HashiCorp Vault is still the name most people reach for when they need to store and manage application secrets — API keys, database credentials, certificates. But it's not the only option, and for a lot of teams it isn't even the simplest one: Vault's move to a Business Source License pushed some teams toward true open-source forks, and its operational complexity is more than plenty of small teams actually need. Here are five real alternatives, from a direct open-source fork of Vault itself to lightweight tools built specifically for the newer problem of keeping API keys away from AI agents.
OpenBao — Vault, but genuinely open source
OpenBao is a community-governed, Linux Foundation-backed fork of Vault, created specifically because Vault moved to a source-available license. It aims to match Vault's core capabilities — dynamic secrets, encryption as a service — without a single-vendor license.
For who: platform engineers and DevOps/security teams who want Vault's feature set and architecture, but need real open governance and no single-vendor lock-in.
Price: fully open source under MPL-2.0, Linux Foundation governed, no license fee.
Honest take: if the license was your objection to Vault, this is the direct answer — same core capability, OpenSSF/Linux Foundation governance instead of one company. The trade-off is that as a fork, it lags behind the newest Vault Enterprise features, and migrating an existing Vault deployment over takes real, non-trivial effort.
Doppler — the simple, hosted option
Doppler is a universal secrets manager for application secrets and config, with straightforward syncing to the major cloud providers and a genuinely usable free tier.
For who: developers who want secrets management to just work without standing up and operating infrastructure themselves.
Price: free for up to 5 users with basic access controls; paid tiers exist but pricing details beyond that aren't clearly published.
Honest take: the free tier and simplicity are the whole pitch here — you're trading Vault's operational overhead for a hosted service you don't manage. The trade-offs are the mirror image: pricing past the free tier isn't transparent, and costs can climb for larger teams.
Infisical — open source, developer-first
Infisical is an open-source platform for managing developer secrets across a team and its infrastructure — from local development through staging and production — free for up to five developers.
For who: developer teams that want an open-source option with a modern developer experience, not just a compliance checkbox.
Price: free for up to 5 developers; pricing beyond that tier needs checking directly.
Honest take: being open source and free for small teams is the clear draw, and centralized secrets management across environments is exactly the core Vault use case. Reported downsides are a less polished interface than the hosted competition, and costs that can rise once you're past 5 users.
API Stronghold — ephemeral tokens instead of real keys
API Stronghold takes a different angle: instead of handing your AI agents and scripts your real API keys, it issues temporary, limited-use tokens that expire within minutes and can't be traced back to your actual credentials.
For who: development and security teams managing API keys for CI/CD pipelines or AI agents, who want to limit the blast radius if a credential leaks.
Price: free tier available, no card required; paid tiers exist but aren't publicly detailed.
Honest take: zero-knowledge encryption (the service itself never sees your real keys in plaintext) plus minute-scale token expiry is a genuinely tighter security model for the specific problem of agent and CI credential leaks, and one-click sync to Vercel, GitHub and AWS is a nice practical touch. It's also less established than Doppler or Vault, so weigh that against how much you value the newer security model.
OneCLI — a gateway, not a vault
OneCLI is an open-source gateway that lets AI agents call APIs without ever seeing your real API keys — the real secret is injected transparently at the network level, so it never passes through the agent's context or logs.
For who: teams deploying AI agents who specifically need to keep credentials out of agent context and logs, across MCP, CLI, curl or custom agent code.
Price: free for up to 2 agents, no credit card; paid tiers for more agents and enterprise features, pricing not fully public.
Honest take: open source, self-hostable, one-line install, and framework-agnostic (MCP, CLI, curl, custom code) makes it easy to adopt for the specific agent-credential-exposure problem. It's a young, community-scale project rather than an enterprise-hardened vault, and it genuinely overlaps with general secrets managers like Vault or Infisical that already handle storage — think of it as a layer in front of your vault, not a replacement for one.
| Tool | Best for | License / price |
|---|---|---|
| OpenBao | Direct Vault replacement, open governance | Free, MPL-2.0 |
| Doppler | Hosted simplicity, no ops overhead | Free up to 5 users |
| Infisical | Open-source, developer-first workflow | Free up to 5 developers |
| API Stronghold | Ephemeral tokens for agents/CI | Free tier, no card |
| OneCLI | Keeping keys out of agent context specifically | Free up to 2 agents |
If you want the closest thing to a drop-in Vault replacement, OpenBao is the direct answer. If you'd rather not run infrastructure at all, Doppler or Infisical get you there faster. And if your actual problem is newer than Vault was designed for — AI agents calling APIs with real credentials sitting in their context window — API Stronghold and OneCLI solve a narrower, more current problem that a traditional vault doesn't address on its own.