Top 6 secrets management tools you need in 2025

Secrets management in 2025 has two major challenges: the old, like hardcoded credentials and forgotten .env files, and the new, driven by automation and non-human access.

The rise of agentic AI has made this worse. Autonomous agents now generate, request, and rotate secrets faster than any human. They spin up jobs, trigger deployments, and call internal APIs. Each action leaves behind ephemeral tokens or machine identities that are rarely tracked or audited.

This explosion of non-human identities (aka machine identities) has outpaced what most systems were designed to handle. On top of that, compliance frameworks like SOC 2, ISO 27001, and FedRAMP are tightening expectations. It has become clear that the cost of doing nothing is both risky and expensive.

This blog breaks down six of the most capable secrets management tools in 2025, drawing on:

• Practical usage and developer experience
• Hands-on testing across hybrid and AI-enabled stacks
• Community trust, product maturity, and extensibility

We’ve organized the recommendations by use case categories such as developer-first, enterprise-grade, Kubernetes-native, hybrid-friendly, and startup-ready, so you can find the right fit for your infrastructure without compromising speed, security, or scale.

To help you choose quickly, here’s a comparison of some popular secrets management tools in 2025:

Comparison of some popular secrets management tools in 2025

Now, let’s break down these options by use case to help you evaluate which best fits your team’s needs.

Best developer-focused secrets management tools

Secrets management should be simple and fast for developer-driven teams. The best tools in this category integrate cleanly with dev workflows, offer easy CLI access, and sync with CI/CD pipelines, so developers never have to hardcode secrets or mess with .env files again. They should also support machine identities, like applications, containers, and CI pipelines, to ensure secrets stay secure and dynamic in automated environments.

Doppler

Doppler is built specifically for developers. It’s easy to adopt, with a clean web UI, a powerful CLI, and native integrations with popular frameworks and platforms. Secrets sync automatically across environments and pipelines, so devs don’t need to update them manually.

For example, running doppler run injects secrets directly into local environments, making testing and debugging secure and effortless. Doppler also champions SDKs and an API-first approach, making it a natural fit for modern stacks such as serverless apps and Kubernetes. Doppler also supports NHIs with machine-to-machine auth, scoped tokens, and native CI/CD integrations. These features allow services, and not just humans, to access secrets securely.

Beyond simplicity, Doppler covers key security and compliance features like access controls, audit logs, secret versioning, and support for both static secrets (like long-lived tokens) and dynamic credentials. For secret scanning, Doppler works well alongside tools like Semgrep, Snyk, and Chekov to help your team catch exposed secrets in code.

Why teams choose Doppler:

• Fast setup with no infrastructure to manage
• Real-time syncing across environments
• Detailed audit logging to audit secrets access and usage
• SOC 2 certified, ISO 27001 ready, and built for scale

Doppler is ideal for fast-moving teams that want robust secrets management without operational overhead.

Infisical

Infisical is an open-source alternative with over 17,000 likes on GitHub. It offers a modern dashboard and CLI, plus a managed cloud option. Like Doppler, Infisical supports syncing secrets to apps and CI pipelines and integrates with multiple frameworks and platforms.

Infisical also includes features like role-based access control, audit logs, secret versioning, and secret scanning. As an open-source platform, it gives teams full control over how and where secrets are stored, with the flexibility to self-host or opt for their managed cloud offering. Infisical supports NHI through service tokens and machine identity integrations. This allows secure automation for CI/CD pipelines, containers, and microservices.

In terms of cost, Infisical’s open-source model can be more affordable if you can manage it yourself. However, when you factor in the time and effort required to run your infrastructure, Doppler’s fully managed approach often proves more cost-effective, especially when developer time and operational simplicity are priorities. Additionally, Infisical charges for machine identities, while Doppler does not.

Best secrets management solutions for enterprise compliance and access controls

Large enterprises, especially those in regulated industries, need more than just secure storage. They require granular access management, audit trails, proper handling of encryption keys, and support for standards like PCI-DSS, HIPAA, SOC 2, and FedRAMP. In these environments, security engineering teams often own secrets management. Every secret access must be logged, auditable, and policy-driven to detect unauthorized access and reduce attack surfaces.

The top tools in this space support HSM (Hardware Security Module) integration, dynamic secrets (generated on-demand and short-lived), and multi-tenant setups, all with compliance in mind.

HashiCorp Vault

Vault is one of the top secrets management solutions for enterprises. It can store everything from API keys and encryption keys to TLS certificates and other sensitive data, and its policy engine allows extremely fine-grained control access logic, ensuring secrets are only reachable under strict, auditable conditions.

Some of its strengths include:

• Detailed audit logging
• Secure storage for secrets at scale using namespaces and policy controls
• Built-in support for best security practices like lease revocation and short-lived access
• Replication across regions
• Robust support for private certificates in secure service-to-service communication

Vault is powerful but complex. Deploying and managing it, especially self-hosted, often leads to concerns around vendor lock-in and requires significant operational overhead. There's also a split between the open-source version and the more advanced Enterprise tier, which adds cost and licensing friction. For many teams, especially those looking to move fast while staying compliant, tools like Doppler offer a more practical and scalable approach.

Doppler

Doppler gives teams the compliance and audit features they need, like strict access controls, audit logs, secret versioning, and rotation, without requiring them to stand up and operate their own infrastructure.

Unlike traditional vaults, Doppler is fully managed and built for scale from day one. It gives you the controls and visibility needed for standards like SOC 2, HIPAA, and PCI-DSS while staying fast and easy to use.

Key features for enterprise use:

• Dynamic secrets (e.g., temporary database credentials)
• Custom activity logs retention
• Change Request Policies to enforce approval workflows for sensitive updates
• Analytics Dashboard to track stale secrets or inactive configurations
• SIEM log forwarding with integrations for Splunk, Datadog, and Sumo Logic

Doppler also integrates with tools like Okta, Azure AD, GitHub, and CI/CD systems, making it easy to plug into your existing security ecosystem.

Akeyless

Akeyless is another SaaS secrets management solution built for enterprise needs. Its standout feature is a vaultless architecture, meaning secrets aren't stored in a central vault. Instead, they're encrypted locally via lightweight gateways and decrypted only by authorized clients using zero-knowledge encryption.

Akeyless provides:

• Dynamic and just-in-time credentials
• Role-based access control
• Secret rotation and expiration policies
• Detailed audit logging
• Native integrations with CI/CD and support for private certificates in secure service-to-service communication

The vaultless gateway model works well in hybrid and air-gapped setups, but it does rely on the Akeyless cloud for coordination. Local caching helps reduce the impact of outages, but you’ll still need to think through gateway placement and scaling.

Best for hybrid and on-premises requirements

Not every organization can rely on a single cloud provider or SaaS tool. Many teams operate in hybrid environments: a mix of on-prem data centers, multiple public clouds, and even air-gapped or highly restricted networks. In these cases, portability and flexibility matter most. The ideal secrets manager should run anywhere, integrate with hardware security modules (HSMs), and function even without internet access.

Vault

HashiCorp Vault is a top pick for hybrid and on-prem deployments. It runs anywhere and supports integration with cloud key management services (KMS) or on-prem HSMs for managing encryption keys and automatic unsealing.

However, while Vault is powerful, it's not lightweight. Deploying and operating a fault-tolerant cluster takes effort and expertise, especially in hybrid environments.

Akeyless

Akeyless is also built with a hybrid approach in mind. It offers vaultless architecture and allows the deployment of lightweight gateways inside your environment. These gateways act as secure intermediaries, which allow your apps to access secrets and manage privileged sessions even when offline or behind firewalls.

Being SaaS, Akeyless introduces some external dependencies, which means you need to consider vendor reliability and network access. They offer caching and regional gateways to reduce risk, but organizations with strict data residency needs should evaluate this closely.

Infisical

For teams that need simple self-hosting without the complexity of Vault, Infisical offers a clean, open-source solution that can run in Kubernetes, on a VM, or behind a firewall.

Additionally, Infisical supports HSM integration, role-based access control, audit logging, secret versioning, and syncing with CI/CD pipelines. Infisical is a good fit for teams that want full control over where secrets are stored without running a heavyweight secret management system. You get modern security features with a lightweight footprint and the choice to self-host or use their managed cloud service.

Who to choose when:

• Choose Vault if you want deep policy controls and are prepared to manage the associated complexity.
• Choose Akeyless if you prefer a managed solution that still supports hybrid or air-gapped environments.
• Choose Infisical if you desire open-source flexibility, full HSM support, and a more straightforward self-hosting experience.

Best secrets management tools for Kubernetes and CI/CD workflows

Kubernetes has become the backbone of cloud-native infrastructure, but managing secrets in Kubernetes is still tricky. Modern tools solve this by integrating directly with Kubernetes via operators, CSI (Container Storage Interface) drivers, or mutating webhooks. These let you inject secrets securely at pod startup or sync them into the cluster without storing them in plaintext or hardcoding them into manifests.

Doppler

Doppler provides a native Kubernetes Operator, which is a controller that runs inside your cluster. This operator automates the syncing of secrets from Doppler into Kubernetes Secret objects and watches for updates. When a secret changes in Doppler, the operator automatically updates affected deployments.

This approach gives you a GitOps-friendly, declarative way to keep secrets up to date and works well for teams already using Doppler to centralize app configuration.

Key strengths:

• In-cluster syncing of secrets from Doppler
• Auto-updates deployments when secrets change
• Ideal for dynamic environments and CI/CD-driven teams

Infisical

Similar to Doppler, Infisical provides a Kubernetes Operator that syncs secrets from its store into Kubernetes Secret objects. It also supports a CSI driver, which takes a different approach: secrets are injected directly into pods at runtime as files without being persisted inside the Kubernetes API.

This makes Infisical a flexible option, especially for teams in self-hosted, air-gapped, or high-security environments where you want secrets available at runtime but don’t want them stored in the cluster.

Key strengths:

• Operator-based syncing into native K8s Secrets
• CSI driver for runtime injection into pods
• Works in self-hosted and air-gapped environments

Vault

HashiCorp Vault is a popular choice for large teams that have already standardized on it across their infrastructure. It integrates with Kubernetes through a built-in auth method and an agent injector. This setup lets pods authenticate to Vault using service accounts and fetch secrets dynamically without storing anything in Kubernetes Secrets.

Vault can:

• Inject secrets into pods at runtime as env vars or files
• Enforce TTLs and auto-revoke secrets

Akeyless

Akeyless also supports Kubernetes via a mutating webhook that injects secrets into pods at runtime without ever storing them in Kubernetes. Secrets are fetched securely from Akeyless as containers spin up using short-lived, dynamically generated credentials. This approach ensures secure communication between services while reducing the attack surface of long-lived secrets.

Akeyless shines in:

• Enterprises with hybrid/multi-cloud clusters
• Teams that want dynamic secrets without managing Vault

If your team runs heavily on Kubernetes, look for a secrets manager with first-class K8s support. Vault gives you fine-grained control and dynamic secrets, but takes work. Doppler and Infisical simplify the flow with easy operators, and Akeyless adds runtime injection with zero management.

Best for startups and small teams seeking a quick setup

Startups and small teams don’t have time to manage a complex secrets infrastructure. However, proper secrets management is essential even in the early stages.

Tools in this category should require zero setups, work out of the box with your stack, and scale as your team grows without locking you into heavyweight processes or complex infrastructure.

Doppler

Doppler is a natural fit for small teams. You can sign up and start managing secrets in minutes without requiring infrastructure or setup scripts. Its free tier supports up to three users, which covers most early-stage needs.

For startups on platforms like Vercel, Netlify, or AWS Lambda, Doppler acts as a single source of truth across dev, staging, and prod. Secrets sync automatically across services, which eliminates manual copy-paste or scripting. Secrets also remain unchanged across environments unless explicitly rotated.

Why small teams love it:

• Easy to use with no infrastructure overhead
• Works with all major frameworks and cloud platforms
• Syncs secrets across environments and services
• Grows with your team (add users, environments, and roles over time)

Doppler covers the needs of most small teams out of the box, with plenty of room to scale as your infrastructure grows.

Infisical

Infisical is a great option for teams that want open source and full control. You can either self-host it or use their managed cloud service. The free core product includes audit logs, access control, and integrations with other tools like GitHub Actions, Docker, and Kubernetes.

Infisical is a strong option for teams that prefer open-source tools and want more control over their setup. However, self-hosting adds some setup and maintenance overhead.

Cloud provider secret managers (AWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Bault, and GCP)

If you're already all-in on a single cloud, using the provider’s native secrets manager is a quick and simple option. AWS Secrets Manager, Google Secret Manager, and Azure Key Vault provide secure storage, IAM integration, and rotation capabilities. While they don’t offer advanced workflows or multi-environment syncing out of the box, they are stable, compliant, and integrate well with their ecosystems.

Also,Doppler integrates with cloud provider secret managers, so you can use Doppler as your single source of truth and then sync secrets into AWS, Google Cloud Platform, or Azure when needed. This gives you the best of both worlds: centralized management with native cloud execution.

Deciding on what tool to use

Based on all the information above, here is a quick summary to help you pick the best tool for your organization:

• Startups & small teams: Go with Doppler or Infisical. Both are fast to set up, automate secret syncing, and save you from manual secrets management.
• Developer-first teams: Use Doppler for the best CI/CD and API-first workflows. Infisical is a solid open-source alternative with strong dev tooling.
• Enterprise and compliance-heavy organizations: Choose HashiCorp Vault for maximum control, Doppler for managed compliance, or Akeyless for hybrid setups and zero-knowledge encryption.
• Hybrid/on-prem environments: Use Vault if you can handle the operational complexity, Akeyless for SaaS with gateways, or Infisical for simple self-hosting.
• Kubernetes-heavy stacks: All four (Vault, Doppler, Infisical, and Akeyless) support K8s via operators or runtime injection. Choose based on how much control vs. simplicity you want.

Stick to tools that support effective secrets management, including rotation, access controls, and a clean audit trail. Don’t rely on .env files or manual processes; it’s a fast track to exposed secrets and security gaps.

Doppler is a strong option if you're looking for a straightforward and reliable way to manage secrets across your infrastructure. It's designed to work well for developers and security teams, with features supporting scale, compliance, and day-to-day efficiency.

Try a free Doppler demo and see how it can streamline your secrets management.