IT AI Index
Index › Identity and access › September 2026 Edition

Secrets management

Asked as “secrets management tool”, and as “secrets vault for applications and infrastructure”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 57 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Doppler
Contested
33% of first choices, contested.
ShowinginAll 67 categories →

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.
Small businessDoppler46%Clear leaderStanding →Mid-marketDoppler33%ContestedThis pageEnterpriseHashiCorp Vault75%Clear leaderStanding →

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Doppler33%7%54endorsed leader
02HashiCorp Vault30%33%66criticized challenger
03Infisical18%5%40accepted challenger
04Bitwarden Secrets Manager5%7%14accepted challenger
05AWS Secrets Manager4%13%60accepted challenger
06Akeyless4%5%22accepted challenger
071Password4%19%26accepted challenger
08Azure Key Vault2%14%42accepted challenger
09OpenBao2%12%17accepted challenger
Show the two products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
11CyberArk Conjur0%25%12criticized challenger
10Google Secret Manager0%10%31accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.
Head to head
Doppler vs HashiCorp VaultDoppler vs InfisicalHashiCorp Vault vs Infisical

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative50%
Key
01Doppler33%
02HashiCorp Vault30%
03Infisical18%
04Bitwarden Secrets Manager5%
05AWS Secrets Manager4%
06Akeyless4%
071Password4%
08Azure Key Vault2%
09OpenBao2%
10Google Secret Manager0%
11CyberArk Conjur0%

02What they warned about

One of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
HashiCorp Vault
33%
22 of 66 labels negative · 11 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“the massive operational overhead required to deploy, patch, and scale a self-hosted Vault cluster make it a poor recommendation for mid-sized companies” Gemini 3.5 Flash, paraphrase prompt
Kubernetes Secrets
86%
6 of 7 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“Base64 Encoded Secrets (e.g., Unencrypted Kubernetes Secrets): **Why avoid:** Base64 is **encoding**, not encryption.” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt
AWS Secrets Manager
13%
8 of 60 labels negative · 5 of 12 models
“AWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, and similar tools are fine in the right context, but they can create fragmentation and vendor coupling if you operate across multiple clouds.” Perplexity Sonar, negative prompt
Azure Key Vault
14%
6 of 42 labels negative · 5 of 12 models
“AWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, and similar tools are fine in the right context, but they can create fragmentation and vendor coupling if you operate across multiple clouds.” Perplexity Sonar, negative prompt

03What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: twelve of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

62 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 6 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 739 links across 177 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

blog.gitguardian.com
vendor site · GitGuardian48 answers · 49 citations · 10 models
envmanager.com
vendor site · EnvManager34 answers · 39 citations · 10 models
safeguard.sh
vendor site · Safeguard25 answers · 30 citations · 10 models
startwithidentity.com
24 answers · 31 citations · 8 models
infisical.com
vendor site · Infisical20 answers · 29 citations · 9 models
doppler.com
vendor site · Doppler20 answers · 24 citations · 9 models
worldmetrics.org
20 answers · 20 citations · 9 models
guideflow.com
vendor site · Guideflow16 answers · 16 citations · 8 models
tech-insider.org
13 answers · 13 citations · 7 models
guptadeepak.com
12 answers · 12 citations · 8 models
thegarnetwiki.com
12 answers · 12 citations · 6 models
cybervendorguide.com
11 answers · 14 citations · 6 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

blog.gitguardian.com/top-secrets-management-tools
47 answers · 10 models
envmanager.com/blog/best-secrets-management-tools
33 answers · 10 models
worldmetrics.org/best/secrets-management-software
20 answers · 9 models
startwithidentity.com/rankings/best-secrets-management-tools
18 answers · 8 models
guideflow.com/blog/secrets-management-software
16 answers · 8 models
safeguard.sh/resources/blog/best-secrets-management-and-vaulting-solutions
16 answers · 9 models
safeguard.sh/resources/blog/best-secrets-management-tools-2026
13 answers · 8 models
tech-insider.org/hashicorp-vault-vs-aws-secrets-manager-vs-azure-key-vault-…
12 answers · 7 models
thegarnetwiki.com/security/secrets-management-guide
12 answers · 6 models
cybervendorguide.com/guides/secrets-management
10 answers · 6 models

04How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ModelDirect“What is the best secrets management tool for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which secrets vault for applications and infrastructure would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top secrets management tools and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best secrets management tool for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a secrets management tool. What should we look at?”Negative“Which secrets management tools should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Doppler, Infisical
One alternativeAWS Secrets Manager
against: HashiCorp VaultDopplerChanged
Three alternativesAWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, Infisical
against: HashiCorp Vaultno first choiceBitwarden Secrets Manager, HashiCorp Vault
Five alternativesAWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, External Secrets Operator, Google Secret Manager, Sealed Secrets
no first choiceagainst: Ansible, Chef, Jenkins, Kubernetes Secrets, Puppet
GPT-5.4 miniHashiCorp Vault
Two alternativesAWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault
against: 1PasswordHashiCorp VaultHeld
Three alternativesAWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, Google Secret Manager
HashiCorp Vault
Three alternativesAWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, Google Secret Manager
HashiCorp Vault
Three alternativesAWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, Google Secret Manager
no first choiceagainst: HashiCorp Vault
Gemini 3.5 FlashDoppler, Infisical
One alternativeAWS Secrets Manager
against: 1Password, Azure Key Vault, Google Secret Manager, HashiCorp Vault, Keeper Secrets Manager, OpenBaoDopplerChanged
Two alternativesAkeyless, Infisical
against: AWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, Google Secret Manager, HashiCorp Vaultno first choice
Six alternativesAkeyless, Doppler, HashiCorp Vault, Infisical, OpenBao, SOPS
against: AWS Secrets ManagerBitwarden Secrets Manager, Infisical
Four alternativesAWS Systems Manager Parameter Store, Doppler, EnvManager, SOPS
against: AWS Secrets Manager, HashiCorp Vault, OpenBaoDoppler, Infisical
Five alternativesAWS Secrets Manager, Akeyless, Azure Key Vault, Google Secret Manager, OpenBao
against: 1Password, HashiCorp Vault, Keeper Secrets Manageragainst: Doppler, HashiCorp Vault, Kubernetes Secrets, git-crypt, git-secret, transcrypt
Perplexity SonarDoppler
Three alternativesAWS Secrets Manager, HashiCorp Vault, Infisical
HashiCorp VaultChanged
Two alternativesAWS Secrets Manager, Doppler
against: WorkOS Vaultno first choiceInfisical
Three alternativesDoppler, OpenBao, SOPS
against: AWS Secrets Manager, HashiCorp Vaultno first choiceagainst: AWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault
Grok 4.1 FastDoppler
Three alternatives1Password, AWS Secrets Manager, Infisical
against: HashiCorp VaultHashiCorp VaultChanged
Four alternativesAWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, Doppler, Infisical
HashiCorp Vault
Five alternativesAWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, CyberArk Conjur, Doppler, Google Secret Manager
Infisical
Three alternativesAWS Secrets Manager, Doppler, HashiCorp Vault
no first choiceagainst: CyberArkagainst: CyberArk Conjur / Secrets Manager, Delinea Secret Server, HashiCorp Vault, Kubernetes Secrets
Mistral Small1Password, Doppler
Two alternativesAWS Secrets Manager, HashiCorp Vault
DopplerChanged
Two alternativesAWS Secrets Manager, HashiCorp Vault
HashiCorp Vault
Six alternativesAWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, Doppler, Google Secret Manager, Infisical, OpenBao
Bitwarden Secrets Manager, Infisical
One alternativeDoppler
against: HashiCorp Vaultno first choiceagainst: Doppler, Keeper, Kubernetes Secrets
DeepSeek V4 FlashDoppler
One alternativeAWS Secrets Manager
against: HashiCorp VaultAWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, HashiCorp VaultChanged
Two alternativesDoppler, Infisical
HashiCorp Vault
Six alternativesAWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, CyberArk Conjur, Doppler, Google Secret Manager, Infisical
Infisical
Five alternativesAWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, Bitwarden Secrets Manager, Google Secret Manager, OpenBao
against: HashiCorp VaultHashiCorp Vault
Three alternativesAWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, Google Secret Manager
against: AWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, CyberArk Conjur, Doppler, HashiCorp Vault, Infisical, Kubernetes Secrets
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceHashiCorp VaultChanged
Three alternativesAWS Secrets Manager, CyberArk Conjur, EnvManager
no first choiceDoppler
Two alternativesEnvManager, Infisical
no first choiceagainst: AWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, CyberArk Conjur, Doppler, HashiCorp Vault, Infisical
Qwen 3.7 FlashDoppler
Two alternativesEnvManager, Infisical
against: HashiCorp VaultAWS Secrets ManagerChanged
Two alternativesDoppler, HashiCorp Vault
HashiCorp Vault
Six alternativesAWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, CyberArk, Doppler, External Secrets Operator, Sealed Secrets
Doppler
Five alternativesAWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, Bitwarden Secrets Manager, Google Secret Manager, HashiCorp Vault
no first choice
Three alternativesAkeyless, CyberArk Identity, Doppler
against: HashiCorp Vaultagainst: 1Password, Bitwarden Secrets Manager, GitHub Advanced Security scans, Gitleaks, HashiCorp Vault, LastPass, TruffleHog
Kimi K21Password, Doppler
One alternativeInfisical
against: HashiCorp VaultDoppler, HashiCorp VaultChanged
Three alternativesAWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, Infisical
HashiCorp Vault
Six alternatives1Password, AWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, CyberArk Conjur, Doppler, Infisical
Infisical
Three alternativesDoppler, HashiCorp Vault, OpenBao
Doppler, HashiCorp Vault
Three alternatives1Password, AWS Secrets Manager, Infisical
against: AWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, Google Secret Manager, HashiCorp Vault, LastPass
GLM 4.7 FlashXDoppler, HashiCorp Vault
Three alternatives1Password, AWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault
against: Akeyless, CyberArk ConjurHashiCorp VaultChanged
Three alternativesAWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, Google Secret Manager
HashiCorp Vault
Five alternativesAWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, CyberArk Privileged Access Security, Doppler, Google Secret Manager
Infisical, OpenBao
Four alternativesBitwarden Secrets Manager, Doppler, Google Secret Manager, SOPS
against: HashiCorp VaultAkeyless, HashiCorp Vault
Five alternativesAWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, CyberArk Conjur, Doppler, Infisical
against: 1Password, Keeperagainst: AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store, GitGuardian, Kubernetes Secrets, SOPS, TruffleHog
MiniMax M2.5Doppler, HashiCorp Vault
Four alternativesAWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, Google Secret Manager, Infisical
HashiCorp VaultChanged
Two alternativesAWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault
HashiCorp Vault
Six alternativesAWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, CyberArk Conjur, Doppler, Google Secret Manager, Infisical
Akeyless, Doppler
Two alternativesHashiCorp Vault, Infisical
HashiCorp Vault
Three alternativesAWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, Google Secret Manager
nothing named
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 14:01yes98 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 12:00yes35 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 12:59yes1321 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 10:45yes205 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 12:34yes4519 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:26yes911 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 10:28yes914 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 12:59yes65 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 09:35yes1061 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 13:07yes1728 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 10:42yes29103 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 10:17yes530 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 13:01yes1710 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 10:50yes46 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 13:07yes1123 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 10:53yes206 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 11:08yes3416 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:17yes56 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 11:01yes1819 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 12:45yes84 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 11:11no036 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 12:23yes929 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 12:37yes1026 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 14:01yes1030 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 12:04yes07 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 10:31yes59 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 10:48yes1130 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 11:33yes209 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 10:08yes138 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:11yes1415 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 13:55yes918 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 11:00yes52 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 09:58no044 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 11:18yes1442 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 13:14no011 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 12:06yes834 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 10:07no05 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 13:57no05 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 10:09yes1927 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 10:12yes205 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 13:56yes1711 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:21yes54 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 14:10yes1514 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 13:10yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:46no035 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 13:43yes921 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 11:07yes1350 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 11:36yes1021 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 12:17no07 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 11:37no07 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 14:14yes1029 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 14:09yes189 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 13:49yes1713 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 11:47no08 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 13:42yes1016 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 13:56yes52 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:42yes530 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 10:16yes1430 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 13:36yes1379 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 13:10yes528 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 11:04yes189 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 12:25yes425 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 11:30yes2426 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 14:04yes206 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 10:09yes3415 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 12:32yes58 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 09:31yes2017 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 11:36yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 09:58yes1573 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 14:02yes2754 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 13:20yes2059 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 10:31yes513 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

Category-scoped readings
Bitwarden read as Bitwarden Secrets Manager
Bitwarden (Business Plan) read as Bitwarden Secrets Manager
Delinea read as Delinea Secret Server
Unresolved, counted raw
CyberArk Conjur / Secrets Manager
CyberArk Privileged Access Security (PAS)
GitHub Advanced Security scans
SOPS + GitOps
WorkOS Vault
transcrypt
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in identity and access

The other categories of this function, with the leader in each.
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