IBM Cloud Secrets Manager vs Thales CipherTrust Manager: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)

IBM Cloud Secrets Manager: Centralized secrets management service for IBM Cloud powered by HashiCorp Vault. built by IBM. Core capabilities include Single-tenant dedicated instance with data isolation, Dynamic and static secrets lifecycle management, API keys, credentials, certificates, and text secret types..

Thales CipherTrust Manager: Enterprise key management solution for centralized encryption key lifecycle mgmt. built by Thales Group. Core capabilities include Centralized encryption key lifecycle management, Role-based access control with Active Directory and LDAP integration, FIPS 140-3 Level 3 compliant HSM integration..

Both serve the Key Management market but differ in approach, feature depth, and target audience.

IBM Cloud Secrets Manager differentiates with Single-tenant dedicated instance with data isolation, Dynamic and static secrets lifecycle management, API keys, credentials, certificates, and text secret types. Thales CipherTrust Manager differentiates with Centralized encryption key lifecycle management, Role-based access control with Active Directory and LDAP integration, FIPS 140-3 Level 3 compliant HSM integration.

IBM Cloud Secrets Manager is developed by IBM. Thales CipherTrust Manager is developed by Thales Group. Vendor maturity, funding stage, and team size can be important factors when evaluating long-term viability and support quality.

IBM Cloud Secrets Manager integrates with HashiCorp Vault, IBM Key Protect, IBM Cloud Activity Tracker, IBM Cloud Toolchains, IBM Cloud Event Notifications and 2 more. Thales CipherTrust Manager integrates with Thales Luna HSM, AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, VMware and 6 more. Check integration compatibility with your existing security stack before deciding.

IBM Cloud Secrets Manager and Thales CipherTrust Manager serve similar Key Management use cases: both are Key Management tools. Review the feature comparison above to determine which fits your requirements.