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

Gane Index, November 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/2026-11/enterprise

**Standing:** HashiCorp Vault leads with 68% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 53 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) | 68% | 21% | 81 |
| 2 | [Akeyless](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/akeyless/index.md) | 8% | 9% | 47 |
| 3 | [Doppler](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/doppler/index.md) | 8% | 24% | 37 |
| 5 | [Infisical](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/infisical/index.md) | 4% | 24% | 34 |
| 6 | [AWS Secrets Manager](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/aws-secrets-manager/index.md) | 2% | 30% | 74 |
| 7 | [CyberArk Secrets Manager](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cyberark-secrets-manager/index.md) | 2% | 24% | 17 |
| 8 | [1Password](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/1password/index.md) | 2% | 32% | 19 |
| 9 | [Azure Key Vault](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/azure-key-vault/index.md) | 0% | 27% | 60 |
| 10 | [CyberArk Conjur](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cyberark-conjur/index.md) | 0% | 22% | 36 |
| 11 | [Google Secret Manager](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/google-secret-manager/index.md) | 0% | 33% | 45 |
| 12 | [OpenBao](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/openbao/index.md) | 0% | 29% | 14 |
| 13 | [Delinea Secret Server](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/delinea-secret-server/index.md) | 0% | 10% | 10 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 64 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, Azure Key Vault, CyberArk Secrets Manager
- GPT-5.4 mini: HashiCorp Vault; alternatives AWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: HashiCorp Vault; alternatives AWS Secrets Manager, Akeyless, Azure Key Vault, Infisical
- Perplexity Sonar: HashiCorp Vault; alternatives AWS Secrets Manager, Akeyless, Azure Key Vault, CyberArk Conjur
- Grok 4.20: HashiCorp Vault; alternatives AWS Secrets Manager, Akeyless, Azure Key Vault, CyberArk Secrets Manager
- Mistral Small: HashiCorp Vault; alternatives AWS Secrets Manager, Akeyless Identity Security Platform, Azure Key Vault, CyberArk Conjur
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: HashiCorp Vault; alternatives AWS Secrets Manager, Akeyless, CyberArk Conjur
- Llama 4 Maverick: HashiCorp Vault
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: HashiCorp Vault; alternatives Akeyless, CyberArk Secrets Manager, Doppler
- Kimi K2: HashiCorp Vault; alternatives AWS Secrets Manager, Akeyless, Azure Key Vault, CyberArk Conjur
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: HashiCorp Vault; alternatives 1Password, AWS Secrets Manager, Akeyless, Azure Key Vault
- MiniMax M2.5: HashiCorp Vault; alternatives AWS Secrets Manager, Akeyless, Azure Key Vault, CyberArk Conjur
- GPT-6 Luna: AWS Secrets Manager; alternatives Azure Key Vault, Google Secret Manager, HashiCorp Vault
- Muse Glimmer 30B: HashiCorp Vault; alternatives AWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, CyberArk Conjur, Idira

## Sources the answers cite

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

- akeyless.io: 39 answers, 117 citations
- securityboulevard.com: 35 answers, 57 citations
- infisical.com: 30 answers, 59 citations
- startwithidentity.com: 30 answers, 30 citations
- hashicorp.com: 16 answers, 21 citations
- cheatsheetseries.owasp.org: 16 answers, 16 citations
- guideflow.com: 16 answers, 16 citations
- securden.com: 16 answers, 16 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://securityboulevard.com/2026/05/top-16-secrets-management-tools-and-platforms-for-2026-compared (25 answers)
- https://startwithidentity.com/articles/top-8-secrets-management-tools.md (21 answers)
- https://akeyless.io/blog/the-essential-guide-to-secrets-management (16 answers)
- https://cheatsheetseries.owasp.org/cheatsheets/Secrets_Management_Cheat_Sheet.html (16 answers)
- https://guideflow.com/blog/secrets-management-software (16 answers)
- https://gane.ai/index/it/identity/secrets-management/enterprise (14 answers)
- https://securden.com/blog/enterprise-secrets-management.html (13 answers)
- https://securityboulevard.com/2026/09/ranking-the-top-secrets-management-tools-and-alternatives-in-2026 (13 answers)
- https://subrupt.com/best/secrets-management (13 answers)
- https://cybersecuritynews.com/best-secrets-management-tools (12 answers)

## Warned against

- AWS Secrets Manager: 22 of 74 labels negative. "be cautious of the following models: Cloud-Native Managers (AWS Secrets Manager, GCP Secret Manager): The Trap: They charge per secret per month plus per 10,000 API calls." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, budget prompt)
- Azure Key Vault: 16 of 60 labels negative. "Tools to Avoid: AWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, Google Secret Manager." (Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt)
- Google Secret Manager: 15 of 45 labels negative. "Cloud-Native Managers (AWS Secrets Manager, GCP Secret Manager): The Trap: They charge per secret per month plus per 10,000 API calls." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, budget prompt)
- HashiCorp Vault: 17 of 81 labels negative. "HashiCorp Vault Enterprise / HCP Vault: The Trap: Enterprise licensing scales based on "Active Clients"... audit-driven license expansion can create significant renewal price increases." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, budget prompt)

## Movement since October 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: HashiCorp Vault at 68%.

- HashiCorp Vault: 61% to 68%, +7. Inside the floor by 4 points · rank 1 of 64, unchanged.
- Akeyless: 4% to 8%, +4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 3 → 2 of 64.
- Doppler: 4% to 8%, +4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 6 → 3 of 64.
- OpenBao: 4% to 0%, −4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 7 → 12 of 64.
- Infisical: 6% to 4%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 2 → 5 of 64.
- AWS Secrets Manager: 4% to 2%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 4 → 6 of 64.
- CyberArk Secrets Manager: 4% to 2%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 5 → 7 of 64.
- 1Password: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 15 → 8 of 64.
- Azure Key Vault: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 8 → 9 of 64.
- CyberArk Conjur: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 9 → 10 of 64.
- Google Secret Manager: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 10 → 11 of 64.
- Delinea Secret Server: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 16 → 13 of 64.

## Record

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