Akeyless Multi-Cloud KMS BYOK vs Clevis: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)
Features, pricing, ratings, and pros & cons — compared head-to-head.
Akeyless Multi-Cloud KMS BYOK is a commercial key management tool by Akeyless Security. Clevis is a free key management tool. Compare features, ratings, integrations, and community reviews side by side to find the best key management fit for your security stack.
CST VerdictBased on our analysis of NIST CSF 2.0 coverage, core features, company size fit, deployment model, here is our conclusion:
Enterprise and mid-market security teams managing encryption keys across AWS, Azure, and GCP will find Akeyless Multi-Cloud KMS BYOK valuable for eliminating key sprawl without surrendering control to hyperscaler KMS services. The platform's automated rotation, centralized audit trails, and NIST PR.AA and PR.DS alignment mean you're not just centralizing key management; you're building a control plane that actually shows you who accessed what and when. Skip this if your organization runs primarily on a single cloud and lacks the compliance pressure that makes BYOK economics work, or if you need the KMS to also handle application secrets and database credentials in one system.
Infrastructure teams automating decryption workflows in CI/CD pipelines or boot sequences should use Clevis for its plugin architecture, which handles LUKS volumes and encrypted data without requiring manual key entry at deployment time. The tool's 1,159 GitHub stars and active maintenance signal real production adoption, particularly in Red Hat environments where it's deeply integrated. Skip Clevis if you need centralized key lifecycle management or auditing; it's a decryption orchestrator, not a key management platform, and assumes your keys are already provisioned elsewhere.
