StrongDM vs

StrongDM is a Zero Trust PAM platform that extends the capabilities of traditional privileged access management (PAM) to support all modern infrastructure, including databases, servers, Kubernetes clusters, clouds, and web applications. StrongDM combines authentication, authorization, networking, and observability into a single platform, providing secure and auditable access for the precise amount of time that access is needed. The product is designed to unify and simplify privileged access workflows by providing low-friction, dynamic connectivity to virtually every piece of infrastructure in your stack.

• DevOps: DevOps teams can provision and deprovision access to specific instances, servers, or databases, in a matter of clicks.
• Security & Compliance: Security and compliance teams gain full visibility into “who did what when” on each system, including video playback of what individual users have executed on specific systems. For compliance, full records are kept of “who was in each system and what were they doing” at any given point in time.
• Admins: Access to critical infrastructure can be granted and revoked quickly and easily, greatly simplifying user onboarding and offboarding, provisioning for third parties, and the ability to provide access for a specified period of time. Users, roles, and access are easily managed via an Admin UI (CLI available as well).

1. Support a Greater Breadth of Resources

StrongDM supports a much larger variety of systems and protocols, including older systems that enterprises still rely on. StrongDM allows users to authenticate using credentials, cloud-native authentication, or certificate-based authentication. Teleport's solution, however, lacks support for legacy systems and authentication protocols means that they are a point solution for modern cloud architecture. Teleport only supports more modern systems that will allow their certificate-based authentication. 

The Teleport agents run as root in every server you want to audit, creating a new attack vector and a new surface to protect. This also limits user access to critical infrastructure in the event that Teleport goes down. While Teleport does offer an agentless mode, it offers very limited features that do not include role-based access controls or granular auditing.

2. Leverage Your Existing Security Investment

StrongDM can leverage existing integrations with your vault, PAM, or IGA solutions and give you time to transition on your own schedule. Teleport does not integrate with other elements of the security ecosystem, forcing you to replicate your investment in IGA, device posture, etc. 

3. Reliability

StrongDM updates daily without any downtime. Whereas, Teleport cloud is unreliable and availability numbers are inaccurate. When Teleport requires an update it results in downtime which means you can lose access to your critical systems for up to 6 hours. When there is a partial outage customers also lose all access to audit data putting compliance at risk.

4. Simplify Identity Lifecycle Management

StrongDM supports SCIM integration with identity providers to sync user and group provisioning, and this automates joiner, mover, leaver workflows. Teleport only supports certificates and cloud provider IAM authentication, and this greatly limits the systems they can connect to and your freedom of operation.

5. Easier to Adopt, Manage, and Maintain

StrongDM does not require agents to be installed on end resources. This means fewer administrative headaches in managing the solution and faster time-to-value for the product. With Teleport, you need to deploy an agent on every target resource as well as two different Teleport services (proxy and authentication).

The Teleport agents run as root in every server you want to audit, creating a new attack vector and a new surface to protect. This also limits user access to critical infrastructure in the event that Teleport goes down. While Teleport has an agentless mode, it offers very limited features that do not include role-based access controls or granular auditing.

💡Make it easy: Agentless architecture makes it easy to deploy, manage, and maintain StrongDM. Enforce just-in-time (JIT) security policies to cloud-native and hybrid infrastructures. Agents cannot be deployed on cloud-managed databases limiting Teleport’s agent design to provide JIT to all resources. Try it yourself.

StrongDM updates daily without any downtime, whereas Teleport places the burden of configuration management and high availability on the customer. Teleport cloud is unreliable, and availability numbers are inaccurate. When Teleport requires an update, it results in downtime, which means you can lose access to your critical systems for up to 6 hours. When there is a partial outage, customers also lose all access to audit data putting compliance at risk.

6. Secure and Auditable

StrongDM provides Advanced Insights to report on unused privileged access, sensitive access grants, and an overall access review at any point in time. Teleport has no such capability, making it impossible to prove to an auditor who had access to which systems when.

💡Make it easy: Out-of-the-box reports quantify your access permissions. Track metrics to enforce least privilege, prove security policies are enforced, answer access audit questions efficiently, and simplify incident investigations. Try it yourself.

7. Context-based Policy Control

StrongDM allows customers to define context-aware policies against StrongDM resources and enforce them with a centralized configuration. Teleport offers an access graph for comprehensive visibility of policies without centralized access management capabilities.

8. Pricing

StrongDM offers simple pricing, including support for all resource types. Teleport offers licensing by user and by resource, making costs add up quickly.

No, StrongDM operates with an agentless architecture, while Teleport requires agents on every server.

StrongDM eliminates the need for installing and maintaining agents on individual servers, databases, and Kubernetes clusters. This agentless approach significantly reduces operational overhead, simplifies deployment, and minimizes security risks associated with agent-based access control.

In contrast, Teleport relies on agents (Teleport nodes) that must be installed on each resource, requiring additional configuration, maintenance, and monitoring. This agent-based approach can introduce performance bottlenecks, potential vulnerabilities, and compatibility issues, especially in diverse and hybrid environments.

The StrongDM advantage: StrongDM’s agentless architecture ensures faster deployment, lower complexity, and reduced security risks compared to Teleport’s agent-based model.

StrongDM supports both modern and legacy systems, while Teleport is primarily focused on cloud-native environments.

Many enterprises still rely on legacy systems such as mainframes, on-prem databases, and older infrastructure components. StrongDM provides seamless access to these systems alongside modern cloud environments, ensuring a unified access strategy across all resources.

Teleport, on the other hand, is designed for modern, cloud-native environments, primarily supporting Kubernetes, Linux servers, and SSH-based access. While Teleport excels in cloud deployments, it has limited support for legacy infrastructure, making it less suitable for organizations with mixed environments.

The StrongDM advantage: StrongDM’s broad resource support makes it a better fit for enterprises needing secure access to both legacy and modern infrastructure.

Yes, StrongDM integrates seamlessly with existing security tools, while Teleport often requires infrastructure replication.

StrongDM is designed to augment an organization's existing security stack, integrating out-of-the-box with:

• Identity providers (Okta, Azure AD, Google Workspace)
• Privileged Access Management (PAM) solutions
• Secrets management tools (AWS Secrets Manager, HashiCorp Vault)
• SIEMs and logging tools

This allows organizations to keep their current security investments while extending secure access management across all environments.

Teleport, however, requires organizations to adopt its proprietary infrastructure, making it more difficult to integrate with existing security tools without additional workarounds.

The StrongDM advantage: StrongDM’s seamless security integration prevents vendor lock-in and allows companies to maintain their existing security workflows.

StrongDM is easier to deploy and manage due to its agentless architecture, while Teleport’s agent-based model adds complexity.

• StrongDM: Deployment is as simple as connecting resources via a centralized control plane. No agents need to be installed, reducing time and complexity. Organizations can go live within hours instead of days or weeks.
• Teleport: Requires installing and maintaining agents (Teleport nodes) on every server and database. This increases setup time, maintenance efforts, and potential compatibility issues. Teleport’s configuration files and authentication settings require more manual intervention.

Additionally, StrongDM provides daily, zero-downtime updates, ensuring continuous reliability. Teleport’s updates can cause significant service interruptions, with some users reporting downtime of up to six hours due to version upgrades.

The StrongDM advantage: StrongDM’s quick deployment and low maintenance make it a more scalable and hassle-free access solution compared to Teleport.

StrongDM offers simple pricing, while Teleport’s pricing is less straightforward and may require consultation.

• StrongDM: Offers a simple pricing model, covering all resource types (databases, servers, Kubernetes, desktops, and cloud environments)
• Teleport: Pricing is tiered based on features and infrastructure size, making costs harder to predict. Enterprise pricing requires custom quotes and may include extra costs for advanced features like role-based access control (RBAC) and session recording.

Additionally, StrongDM’s pricing includes premium support and dedicated onboarding, whereas Teleport may require separate agreements for premium support.

The StrongDM advantage: StrongDM offers clear and predictable pricing, making cost planning easier for organizations compared to Teleport’s more variable pricing model.