# Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) vs HashiCorp Vault + Vault MCP Server

> Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) has a score of 73.7 (BB) against HashiCorp Vault + Vault MCP Server's 64.4 (B). Both do secrets store. The largest gap is reliability, 19 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-05

Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) has a score of 73.7 (BB) against HashiCorp Vault + Vault MCP Server's 64.4 (B). Both do secrets store. The largest gap is reliability, 19 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
- HashiCorp Vault + Vault MCP Server: grade B, 64.4/100, rank #184 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/hashicorp-vault.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/hashicorp-vault.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) for reliability (+19), schema & documentation (+7), maintenance & community (+5).

Pick HashiCorp Vault + Vault MCP Server for payments & pricing (+5), transparency & trust (+10).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) | HashiCorp Vault + Vault MCP Server | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 90 | 71 | Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) +19 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 81 | 74 | Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) +7 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 63 | 64 | HashiCorp Vault + Vault MCP Server +1 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 89 | 86 | Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) +3 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 25 | 30 | HashiCorp Vault + Vault MCP Server +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 82 | 77 | Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) +5 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 73 | 83 | HashiCorp Vault + Vault MCP Server +10 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -5 | |
| **Total** | | **73.7 · BB** | **64.4 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) | HashiCorp Vault + Vault MCP Server |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model platform | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Akeyless | HashiCorp (IBM) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.akeyless.io` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP, stdio, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, stdio, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 (SDKs), closed platform | BUSL-1.1 (Vault), MPL-2.0 (MCP server) |
| Tools exposed | none | 16 |
| 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 | no |
| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Popularity | 2 stars, 3.5k npm/wk, 219k PyPI/wk | 36k stars |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | 3/5 (2) |

## 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.

**HashiCorp Vault + Vault MCP Server.** Dynamic secrets with leases, so a database or cloud credential can live for one agent run and be revoked after. The MCP server's newest build is 0.2.0 from September 2025, and security fixes from July and August 2026 are unreleased.

## 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`

### HashiCorp Vault + Vault MCP Server

1. Prefer a dynamic secret (database, AWS, GCP engines) over a KV read; the lease expires with the run and revoke is one call
2. Log in with AppRole or Kubernetes auth and keep the token for its TTL. Renew with auth/token/renew-self rather than logging in per request
3. For KV v2, GET /v1/<mount>/data/<path> and read data.data, and pass cas on writes so a retry can't overwrite a newer version
4. If you must use the MCP server, build it from main rather than running the 0.2.0 image, run it over stdio, and give it a token limited to one mount
5. Ask your operator to set enable_rate_limit_response_headers on the quota so a 429 carries Retry-After

## Other comparisons with Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) or HashiCorp Vault + Vault MCP Server

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