By organisation size · verified July 2026
PAM for SMB 2026
Privileged Access Management options for small and mid-sized businesses with under 100 privileged admins. Free tiers cover the founding-team stage; paid SaaS published rates ($4.00 to $13/user/month) cover most SMB workloads.
Direct Answer
What does PAM cost for an SMB in 2026?
Free at the founding-team stage on Teleport Community Edition (under 100 employees and under $10M revenue) and HashiCorp Boundary Community (self-hosted). JumpCloud offers a 30-day free trial rather than a perpetual free tier (its legacy 10-user + 10-device free plan closed to sign-ups after 1 February 2024). On paid published rates, Keeper Business is $4.00/user/month annual and JumpCloud Device Management is $9/user/month. JumpCloud's PAM-bearing Platform Prime tier is quote-only; PAM is delivered via VaultOne, which JumpCloud acquired in May 2025.
Free tiers that cover SMB
- Teleport Community Edition (AGPL). Free for orgs under 100 employees AND under $10M annual revenue. Identity-aware infrastructure access with ephemeral certificates. Self-hosted control plane.
- HashiCorp Boundary Community Edition (MPL 2.0). Free, self-hosted. Best paired with HashiCorp Vault for full PAM-style coverage.
- JumpCloud 30-day trial. Full-feature evaluation for 30 days; the perpetual 10-user + 10-device free plan is legacy-only (closed to sign-ups after 1 February 2024). Suits very early-stage teams testing before they buy.
Paid published SMB rates
| Vendor | Per User / Month (annual) | Per User / Year | Includes dedicated PAM module? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Keeper Business | $4.00 | $45 | Password vault only (KeeperPAM add-on quote-only) |
| JumpCloud Device Management | $9 | $108 | No (directory + device) |
| JumpCloud Device Identity Management | $13 | $156 | No (device identity) |
| JumpCloud Platform Prime | Quote | Quote | Yes, PAM via VaultOne (quote-only) |
| Keeper Enterprise | $6 | $72 | Password vault only with SSO |
Worked example: 30-person engineering startup
Acme Founders Co. (illustrative example, not a real company) is 30 engineers and 5 non-engineering staff, $4M annual revenue.
Teleport Community (qualifies)$0/yr
JumpCloud Device Management 35 users x $108/yr$3,780/yr
Keeper Business 35 users x $45/yr$1,575/yr
RecommendationTeleport (free) + Keeper Business ($1,575) = $1,575/yr
Engineering access via Teleport Community (free), password and shared credential vault via Keeper Business ($48/user/year). Total $1,575/year for a 35-person team is the cheapest serious PAM posture available on published pricing in 2026.
When to upgrade beyond SMB published rates
- Crossing 100 employees or $10M revenue. Teleport Community Edition cap triggers commercial conversion.
- Regulator scrutiny (SOC 2, ISO 27001). Audit-grade session recording typically requires Teleport Enterprise, JumpCloud Platform Prime, or moving to a published-list vendor like ManageEngine PAM360.
- Identity-suite consolidation. If you outgrow Keeper / JumpCloud combined, Okta Workforce Identity Suites ($17/user/mo) bring SSO, MFA, IGA basics and PAM into one contract.
- Full PAM-grade controls. Privileged session brokering, just-in-time elevation, advanced workflow typically push you to Platform Prime, ManageEngine PAM360, or a quote-only enterprise vendor.
See also
- PAM for mid-market: 100-1,000 admins.
- Teleport full dossier.
- Keeper Business full dossier.
- JumpCloud full dossier.
- Run the calculator with your admin count.
Verification date shown per vendor row · Keeper re-verified September 2026