Small business▲+3Since September 2026: 4% → 7%, +3 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
7%from 4% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 8 pointsRank 6 → 5 of 41
AWS · 3 categories · RankedAWS Secrets Manager
214Judge labels
13First choices
50Negative labels
14 / 14Models named it
3Categories
October 2026 Edition. Every number here is derived from the raw labels under vendor table v2026-10.8, every buyer segment counted.
Best standing
8% in Secrets for mid-market buyers
Rank 4 of 59 in the mid-market standingaccepted challenger
1 of 14 models made it the first choice on the direct prompt; 10% of its 60 labels there were negative.
What the models named instead of AWS Secrets Manager →By buyer segmentRead the same way at every buyer size.
Small business5 of 43
6%56 labels
criticized challenger
Mid-market4 of 59
8%60 labels
accepted challenger
Enterprise4 of 53
4%61 labels
criticized challenger
In secrets · each standing computed within its segment · bars are 0 to 100 · the accent bar is the product's own best reading
Standing by category
Every category where a model named AWS Secrets Manager for a mid-market B2B company. Share is first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts; rank is within every product named in that category.
| Category | Function | Share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels | Quadrant | Since September 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Secrets management | Identity and access | 8% | 4 of 59 | 10% | 60 | accepted challenger | ▲+2Since September 2026: 4% → 6%, +2 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. |
| Privileged access management | Identity and access | 2% | 11 of 73 | 0% | 5 | under 10 labels · led by Delinea Secret Server at 37% | ▲+2Since September 2026: 0% → 2%, +2 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. |
| Non-human identity management | Identity and access | 0% | 49 of 128 | 33% | 6 | under 10 labels · led by JumpCloud at 14% |
Movement
Since September 2026, AWS Secrets Manager held within the floor in all three categories: no change cleared 11 points.
Best category · Secrets · by segment
Mid-market▲+2Since September 2026: 4% → 6%, +2 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
6%from 4% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 9 pointsRank 5 → 4 of 54
Enterprise▼−2Since September 2026: 2% → 0%, −2 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
0%from 2% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 9 pointsRank 5 → 13 of 53
All categories · Mid-market
| Category | September 2026 | Now | Change | Reading | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Secrets | 4% | 6% | ▲+2Since September 2026: 4% → 6%, +2 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. | Within noise | Rank 5 → 4 of 59 |
| PAM | 0% | 2% | ▲+2Since September 2026: 0% → 2%, +2 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. | Within noise | Rank 21 → 11 of 73 |
| NHI management | 0% | 0% | newNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 0% now. | New this edition | Rank 49 of 128, unchanged |
Shares here are read over the models both editions asked, so they can differ by a point or two from the standing above, which counts every model in this edition.
The floor is 11 points of share, measured: how far the models move a leader on their own when the same questions are asked twice with nothing changed. A larger change is movement; a smaller one is noise, and both are shown. Movement is read over the twelve models both editions asked; GPT-6 Luna, Muse Glimmer 30B joined this edition and are in the standing but not yet in the comparison. How the floor is measured · The editions
By model
How each model treated AWS Secrets Manager across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Fourteen models, six prompts per category.ShowHide
By model
How each model treated AWS Secrets Manager across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Fourteen models, six prompts per category.
ShowHide| Model | First choice | Alternative | Mention | Negative | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 6 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 0 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 7 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Grok 4.20 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 6 |
| Mistral Small | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 0 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 6 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 0 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 7 |
| Kimi K2 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| GPT-6 Luna | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | 1 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 7 |
By framing
Which of the six questions produced the naming. By model says how often; this says asked what. The first-choice count on the right carries the marks of the models that produced it.
FramingLabels by classFirst choices
Direct34 labels3
Paraphrase35 labels6
Comparative44 labelsNone
Budget-constrained37 labels2
Scale-constrained27 labels2
Negative37 labels1not counted in share
First choiceAlternativeMentionNegative214 labels in all, every segment counted; 13 of the 14 first choices count toward share, since the comparative and negative framings do not. The bar is one segment per label class, to scale within the framing.
What the models said for it
Verbatim evidence the judge attached to positive labels.
“my default recommendation is: 1) If you're cloud-native and mostly on one major cloud: use the cloud provider's native secrets service. - AWS: AWS Secrets Manager” GPT-5.4 mini · Secrets · paraphrase prompt · first choice
“Best default for most mid-market teams on one major cloud: AWS Secrets Manager if you're mostly on AWS” GPT-5.4 mini · Secrets · direct prompt · first choice
“Already AWS-native and want minimal ops: AWS Secrets Manager is the pragmatic first step.” Muse Glimmer 30B · Secrets · paraphrase prompt · first choice
“Often cited as a cost-accessible option, especially for organizations already using AWS.” Mistral Small · PAM · budget prompt · first choice
And against it
Verbatim evidence attached to negative labels. A warning on a product with few labels is a warning; on a product with many, it is one voice among them.
“GitGuardian cautions that AWS Secrets Manager, GCP Secret Manager, and Azure Key Vault can create fragmentation if you operate in multi-cloud setups.” Perplexity Sonar · Secrets · negative prompt · soft negative
“Proprietary free tiers (e.g., cloud-native like AWS Secrets Manager) work if single-cloud but limit multi-cloud flexibility.” Grok 4.20 · NHI management · budget prompt · soft negative
“AWS Secrets Manager and Azure Key Vault have had vulnerabilities... They may not suit multi-cloud environments” MiniMax M2.5 · Secrets · negative prompt · soft negative
“Strong vendor lock-in—if multi-cloud or hybrid, cross-cloud access adds friction/cost.” Grok 4.20 · Secrets · negative prompt · soft negative
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as AWS Secrets Manager, over the 214 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and AWS Secrets Manager was named but was not.ShowHide
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as AWS Secrets Manager, over the 214 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and AWS Secrets Manager was named but was not.
ShowHideProductSame answerTook the first choice insteadHead to head
A head-to-head page exists where both products are among a category's top eight. The other rows are the same fact without a page behind them, so they link to the product instead.
What carried it into the answer
The sites and pages cited by the answers that named AWS Secrets Manager. A fact about retrieval, not a lever on the model.
Citations exist only for the models that return a source list, five of the fourteen in this edition, so these counts come from 191 of the 214 answers that named AWS Secrets Manager and are not a share of its labels.
Domains cited
cybersecuritynews.com81
infisical.com81
blog.gitguardian.com78
guideflow.com69
doppler.com65
startwithidentity.com61
akeyless.io58
cycode.com51
g2.com47
dev.to42
633 of the 633 domain citations in answers naming AWS Secrets Manager came from somebody else's page.
Pages cited
Pages are listed as the models cited them.
Search and answers
Where AWS Secrets Manager stands in Google search beside where it stands in the models' answers.ShowHide
Search and answers
Where AWS Secrets Manager stands in Google search beside where it stands in the models' answers.
ShowHideIn search
Google, US estimates- Searches for its name, Google
- 5,400 a month (“aws secrets manager”)
- AI search demand for its name, est.
- 467 a month
- Its own site
- It sits on AWS's site (aws.amazon.com), so there are no site figures for it alone
In answers
This editionShare of first choices
8%
rank 4 of 59 in secrets
Segment leader
31%
HashiCorp Vault
- First choices
- 13 across its categories
- Named in
- 214 answers
- Its own site cited
- in 191 of the answers that named it
Search figures are US estimates from DataForSEO, read September 28, 2026; AI search demand is its modeled, directional estimate, not a count of queries to any assistant. The answers are this edition's. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Follow AWS Secrets Manager
An email the morning each edition publishes: where this product moved, where it held, and by how much against the noise floor. One address, confirmed by a click; a stop link in every email.
Already following? Everything you follow, with a stop for each.
The company
AWS is the company behind AWS Secrets Manager.ShowHide
The company
AWS is the company behind AWS Secrets Manager.
ShowHideOn record
Company records- Also from AWS
- AWS ACM, AWS ACM Private CA, AWS ALB, AWS ALB/ELB, AWS ALB/NLB, AWS API Gateway HTTP APIs, AWS Amazon Aurora, AWS App Runner and 87 more
In its own words
Stated by the vendor, not checked- Positioning
- Centrally manage the lifecycle of secrets
- For
- applications, services, and IT resources
- Price stated
- you pay only for what you use, there is no minimum fee. There are no set-up fees or commitments to begin using the service. You are charged for number of secrets you store and for API requests made to the service each month. aws.amazon.com/secrets-manager/faqs
- Starting price
- $0.40 / secret / month aws.amazon.com/secrets-manager/pricing
- Free plan or trial
- Starting July 15, 2025, new AWS customers will receive up to $200 in AWS Free Tier credits, which can be applied towards eligible AWS services, including Secrets Manager. At account sign-up, you can choose between a free plan and a paid plan. The free plan will be available for 6 months after account creation. aws.amazon.com/secrets-manager/faqs
- Certifications
- DoD CC SRG IL2DoD CC SRG IL4DoD CC SRG IL5FedRAMPHIPAAIRAPOSPARISO/IEC 27001
- Not stated on the pages read
- Integrations, hosting, customers
What AWS Secrets Manager's own pages state, read September 28, 2026: aws.amazon.com/secrets-manager, aws.amazon.com/secrets-manager/sla, aws.amazon.com/secrets-manager/faqs, aws.amazon.com/secrets-manager/pricing, aws.amazon.com/secrets-manager/features. A claimed page can correct any of them.
Is this your product?
Claim this page
Claiming is free and changes nothing in the data. A claimed page shows a verified contact who is told when each edition publishes and when AWS Secrets Manager's standing changes by more than the noise floor; the right to propose corrections to the vendor table, meaning names the judge wrote that should or should not read as AWS Secrets Manager, applied by version and listed in the change log; and a one-line description supplied by the vendor and marked as such.
What a new claim receivesHide what a new claim receives
A new claim receives the current edition's vendor brief for AWS Secrets Manager by email, built from the raw record of the edition. It shows:
- where AWS Secrets Manager is named, by buyer and by framing, and which cells hold its first choices;
- the claims the models make when they name it, ranked, with the strongest and the weakest quoted;
- its vocabulary against the segment leader's, and the pages the models cited;
- who was chosen in the answers that did not name AWS Secrets Manager, and every reason the record gives;
- a battlecard for each top rival: the head-to-head split, why they win, and the reservation quoted against them;
- one page of published figures cleared to show a buyer.