Every category where a model named HashiCorp Vault 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	31%	1 of 59	34%	77	criticized default	▲+3Since September 2026: 30% → 33%, +3 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
Non-human identity management	Identity and access	7%	5 of 128	30%	40	criticized challenger
Privileged access management	Identity and access	2%	9 of 73	18%	22	accepted challenger	▲+2Since September 2026: 0% → 2%, +2 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
Certificate lifecycle management	Identity and access	0%	57 of 104	33%	9	under 10 labels · led by Sectigo Certificate Manager at 27%
Container and Kubernetes security	Cloud and infrastructure	0%	57 of 77	0%	1	under 10 labels · led by Trivy at 22%	=heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.

Movement

Since September 2026, HashiCorp Vault held within the floor in all five categories: no change cleared 11 points.

Best category · Secrets · by segment

Small business▲+2Since September 2026: 5% → 7%, +2 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.

7%from 5% in September 2026

Inside the floor by 9 pointsRank 5 → 6 of 41

Mid-market▲+3Since September 2026: 30% → 33%, +3 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.

33%from 30% in September 2026

Inside the floor by 8 pointsRank 2 → 1 of 54

Enterprise▼−12Since September 2026: 75% → 63%, −12 points. Past the 11-point floor: movement. Read over the models both editions asked.

63%from 75% in September 2026

Cleared the floor by 1 pointRank 1 of 53, unchanged

All categories · Mid-market

Category	September 2026	Now	Change	Reading	Rank
NHI management	0%	8%	newNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 8% now.	New this edition	Rank 5 of 128, unchanged
Secrets	30%	33%	▲+3Since September 2026: 30% → 33%, +3 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.	Within noise	Rank 2 → 1 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 14 → 9 of 73
Certificate management	0%	0%	newNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 0% now.	New this edition	Rank 57 of 104, unchanged
Container security	0%	0%	=heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.	Within noise	Rank 45 → 57 of 77

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 HashiCorp Vault across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Fourteen models, six prompts per category.

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Model	First choice	Alternative	Mention	Negative	Labels
Claude Haiku 4.5	4	2	3	1	10
GPT-5.4 mini	4	2	0	1	7
Gemini 3.5 Flash	1	2	3	7	13
Perplexity Sonar	1	3	2	2	8
Grok 4.20	5	0	2	4	11
Mistral Small	4	1	4	1	10
DeepSeek V4 Flash	2	3	1	5	11
Llama 4 Maverick	0	0	7	0	7
Qwen 3.7 Flash	2	6	1	9	18
Kimi K2	2	3	3	5	13
GLM 4.7 FlashX	3	3	1	1	8
MiniMax M2.5	4	4	5	1	14
GPT-6 Luna	1	1	0	4	6
Muse Glimmer 30B	2	6	1	4	13

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

Direct62 labels21

Paraphrase74 labels26

Comparative87 labels25not counted in share

Budget-constrained63 labels11

Scale-constrained58 labels7

Negative70 labels2not counted in share

First choiceAlternativeMentionNegative414 labels in all, every segment counted; 65 of the 92 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.

“HashiCorp Vault (open-source Community Edition) stands out as the best non-human identity management (NHIAM) platform for a company with a limited budget.” Grok 4.20 · NHI management · budget prompt · first choice

“Start with Delinea if you need a balanced, mid-market-focused PAM solution, or HashiCorp Vault if you have strong DevOps capabilities” Kimi K2 · Secrets · direct prompt · first choice

“HashiCorp Vault remains the most capable and widely deployed, making it ideal if you have multi-cloud environments and complex requirements.” Claude Haiku 4.5 · Secrets · direct prompt · first choice

“For most mid-market B2B companies with a mix of cloud and on-premises needs, HashiCorp Vault is the most flexible and scalable choice” Mistral Small · Secrets · direct 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.

“The main platforms to avoid or scrutinize closely are: - Secrets-only tools such as HashiCorp Vault when you need full PAM” Perplexity Sonar · PAM · negative prompt · hard negative

“for a mid-sized B2B company, it is generally no longer recommended unless you have a dedicated platform team” Gemini 3.5 Flash · Secrets · paraphrase prompt · hard negative

“Development-Centric Secret Managers (e.g., HashiCorp Vault) Status: *Avoid Using It as a Primary CA*” Qwen 3.7 Flash · Certificate management · negative prompt · hard negative

“Pure secrets managers (HashiCorp Vault alone): Don't solve the full NHI governance problem” Kimi K2 · NHI management · direct prompt · hard negative

Named alongside

The products named in the same answers as HashiCorp Vault, over the 403 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and HashiCorp Vault was named but was not.

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ProductSame answerTook the first choice insteadHead to head

AWS Secrets Manager190 of 4039Compare →

Doppler162 of 40359Compare →

Infisical141 of 40346Compare →

Azure Key Vault137 of 4033Compare →

Akeyless124 of 40311Compare →

Google Secret Manager108 of 4032Not among the top eight

1Password87 of 4039Compare →

CyberArk Conjur73 of 4031Not among the top eight

Delinea Secret Server64 of 4032Compare →

Bitwarden Secrets Manager60 of 40310Compare →

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 HashiCorp Vault. 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 357 of the 403 answers that named HashiCorp Vault and are not a share of its labels.

Domains cited

cybersecuritynews.com140

startwithidentity.com135

infisical.com126

guideflow.com121

blog.gitguardian.com116

doppler.com95

akeyless.io89

cyberpress.org89

g2.com82

expertinsights.com81

1,074 of the 1,074 domain citations in answers naming HashiCorp Vault came from somebody else's page.

Pages cited

blog.gitguardian.com/top-secrets-management-tools97

guideflow.com/blog/secrets-management-software88

cybersecuritynews.com/best-secrets-management-tools55

cyberpress.org/secrets-management-by-use-case54

dupple.com/learn/best-secrets-management-tools54

blog.railway.com/p/best-secrets-management-202651

pulumi.com/blog/secrets-management-tools-guide50

infisical.com/blog/best-secret-management-tools49

Pages are listed as the models cited them.

Search and answers

Where HashiCorp Vault stands in Google search beside where it stands in the models' answers.

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In search

Google, US estimates

Position for “secrets management tool”

–

not in the top ten

Position for “secrets management tools”

Searches for its name, Google: 5,400 a month (“hashicorp vault”)
AI search demand for its name, est.: 317 a month
Organic visits to its site: about 173,934 a month
Searches its site ranks for: 11,363 · 2,423 in the top three
Sites linking to it: 36,826
Paid Google search: 2 searches its ads show for, about 6 clicks and $26 a month (estimate)

Ads on GoogleDetailLess

120+ ads · 75 image, 45 text · 29 shown in the last 30 days

First shown May 2022, as HASHICORP, INC., verified. Ads started 2025-10 to 2026-09: 58 in the year, 62 before.

On Google's pages: 1 2 3 4

In answers

This edition

Share of first choices

31%

rank 1 of 59 in secrets

First choices

across its categories

Named in: 403 answers
Its own site cited: in 357 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.

What it publishes

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Addresses on hashicorp.com

10,091

subdomains included

Content

3,214

counted in the table below

Documentation

6,584

Product · Integration

53 · 4

Kind	Pages	Last 90 days	Latest	Categories named
Blog	1,988	undated		IaC, Secrets
Webinar or virtual event	675	undated		Secrets, PAM
Template or tool	224	0	2026-06-19	APM, Secrets
Conference or event	203	undated
Case study	44	undated
Glossary or explainer	35	0	2026-04-15	IaC
Comparison	22	1	2026-07-14
Report or ebook	19	0	2026-03-05
Podcast or video	3	undated
News or press	1	undated

Most recent

2026-07-14Compare comparison
2026-06-19Instana template or tool
2026-04-20Schedule template or tool
2026-04-15Migration checklist template or tool
2026-04-15Glossary glossary or explainer
2026-04-15What is vault glossary or explainer

Events in person

Last twelve months

October 26, 2026 to October 29, 2026HashiConf at IBM TechXchange 2026Atlanta · took part

As the event pages on hashicorp.com state them, read September 28, 2026.

How it is countedHide how it is counted

Every page hashicorp.com exposes, subdomains included. Kind is read from the address and title. The last 90 days, the latest date and the twelve months count pages by when they were published, from the site's feeds, a date in the address, or the page's own publication date, read from up to a hundred of its most recently changed pages; a page that says only when it last changed is counted in its kind but not in when, so the recent counts are a floor, and a kind none of whose pages gives a publication date reads undated. An event counts as online when its address or title says so (webinar, on demand, virtual or online summit); a conference, summit, trade show, expo or roadshow that does not say so is counted as a conference or event, which on a vendor's site is mostly in person. Read September 29, 2026.

Names read as HashiCorp Vault

What the judge wrote, as written, with how often. The vendor table decides that these count as HashiCorp Vault; a claim can dispute any of them.

Vault 5HashiCorp 3HashiCorp Vault (Community Edition) 3HashiCorp Vault / HCP Vault 2HashiCorp Vault Community Edition 2HCP Vault Dedicated 1HashiCorp (VMware/IBM) 1HashiCorp Vault (PKI secret engine) 1HashiCorp Vault (now IBM Security) 1HashiCorp Vault + Boundary 1HashiCorp Vault Enterprise 1Hashicorp Vault 1Hashicorp Vault (Community Edition) 1Vault Enterprise/HCP Vault 1Vault by HashiCorp 1Vault by HashiCorp (Community) 1

Follow HashiCorp Vault

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

HashiCorp Vault is its own company.

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In its own words

Stated by the vendor, not checked

Positioning: Identity-based secrets management
hashicorp.com
For: Organizations managing secrets, certificates, keys, and other sensitive data across users, machines, services, and AI agents
hashicorp.com/en/products/vault
Price stated: Compare pricing hashicorp.com/en/products/vault
Free plan or trial: Try for free hashicorp.com/en/products/vault
Customers named: CanvaSimpli.fiManTechNORD/LB
Not stated on the pages read: Starting price, integrations, certifications, hosting

What HashiCorp Vault's own pages state, read September 28, 2026: hashicorp.com, hashicorp.com/en/pricing, hashicorp.com/en/trust, hashicorp.com/en/products/vault, hashicorp.com/en/case-studies. 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 HashiCorp Vault'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 HashiCorp Vault, 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 HashiCorp Vault by email, built from the raw record of the edition. It shows:

where HashiCorp Vault 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 HashiCorp Vault, 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.

Badges

Wins only: a badge exists where HashiCorp Vault is ranked in a category's top three this edition. Three sizes, one file each, light and dark; the code is under each.

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AI models recommend HashiCorp Vault first in Secrets management this edition. Each badge says so in the buyer's words, names the edition, and links to the standing. The next edition issues a new badge; this one stays true as a record of October 2026.

Wide · 320 × 104 Website, beside other badges

Show the code

<a href="https://it-ai-index.com/identity/secrets-management/"><img src="https://it-ai-index.com/badges/2026-10/hashicorp-vault--secrets-management-wide.svg" alt="AI models' first choice in Secrets management, October 2026 Edition, IT AI Recommendation Index" width="320" height="104"></a>

Copy the code as it is. The link is part of the badge: it points at the Secrets management standing, where the claim can be checked.

Square · 240 × 240 LinkedIn, slides

Show the code

<a href="https://it-ai-index.com/identity/secrets-management/"><img src="https://it-ai-index.com/badges/2026-10/hashicorp-vault--secrets-management-square.svg" alt="AI models' first choice in Secrets management, October 2026 Edition, IT AI Recommendation Index" width="240" height="240"></a>

Copy the code as it is. The link is part of the badge: it points at the Secrets management standing, where the claim can be checked.

Compact · 200 × 56 Email signature, footer

Show the code

<a href="https://it-ai-index.com/identity/secrets-management/"><img src="https://it-ai-index.com/badges/2026-10/hashicorp-vault--secrets-management-compact.svg" alt="AI models' first choice in Secrets management, October 2026 Edition, IT AI Recommendation Index" width="200" height="56"></a>

Copy the code as it is. The link is part of the badge: it points at the Secrets management standing, where the claim can be checked.

Badges read on light and dark pages. Alt text carries the claim, the category, the edition and the index, so it stays a citation where the image does not load.