Doppler vs dotenvx

Doppler is a secrets manager for storing and managing sensitive application secrets through a dashboard, API, and command-line tool. It centralizes secret management with config syncs, secret referencing, and automatic rotation on eligible plans. Its MCP server lets AI agents request secrets natively, and Doppler says per-seat pricing adds no fees for AI agents or other non-human identities. Developers can use a CLI, SDKs, API, webhooks, and a VS Code extension with two-way sync. Listed integrations include AWS Secrets Manager, Terraform Cloud, GitHub Actions, Kubernetes, GCP Secret Manager, Azure Key Vault, Vercel, and Okta. Security controls include scoped tokens, fine-grained access, breach detection, encrypted fallback files, and trusted IP allow lists. Doppler says it encrypts and tokenizes secrets using AES-256-GCM and is SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certified. Deployment is available in the cloud or on-prem. The Developer plan is free for three users, with additional users at $8 a month. Team costs $21 per user per month and is free for 14 days. Enterprise pricing is custom.

dotenvx encrypts secrets stored in.env files, then decrypts and injects them when an application runs. Its maker describes it as free and open source, with hosted and self-hosted deployment options. Public-key encryption uses a secp256k1 key pair, keeping the private decryption key separate from the encrypted file. For development, the private key can be stored in the operating system’s secret store, including macOS Keychain, Windows Credential Manager, or Linux Secret Service. Listed workflow tools include environment selection and composition, validation, pre-commit leak prevention, Docker image protection, key/value operations, and runtime log redaction. The maker says encrypted files can travel with code and be decrypted at runtime using a private key supplied in the deployment environment, without a secrets service in the application’s critical path. Installation options include CLI, npm, winget, Homebrew, GitHub releases, Docker, a Ruby gem, and Python pip. Guides cover developer tools, programming languages, and deployment services. The free User plan includes CLI, SDKs, encryption, and GitHub Issues support. Member is $5 a month; Business is $90 a month. The paid product has a 14-day free trial.