# Secrets management for enterprise buyers: what AI models recommend, October 2026

Gane Index, October 2026 Edition. Asked as "secrets management tool" and as "secrets vault for applications and infrastructure", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/identity/secrets-management/2026-10/enterprise

This is the permanent record of the October 2026 Edition, published October 1, 2026 and superseded since. The current standing: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/identity/secrets-management/enterprise/index.md

**Standing:** HashiCorp Vault leads with 61% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 51 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [HashiCorp Vault](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/hashicorp-vault/index.md) | 61% | 18% | 82 |
| 2 | [Infisical](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/infisical/index.md) | 6% | 24% | 34 |
| 3 | [Akeyless](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/akeyless/index.md) | 4% | 2% | 42 |
| 4 | [AWS Secrets Manager](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/aws-secrets-manager/index.md) | 4% | 31% | 61 |
| 5 | [CyberArk Secrets Manager](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cyberark-secrets-manager/index.md) | 4% | 11% | 19 |
| 6 | [Doppler](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/doppler/index.md) | 4% | 31% | 39 |
| 7 | [OpenBao](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/openbao/index.md) | 4% | 8% | 12 |
| 8 | [Azure Key Vault](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/azure-key-vault/index.md) | 2% | 21% | 53 |
| 9 | [CyberArk Conjur](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cyberark-conjur/index.md) | 2% | 23% | 30 |
| 10 | [Google Secret Manager](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/google-secret-manager/index.md) | 2% | 25% | 40 |
| 15 | [1Password](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/1password/index.md) | 0% | 8% | 12 |
| 16 | [Delinea Secret Server](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/delinea-secret-server/index.md) | 0% | 20% | 10 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 53 products named; products with the same share are tied, and the order among them carries no meaning. The table lists those with at least 10 labels.

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: HashiCorp Vault; alternatives AWS Secrets Manager, Akeyless, CyberArk Conjur
- GPT-5.4 mini: HashiCorp Vault; alternatives AWS Secrets Manager
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: HashiCorp Vault; alternatives AWS Secrets Manager, Akeyless, Doppler, Infisical
- Perplexity Sonar: HashiCorp Vault; alternatives Akeyless, BeyondTrust Password Safe, Cycode, Keeper Secrets Manager
- Grok 4.20: HashiCorp Vault; alternatives AWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, CyberArk Conjur, Google Secret Manager
- Mistral Small: HashiCorp Vault; alternatives Azure Key Vault, GitGuardian
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: HashiCorp Vault; alternatives AWS Secrets Manager, Akeyless, Azure Key Vault, Doppler
- Llama 4 Maverick: HashiCorp Vault
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Akeyless; alternatives AWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, CyberArk Secrets Manager, HashiCorp Vault
- Kimi K2: HashiCorp Vault; alternatives Akeyless, CyberArk Privileged Access Manager
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: HashiCorp Vault; alternatives AWS Secrets Manager, Akeyless Identity Security Platform, Azure Key Vault, CyberArk Conjur
- MiniMax M2.5: CyberArk Secrets Manager, HashiCorp Vault; alternatives AWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, Delinea Secret Server, Google Secret Manager
- GPT-6 Luna: AWS Secrets Manager; alternatives Akeyless, Azure Key Vault, HashiCorp Vault
- Muse Glimmer 30B: HashiCorp Vault; alternatives AWS Secrets Manager, Akeyless, Azure Key Vault, CyberArk Conjur

## Sources the answers cite

77 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- guideflow.com: 45 answers, 45 citations
- blog.gitguardian.com: 43 answers, 44 citations
- cybersecuritynews.com: 42 answers, 59 citations
- cycode.com: 33 answers, 38 citations
- infisical.com: 30 answers, 43 citations
- startwithidentity.com: 27 answers, 31 citations
- akeyless.io: 25 answers, 35 citations
- blog.railway.com: 24 answers, 24 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://guideflow.com/blog/secrets-management-software (44 answers)
- https://blog.gitguardian.com/top-secrets-management-tools (43 answers)
- https://cybersecuritynews.com/best-secrets-management-tools (25 answers)
- https://cybersecuritynews.com/best-secrets-management-tools/amp (25 answers)
- https://cycode.com/blog/best-secrets-management-tools (24 answers)
- https://blog.railway.com/p/best-secrets-management-2026 (24 answers)
- https://startwithidentity.com/articles/top-8-secrets-management-tools (22 answers)
- https://pulumi.com/blog/secrets-management-tools-guide (18 answers)
- https://cyberpress.org/secrets-management-by-use-case (17 answers)
- https://workos.com/blog/secrets-management-tools-compared (16 answers)

## Warned against

- AWS Secrets Manager: 19 of 61 labels negative. "Avoid AWS Secrets Manager for your use case — the per-secret pricing ($0.40/month) becomes prohibitively expensive" (Muse Glimmer 30B, paraphrase prompt)
- HashiCorp Vault: 15 of 82 labels negative. "HashiCorp's HCP Vault Secrets page states it will be retired on 2026-06-30, so enterprises should avoid adopting it for new long-term deployments now." (GPT-5.4 mini, negative prompt)
- Azure Key Vault: 11 of 53 labels negative. "Avoid: Native-only tools like AWS Secrets Manager or Azure Key Vault as your central authority." (Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt)
- Google Secret Manager: 10 of 40 labels negative. "While AWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, or Google Cloud Secret Manager may work well for single-cloud deployments, they become problematic in multi-cloud and hybrid environments." (MiniMax M2.5, negative prompt)

## Movement since September 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: HashiCorp Vault at 63%.

- HashiCorp Vault: 75% to 63%, −12. Cleared the floor by 1 point · rank 1 of 53, unchanged.
- Infisical: 2% to 7%, +5. Inside the floor by 6 points · rank 6 → 2 of 53.
- Akeyless: 10% to 5%, −5. Inside the floor by 6 points · rank 2 → 3 of 53.
- CyberArk Secrets Manager: 0% to 5%, +5. Inside the floor by 6 points · rank 9 → 4 of 53.
- 1Password: 5% to 0%, −5. Inside the floor by 6 points · rank 4 → 15 of 53.
- CyberArk Conjur: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 7 → 6 of 53.
- OpenBao: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 11 → 7 of 53.
- AWS Secrets Manager: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 5 → 13 of 53.
- Doppler: 5% to 5%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 3 → 5 of 53.
- Azure Key Vault: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 8 → 12 of 53.
- Google Secret Manager: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 10 → 14 of 53.

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, October 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/it.