AWS Secrets Manager vs BlackBox: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)
Features, pricing, ratings, and pros & cons — compared head-to-head.
AWS Secrets Manager 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:
AWS teams that need secrets rotation without a separate vendor will find AWS Secrets Manager operationally simpler than standalone KMS tools, since it handles both storage and automated rotation in one service. The free tier covers most non-enterprise use cases, and native IAM integration means no separate identity layer to manage. Skip this if you need hardware security modules or are locked into a non-AWS environment; Secrets Manager prioritizes convenience over portability, and its rotation logic is AWS-specific enough that migrations are painful.
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.
