Identity and access management (IAM) controls who can sign in and what they can reach across all of your people and applications, every day, while privileged access management (PAM) adds extra protection for the small number of accounts that can do the most damage, such as administrators, root accounts and service accounts with broad permissions. For a SaaS team of 20 to 200 people, the usual order is to get IAM right first, with single sign-on and strong multi-factor authentication on admin accounts, and to add PAM when you have shared root credentials or production access that has spread beyond what you can track.
This post defines both, compares them side by side, covers where they overlap, and says what to do first. If you are weighing governance as well, our post on IAM vs IGA covers that third piece.
What is IAM?
IAM is the system that stores user identities, authenticates them (passwords, multi-factor authentication, passkeys, single sign-on), and decides which applications and resources each one may use. It covers every employee, and in a product company often every customer too. Typical capabilities are single sign-on, multi-factor authentication, role assignment, user lifecycle (joiners, movers and leavers) and an audit log of sign-ins. If you want the background, see what an identity provider is and what identity management as a service is.
What is PAM?
PAM focuses on privileged accounts: those that can change configuration, read all data, create other accounts or turn off security controls. Typical PAM capabilities are:
- Vaulting of shared secrets, so people check out a credential instead of knowing it.
- Session recording and monitoring of what an administrator did on a server or database.
- Elevation on request, which grants admin rights for a limited time (see what just-in-time access is).
- Rotation of credentials after each use.
How do IAM and PAM compare?
| IAM | PAM | |
|---|---|---|
| Who it covers | Everyone: employees, contractors, often customers | A small set of privileged human and machine accounts |
| Main question | Who is this, and may they use this app? | Who can do dangerous things, when, and what did they do? |
| Typical controls | SSO, MFA, roles, lifecycle, audit log | Credential vault, session recording, time-bound elevation, rotation |
| Typical owner | IT or platform team | Security or infrastructure team |
| Scale | Every identity | A small fraction of all identities |
Where do IAM and PAM overlap?
They share more ground than the labels suggest. Both rely on multi-factor authentication for administrators, both aim at least privilege (NIST’s SP 800-53 Rev. 5 covers this in control AC-6, with enhancement AC-6(7) covering periodic review of privileges), both can use time-bound elevation, and both need an audit trail. In practice a good IAM setup delivers a large part of what a small team needs from PAM, which is why the question “which first?” is a real one.
Where does IGA fit?
Identity governance and administration (IGA) adds the review and evidence layer: who should have access, who approved it and proof that it was removed. PAM protects the most powerful accounts, IAM runs sign-in for everyone, and IGA checks that the access granted to both still makes sense. See our IAM vs IGA post and what a user access review is.
Why do AI agents and service accounts blur the line?
An AI agent or a service account is often both a normal application identity (IAM territory) and a holder of broad permissions (PAM territory). Vendors are responding by combining ideas from all three categories: Descope’s 15 October 2026 announcement of Agentic Identity Hub 3.0, for example, describes an approval step before an agent is provisioned. For a small team, the practical rule is to treat agents as accounts with an owner, a narrow scope and short-lived credentials. Our post on non-human identity and AI agents with Keycloak covers the setup.
What does a 20 to 200 person SaaS team need first?
Start with IAM that is strong where it matters:
- Put all internal tools behind single sign-on, so there is one place to switch off a leaver (see the joiner-mover-leaver process).
- Require phishing-resistant MFA for administrators.
- Keep tokens short-lived and use step-up authentication for sensitive actions.
- Turn on audit events and look at them.
Add PAM once any of these is true: several people share a root or break-glass credential, production access has spread to people nobody can list, or an auditor or customer asks for recorded administrator sessions. Until then, a PAM suite is usually more tooling than the team can run well.
How do you do the IAM half with Keycloak?
Keycloak, the open-source identity server behind Skycloak, provides single sign-on for internal tools through OpenID Connect or SAML, multi-factor authentication with passkeys and authenticator apps, short-lived tokens, and admin events that record changes. It does not vault shared passwords or record sessions, so those remain a separate tool if you need them. The workforce IAM solution page shows how the pieces fit together.
FAQ
What is the difference between IAM and PAM in cyber security?
IAM manages identities and access for all users and applications, while PAM adds controls for the small set of accounts with elevated power, such as vaulting credentials, recording sessions and granting temporary elevation.
Is AWS IAM a PAM?
No. AWS IAM is the permissions system for AWS resources. It can issue temporary credentials and supports least-privilege policies, which are useful building blocks, but it does not vault shared secrets for other systems or record administrator sessions on its own. Teams often combine it with a separate PAM product or with temporary-access tooling.
Do I need both IAM and PAM?
Every organization needs IAM. PAM becomes worthwhile when privileged access is shared, widespread or subject to audit requirements.
Can IAM replace PAM?
For small teams it can cover a lot, including MFA on admins, role-based access and audit logs. It does not replace credential vaulting or session recording, so check whether you need those before deciding.
What is the difference between PAM and IGA?
PAM controls and monitors privileged use in real time, while IGA reviews and documents who holds access over time. They answer different questions and are often bought separately.
What to do next
List your privileged accounts (cloud owner, database admin, identity administrator, shared service credentials) and check each against the IAM basics above. Whatever remains shared or unmonitored after that is the shortlist for PAM.