STRONGDM VS. APONO

Identity security vendors — compare the differences

Deciding what to grant is not the same as controlling what happens after.

StrongDM stays in the path for the life of the session, authorizing every action as it happens. Apono authorizes the grant, then steps back.

session · prod-postgres — via StrongDM LIVE 00:15:32

09:41:02 SELECT * FROM payments WHERE created_at > … ALLOWED

09:41:07 credential injected at proxy — never exposed

09:41:11 policy re-evaluated · identity + posture ok 214 MS

09:41:19 ssh deploy@10.2.14.7 — credential brokered ALLOWED

09:41:23 DROP TABLE users; BLOCKED

09:41:24 session flagged + recorded for replay ENFORCED

● authorization evaluated continuously — every request, all session long

grant · aws-iam — via Apono NO SIGNAL

09:41:02 access request evaluated · role created GRANTED

09:41:03 native credential handed to requester ISSUED

09:41:04 —

09:41:11 (no in-session visibility)

09:41:19 (no command-level control)

09:41:24 summary generated after the fact

○ involvement ends once the credential is issued

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StrongDM delivers (now Delinea) built for the way modern teams actually run access

Easier to implement. Easier to use. Easier to manage.

StrongDM brokers and controls access sessions across your infrastructure, injecting credentials at the point of connection instead of handing them out, all through one identity, one policy, and one audit trail. Apono ties access decisions to your cloud provider’s own IAM, then steps back once the grant is made.

Credentials are injected at the moment of connection and revoked the instant the task ends. Nothing is left standing for an attacker to find.

Every command, query, or tool call is checked against policy while the session is live, not just at the door.

Enforcement runs underneath the tools your teams already use, so nothing about the workflow gets slower.

Gateways and relays run redundant, with automatic failover, so the control plane doesn’t go down with a single node.

ONE POLICY, ONE AUDIT TRAIL

Identity security built for the AI era

StrongDM centralizes authorization across every human, machine, or AI agent identity, and enforces it at runtime instead of reviewing it after the fact.

MCP Gateway

MCP Gateway authorizes each tool call an AI agent makes before it executes. Live today for Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex CLI, GitHub Copilot in VS Code, and Kiro.

No credential in the agent

The agent never holds a credential; only the action gets authorized.

Same policy for machines

Service accounts and pipelines get the same policy and audit treatment as human users.

Claude Code Claude Desktop Codex CLI GitHub Copilot · VS Code Kiro

COMPARE THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN STRONGDM AND APONO

StrongDM reduces risk and simplifies operations

StrongDM extends access control into continuous, in-session authorization across every human, machine, and AI identity.

criterion
Session recording and control	Available Available	Not offered Not offered
Works with your existing vault	Available, vault agnostic Available	Adopt 1Password’s vault Not offered
In-session enforcement, not just at the grant	Available, proxy in the path Available	Decision layer only Not offered
Credential separation (never reaches the requester)	Available Available	Time-boxed, but issued directly Partial / limited
Real-time blocking or redaction	Postgres, SQL Server today Partial / limited	Detection only, after the fact Not offered
Zero standing privilege, ChatOps-driven JIT	Available Available	Available Available
Infrastructure breadth beyond cloud IAM	Servers, Kubernetes, network, 47+ DBs Available	Cloud IAM + named DBs Partial / limited
Per-tool-call policy enforcement	MCP Gateway Available	Intent-vs-behavior drift detection Partial / limited
Credential separation (never reaches the agent)	Available Available	Time-boxed native credential Partial / limited
Data path enforcement of agent actions	Available Available	Decision layer, not the connection Not offered
Compliance certifications	PCI DSS, SOC 2, CCPA, GDPR, VPAT Available	SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, GDPR Partial / limited

Available Partial / limited Not offered

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Jonathan Hyman — Jon Hyman Co-Founder & CTO, Braze

Michael DaSilva_Yext — Michael DaSilva Infrastructure Security Manager, Yext

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Why the differences between StrongDM and Apono matter

Granting access is not the same as controlling the session

Apono’s job is to decide what to grant: evaluate the request, create a native cloud credential or IAM role, hand it over. StrongDM does that too, then stays.

Apono’s involvement ends once the credential is issued.

StrongDM brokers the connection and stays in the data path for the life of the session, so something is still watching after the grant.

A grant summary is not a session recording

A risk score or an AI-generated summary can tell you a grant happened. It doesn’t show you what actually ran inside the session.

Apono summarizes the request and grant after the fact.

StrongDM records command-level replay and video for RDP, so the session can be reconstructed, not just described.

Cloud IAM is not the only place privileged access lives

Apono is purpose-built for AWS, Azure, GCP, and Kubernetes IAM. Most environments still run servers, network devices, and databases that sit outside cloud IAM entirely.

A cloud-IAM-only tool doesn’t reach servers, network gear, or the 47+ database engines StrongDM brokers.

StrongDM runs one model across cloud and non-cloud infrastructure instead of a separate tool for each.

Two different jobs

decides what to grant

Apono decides what to grant. It evaluates a request, creates a native cloud IAM role or credential, and hands it over. That’s a provisioning layer, and Apono is built for cloud IAM. Deciding what to grant is not the same as controlling what happens once it’s been granted.

controls the entire access path

StrongDM controls the entire access path. It brokers the connection, injects the credential at the proxy so the requester never sees or handles it, checks every command or tool call against policy while the session runs, and can record and terminate the session if something goes wrong.

The same proxy model covers service accounts and AI agents the way it covers human identities, so teams run one access model instead of a separate one for cloud IAM, another for servers, and a third for agents. An Apono implementation gets fast, native, purpose-built cloud IAM provisioning, but still needs the in-session control, replayable audit and non-cloud infrastructure coverage a broker model provides.

Ephemeral credentials are not the same as controlling the session

Apono removes standing privilege with just-in-time, ephemeral native cloud credentials, created and torn down per request. It doesn’t inject the credential at a proxy, so the requester never sees it, records and terminates a live session, or reaches infrastructure outside cloud IAM.

StrongDM brokers the connection, so a compromised session or an over-permissioned agent has nothing to take. It authorizes each action before it runs, for as long as the session lasts, records and can end the session live, and works with the vault you already run.

Frequently asked questions

How is StrongDM different from Apono?

Apono decides at the door: it writes a grant into your cloud provider’s IAM system and steps back. StrongDM stays in the path for the life of the session, authorizing what happens after the grant, not just deciding whether to make it.

Does StrongDM enforce privileged actions in real time?

Yes, on Postgres and Microsoft SQL Server today, with more database engine coverage on the roadmap. StrongDM can block a destructive query or redact specific columns before they run. Apono’s enforcement stops at the request boundary; anomaly detection happens after the fact.

Is StrongDM cloud-native?

StrongDM’s control plane is cloud-native, and it also reaches infrastructure a pure cloud-IAM tool can’t. It supports servers, Kubernetes, network devices, and 47+ database engines, not just cloud provider consoles. Apono is specifically for AWS, Azure, GCP, and Kubernetes IAM plus a named set of databases; that’s a different approach architecturally.

Does StrongDM support AI agents and non-human identities?

Yes. MCP Gateway authorizes each tool call live today for Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex CLI, GitHub Copilot in VS Code, and Kiro. Service accounts and pipelines get the same policy and audit treatment as human users. Apono’s Intent-Based Access Control compares an agent’s declared intent to its real-time behavior and narrows or revokes access on drift, a different mechanism aimed at the same problem.

What does StrongDM integrate with?

StrongDM works with the vault you already run (CyberArk, HashiCorp, or Delinea Secret Server) and streams every authorization decision, blocked action, and session event to the SIEM or logging platform you already use, including Splunk, Datadog, CloudWatch, and standard syslog. Apono issues and tears down native cloud credentials per request, and under 1Password, it is adding its own vault and credential broker, so the model there is to adopt their vault rather than integrate with the one you already run.

How long does a StrongDM deployment take?

Customers switching from other access tools have gone from proof-of-concept to production without needing professional services hours; larger environments typically phase in by system type rather than a single cutover event.

Can StrongDM create native AWS, Azure, or GCP IAM roles the way Apono does?

Not the same way. StrongDM brokers the connection to a resource through a proxy rather than authoring native cloud IAM policy directly. If native, on-the-fly cloud IAM role creation is the specific job you’re hiring for, that’s Apono’s purpose-built strength. StrongDM’s strength is a single model that also covers servers, databases and infrastructure outside pure cloud IAM.

Is Apono still Apono now that 1Password owns it?

1Password acquired Apono in June 2026 and is assembling it into 1Password Unified Access alongside a vault and a new credential broker. That combination, a vault plus just-in-time access plus credential brokering, is the model StrongDM already runs as one platform today, so the direction validates the approach. The open question for a buyer is whether to wait on an early integration or standardize now on a platform that already brokers the session, injects the credential so the requester never handles it, and reaches infrastructure outside cloud IAM.