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How to choose the best access review software: A buyer’s guide
Jill Henriques
GRC Subject Matter Expert, GTM
Accelerating security solutions for small businesses Tagore offers strategic services to small businesses. | A partnership that can scale Tagore prioritized finding a managed compliance partner with an established product, dedicated support team, and rapid release rate. | Standing out from competitors Tagore's partnership with Vanta enhances its strategic focus and deepens client value, creating differentiation in a competitive market. |
As businesses continue to adopt new technologies and expand their digital ecosystem, about 72% of organizations report that overall security risks have never been higher. Access-related vulnerabilities, in particular, have emerged as one of the top cybersecurity concerns, since every new tool or system introduces additional access points, users, and permissions to manage.
At the same time, regulations and audit frameworks now demand stricter oversight of who can access sensitive data, when, and under what conditions. Organizations that still rely on manual access reviews increasingly find the approach inefficient, prone to errors, and overwhelming for teams with resources stretched thin.
That’s why using access review software has become the norm for agile teams. It can automate review cycles with fewer risks as well as improve visibility into the status of access controls. In this guide, you’ll learn about:
- Key access review software features
- Tips to choose the right software for your team
- Questions to ask software vendors
- Implementation best practices
What is access review software?
User access review (UAR) software helps companies efficiently track, manage, and monitor user access rights. It focuses on consolidating and automating access review data and workflows, drastically reducing tedious manual tasks such as reviewing and compiling access events for audits or updating authorizations.
Companies use the software to comply with cybersecurity regulations faster and minimize the risk of data breaches. It also frees up engineering and compliance team resources, which can be reallocated toward other operational or strategic initiatives.
Beyond improving efficiency, UAR software is central to supporting broader governance and security posture best practices. Since it provides real-time visibility into access rights and flags anomalies automatically, the risk of human error is minimal. Given that human error causes 88% of data breaches, using such software is critical to cybersecurity.
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6 key features to look for in access review software
The access review solutions on the market may prioritize different functionalities, but the following baseline features are necessary for effectiveness and efficiency:
- Integration capabilities: The software should seamlessly integrate with your existing tech stack to pull the relevant user data and access activities from your systems. This includes integrations with cloud apps, identity providers, and HR software.
- Alert configurations: You should be able to customize alerts so your team gets notified about activities critical to your company’s security. These can be instant notifications about user access changes or unusual behavior, which supports prompt response.
- UX-friendly interface: You want both technical and non-technical stakeholders to be able to review access data and reports easily. An intuitive design minimizes the learning curve, saving time and reducing onboarding friction across teams.
- Control mapping: Some software solutions provide built-in control mapping so you can align your UAR policies with compliance frameworks like HIPAA or ISO 27001. This can be helpful when preparing for regulatory audits, as you have the data to prove continuous compliance.
- Task tracking: This feature can help your team assign and manage tasks related to access reviews, from assigning responsibilities and updating potential “reviewer” roles to ensuring timely removal of users who no longer need access.
- Scalability: Strong UAR software can easily be scaled with automated review cycles, bulk updates, and customizable workflows to fit any team.
5 tips for selecting the right access review solution
Here are five essential tips, along with the sample questions you can ask access review software vendors, to help you choose the right solution:
- Determine your access review needs
- Explore available options
- Review integration capabilities
- Compare the cost-to-feature ratios
- Assess audit-readiness and evidence management
1. Determine your access review needs
Organizations typically don't consider the size of the company or review needs when purchasing access review software, which can be a costly mistake. Small organizations often lack formal reviewer roles, while large companies usually have multiple contractors and apps—both of which make access management challenging in different contexts.
Before you start comparing solutions, define software requirements based on your IT environment, scale of your operations, and compliance goals. The scope for access review software differs across industries, and is often driven by the type of data managed and the regulatory requirements in place.
Sectors with high churn, like retail or call centers, face a higher risk of unauthorized access to sensitive data, such as credit card information. For example, some companies might need to continuously verify access to sensitive data like financial systems or protected health information (PHI), while others require reviews for access to general systems.
You must also factor in the security frameworks and regulations you want the solution to align with to minimize manual workarounds down the line.
Sample questions to ask vendors:
- Can you share examples of clients in my industry or similar regulatory environments that are successfully using this solution?
- Does the solution support compliance with frameworks like SOC 2, ISO 27001, or GDPR?
2. Explore available options
Access review needs can vary across industries, geographies, and the depth of functionality required. You can come across lightweight, affordable platforms designed for startups as well as enterprise-grade software built for global operations.
If your organization operates in highly regulated industries, such as healthcare or finance, you’ll need the software to provide rigorous access review controls and real-time monitoring. You must also evaluate options against your existing IT infrastructure. Software that complements your current identity management or HR systems will be less disruptive to deploy.
To narrow down your search, you can create a tailored list of must-have and nice-to-have features. Here’s a quick overview to help you get started:
Be wary of common trade-offs while browsing options. For instance, a powerhouse tool may have poor customer service, while a legacy enterprise solution might include a steep learning curve and hidden costs. See if any of the vendors on your shortlist provide free demos that make the evaluation process more data-backed.
Sample questions to ask the vendor:
- What kind of support and resources are available for onboarding and ongoing optimization?
- How does the software adapt to different IT environments?
3. Review integration capabilities
When a UAR software integrates well with your current systems, the adoption process across teams is smoother and there’s notably less training time. Experts note integration ease as one of the most overlooked features that could dramatically enhance access review processes.
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Access reviews are only as strong as the data behind them. Pulling comprehensive user and permission information from disparate systems can be inherently complex. Poor integration between tools means that access review data can be fragmented or outdated, which undermines the reliability of reviews and increases compliance risks.”
Jill Henriques
In practice, this means that data from privacy management systems, cloud platforms, HR tools, and security applications flows automatically into the software, resulting in fewer gaps and minimal stress from manual data entry.
While integrations are important, they shouldn’t be the deal breaker if the software otherwise aligns with your team’s needs.
Sample questions to ask the vendor:
- How does this tool integrate with our existing tech stack?
- What are common challenges during integration, and how does your team assist in overcoming them?
4. Compare the cost-to-feature ratios
When evaluating options, look beyond the sticker price and consider whether what you’ll get justifies what you pay—or if you’re overbuying features you don’t really need. For example, a startup with a small team should not be paying for enterprise-level reporting features.
Carefully compare baseline features, such as automated alerts, reminders, and continuous access monitoring, across vendors and weigh similar offers. Check which features come by default, or if you need to pay extra for essential functionalities or more user seats.
Considering long-term scalability also helps. A cheaper solution that meets your current needs may lead to enormous licensing or data migration costs as your access review and compliance needs grow.
Sample questions to ask the vendor:
- How customizable is the solution in meeting our compliance and operational needs without excessive configuration or cost?
- What’s included in your standard support package, and what features are add-ons?
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5. Assess audit-readiness and evidence management
Prioritize software that makes audit readiness effortless. A platform that can generate access reports on demand and in the format auditors require can save you hours of preparation time.
Key features that can streamline auditor assessments include export-friendly audit trails, access timestamps, and reviewer decision logs. Leading solutions can also automatically map access logs to relevant compliance frameworks.
It would be great to have your chosen software centralize relevant evidence and documentation, so everything’s easily accessible and there’s minimal operational disruption during audits.
Sample questions to ask the vendor:
- How does the solution centralize access logs, reviewer decisions, and timestamps, and what export options are available?
- Can the system provide audit-ready dashboards that give visibility into access trends and compliance gaps without excessive manual intervention?
Best practices for implementing access review software
Choosing the right tool is only a part of the equation. If you want long-term value, plan a productive rollout of the UAR software. Here are some general best practices for support:
- Prepare your existing tech stack: Configure your systems and directories before integrating them with your chosen access review software. This may include cleaning up inactive accounts, checking access ownership, and removing duplicate users.
- Secure sensitive data: If you’re handling any sensitive data, the best practice is to back it up before you connect the systems to minimize the risk of accidental data loss.
- Train staff on software use and governance: Provide your team with structured training sessions. Consider creating reference guides or video tutorials that employees can revisit when needed.
- Monitor the software’s performance: After you integrate the software, assess how it performs in real-world conditions. With regular performance checks, you’ll be able to identify underused features, assess accuracy, confirm if integrations work as intended, and verify whether reports and notifications are functional.
- Review and update software as needed: Since organizations grow, systems change, and compliance requirements evolve, your software should be reviewed and updated to reflect that. You can plan proactive maintenance when a relevant change occurs or even schedule quarterly or bi-annual updates to keep the software reliable and compliant.
- Measure ROI to demonstrate and improve effectiveness: Quantify adoption success to measure broader compliance impact. To evaluate the ROI of access review software, you can measure the cycle time associated with completed reviews. Another indicator of efficacy is the continuous compliance that results in a reduced risk of missing a privileged access permission that needs to be revoked.
How Vanta supports you with the best access review software
Vanta is an AI-powered compliance and agentic trust platform that offers a dedicated access review solution for easier governance. We help you simplify and accelerate access reviews by automating many manual tasks, consolidating user data, and supporting ongoing monitoring for highly regulated industries.
With 400+ integrations, Vanta automatically gathers access data to provide continuous visibility into permissions and changes, saving you up to 90% time spent on typical reviews. Everything’s consolidated in a single dashboard, so admins can efficiently review, adjust, and report on user access.
Here are some of the core features you can expect:
- Clean and intuitive interface
- Continuous access monitoring
- Alerts for access changes
- Remediation management
- Task management with pre-built content and intuitive workflows
- Mapping policies to different compliance frameworks and standards
Schedule a custom demo to explore how Vanta’s access review software can make your processes efficient and seamless.
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