# AWS Secrets Manager

8 Hacker News commenters recommended AWS Secrets Manager and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People recommend it for simple API access with granular permissions and audit logs, and it works well at scale. The most common caveat is per-secret pricing that adds up.

## Why people recommend it

- Secure cloud-native place for secrets (4 comments): "especially in a cloud environment like AWS, where you can use services like AWS Secrets Manager." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48196203)) "Security should be done using a secrets manager through the cloud platform that's being used" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49171721)) "one of the many AWS services that's more secure" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48201235))

## What people warn about

- Per-secret pricing adds up (1 comments): "AWS Secrets Manager / GCP Secret Manager work well at scale" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47149772))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [OneCLI](https://hackerapproved.com/p/onecli.md): 39 recommend
- [SOPS](https://hackerapproved.com/p/sops.md): 28 recommend
- [HashiCorp Vault](https://hackerapproved.com/p/hashicorp-vault.md): 26 recommend
- [Agent Vault](https://hackerapproved.com/p/agent-vault.md): 20 recommend
- [Kloak](https://hackerapproved.com/p/kloak.md): 13 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://aws.amazon.com/secrets-manager/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "AWS Secrets Manager", https://hackerapproved.com/p/aws-secrets-manager/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).