# Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) vs Pulumi ESC (slim)

> Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) scores 73.6 (BB) on agent readiness against Pulumi ESC's 71.1 (BB), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Pulumi ESC leads on agent ergonomics and payments & pricing. Both do secrets store. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes…

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-pulumi-esc.md (~2,600 tokens) · this version ~730 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-pulumi-esc.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akeyless-vs-pulumi-esc
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-09

Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) scores 73.6 (BB) on agent readiness against Pulumi ESC's 71.1 (BB), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Pulumi ESC leads on agent ergonomics and payments & pricing. Both do secrets store.

- Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server): BB 73.6, rank #74 of 722 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/akeyless.min.md
- Pulumi ESC: BB 71.1, rank #120 of 722 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pulumi-esc.min.md
- Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server), good for Enterprises that want agents to use credentials without holding them, through a Gateway they run, and who will sign a quoted contract. Ahead on Reliability, 90 against 60; Security & auth, 89 against 79; Transparency & trust, 72 against 65. Also Runs on your own machine.
- Pulumi ESC, good for Teams already on Pulumi, or anyone who wants one place that composes static secrets, other vaults and short-lived cloud credentials, and agents that need to start with no signup. Ahead on Agent ergonomics, 75 against 63; Payments & pricing, 55 against 25. Also Free to start without a card.

| Category | Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) | Pulumi ESC |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 90 | 60 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 81 | 82 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 63 | 75 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 89 | 79 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 25 | 55 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 82 | 82 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 72 | 65 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server) | Pulumi ESC |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model platform | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Akeyless | Pulumi Corporation |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.akeyless.io` | `https://api.pulumi.com` |
| Transports | HTTP, stdio, Streamable HTTP | HTTP |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 (SDKs), closed platform | Proprietary service under Pulumi's Terms & Conditions. The Pulumi CLI, the ESC evaluator and the ESC SDKs are Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-17 | 2026-10-07 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-03-21 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-05 | no date given |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 2 stars, 3.5k npm/wk, 219k PyPI/wk | 21k npm/wk, 54k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | none |