We wanted to tokenize the PCI data stored in the database. We are using Azure Key Vault to store the keys for the data tokenization. We store secret keys and drive encryption keys in Azure Key Vault.
Senior Security Architect at a security firm with 201-500 employees
Used to store the keys for data tokenization, but it is very expensive
Pros and Cons
- "With Azure Key Vault, we can generate our own keys and then import them inside the system, which provides a higher level of security than provider-managed keys."
- "It would be great if Azure allowed more third-party vendors into the ecosystem."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
We require customer-managed keys or Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) for certain things. With Azure Key Vault, we can generate our own keys and then import them inside the system, which provides a higher level of security than provider-managed keys.
What needs improvement?
As of today, there is limited support for third-party vendors. You are forced to work with the vendors that Azure approves. Only a few and not all third-party vendors are supported on Azure Key Vault. It would be great if Azure allowed more third-party vendors into the ecosystem.
Currently, the solution's pricing is based on the number of transactions, which is very high in some cases. The solution's pricing could also be reduced.
Currently, dedicated Azure Key Vaults are not available in the UAE region. We are using a shared solution with other customers. There is a great need for certain customers who want dedicated hardware-based or physically segregated Azure Key Vault.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Azure Key Vault for more than 1 year.
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Azure Key Vault is a very stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution has very good scalability. More than 15 users use the solution in our organization.
I rate Azure Key Vault a nine out of ten for scalability.
How are customer service and support?
The solution's technical support is not that good. Whenever we identify a particular issue and raise it as a Key Vault issue, the calls keep bouncing between people. Since Microsoft has a different subject matter expert for everything, we face a lot of issues trying to find the right person. For example, if we have an issue with drive encryption, they will get us an Intune expert. It's hard to reach the right people.
Most of the time, the people who call quickly are unaware of the product and are mostly gathering information. We get a lot of calls from people who keep asking the same questions regarding our version and software. So, it takes quite some time to get to the expert.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I previously worked with Thales. Thales is a completely hardware-based solution, and its installation and configuration are way more complicated than Azure Key Vault. Since Azure Key Vault is a SaaS solution, installing and deploying it is much easier.
How was the initial setup?
The solution's setup process is simple if you're using native technology. However, it's a little complicated if you're using third-party applications or software.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Azure Key Vault is a very, very expensive solution. Currently, the solution's pricing is based on the number of transactions, which is very high in some cases.
What other advice do I have?
Azure Key Vault provides a very good interface wherein we can continuously change or recycle the keys seamlessly. This automatic mechanism is much better than the typical process of changing keys or certificates. The solution takes backups before the keys expire and informs us in advance when the keys will expire.
There is something called rainbow keys. I can generate certain read-only keys that even the administrator cannot delete. The access control is very granular. I can provide access control on certain keys so that only a specific person can access them. We have deployed Azure Key Vault on the cloud in our organization.
Azure Key Vault is the best solution for Microsoft users. If you use another cloud provider, you will have to find a solution that works across all of them.
Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
VP - Global Delivery Head at a consultancy with 501-1,000 employees
Seamlessly integrates with other services
Pros and Cons
- "We use Azure Key Vault for securing secret connection streams, like API secrets, Azure services Secret Key, and AD Client Secret."
- "Azure Key Vault is only available for Microsoft services, and it should be exposed to non-Microsoft cloud services, like GCP and Amazon."
What is most valuable?
We use Azure Key Vault for securing secret connection streams, like API secrets, Azure services Secret Key, and AD Client Secret. Azure Key Vault is a stable solution that seamlessly integrates with other services.
What needs improvement?
Azure Key Vault is only available for Microsoft services, and it should be exposed to non-Microsoft cloud services, like GCP and Amazon.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Azure Key Vault for a few years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Azure Key Vault is a stable solution.
I rate the solution a nine out of ten for stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We've never had any scalability issues with Azure Key Vault. More than 30 customers are working with the solution.
I rate the solution a nine out of ten for scalability.
How are customer service and support?
The solution’s technical support team is knowledgeable.
How was the initial setup?
The solution’s initial setup is easy. We use Microsoft's templates and PowerShell scripts for the solution's seamless deployment.
What about the implementation team?
Azure Key Vault has an automated deployment, which does not take more than five minutes. We create the Azure Key Vault service and set up its lifetime and client secrets. Then, we create a secret and its text and values and update the solution. We then configured Azure Key Vault so that we could access it. We use mostly dot NET APIs and integrated this into the application setup. We inject the service whenever required, and we'll create the keys.
What was our ROI?
Azure Key Vault provides a single source of truth and a secure database for all my secrets.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We use a pay-as-you-go license for the solution, which is not very expensive.
What other advice do I have?
Azure Key Vault is a cloud-based solution.
Overall, I rate Azure Key Vault a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
Buyer's Guide
Azure Key Vault
January 2026
Learn what your peers think about Azure Key Vault. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2026.
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AVP at a paper AND forest products with 1,001-5,000 employees
Provides good integration capabilities and security to users
Pros and Cons
- "The solution's technical support is good. My company received support from Microsoft whenever we needed it."
- "If I consider how some people complain that a solution to store information should be available at a low cost, I would say that Azure Key Vault's price should be made cheaper."
What is our primary use case?
I use the solution in my company to install our digital certificates and deal with our organization's secret information.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of the solution stem from its ability to allow its users to simply install some digital certificates and some key-value pairs, which are useful for our organization.
What needs improvement?
If I consider how some people complain that a solution to store information should be available at a low cost, I would say that Azure Key Vault's price should be made cheaper.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Azure Key Vault for a couple of years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable solution.
My company has never found any problems with the stability of the product. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.
Azure Key Vault is considered a secondary tool in our company since we don't exclusively work on it. In general, Azure Key Vault or BitLocker are just supporting tools we use in our company for certain features such solutions provide. My company has not explored the aforementioned tools in-depth.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The users do not directly use the product since my company uses the applications in Azure Key Vault. My company uses Azure Key Vault in approximately five applications.
How are customer service and support?
The solution's technical support is good. My company never had to contact the tool's support team since we don't use the product's advanced features. My company received support from Microsoft whenever we needed it.
How was the initial setup?
The product's initial setup phase is straightforward. As I have more than twenty-five years of work experience, things have become easier with the tools you have used for so many years. For me, the tool's setup is easy and easy to use.
For the product's deployment phase, my company has different environments. In my company, we use certain products in various departments by using CI/CD pipelines on which we write the instructions to deploy the tools on a few particular servers.
The solution is deployed on the cloud.
What was our ROI?
The main benefit derived from using the product stems from the fact that it provides security to our company's digital assets.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price of the product is okay for my company.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I did not evaluate other options against Azure Key Vault since I prefer to use Microsoft products since we use most of its technologies in our company.
What other advice do I have?
I use the tool to manage application secrets by storing digital assets separately. My company puts the digital assets directly in the tool using the credentials.
Azure Key Vault plays a key role in encryption in certain projects or scenarios in our company. In our company, if we want to apply some algorithms to encrypt our data, we store such data in Azure Key Vault and pull it manually from the solution later to encrypt our organization's data.
My company doesn't exactly use the access policies in Azure Key Vault for managing permissions, but we do use it for the storage of our secret information. For managing our company's secrets, we use Azure Key Vault, but we don't use it for managing permissions as we use IdentityServer and other tools for such purposes.
Azure Key Vault can integrate very well with other Azure services.
Azure Key Vault is a good option since it is a secure and useful tool.
I rate the solution a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
VP of Technology at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
With a straightforward deployment process, it's a stable solution to store passwords and information
Pros and Cons
- "I am satisfied with the product overall."
- "The slow response from the support team is one of the shortcomings of the solution that needs to be improved."
What is our primary use case?
We use the solution to store passwords, some information, and authentication.
What needs improvement?
The slow response from the support team is one of the shortcomings of the solution that needs to be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
My organization has been using Azure Key Vault for two or three years, and I'm fairly new to the organization. I have been using the solution for six months. We use a lot of services on Azure.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Regarding how extensively it is used in your company, it is used for anything on the cloud where we need any service, especially user-facing ones.
Around 800 to 1,000 users in my company use the solution. Also, it is important to note that there are around 150 to 200 people in the technology department.
How are customer service and support?
The support team has been decent, at least for us, because we have a contract, and we paid for a good SLA. So far, the support has been good. I rate the overall support an eight out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have worked with Windows Active Directory. Azure Key Vault is not something I directly use in my application because I'm not on the infrastructure side. I am more on the application development side.
How was the initial setup?
The solution is deployed on the public cloud.
For the maintenance of the solution, no more than four people are needed. Even then, four would be an enhanced number.
We have an infrastructure team that looks after it. I don't think there is anybody dedicatedly to looking after Azure Key Vault. But we have an enhanced infrastructure team, which looks after pretty much everything, especially the big administrative things on the cloud.
The deployment process was straightforward.
What other advice do I have?
I am satisfied with the product overall.
I would definitely recommend the solution to small companies planning to use it since it is quite straightforward.
Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Developer and Administrator at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Provides good reusability and safety, but has a lot of glitches
Pros and Cons
- "The solution's most valuable features are reusability and safety."
- "Azure Key Vault has a lot of glitches."
What is our primary use case?
Azure Key Vault is used for passwords. Instead of adding the password to everything, you can add them to Azure Key Vault and directly use it whenever required, in whichever place it's needed.
What is most valuable?
The solution's most valuable features are reusability and safety. You don't have to type everything every time or remember things. Regarding safety, you don't have to keep track of the passwords. You can directly access those particular things in one go and at one particular location. You don't have to worry about password protection because it is handled by Azure.
What needs improvement?
Azure Key Vault has a lot of glitches. The solution's trial version should provide some more facilities so that people can try them and then decide whether to implement the tool in their project.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Azure Key Vault for three months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Azure Key Vault has a lot of glitches. We faced an outage yesterday because some of our flow executes on ADF, and it failed. We have to continuously raise tickets with the support team. The outages impact our daily jobs.
I rate the solution’s stability a seven out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Azure Key Vault's scalability is good because it's a cloud-based solution. It is far better than on-premises tools, which is a good thing.
How are customer service and support?
The solution's technical support is fine. However, I am not happy with the kind of acknowledgment Azure provides. If you're making changes to the tool that will impact the end user, you should inform them beforehand.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
How was the initial setup?
The solution’s initial setup is easy. Since Azure Key Vault is a cloud-based service, you don't have to install it.
What was our ROI?
With Azure Key Vault, you get everything in one portal and don't have to go anywhere else, which is a good thing.
What other advice do I have?
The solution's access policy is important. You can directly provide the kind of access you want to grant to any particular user or batch of users rather than monitor which particular user should assign which particular task and what things can be seen by which particular user. Those kinds of restrictions can be added directly using the access policy.
You need to maintain the solution. If the credentials are getting expired, you have to provide an update on that. One person is more than enough to maintain the solution.
Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Cloud Infrastructure consultant at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
A cloud solution to secure and store managed sensitive information
Pros and Cons
- "The solution uses the encryption technique to store the secret information data that uses EPCE. There is also one feature that monitors Azure Key Vault."
- "They should improve its policies, which sometimes reapplied but don't sync properly between the Key vault and the role-based access. When I put some roles on the user side, it sometimes misses the end data to secure."
What is our primary use case?
We use the solution to secure and store managed sensitive information and cryptographic keys in an application secret.
What is most valuable?
The solution uses the encryption technique to store the secret information data that uses EPCE. There is also one feature that monitors Azure Key Vault.
What needs improvement?
They should improve its policies, which sometimes reapplied but don't sync properly between the Key vault and the role-based access. When I put some roles on the user side, it sometimes misses the end data to secure.
One feature that could be added is the transparency of Key stored. There could be a feature to monitor the Key Vault because we can't monitor the Key Vault with a third party. We can't configure the automation or sync the key vault. We store passwords and all those things.
The user intervention also needs to be implemented there. This allows the user to automatically change the password, ensuring that it synchronizes and updates across all stored keys.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Azure Key Vault for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The product is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable. If they improve certain things with the update, that will be a more scalable product. There are a lot of users that use the Key Vault because it is the organization’s choice.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is super easy.
There is a key that says, 'MS bug is there.' Azure has keyword secret information and connectivity issues. Azure File Share has Key connectivity issues. If we share some files and link through the Key, it loses connection.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The product is expensive compared to other products. It is costly to install as data records are charged based on the data. The Key type and plans are the factors that affect the pricing.
What other advice do I have?
We are implementing Azure Key for certain projects. It completely depends on the project. Suppose your company gives us a project and asks us to implement Azure Key for other users.
I don't recommend it to everyone. It completely depends on the scenario base if you use a VM application or shared data. You can use Key Vault to secure information when transferring over the network. Sometimes, you are trying to assess your web information, and it is not working because of the connectivity issue due to some access control policies.
If you are the user and can work on the Azure portal or have access, you may be the support or IT person. You have the right to choose the architecture we must implement in our organization. They want to implement that on their user, but that's not a suitable option for everyone. We have 2,000 employees using this solution. We should have a strong plan to implement the Key Vault.
Anyone can learn Azure Key Vault within a day or two days.
There's a lot of work to do on the standalone side. If we are required to create a different workflow or automate it, then it's not possible or difficult to do that. If I want to keep the alerts on my email or team channel, that isn't easy to automate with the help of the Sentinel.
I need to use Azure Key Vault to ensure my application sends me refined data weekly. This data includes high and low alerts, which are sent to my email address or possibly generate an incident using a third-party API such as ServiceNow or Jira.
We can automate several things. We can fetch the log, but we can't automate that defender workflow itself in Container.
The solution is best because it completely secures passwords, which we can use to access.
Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. customer/partner
Dev Ops Engineer at a wellness & fitness company with 201-500 employees
Affordable, easy to maintain, and offers decent integration
Pros and Cons
- "Considering the features provided by the product, I would say that the solution is available at a good price point."
- "If the region where the Azure Key Vault data center is hosted goes down, it would be a cumbersome task since our company will have to come up with a different Azure Key Vault and migrate all the secrets or keys into it."
What is our primary use case?
I use the solution in my company to store secrets and certificates.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of the solution in our company stems from the fact that it is easy to integrate with our codes. The support and SLAs provided by Microsoft for Azure Key Vault are good. The aforementioned areas consist of some of the basic advantages of Azure Key Vault. Azure Key Vault is nice to store the secrets of in a concealed manner.
What needs improvement?
One of the drawbacks I think is the single-point failure of our products. If the region where the Azure Key Vault data center is hosted goes down, it would be a cumbersome task since our company will have to come up with a different Azure Key Vault and migrate all the secrets or keys into it. Basically, improvements are required in the product to deal with disaster scenarios. Maybe there are some ways to deal with the solution's issues about which our company might not have researched thoroughly.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Azure Key Vault for 2-3 years. My company is a customer of Microsoft.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Stability-wise, I rate the solution an eight to nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is a scalable solution. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution as seven out of ten.
Around 500 people in my company use the product.
How are customer service and support?
I rate the technical support an eight out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
The PoC phase of Microsoft Defender is in the pipeline.
How was the initial setup?
I rate the product's initial setup process as an eight on a scale of one to ten, where ten means it is a very easy phase.
I have not faced any issues during the product's installation and configuration processes.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Considering the features provided by the product, I would say that the solution is available at a good price point.
The payment is made as a whole for all the Microsoft products used in our companies. I don't remember the exact price of Azure Key Vault. The product is affordable, in my opinion.
What other advice do I have?
The most beneficial component related to cryptographic graphic key management stems from the auto-rotation functionality.
The product comes with two types of access policies. The tool provides a conventional policy and Azure RBAC. My company mostly, you say, the conventional access policy and it has been working great so far.
The product plays a crucial role in our company's security strategy.
The product is easy to maintain.
The product helps ensure compliance with our industry regulations since it meets most of the auditing and compliance rules. It is a secure solution that needs to have most of the policies and compliance rules. I would say that Azure Key Vault is a good solution, considering the security part.
I rate the overall tool a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Executive Manager at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Highly scalable solution for managing keys and secrets
Pros and Cons
- "I find the simplicity of key management to be the most valuable feature. Key management has always been a difficult function to do, especially in the cloud premises. Azure Key Vault provides you with a mechanism for managing keys, without having to worry about protecting secrets is valuable."
- "We encountered a few problems where Azure had infrastructure problems like the DMS."
What is our primary use case?
We use Azure Key Vault to store all of our applications’ keys and secrets in the Azure platform. The secrets and keys are for our public facing SaaS software which mainly includes websites and APIs.
How has it helped my organization?
The solution has reduced the amount of time that we had spent worrying about the management of the keys and secrets.
What is most valuable?
I find the simplicity of key management to be the most valuable feature. Key management has always been a difficult function to do, especially in the cloud premises. Azure Key Vault provides you with a mechanism for managing keys, without having to worry about protecting secrets, and that is valuable.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for about five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the stability of the solution as eight out of ten. We encountered a few problems where Azure had infrastructure problems like the DMS. It was not necessarily a problem with the Key Vault but a problem with the infrastructure that did not allow us to access it.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would give a rating of ten out of ten for the scalability of the solution. I have not found any scalability issues with Azure Key Vault.
How are customer service and support?
I have found the customer service and support of Microsoft to be very good and very high.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We haven’t used any different solution before Azure Key Vault. We have used it since initially implementing it in the cloud.
How was the initial setup?
The initial deployment was straightforward. I was involved in the deployment of the solution in a project management role.
What about the implementation team?
We implemented the solution with the help of an in-house team. There was only one team member doing the deployment.
What was our ROI?
We have seen ROI with the solution. We observed reduced internal development effort with the use of the tool. The solution was certainly worth the cost.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I find the pricing of Azure Key Vault to be reasonable.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We did not evaluate any other options because we were fully on the Microsoft platform, so we went ahead with their recommendation.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Azure Key Vault a nine out of ten. I recommend it as a good solution for those using Azure Cloud to host their services. The solution does not require any maintenance.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. partner
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