Top 8 PAM and Passwordless Access Tools for UAE

Compromised credentials remain the starting point for most breaches, and privileged accounts are the ones attackers want most. At the same time, regulators across the UAE are pushing organisations toward stronger, phishing resistant authentication. NCA, NESA, and SAMA requirements increasingly expect both privileged access management (PAM) and passwordless or hardware backed MFA, not one or the other.

Choosing between the two categories is not really the decision in front of most security teams this year. The real decision is which specific tools fit a hybrid, compliance heavy, third party dependent environment, and who can deploy them properly. Below is a ranked look at eight tools worth evaluating, followed by the question that matters more than any feature comparison: who implements it.

1. Fudo Security

Fudo Security is a strong starting point for UAE enterprises because it is built for exactly the environment most organisations here operate in: hybrid infrastructure, heavy use of third party contractors and outsourced IT teams, and regulators asking for audit trails that hold up under scrutiny.

Fudo's PAM platform is agentless, meaning nothing needs to be installed on endpoints, and it can be live in under 24 hours. It analyses more than 1,400 behavioural signals per session and can automatically pause or terminate a session when behaviour deviates from a user's established baseline. Fudo ShareAccess extends the same control to vendors and contractors without requiring VPN credentials or shared accounts, which is one of the more common access gaps in Gulf enterprises that rely on external service providers.

The Kernel is Fudo Security's authorised distribution partner for the UAE and wider MEA region, and maps its audit capabilities directly to NCA, NESA, SAMA, and PCI-DSS.

View the Fudo Security vendor page →

2. CyberArk

CyberArk is the market share leader in enterprise PAM and the name most security leaders think of first. It offers the broadest feature set of any platform on this list, covering credential vaulting, endpoint privilege management, threat analytics, secrets management, and cloud entitlements across both human and non-human identities.

For large, complex enterprises with significant budget and a mature security function, CyberArk's depth is hard to match. That depth also comes with a longer, more resource intensive deployment than some organisations expect going in.

3. BeyondTrust

BeyondTrust has held a Leader position in PAM analyst rankings for several years running. Its platform brings together PAM, identity threat detection and response, endpoint privilege management, remote access, and identity analytics in one place, which appeals to teams that want fewer point solutions to manage.

It is a strong fit for organisations that already use BeyondTrust for remote support and want to extend into full privileged access control without adding another vendor relationship.

4. Delinea

Delinea was formed from the merger of Thycotic and Centrify and has positioned itself as the more accessible Leader for mid-market organisations. Its Secret Server and Privileged Access Service products cover the core PAM use cases with a faster time to value and a lower total cost of ownership than CyberArk.

For UAE organisations that need solid PAM fundamentals without enterprise level complexity, Delinea is worth a look.

5. Microsoft Entra ID (Passwordless)

For organisations already standardised on Microsoft 365, which describes a large share of enterprises in the UAE, Entra ID's passwordless capabilities are often the lowest friction place to start. Windows Hello for Business, FIDO2 security key support, and Microsoft Authenticator phone sign-in are included within licensing many organisations already hold.

The trade-off is that Entra ID is an identity platform first and a passwordless specialist second. Organisations with complex legacy applications or mixed device estates typically need it paired with a dedicated MFA or PKI platform to cover the gaps.

6. HYPR

HYPR built its platform around passwordless from the start rather than adding it on top of an existing password based system. It turns a smartphone into a FIDO2 virtual security key, delivering biometric, passkey based authentication that the vendor states is significantly faster than traditional MFA.

HYPR is well suited to workforce authentication at scale, including desktop login, VPN, and VDI access, and integrates with existing identity providers rather than requiring organisations to replace them.

7. Beyond Identity

Beyond Identity takes a device bound approach to passwordless authentication, cryptographically binding a user's identity to their specific device and continuously analysing device security posture as part of every authentication decision. This gives it a stronger zero trust angle than most passwordless tools, since access decisions factor in device health, not just who is logging in.

It is a good option for security teams that want passwordless authentication and device trust enforcement handled by a single platform rather than stitched together from two.

8. ARCON

ARCON is the least known name on this list globally, but it has built a genuinely strong footprint in India and the Middle East specifically, with more than 250 enterprise deployments across banking, government, healthcare, and fintech. Its PAM suite covers access control, MFA, session management, credential vaulting, just-in-time privileges, and identity threat detection.

For organisations that want a PAM platform with an established regional track record and a lower price point than the global Leaders, ARCON is worth including on a shortlist, even though it rarely comes up in global analyst conversations.

The tool is not the hard part. The deployment is.

Every platform on this list can do what its marketing claims. The gap between a successful PAM or passwordless rollout and a stalled one almost never comes down to the product. It comes down to whether someone maps the deployment to your actual infrastructure, configures policies that match how your teams really work, and produces the compliance evidence your regulator expects to see on day one.

This is particularly true in the UAE and wider MEA region, where hybrid environments, third party access, and frameworks like NCA, NESA, and SAMA add requirements that most vendors, wherever they are headquartered, do not fully understand out of the box.

Whichever tool ends up on your shortlist, the question worth asking before you sign anything is who deploys it, who trains your team, and who stays involved after go-live. That is the part a feature comparison will never tell you.

‍

Ready to compare PAM and passwordless options for your environment?

Talk to our team | Explore our vendor portfolio

‍