Choose Kryptic over AWS Secrets Manager when humans have to run the app, not only IAM-authenticated workloads.
Kryptic injects secrets through a local daemon. Log in once. After that, npm run dev, dotnet run, and F5 receive secrets over a local socket. The daemon, CLI, SDKs, and encryption engines are open source (GPL-3.0 and Apache-2.0). The server stores ciphertext it cannot open. Machine identities are unlimited and never consume a seat.
github.com/dev-krypticAWS Secrets Manager is the correct production store inside AWS: IAM, rotation for RDS, pay per secret and API call. It will not inject secrets when you press F5 on a laptop. The usual local workaround is a file.
| Kryptic | AWS Secrets Manager | Why it matters | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open source | OffersYes. Daemon and CLI are GPL-3.0. Encryption engines and SDKs are Apache-2.0, at github.com/dev-kryptic. The control plane is commercial. | Does notNo. AWS-hosted, closed source. | Anything that can see a secret in plaintext is published. You can verify the blind store without an NDA. |
| Blind store | OffersThe server stores ciphertext only. There is no decrypt path. | Does notAWS can serve plaintext to IAM principals. | A store that can decrypt values server-side can also be breached or compelled into decrypting them. |
| Self-hosting | OffersFull platform on Business and Enterprise. Docker Compose or Helm. | Does notAWS-hosted only. | Cloud is fine until compliance asks where the control plane lives. Then you need a product you can run, not a cluster you invent. |
| Nothing on disk | OffersDecrypted values live in daemon memory for at most five minutes, then inside the running process. | PartialLocal development commonly falls back to exported or synced files. | AI coding agents index the working directory. A .env on disk is one prompt away from a chat log. |
| Kryptic | AWS Secrets Manager | Why it matters | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily workflow | OffersLogin once, then npm run dev, dotnet run, or F5. | Does notAWS CLI, SDK, or a copied .env. | AWS Secrets Manager assumes a credential chain. Kryptic assumes a developer who wants to press run. |
| Onboarding a new developer | OffersInvite, SSO, daemon, clone, run. | Does notIAM user or SSO, policies, and usually a file. | A frontend engineer should not need an AWS console lesson to get DATABASE_URL. |
| Language packages | Offers.NET, Node.js, Python, Java, Go, Ruby, C++, Rust. | PartialAWS SDKs for AWS APIs. | The same daemon works if production is not AWS. |
| Kryptic | AWS Secrets Manager | Why it matters | |
|---|---|---|---|
| SSO on Free | OffersGoogle, Microsoft, and GitHub on every plan, including Free. | PartialAWS IAM Identity Center is a separate program. | You should not need an enterprise contract to stop sharing a password manager login. |
| Audit log on Free | OffersImmutable audit log on Free (7-day retention). Values are never logged. | PartialCloudTrail, if you wire it. | An audit trail that waits on an upgrade is a sales page. |
| Machine identities | OffersUnlimited and free. They never consume a developer seat. | Does notPay per secret and per API call. | Every developer is followed by pipelines, previews, and pods. Billing those as seats makes the bill track infrastructure, not people. |
| CI/CD and Kubernetes | OffersMachine identities, CI export, REST API, and a Kubernetes operator on every plan. | PartialAvailable, often with identity or plan limits. | Production delivery should not be a different product from local development. |
Kryptic wrote this comparison. AWS Secrets Manager details are as advertised on its public pricing and documentation pages in September 2026. Products change, so check AWS Secrets Manager's current pages before you decide.
For humans, laptops, and mixed stacks. AWS Secrets Manager is the native store for AWS workloads. Kryptic is the product that injects secrets when you press run. The clients that see plaintext are open source.
It can replace the developer, CI, and Kubernetes delivery path. Some teams also store production values only in Kryptic. Others keep AWS as the cloud store and use Kryptic so laptops never see it.
The daemon, CLI, SDKs, and encryption engines are open source at github.com/dev-kryptic. The control plane is commercial. AWS Secrets Manager is a closed AWS API.
AWS charges per secret per month and per API call. Kryptic charges per developer seat (Free for 3, then 12 or 22 euros) and does not bill machines.
