External Secrets Operator vs Sealed Secrets
External Secrets Operator
External Secrets Operator (ESO) is a Kubernetes operator that syncs secrets from external stores (AWS Secrets Manager, HashiCorp Vault, GCP Secret Manager, Azure Key Vault, 1Password, and many more) into native Kubernetes Secrets. It is the de facto standard for integrating external secret backends with Kubernetes workloads, with broad community adoption and graduated CNCF status.
Pros
- Massive community adoption; de facto standard for K8s + external secrets
- Broad provider support (30+ backends)
- Free and open source with no license cost
- Works cleanly with GitOps workflows
Cons
- You still need a real secrets backend (Vault, AWS, etc.) for it to sync from
- Operator deployment adds cluster complexity
- No UI; all configuration is CRD-based
- Cluster admin required to install the CRDs
Pricing: Free (open source)
Sealed Secrets
Sealed Secrets is a Kubernetes controller from Bitnami that lets you store encrypted secrets directly in Git. You use the kubeseal CLI to encrypt a regular Kubernetes Secret into a SealedSecret custom resource, which only the controller running in your cluster can decrypt. This makes secret material safe to commit, review, and diff in version control without a separate secrets manager.
Pros
- No external secrets backend needed; just Git plus cluster
- Perfect fit for pure GitOps workflows
- Simple mental model: encrypt once, commit, done
- Backed by Bitnami (VMware) with stable release cadence
Cons
- Key rotation requires re-sealing every secret
- Lose the cluster key, lose every sealed secret
- No per-key RBAC; anyone who can create a SealedSecret can decrypt it once applied
- No rotation or lifecycle features like a real secrets manager
Pricing: Free (open source)