Akeyless Universal Secrets Connector vs Natoma MCP Gateway: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)

Akeyless Universal Secrets Connector

Teams managing secrets across multiple vaults,whether on-premises, cloud, or hybrid,should pick Akeyless Universal Secrets Connector because it eliminates the forced migration that traditional PAM tools demand; you keep your existing vault and layer unified authentication and access control on top. The no-migration Bring Your Own Vault model means you avoid the operational nightmare of re-keying distributed systems, and NIST PR.AA coverage confirms the access control backbone is there. Skip this if your organization runs a single, well-managed secrets system and has no plans to consolidate; the connector's value emerges when vault sprawl is already your problem.

Natoma MCP Gateway

Enterprise security teams deploying AI agents into production need Natoma MCP Gateway because it's the only gateway that treats MCP servers as a privileged access problem rather than a developer convenience. It covers the full NIST PR.AA stack,authentication, authorization, and least-privilege enforcement,while maintaining the ID.AM and DE.CM visibility that makes shadow AI discovery actually useful instead of theoretical. Skip this if your organization hasn't yet separated AI infrastructure decisions from general API management; you're not ready for the compliance and access control overhead it requires.