Netwrix recognized for the fifth consecutive year in the 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Privileged Access Management

What five years in the Magic Quadrant for PAM means to us

When we launched the product that became Netwrix Privilege Secure in 2019, most of the PAM market was built around a single idea: put privileged credentials in a vault, rotate them, and record what happens when someone checks one out. That reduces risk, but it also leaves the privileged account standing, whether anyone is using it or not.

We built around a different premise, Zero Standing Privilege. Grant privilege when a task is approved, scope it to that task, and remove it when the session ends. An adversary who lands on a server at 2 a.m. doesn't find a privileged account to steal, a cached credential to replay, or a path to move laterally on. Today that idea draws much less pushback than it did in 2019, but agreeing with it and acting on it are different things. According to the Netwrix 2026 Data and Identity Security Report, 66% of organizations still have standing, always-on access for some or most privileged roles. That's the exposure privilege-based attacks are built on, and it's the number worth holding in mind while you read the report.

Where Netwrix Privilege Secure focuses

Netwrix Privilege Secure applies just-in-time access across desktops, servers, directories (Active Directory and Microsoft Entra ID), cloud resources, network devices, and databases, so there's no corner of the estate where standing privilege quietly survives. Access is granted for an approved activity, verified with MFA, monitored while it runs, and removed when it ends. Secure Remote Access gives third parties and remote admins the same treatment through a browser, with no VPN. Session recording, granular SSH command restrictions, and real-time lock or terminate controls give you both the audit trail and the kill switch.

You don't have to replace what you already own to get there. Bring Your Own Vault connectors let you keep your existing vault and put just-in-time control in front of it, which is usually the fastest route to removing persistent privileged accounts. Netwrix Endpoint Privilege Manager extends the same model to Windows and macOS endpoints, removing local admin rights and elevating individual tasks instead.

Our advice for putting the 2026 report to work

Gartner describes the Magic Quadrant this way:

We suggest taking three steps to help determine your PAM needs and interpret the Gartner report:

1. Start with your own exposure, and list where standing privilege lives today: Domain Admins group membership, local admin rights on endpoints, service accounts nobody owns, and third parties with VPN access.
2. Turn the evaluation criteria into a proof-of-concept script. Ask each vendor to run the scenarios important to you. For example, request a task, complete it, kill a session midway, and show what's left behind. Revocation that only works in a demo doesn’t protect anyone. The real test is whether it works when you need it.
3. Ask every vendor what exists between sessions. If the answer is a standing account with a rotated password, you've learned what you need to know about the architecture.

We go deeper on all three in Our advice for reading the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Privileged Access Management before you buy.

Get the report

Read the complimentary 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Privileged Access Management for the Gartner view of the market, the criteria used to evaluate vendors, and where Netwrix was recognized. If you'd rather see the product than read about it, book a demo and bring your own list of standing accounts.

Gartner®, Magic Quadrant™ for Privileged Access Management, Paul Mezzera, Shubham Gera, Tarun Rohilla, Scott Brinker, Oct. 21, 2026.

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