# Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) vs AWS Secrets Manager

> AWS Secrets Manager has a score of 78.1 (A) against Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server)'s 73.7 (BB). Both do secrets store. The largest gap is agent ergonomics, 27 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-aws-secrets-manager
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-aws-secrets-manager.md (~1,800 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-aws-secrets-manager.min.md (~380 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-aws-secrets-manager.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-05

AWS Secrets Manager has a score of 78.1 (A) against Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server)'s 73.7 (BB). Both do secrets store. The largest gap is agent ergonomics, 27 points.

- Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server): grade BB, 73.7/100, rank #55 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/akeyless.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/akeyless.json
- AWS Secrets Manager: grade A, 78.1/100, rank #15 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/aws-secrets-manager.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/aws-secrets-manager.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) for payments & pricing (+5), maintenance & community (+17).

Pick AWS Secrets Manager for schema & documentation (+15), agent ergonomics (+27), transparency & trust (+6).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) | AWS Secrets Manager | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 90 | 87 | Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) +3 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 81 | 96 | AWS Secrets Manager +15 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 63 | 90 | AWS Secrets Manager +27 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 89 | 88 | Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) +1 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 25 | 20 | Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 82 | 65 | Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) +17 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 73 | 79 | AWS Secrets Manager +6 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **73.7 · BB** | **78.1 · A** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) | AWS Secrets Manager |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model platform | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Akeyless | Amazon Web Services |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.akeyless.io` | `https://secretsmanager.us-east-1.amazonaws.com` |
| Transports | HTTP, stdio, Streamable HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 (SDKs), closed platform | none |
| Tools exposed | none | none |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-17 | none |
| Popularity | 2 stars, 3.5k npm/wk, 219k PyPI/wk | 15.2M npm/wk, 578.4M PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | 3.9/5 (8) |

## Verdicts

**Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server).** Gateway-brokered SecretlessAI and a runtime-authority MCP server with 4 tools that return results, not credentials. No published prices above the free plan; clients and transactions are metered with overage billed at the end of a 12-month contract.

**AWS Secrets Manager.** IAM roles support access without long-lived credentials on AWS compute services. Each API call is billed, making caching relevant to frequent reads.

## Before you call either

### Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server)

1. Run akeyless mcp-runtime-authority, not akeyless mcp, for an agent that acts on systems; the first returns results, the second has get_secret and get_password
2. Authenticate with a cloud identity, Kubernetes or Universal Identity rather than an access key, which the docs reserve for proofs of concept
3. Use CLI 1.130.0 or later for either MCP server, and point the client at your Gateway URL
4. Count identities and calls before scaling. The free plan allows 5 clients, and calls over a tier's cap (200 a minute on Silver) are billed as extra clients, not refused
5. Pass the token in the JSON body of each POST, and page `/list-items` with `pagination-token`

### AWS Secrets Manager

1. Give the agent's task or instance role secretsmanager:GetSecretValue on the specific secret ARN, not a wildcard
2. Cache the value for the run, or read through the Workload Credentials Provider on localhost; each GetSecretValue is billed and logged
3. Use BatchGetSecretValue with a filter when you need several secrets at start-up; it's limited to 100 calls a second
4. Pass a ClientRequestToken on PutSecretValue so a retry can't create a second version, and don't write more than once every 10 minutes
5. Read VersionStage AWSPREVIOUS if a rotation lands mid-run and the new credential isn't live yet

## Other comparisons with Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) or AWS Secrets Manager

- [1Password service accounts, SDKs and Environments MCP vs Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/1password-vs-akeyless.md)
- [1Password service accounts, SDKs and Environments MCP vs AWS Secrets Manager](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/1password-vs-aws-secrets-manager.md)
- [Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) vs Bitwarden Secrets Manager](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-bitwarden-secrets-manager.md)
- [Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) vs Doppler](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-doppler.md)
- [Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) vs Google Cloud Secret Manager](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-google-secret-manager.md)
- [Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) vs HashiCorp Vault + Vault MCP Server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-hashicorp-vault.md)
- [Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) vs Infisical](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-infisical.md)
- [AWS Secrets Manager vs Bitwarden Secrets Manager](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aws-secrets-manager-vs-bitwarden-secrets-manager.md)
- [AWS Secrets Manager vs Doppler](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aws-secrets-manager-vs-doppler.md)
- [AWS Secrets Manager vs Google Cloud Secret Manager](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aws-secrets-manager-vs-google-secret-manager.md)
- [AWS Secrets Manager vs HashiCorp Vault + Vault MCP Server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aws-secrets-manager-vs-hashicorp-vault.md)
- [AWS Secrets Manager vs Infisical](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aws-secrets-manager-vs-infisical.md)