AWS CloudHSM vs BlackBox: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)
Features, pricing, ratings, and pros & cons — compared head-to-head.
AWS CloudHSM is a free key management tool. BlackBox 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 available product data, here is our conclusion:
Organizations with strict key custody requirements or regulated workloads (financial services, healthcare) should use AWS CloudHSM for the single-tenant HSM model, which keeps your keys physically isolated from AWS infrastructure and other tenants. FIPS 140-2 Level 3 certification and no AWS key escrow mean you retain exclusive control, addressing the core NIST Govern requirement that often fails with shared key management services. Skip this if you need integration with AWS native services like KMS or SecretsManager without custom translation layers; CloudHSM requires explicit key provisioning and won't transparently encrypt your RDS or S3.
Development teams that treat secrets management as a version control problem, not a separate vault, should start with BlackBox. Its GPG encryption lets you commit encrypted secrets alongside code without external infrastructure, and the 6,768 GitHub stars reflect real adoption in open-source projects where DevOps overhead kills security compliance. Skip this if your team needs centralized rotation, audit logging, or integration with enterprise identity systems; BlackBox prioritizes simplicity over the operational features that regulated environments demand.
