HashiCorp Vault vs Secrets Manager
HashiCorp Vault
hashicorp.comSecrets Manager
github.comSide by side
| Figure | HashiCorp Vault | Secrets Manager |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 3 | 1 |
| Spec score · Secrets Management Tools | 6.3 (#34) | 8.3 (#7) |
Plans
HashiCorp Vault
- Pay-as-You-GoPriced on request
- FlexPriced on request
- Enterprise Self ManagedPriced on request
In their own words
HashiCorp Vault
HashiCorp Vault has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
Secrets Manager
Secrets Manager is a free, open-source, self-hosted system for storing application secrets in encrypted form, managing them through a web interface, and injecting them into processes with a command-line tool. Users organize secrets by organization, project, and environment, import.env files, edit or reveal values, keep versions, roll back, and soft-delete entries. The `secrets run` command supplies environment secrets to a child process and its descendants without creating a.env file. Documented workflows cover Node.js, Python, npm, and Next.js; CI or deployment can use an API URL, token, and environment ID. User and service-account grants can be scoped to projects or environments, and revealing values requires explicit permission. AES-256-GCM envelope encryption uses a separate data key per value, while plaintext values are not stored in the database. Audit events include secret reveals, and values are withheld if audit writing fails. Docker Compose starts PostgreSQL, Redis, backend, and frontend; local Kubernetes manifests are also provided. A user-generated master key is mandatory and lost keys make secrets unrecoverable. The repository is MIT licensed.