I was part of the team managing the infrastructure for a small startup company. We used StrongDM to provide access to cloud private networks, control user access to databases, hosts through SSH, and Kubernetes resources.
StrongDM: The Dynamic Access Management Platform
StrongDM, IncExternal reviews
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Seamless, Secure, and Scalable Access Management
What do you like best about the product?
StrongDM’s partner-first mindset makes collaboration easy and impactful. Their platform is intuitive and highly secure, which makes it easy for us to recommend to clients across industries. The integration capabilities are top-notch, allowing us to embed StrongDM into complex environments with minimal friction. Most notably, their customer support is exceptional—both our team and our clients consistently receive fast, knowledgeable, and solution-oriented assistance. This level of support strengthens trust and ensures smooth deployments and ongoing success.
What do you dislike about the product?
There are a few areas where enhancements could further strengthen the collaboration. A more comprehensive partner portal—with features like real-time deal registration, co-marketing resources, and technical enablement materials—would streamline our joint go-to-market efforts. Additionally, expanding regional partner support, particularly in emerging markets, would help us scale more effectively and respond to local customer needs with greater agility.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
StrongDM is solving one of the most pressing challenges in modern IT environments: secure, auditable, and scalable access to infrastructure. Many of our clients struggle with fragmented access controls, manual provisioning, and compliance risks across databases, servers, and Kubernetes clusters. StrongDM addresses these issues by centralizing access management into a single, policy-driven platform that’s both secure and user-friendly. As a partner, this benefits us tremendously—it allows us to deliver faster, more reliable implementations, reduce support overhead, and build long-term trust with clients who value security and operational efficiency. It also opens up new opportunities for us to offer value-added services around access governance and compliance.
It was pretty easy to navigate.
What do you like best about the product?
The user friendliness of the process, it was very comforting to understand right away.
What do you dislike about the product?
The interface, i think it could be designed better.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
It’s making my task of managing my direct reports way easier.
App review
What do you like best about the product?
It’s a really good app once you start learning how to use it.
What do you dislike about the product?
A little difficult to get started. No very good intro to get started to use it.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Securing the information between different enpoints
StrongDM Review
What do you like best about the product?
Centralized Access Management
StrongDM provides a unified gateway for managing access to infrastructure, simplifying the handling of permissions across multiple systems.
Auditability & Session Logging
Every session (SSH, RDP, Kubernetes, database, etc.) is logged and auditable, which helps with compliance (SOC 2, HIPAA, etc.) and troubleshooting.
Granular Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
Fine-grained RBAC makes it easier to enforce least-privilege policies and control access based on user roles, time-based rules, or resource sensitivity.
No Credential Sharing
End users don’t need to know or store passwords, keys, or connection strings. StrongDM handles credentials securely, reducing the risk of leaks.
Seamless Integration with Existing Identity Providers
It integrates well with Okta, Azure AD, Google Workspace, and other IdPs, making onboarding and offboarding automated and secure.
StrongDM provides a unified gateway for managing access to infrastructure, simplifying the handling of permissions across multiple systems.
Auditability & Session Logging
Every session (SSH, RDP, Kubernetes, database, etc.) is logged and auditable, which helps with compliance (SOC 2, HIPAA, etc.) and troubleshooting.
Granular Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
Fine-grained RBAC makes it easier to enforce least-privilege policies and control access based on user roles, time-based rules, or resource sensitivity.
No Credential Sharing
End users don’t need to know or store passwords, keys, or connection strings. StrongDM handles credentials securely, reducing the risk of leaks.
Seamless Integration with Existing Identity Providers
It integrates well with Okta, Azure AD, Google Workspace, and other IdPs, making onboarding and offboarding automated and secure.
What do you dislike about the product?
Vendor Lock-in Risk
Once integrated deeply into your access workflows, migrating away from StrongDM can be complex and costly due to proprietary tooling and workflows.
Limited Community and Open Source Tools
Compared to alternatives like HashiCorp Boundary or Teleport, StrongDM lacks a strong open-source ecosystem and community involvement.
Performance Overhead
Because StrongDM acts as a proxy/gateway for all traffic, some users report slight latency or bottlenecks under high loads or specific network configurations.
Once integrated deeply into your access workflows, migrating away from StrongDM can be complex and costly due to proprietary tooling and workflows.
Limited Community and Open Source Tools
Compared to alternatives like HashiCorp Boundary or Teleport, StrongDM lacks a strong open-source ecosystem and community involvement.
Performance Overhead
Because StrongDM acts as a proxy/gateway for all traffic, some users report slight latency or bottlenecks under high loads or specific network configurations.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
StrongDM helps us solve key challenges around secure infrastructure access, specifically:
Auditing: Every session and command is logged across SSH, RDP, Kubernetes, and databases, giving us detailed audit trails for compliance (e.g. SOC 2, HIPAA) and security reviews.
Just-In-Time Access: We can grant time-bound, least-privilege access to sensitive systems, reducing standing permissions and limiting insider risk.
Access Monitoring: Real-time visibility into who accessed what, when, and how — this improves operational oversight and incident response.
These features significantly reduce our operational burden and improve our security posture without slowing down engineering workflows.
Auditing: Every session and command is logged across SSH, RDP, Kubernetes, and databases, giving us detailed audit trails for compliance (e.g. SOC 2, HIPAA) and security reviews.
Just-In-Time Access: We can grant time-bound, least-privilege access to sensitive systems, reducing standing permissions and limiting insider risk.
Access Monitoring: Real-time visibility into who accessed what, when, and how — this improves operational oversight and incident response.
These features significantly reduce our operational burden and improve our security posture without slowing down engineering workflows.
Fast customer support
What do you like best about the product?
The ease of use and secure connectivity with databases
What do you dislike about the product?
Security breach and data access to unauthorized individual may be a risk factor is any vulnerability could be exploited
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Connecting multiple user in the organization to a database securely
Vendor's Commitment To Customer Success Stands Out
What do you like best about the product?
- ease of operation and setup - full feature set - constantly improving
What do you dislike about the product?
- limited support for oracle databases - search could be improved by allowing to also search by port - logs search could be improved by allowing to search for keywords
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Improve compliance & risk management, replacing legacy remote access solutions with a simple and dependable solution.
I think StrongDM is a great tool to improve people's operations
What do you like best about the product?
I like the secure connection management and the ability to clearly view logs.
What do you dislike about the product?
I dislike some parts of the GUI that in my opinion need to be fixed such as displaying the information needed for a route without going into detail
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Secure Access
Seamlessly manage cloud access with enhanced security features
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
StrongDM was able to replace the combination of different products we previously used for accessing resources on private networks. It provided a simple interface that allowed a few people to manage many resources and securely handle access management needs efficiently.
What is most valuable?
We primarily used StrongDM for access to resources on private networks like EC2 machines, Kubernetes clusters, and various databases. StrongDM facilitated secure access to these, helped with managing access securely via AWS Secrets Manager, and ensured no passwords were circulated within systems or documentation.
What needs improvement?
It would be beneficial to have better control and alignment between frequent updates and improved communication regarding possible negative effects on existing customer bases. Also, documentation sometimes lags behind the new features which can be a problem.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using StrongDM for a year and a half.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
StrongDM is stable and performs well as expected. We did not encounter stability issues with it.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Our environment was small, so we didn't face any scalability issues. However, based on the architecture and provided features, I believe it can scale both vertically and horizontally if needed.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is responsive and knowledgeable. We have a ticketing system and didn't need much direct contact with sales engineers because the support handled our needs well.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used a client VPN for accessing resources and tools like KeyPass for password management. StrongDM replaced the puzzle of different solutions with one single product, which made managing resources more efficient.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was simple due to clear communication and knowledgeable sales engineers who provided necessary help immediately.
What about the implementation team?
Our team consisted of five members, with one person primarily responsible for the system. Two others, including myself, supported the configuration in specific areas like databases and SSH access.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The leadership chose StrongDM after comparative research, which suggests economic benefits. It was mentioned that while the product is rapidly gaining features, it might become cost-prohibitive for wider usage.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I was not part of the evaluation process; another person was running the POC.
What other advice do I have?
The communication is sufficient for implementing StrongDM from scratch. Sales and sales engineers are knowledgeable, providing helpful resources.
I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Excellent Customer Support Sets StrongDM Apart
What do you like best about the product?
The support team is highly responsive, knowledgeable, and always willing to go the extra mile to help us resolve any issues or questions we have. They take the time to understand our specific needs and provide tailored guidance on how to best leverage the platform.
What do you dislike about the product?
While StrongDM gets a lot right, there are a few areas where the platform feels not quite 100% polished. We've encountered some rough edges in terms of configurability and customization options. There have been instances where we wanted to set up access controls or integrations in a specific way, but found that StrongDM didn't provide the necessary flexibility.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
StrongDM has greatly improved how we control SSH access across teams. It provides a centralized platform to manage role-based access permissions, making it easy to enforce least-privilege policies and reduce our attack surface.
Assistance with connection via sdm
What do you like best about the product?
It does exactly what I need with minimal issues.
What do you dislike about the product?
no graphical user interface support on linux
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
sdm allows us to identify and access management to services. This is done with ease to connect the right people to the right services
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