Kloak
Shares rank 7 of 20 secrets managers by recommenders
Recommended as a privacy-first, open-source secret manager that keeps secrets from apps without requiring any modification. It is early alpha, and critics question its trust and privacy claims.
Recommended as a privacy-first, open-source secret manager that keeps secrets from apps without requiring any modification. It is early alpha, and critics question its trust and privacy claims.
17 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 13
- criticize it
- 4
- approval share
- 76%
Recommended in 2 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 13 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 2 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Praised as useful and impressive
“Awesome project! We need more eBPF projects, and congrats on launching.”
Comment from 26 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Kloak, A secret manager that keeps K8s workload away from secrets” “Such a sick idea, and incredibly useful.”
Comment from 26 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Kloak, A secret manager that keeps K8s workload away from secrets” “This is pretty cool, nice project.”
Comment from 25 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Kloak, A secret manager that keeps K8s workload away from secrets” - Comment from 25 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Kloak, A secret manager that keeps K8s workload away from secrets”
Privacy-first, no email needed
“It's a privacy-first alternative. It's still in early alpha days, but have most of the things set up.”
Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “Discord Alternatives, Ranked” “Kloak doesn't require email, phone, or personal info to create an account”
Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “Discord Alternatives, Ranked” Keeps secrets away from apps
“OP seems to solve that by never exposing the secrets to the application”
Comment from 26 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Kloak, A secret manager that keeps K8s workload away from secrets” “This means the app never actually see the secret (accidental or not).”
Comment from 26 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Kloak, A secret manager that keeps K8s workload away from secrets” Open source, built in public
“We think building in the open make it easier to earn users trust”
Comment from 26 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Kloak, A secret manager that keeps K8s workload away from secrets” “Kloak is open source under the AGPL, contributions are welcome!”
Comment from 25 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Kloak, A secret manager that keeps K8s workload away from secrets”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Doubts about trust and privacy
“your architecture page is empty. For security products trust is important.”
Comment from 25 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Kloak, A secret manager that keeps K8s workload away from secrets” “it just looks like you own it and allow us to access it”
Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “Discord Alternatives, Ranked” “It is not privacy focused seemingly.”
Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “Discord Alternatives, Ranked”
Other secrets managers people recommend
The four most recommended other secrets managers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OneCLI | 39 | 8 | 83% | 6 | — | Approved |
| SOPS | 28 | 5 | 85% | 10 | — | Approved |
| HashiCorp Vault | 26 | 10 | 72% | 10 | — | Approved |
| fnox | 20 | 4 | 83% | 9 | — | Approved |
| KloakThis page | 13 | 4 | 76% | 2 | — | — |
What people said
18 of the 20 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“We think building in the open make it easier to earn users trust”
“This means the app never actually see the secret (accidental or not).”
“OP seems to solve that by never exposing the secrets to the application”
“Awesome project! We need more eBPF projects, and congrats on launching.”
“Great work with it, no idea how the eBPF magic is making it work”
“Such a sick idea, and incredibly useful.”
“With kloak, the app don't need any modification and you avoid a single point of failure”
“it looks like this can not only replace it but would be a far efficient solution”
“your architecture page is empty. For security products trust is important.”
“This is pretty cool, nice project.”
“AI controlled workflows are desperate for a out of band solution like this.”
“This is fantastic! I need this.”
“Kloak is open source under the AGPL, contributions are welcome!”
“It is not privacy focused seemingly.”
“Kloak doesn't require email, phone, or personal info to create an account”
“it just looks like you own it and allow us to access it”
“It's a privacy-first alternative. It's still in early alpha days, but have most of the things set up.”
“the pricing is hidden better than any other site or app I've looked at”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.