P2.

The six solutions below fit small and mid-sized businesses. Each is described from its vendor's own pages, checked October 2026, and listed in no particular order. Disclosure: NetSys runs privileged access programs and Entra PIM rollouts for clients, and our managed security stack uses the Keeper password manager; no vendor paid for a mention. If you need the concepts first, read what privileged access management is; this guide is about choosing a product.

Which privileged access problem are you solving?

PAM products overlap, but each is strongest at one of five jobs. Match the job before the brand:

• Microsoft 365 and Azure admin roles. Make roles eligible instead of permanent, activated for a set window with approval for the most sensitive. That is Microsoft Entra PIM.
• Local admin rights on laptops. Remove standing admin rights and approve installs case by case with endpoint privilege management, and let Windows LAPS rotate the local administrator password on each PC. Our guide to turning on Windows LAPS and removing local admin rights walks through it.
• Shared infrastructure passwords. Firewall, switch, backup and hypervisor logins belong in a vault with check-out, rotation and a record of who used them.
• Vendor and remote access. Outside support should connect through a brokered session that expires and can be recorded, not a permanent VPN account.
• Service accounts. Accounts that run backups and sync jobs need discovery and careful rotation, because changing a password can break the job that uses it.

How do the six PAM solutions compare?

Prices are published figures where vendors publish them, as of October 2026. Effort to run is our engineering judgment of the ongoing work.

What is each PAM solution good at?

Microsoft Entra PIM

Microsoft Entra Privileged Identity Management turns standing admin roles into eligible ones. An administrator activates a role such as Exchange Administrator for a set window, and you can require multifactor authentication, a stated reason and approval before activation; every activation is logged and access reviews confirm people still need their roles. Microsoft's licensing guidance requires Entra ID P2 or Entra ID Governance for each person with an eligible or time-bound role, each approver and each reviewer, listed at $10.00 and $7.00 per user per month as of October 2026. P2 also comes in the Defender Suite add-on for Business Premium. PIM does not vault a firewall password or record a server session, so a firm with shared infrastructure passwords pairs it with one of the tools below.

KeeperPAM

KeeperPAM is a cloud-based platform that combines Keeper's password vault with secrets management, connection and database management, automated credential rotation, privileged session recording with playback, endpoint privilege management and remote browser isolation. A Keeper Gateway runs on Windows, Linux or Docker inside your network to broker connections, so administrators and vendors open sessions to servers from the vault. Keeper sells KeeperPAM on custom pricing and offers a free trial. It is a natural next step for a business already using Keeper for team passwords.

Devolutions PAM

Devolutions says its PAM is designed with small and mid-sized businesses in mind. It discovers privileged accounts in Active Directory, Entra ID, SSH, SQL Server and local Windows accounts, rotates credentials on a schedule, grants just-in-time checkout with approvers and an MFA step before a credential is released, and lets you watch sessions live or review them later. It runs on a self-hosted Devolutions Server or on Devolutions Cloud. Devolutions publishes prices: its Privileged access management package is $50 per user per month billed annually and includes Remote Desktop Manager and Devolutions Gateway, with a 14-day trial.

Admin By Request

Admin By Request tackles a common small business privilege problem: everyone is a local administrator on their own laptop. Staff stay on standard accounts and request elevation, either to run one application as admin or for a timed admin session, and each request can be approved manually or pre-approved for known software, across Windows, macOS and Linux. The free plan covers 25 endpoint privilege management seats and 25 remote access seats for life with all features, enough for many small offices; larger fleets get a quote. Pair it with Windows LAPS so the local administrator password on every PC is unique and rotated.

Delinea Secret Server

Delinea Secret Server is a full privileged account vault. It discovers and inventories privileged accounts automatically, stores credentials in an encrypted vault, rotates them with ready-made templates, and records privileged sessions with audit trails. Delinea's documentation covers both on-premises and cloud releases. It suits a mid-sized firm whose auditors or insurer expect discovery and session evidence. Pricing is by request, and Delinea offers a 30-day free trial.

ManageEngine PAM360

PAM360 is ManageEngine's self-hosted PAM suite, covering control of privileged credentials across endpoints, cloud and databases, just-in-time privilege elevation, and management of SSH keys and SSL/TLS certificates. Unusually, the price is published: an annual subscription for 10 administrators and 25 keys is $7,995, and a free edition covers one administrator and 10 resources. You run the servers, including any high-availability pair. A cloud edition is listed as beta, and the trial lasts 30 days.

PAM selection checklist

1. Inventory before you buy: list every admin role, local admin account, service account, shared infrastructure login and vendor connection, with an owner for each.
2. Check target support: ask whether the product can rotate the password on your specific firewall, switch, backup appliance and business application, or only store it.
3. Separate people from services: human admins can use MFA and approvals, but an unattended service account cannot answer an MFA prompt and needs a different design.
4. Plan emergency access: keep a documented break-glass account that does not depend on the PAM tool, the approver or the vault being available.
5. Decide what evidence you need: role activation logs, credential check-out records and session recordings are different things, with different storage and privacy questions.
6. Cover approvals after hours: name backup approvers, or a just-in-time workflow will stop work the first time the only approver is away.
7. Price the full scope: confirm whether session recording, endpoint privilege management and secrets management are included or sold as separate modules.

What drives PAM pricing?

• The licensing unit: per user for Entra and Devolutions, per administrator plus keys for PAM360, per endpoint seat for Admin By Request, and custom quotes for Keeper and Delinea.
• Modules: vaulting, rotation, session management, endpoint privilege management and secrets management are separate line items at some vendors and bundled at others.
• Hosting: self-hosted products add servers, backups and high availability; cloud products include them.
• Implementation: discovery, mapping each service account's dependencies before rotating it, emergency access and a pilot. This usually takes more time than configuring the product.
• Operation: approvals, access reviews, adding and removing admins and vendors, and checking the logs.

When should an IT provider run PAM for you?

When nobody inside can map every privileged account to the systems it touches. PAM breaks in operational ways: a rotated password that stops the backup job, or an approval nobody is awake to give. The inventory comes before any product.

Our privileged access management service begins with that inventory: tenant and server administrators, service accounts and vendor logins, each with an owner and the systems it can reach. Then we separate admin identities, vault and rotate credentials where the target supports it, add time-limited elevation and vendor access that expires, and keep the evidence auditors and insurers ask for. Credential changes are piloted on representative systems with recovery steps written down first. For Entra PIM we confirm licensing before anything else, then pilot activation, approval and emergency access. The quote follows the target systems, account types, existing licenses and evidence you need, with platform fees, onboarding and ongoing operations listed separately.

Book a call with a NetSys engineer for help deciding which of these your environment needs. Bring a count of admin accounts and vendors with remote access, and leave the passwords out.

Frequently asked questions

What is a privileged access management tool?

A privileged access management tool controls and records the use of accounts with administrative rights. Depending on the product, it stores admin passwords in a vault and rotates them, grants admin rights for a limited time after approval, brokers and records remote sessions to servers and network equipment, and removes standing local admin rights from laptops. The goal is that a stolen everyday password does not come with the power to change everything.

Which PAM products fit our systems and team size?

For a small Microsoft 365 office, Entra PIM for cloud admin roles, Windows LAPS for local admin passwords and Admin By Request's free plan for laptop elevation cover the most common gaps. Add KeeperPAM or Devolutions when you have shared infrastructure passwords and vendors connecting to servers. Delinea Secret Server and PAM360 fit larger or audit-heavy environments, and PAM360 suits firms that must host everything themselves.

What is included in PAM pricing?

The license covers the product modules you buy, counted per user, per administrator, per endpoint or by quote. It usually does not cover discovery, mapping service-account dependencies, setting up emergency access, piloting rotation, or running approvals and reviews afterward. Self-hosted products add server costs. Ask each vendor for a quote that names the modules, the count it is based on and the contract term.

Who owns implementation and support?

Decide this in writing before you buy. The vendor supports the product; someone on your side or your IT provider owns the account inventory, the rotation schedule, approvals, emergency access and the response when a rotation breaks a service. If that owner is your provider, the agreement should list which systems and accounts are in scope and who can approve access after hours.

Is there a free privileged access management solution?

Several free pieces exist. Windows LAPS is built into supported Windows versions at no cost and backs up local admin passwords to Entra ID or Active Directory. Admin By Request is free for 25 seats, and ManageEngine's PAM360 free edition covers one administrator and 10 resources. Entra PIM is not free: it needs Entra ID P2 or Entra ID Governance licenses.

Does Microsoft 365 Business Premium include PIM?

No. Business Premium includes Entra ID P1, and Microsoft's licensing documentation says PIM needs Entra ID P2 or Entra ID Governance for eligible admins, approvers and reviewers. You can license just those people, or add Microsoft's Defender Suite for Business Premium, which includes Entra ID P2, at $10.00 per user per month paid yearly as of October 2026.

Sources and further reading

• Microsoft Learn: What is Privileged Identity Management and Entra ID Governance licensing fundamentals, checked October 2026.
• Microsoft Entra plans and pricing and Defender Suite for Business Premium, checked October 2026.
• Microsoft Learn: Windows LAPS overview, including licensing.
• KeeperPAM documentation and Keeper business pricing, checked October 2026.
• Devolutions PAM and Devolutions pricing, checked October 2026.
• Admin By Request and its pricing, checked October 2026.
• Delinea Secret Server, checked October 2026.
• ManageEngine PAM360 pricing, checked October 2026.