HashiCorp Vault vs AWS Secrets Manager

AWS Secrets Manager and HashiCorp Vault are both cloud-native solutions. AWS Secrets Manager native AWS secrets management service with automatic rotation, while HashiCorp Vault industry-standard open-source secrets management platform. The best choice depends on your organization's size, technical requirements, and budget.

Updated Feb 2026
How we compare:This comparison is based on official documentation, public pricing, community discussions, and aggregated user feedback, not hands-on testing by our team. We organize what real users and practitioners are saying across the web.

The Bottom Line

Choose AWS Secrets Manager if seamless AWS integration is your priority and teams already on AWS who want native integration. Choose HashiCorp Vault if massive community and ecosystem matters most and teams needing flexible, self-hosted secrets management with extensive plugin ecosystem.

Choose HashiCorp Vault if:

  • You value seamless AWS integration
  • You value fully managed, zero infrastructure
  • You value built-in rotation for RDS, Redshift, DocumentDB
  • You want to avoid steep learning curve
  • You want to avoid complex to operate at scale

Choose AWS Secrets Manager if:

  • You value massive community and ecosystem
  • You value highly extensible with plugins
  • You value strong enterprise features
  • You want to avoid aWS lock-in
  • You want to avoid limited to AWS ecosystem

Feature Comparison

FeatureHashiCorp VaultAWS Secrets Manager
Pricing$0.40/secret/month + $0.05/10k API callsFree (OSS) / Enterprise from $0.03/hr
Pricing ModelPer-secretOpen Source + Enterprise
Open SourceNoYes
DeploymentCloudCloud, Self-Hosted
Best ForTeams already on AWS who want native integrationTeams needing flexible, self-hosted secrets management with extensive plugin ecosystem
Automatic secret rotationSupportedNot available
Fine-grained IAM policiesSupportedNot available
Native AWS service integrationSupportedNot available

Sources

Related

HashiCorp Vault AlternativesAWS Secrets Manager AlternativesHashiCorp Vault OverviewAWS Secrets Manager Overview