Azure Key Vault vs HashiCorp Vault comparison

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28,615 views|19,820 comparisons
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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Mar 6, 2024

We compared HashiCorp Vault and Azure Key Vault based on our user's reviews in several parameters.

In summary, HashiCorp Vault is praised for its superb security measures, ease of use, comprehensive functionality, and effective management of secrets and credentials. Azure Key Vault, on the other hand, is highlighted for its excellent security measures, seamless integration with other Azure services, and efficient key management capabilities. Users appreciate the pricing and setup cost of both products, with HashiCorp Vault offering flexibility in licensing options and Azure Key Vault providing transparent pricing structures. While both platforms have received positive feedback on customer service, HashiCorp Vault users have emphasized the prompt and helpful assistance received. In terms of ROI, users have reported significant benefits from both platforms, with HashiCorp Vault providing enhanced security, control over access privileges, improved compliance, and time-saving features, while Azure Key Vault offers secure storage, efficient access to keys and secrets, and increased productivity. Suggestions for improvement include enhancing the user interface, providing better documentation and examples, offering more seamless integration, and improving scalability and performance.

Features: HashiCorp Vault stands out for its comprehensive functionality and effective management of secrets and credentials in an encrypted manner. On the other hand, Azure Key Vault offers excellent security measures, seamless integration with Azure services, and efficient key management capabilities.

Pricing and ROI: The setup cost for HashiCorp Vault is minimal, making it easy to get started. Users appreciate the flexibility and options provided by the product's licensing. Azure Key Vault also offers a favorable experience in terms of setup cost, which is straightforward and easy to deploy. The licensing process is seamless, enabling efficient acquisition and management. Overall, both products have positive feedback on their setup cost and licensing., HashiCorp Vault has proven to offer significant ROI with enhanced security, control over access, compliance, efficiency, and seamless integration. Azure Key Vault offers secure storage, seamless integration, increased efficiency, robust security, convenience, and cost savings.

Room for Improvement: HashiCorp Vault would benefit from improvements in its user interface, documentation, integration capabilities, and scalability. On the other hand, Azure Key Vault needs enhancements in access management, user interface, and error handling, including better access permissions control and clearer error messages.

Deployment and customer support: Based on user feedback, both HashiCorp Vault and Azure Key Vault have varying durations for establishing a new tech solution. While some users reported separate timeframes for deployment and setup, others suggested that these phases refer to the same period., Users have expressed satisfaction with the prompt and helpful customer service provided by HashiCorp Vault. Azure Key Vault also offers effective and reliable customer support, with users appreciating the team's assistance and responsiveness.

The summary above is based on 31 interviews we conducted recently with HashiCorp Vault and Azure Key Vault users. To access the review's full transcripts, download our report.

To learn more, read our detailed Azure Key Vault vs. HashiCorp Vault Report (Updated: March 2024).
765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The security on offer seems to be quite good.""The most valuable feature of the solution is the search for secrets feature that we use to store our passwords and connection strings.""I am satisfied with the product overall.""The most valuable feature is that you can retrieve user account details from the cloud.""All its features are really valuable. It's really well thought-out. It's a complete turnkey solution that has all the concerns taken care of, such as access control and management. You can use it in infrastructure as code to create key vaults, APIs, PowerShells, CLIs, even Terraform.""There is advanced data protection available. We're working in a highly regulated environment, and this is essential to us.""The best feature is the integrity of the .NET applications in our company.""The solution does an excellent job of storing and retrieving our stored keys."

More Azure Key Vault Pros →

"The most valuable feature of HashiCorp Vault is that it's an open source solution. Second, it's cloud agnostic, so it's very easy to maintain and control, which is why we prefer HashiCorp.""It can still be configured by a separate team other than developers. That's why I think it's more secure.""We were using it because we have compliance requirements around secret management. Having a secure vault and encrypting data was an additional requirement. When we looked at it first, we were just looking for a vault, like a lockbox. The greatest benefit of HashiCorp is its ability to manage encryption on the fly. It provides encryption of data at rest, in use, in transit, on the fly, and linked with applications, which was really attractive.""The tool's dynamic rotation of the password credentials is good.""We use the solution for secret management.""The most valuable feature of HashiCorp Vault is the management of tickets in the pipeline.""It is user-friendly and easy to implement from any application point.""It is a good product to consider for companies who are looking to build on-premise or hybrid infrastructure."

More HashiCorp Vault Pros →

Cons
"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.""Azure Key Vault takes time to fetch values while integrating it with the code written in .NET format.""While the solution already does a great job of managing keys, the solution could probably look at maybe expanding more into mobile devices and endpoints.""It is complicated to use different services and products along with Azure Key Vault.""One area for improvement is the notification system for secret expiration. It would be beneficial if the service could handle this more autonomously, eliminating the need for additional integrations.""If you check the capabilities of other key management services across Amazon, HashiCorp, and Google, there are features that Key Vault doesn't have. It could be the case that when you use Key Vault, you might be forced to use a third-party solution to get certain services. If those services could be included in Key Vault, there would be diminished reasons to go for a third-party key management system.""We encountered a few problems where Azure had infrastructure problems like the DMS.""If multiple clouds are to be used it can be difficult and a third party should assist in the implementation."

More Azure Key Vault Cons →

"I would like to see better integration of HashiCorp Vault with SAP products.""I don't think there are any major improvements required—so far, so good. However, I think that having more training materials, such as videos, and documentation available would be helpful. I would prefer to have more videos available either on the official site or on YouTube.""The technical support was hard to get a hold of and lacking in service.""The product needs to improve its customization. It should be also more like easy to plug and play.""There could be a plugin for the database to change the secret automatically. It would be an efficient feature for password security.""It would be helpful to have more advanced features.""The onboarding is a challenge. It should be more self-service, but it involves reviews and approvals.""In terms of features, the only thing that I found a little bit hinky was that there was no revocation or deletion on the model we were using. Once in a financial year, a client interacts, and you pay for that client for the year. So, there are just little things like that in the pricing. There should be more clarity around the end of the key. I know there is no system like this. They all are the same. I tested Microsoft, Google, and some others, and none of them really want you to delete a key, which makes sense. You delete a key, and you lose everything that it has wrapped or encrypted, but it's actually just a language. Deletion isn't really deletion. It's really revocation, but overall, HashiCorp Vault ticked all the boxes for us, and I couldn't fault it."

More HashiCorp Vault Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "The cost of the Azure Key Vault is very high and the pricing model is based on the number of keys that you store and retrieve."
  • "The pricing is decent. It has a pretty low price. It is a straightforward cost based on usage."
  • "Pricing is quite reasonable and support is included, although premium support is available for an additional fee."
  • "Key Vault, like every Azure service, has a cost associated with it, but you don't have to spend thousands of dollars to spin up an environment to build a key management system. It's already there."
  • "The price of the solution is reasonable for what we are using it for."
  • "Azure is cheaper than CyberArk... CyberArk is good, but it's quite expensive."
  • "The price isn't high. Any sized organization could easily adopt it. The first 250 keys are available for $5 per month."
  • "The pricing is reasonable and flexible, especially for those already using Microsoft Azure Cloud services. There is a cost associated with retrieval and storage, which is a few dollars. Otherwise, the price can be customized according to requirements, such as how many keys need to be stored."
  • More Azure Key Vault Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "I am using the open-source version of Vault and I would have to buy a license if I want to get support."
  • "The AWS version is much cheaper than HashiCorp Vault."
  • "It could do everything we wanted it to do and it is brilliant, but it is super pricey. To be fair to HashiCorp, we drove the price up with our requirements around resiliency. Because of the nature of our company, we don't really operate in the cloud."
  • "The solution's cost is reasonable."
  • "The product is expensive."
  • "In my case, the open-source version works well. It's advisable for small to medium-scale organizations, but for large-scale organizations, you should go with the enterprise version."
  • More HashiCorp Vault Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:Azure Key Vault is a SaaS solution. You can easily store passwords and secrets securely and encrypt them. Azure Key Vault is a great solution to ensure you are compliant with security and governance… more »
    Top Answer:The platform provides straightforward integration with most of the other Azure services.
    Top Answer:HashiCorp Vault was designed with your needs in mind. One of the features that makes this evident is its ability to work as both a cloud-agnostic and a multi-cloud solution. As a cloud-agnostic… more »
    Top Answer:It's stable. I would rate the stability a nine out of ten.
    Top Answer:The enterprise version would require considering factors like the level of support needed, the amount of secret data being stored, and replication needs. But in my case, the open-source version works… more »
    Ranking
    Views
    28,615
    Comparisons
    19,820
    Reviews
    23
    Average Words per Review
    375
    Rating
    8.7
    Views
    19,546
    Comparisons
    13,475
    Reviews
    9
    Average Words per Review
    447
    Rating
    8.4
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Microsoft Azure Key Vault, MS Azure Key Vault
    Learn More
    Overview

    Microsoft Azure Key Vault is a cloud-based data security and storage service that allows users to keep their secrets safe from bad actors.

    Benefits of Microsoft Azure Key Vault

    Some of the benefits of using Microsoft Azure Key Vault include:

    • Secure your secrets in a single central location, enabling you to control how your information is disseminated.
    • Keep your data away from bad actors. Application administrators can store their application’s security information away from the actual application. Microsoft Azure Key Vault reduces the chance that a bad actor will be able to leak an application’s secrets. Because the data is not stored in the code of the application, hackers will be unable to steal the security information.
    • Retrieve your information securely. When the information is needed, the application can securely retrieve it by using a uniform resource identifier (URI) to connect to Microsoft Azure Key Vault.
    • Securely store your digital keys and secrets. Microsoft Azure Key Vault stores data behind layers of security protocol. No one can access the information stored in a Microsoft Azure Key Vault without first obtaining the necessary authentication and authorization. The authentication process allows the system to figure out who is trying to access the vault in question. This process is performed by Azure’s Active Directory. After the person or entity is authenticated, Microsoft Azure Key Vault then assigns them a level of authorization. This determines what sort of actions they will be able to perform.
    • Choose from two different authorization options. The level of a user’s authorization can be either role-based or dictated by a policy that the administrator sets. Azure’s role-based access control (Azure RBAC) enables users to both manage and access stored data. A key vault access policy limits users to data access.
    • Secure your data in the way that best fits your needs. Your data can be protected by either industry-standard algorithm software or hardware security modules (HSMs). Your data is even safe from Microsoft, as the vaults are designed so that not even Microsoft can get in and access the information.
    • Easily monitor who accesses your vault(s). Microsoft Azure Key Vault enables administrators to keep a close eye on their secrets. Users can activate a vault-logging feature that will track every piece of information. It will record who accessed the vault, when they accessed it, and other pertinent details.
    • Choose how you want to store your logs. Users can store logs in multiple ways. These logs can be archived, sent to the Azure monitor logs area, or streamed to an events hub. The logs can be secured to prevent unauthorized viewing and deleted when they are no longer needed.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Microsoft Azure Key Vault stands out among their competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are the overall robustness of the solution and its ability to protect and manage many different digital asset types. The many features that the solution offers allows users to tailor their experience to meet their specific needs. Its flexibility enables users to accomplish a wide variety of security and identity management related tasks. It empowers users to secure a wide array of assets. Users can keep many different types of secrets away from bad actors.

    A cloud architect at a marketing services firm writes, “All its features are really valuable. It's really well thought-out. It's a complete turnkey solution that has all the concerns taken care of, such as access control and management. You can use it in infrastructure as code to create key vaults, APIs, PowerShells, CLIs, even Terraform. You can also use it in different services across the board. If you have app services, or virtual machines, Kubernetes, or Databricks, they can all use Key Vault effectively. In my opinion, in a DevSecOps, DevOps, or even in a modern Azure implementation, you have to use Azure Key Vault to make sure you're addressing security and identity management concerns. By "identity" I mean usernames, passwords, cryptography, etcetera. It's a full-blown solution and it supports most breeds of key management: how you store keys and certify.”

    Roger L., the managing director of Cybersecurity Architecture at Peloton Systems, says, “The most valuable aspect of the product is its ability to keep our admin password accounts for keys and a lot of our high-value assets. It can manage those types of assets. So far, the product does a great job of managing keys.”

    HashiCorp Vault is a cloud-agnostic solution used for security and secret management. Its valuable features include integration with other HashiCorp tools, token sharing, open source nature, cloud agnosticism, and on-the-fly encryption management. 

    The solution provides encryption of data at rest, in use, in transit, on the fly, and linked with applications. It is free to use, and the interface is simple to navigate. HashiCorp Vault has helped organizations with its multiple authentication methods and RESTful API.

    HashiCorp Vault Features

    • Data encryption: The solution is capable of encrypting and decrypting data, and will not store it. Organizations’ security personnel define their own encryption protocols; developers can store the encrypted data where they choose and are not obligated to design specific encryption processes.

    • Robust secrets: For systems such as AWS or SQL databases, Vault is able to generate secrets automatically. HashiCorp Vault is able to generate AWS keypairs with all the appropriate permissions when necessary, and when the approved time expires, will nullify them.

    • Secure secret storage: Any type of value or key secrets can be stored in the Vault. The Vault automatically encrypts the desired secrets before recording them into persistent storage, keeping them safe and secure. Users can record data using HCP Vault’s Consul service or disk, or choose from other options.

    • Nullification: Vault is able to nullify single secrets or all secrets from a particular group or specific user. This process is integral in securing systems in the event of an attack or inappropriate access.

    Reviews from Real Users

    The greatest benefit of HashiCorp is its ability to manage encryption on the fly. It provides encryption of data at rest, in use, in transit, on the fly, and linked with applications, which was really attractive. The lifecycle of a key is so easy to manage in terms of rotating, revoking, and issuing. They have different auth methods, and I tried all different auth methods. It is seamless.”- Project Manager at a comms service provider.

    “The most valuable feature of HashiCorp Vault is that it's an open source solution. Second, it's cloud-agnostic, so it's very easy to maintain and control, which is why we prefer HashiCorp. “ - Mohamed A., Lead DevOps Engineer at Etisalat.

    Sample Customers
    Adobe, DriveTime, Johnson Controls, HP, InterContinental Hotels Group, ASOS
    Adobe, SAP Ariba, Citadel, Spaceflight, Cruise
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company28%
    Financial Services Firm24%
    Paper And Forest Products4%
    Wellness & Fitness Company4%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company15%
    Financial Services Firm13%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    Government6%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm44%
    Comms Service Provider33%
    University11%
    Pharma/Biotech Company11%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm18%
    Computer Software Company15%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Healthcare Company6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business28%
    Midsize Enterprise22%
    Large Enterprise50%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business20%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise66%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business21%
    Midsize Enterprise29%
    Large Enterprise50%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business19%
    Midsize Enterprise12%
    Large Enterprise69%
    Buyer's Guide
    Azure Key Vault vs. HashiCorp Vault
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Azure Key Vault vs. HashiCorp Vault and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Azure Key Vault is ranked 1st in Enterprise Password Managers with 43 reviews while HashiCorp Vault is ranked 2nd in Enterprise Password Managers with 15 reviews. Azure Key Vault is rated 8.6, while HashiCorp Vault is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Azure Key Vault writes "Allows us to securely store our keys to prevent unauthorized access to unwanted users". On the other hand, the top reviewer of HashiCorp Vault writes "Easy to manage and maintain the password API but stability could be improved". Azure Key Vault is most compared with AWS Secrets Manager, CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault, AWS Certificate Manager, Delinea Secret Server and 1Password, whereas HashiCorp Vault is most compared with AWS Secrets Manager, CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault, Delinea Secret Server, Keeper and BeyondTrust Password Safe. See our Azure Key Vault vs. HashiCorp Vault report.

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    We monitor all Enterprise Password Managers reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.