Introduction
Traditional secrets management solutions often suffer from complexity, high maintenance, and limited scalability. On-premise tools demand significant infrastructure investment, while fully SaaS platforms raise concerns about data exposure. In response to these challenges, Akeyless built a modern SaaS secrets management platform designed for agility, security, and ease of use. Powered by a patented Vaultless architecture and Zero-Knowledge encryption model, Akeyless enables organizations to protect secrets, credentials, and keys across cloud-native, hybrid, and on-prem environments without compromising on control or compliance.
What is a SaaS Management Platform?
A SaaS management platform centralizes the administration, monitoring, and security of software-as-a-service applications across an enterprise. When applied to secrets management, it simplifies lifecycle operations generation, storage, rotation, and auditing of sensitive data such as credentials, certificates, and encryption keys. Unlike self-hosted tools, SaaS platforms like Akeyless eliminate infrastructure burdens while maintaining enterprise-grade security and scalability.
What Is Akeyless?
Akeyless is a unified platform that combines Secrets Management, Certificate Lifecycle Management (CLM), Encryption and Key Management (KMS), Password Management, and Secure Remote Access into a single SaaS solution. It’s built on a Zero-Knowledge architecture, meaning Akeyless itself never has access to the data it protects. Customers retain exclusive control over their cryptographic keys and secrets using its proprietary Distributed Fragments Cryptography (DFC™).
By removing the need for self-managed vaults and infrastructure, Akeyless cuts operational overhead and reduces costs by up to 70%, making it a modern solution for teams that need scalable, secure, and simplified secrets management.
Akeyless Architecture and Vaultless Technology
Akeyless is built on a cloud-native, Vaultless® architecture that eliminates the need for customers to deploy and maintain traditional on-prem or cloud-hosted vault servers. Instead of using static vaults to store secrets, Akeyless operates entirely as a SaaS platform with on-demand, API-driven access to secrets, keys, and credentials.
At the core of this architecture is Distributed Fragments Cryptography (DFC™) Akeyless’s patented encryption technology. DFC splits the encryption keys into multiple fragments:
- One fragment is stored client-side or in a customer-controlled environment (e.g., HSM, TPM). Other fragments are distributed across secure Akeyless infrastructure.
- Cryptographic keys are never assembled in full, ensuring that Akeyless cannot decrypt the organization’s secrets, enforcing a true Zero-Knowledge security model.
This Vaultless design allows organizations to:
- Avoid managing backend infrastructure.
- Scale easily across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
- Retain full control over cryptographic material even when using SaaS.
- Support high availability, low-latency access, and global redundancy without the traditional operational overhead.
Additionally, Akeyless supports:
- Secrets lifecycle automation (creation, automated rotation, revocation)
- Temporary Just-in-Time secrets that automatically expire after a set TTL
- Integration with existing IAM, CI/CD, and Kubernetes platforms
- Secure remote access and policy enforcement based on identities and conditions
Key Features of Akeyless as a SaaS Secrets Manager
- Vaultless Architecture
No need to deploy or manage traditional vaults secrets are accessed on demand via Akeyless’s global SaaS platform. - Distributed Fragments Cryptography (DFC™)
Patented encryption that splits encryption key operations, ensuring Akeyless has Zero Knowledge of your secrets. - Secrets Lifecycle Automation
Automates creation, rotation, revocation, and expiration of secrets to reduce operational risk. - Secretless AI Agent Support
Enables AI agents and workloads to securely access secrets without storing or exposing them ideal for autonomous, identity-driven systems. - Multi-Cloud and Hybrid Support
Built for modern infrastructure with integrations across AWS, Azure, GCP, and on-prem environments. - Fine-Grained Access Control
Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), time-bound access, and approval workflows for strict governance. - Identity-Based Access (IAM Integration)
Connects with SSO and machine identity systems (Kubernetes, service accounts, CI/CD tools) for context-aware access control. - Secrets Injection for CI/CD and DevOps
Secure, dynamic injection of secrets into pipelines, containers, and runtime environments no hardcoding required. - High Availability & Global Scale
SaaS-native with built-in redundancy and low-latency access no manual replication or failover setup. - Unified Secrets, Keys, and Certificates
Manages secrets, encryption keys (KMS), and certificate lifecycles (CLM) in one streamlined platform. - Enterprise Password Management
Secure password generation, storage, sharing, and browser autofill for individuals and teams. - Secure Remote Access
Enables passwordless access for DevOps teams to infrastructure without exposing credentials, ideal for ephemeral sessions. - Compliance & Audit Readiness
Comprehensive logging and reporting features support regulatory needs like SOC 2,, PCI DSS, DORA and ISO 27001.
Why Choose Akeyless Over Traditional Tools Like Vault
- Vaultless, Cloud-Native Design
Unlike HashiCorp Vault, which requires infrastructure setup and maintenance, Akeyless is fully SaaS-based, no servers, clusters, and no replication to manage. - Faster Time to Value
Akeyless can be deployed and integrated in hours, not weeks. There’s no need to provision or scale backends, making it ideal for fast-moving teams. - Zero-Knowledge Architecture
With patented Distributed Fragments Cryptography (DFC™), Akeyless ensures that even the platform itself can’t access your secrets, something cloud vaults can’t guarantee out-of-the-box. - Unified Platform
Akeyless consolidates secrets management, encryption/key management (KMS), certificate lifecycle management (CLM), password management, and secure remote access in one solution. Vault requires additional tools or plugins to achieve similar functionality. - Built for Modern Identity Models
Akeyless natively supports machine identities (Kubernetes, CI/CD, AI agents) and federated access using SSO and IAM. Vault often requires extensive policy work or custom plugins for similar support. - Secretless AI Agent Support
Akeyless enables AI agents to securely retrieve secrets on the fly, without storing them locally; a capability traditional tools weren’t built to handle. - Cost Efficiency and Simplicity
No infrastructure to manage means significantly lower TCO. Akeyless also reduces operational overhead with automated updates, scaling, and availability. - High Availability Out of the Box
As a SaaS platform, Akeyless provides built-in redundancy and global access without manual configuration. Vault typically requires setting up HA clusters and managing failover. - Enterprise-Grade Security Without Complexity
Akeyless delivers features like Just-in-Time access, granular policies, audit logs, and compliance-ready controls without the steep learning curve of tools like Vault.
Akeyless Use Cases
- Secrets Management for DevOps Pipelines
Securely inject secrets like API keys, tokens, and credentials into CI/CD workflows without hardcoding or exposing them in version control. - Machine Identity and AI Agent Authentication
Enable secretless access for AI agents and non-human identities using identity-based, ephemeral credentials ideal for scalable, autonomous systems. - Secure Access to Cloud and On-Prem Resources
Provide secure, passwordless access to databases, servers, and applications without revealing static credentials or managing SSH keys. - Certificate Lifecycle Management (CLM)
Automate the issuance, rotation, and expiration of TLS certificates to reduce outages and simplify PKI operations. - Encryption and Key Management (KMS)
Manage and use encryption keys for data-at-rest or in-transit, with full control via customer-owned key fragments and policy enforcement. - Enterprise Password Management
Provide users and teams with a secure, policy-controlled password manager complete with browser autofill, sharing, and auditing. - Multi-Cloud and Hybrid Secrets Governance
Standardize secrets management across AWS, Azure, GCP, and on-prem environments using a single, SaaS-based control plane. - Temporary, Just-in-Time Access for Users
Grant time-bound access to infrastructure based on approval workflows reducing standing privileges and improving auditability. - Regulatory Compliance and Audit Readiness
Meet requirements for SOC 2, HIPAA, ISO 27001, and more with fine-grained access control, audit logging, and data residency options. - 10. Secrets Management for Containers and Kubernetes
Dynamically inject secrets into containers and pods at runtime without storing them in config maps or volumes.
Akeyless vs Other SaaS-Based Secrets Managers
| Feature | Akeyless | Vault | AWS SM | Cyberark Conjur | Doppler | Infisical | Delinea |
| Fully SaaS | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Vaultless Architecture | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Zero Knowledge Security | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Password Management | Yes | No | No | Limited | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Certificate Management | Yes | Limited | No | Yes | No | No | Limited |
| Secure Remote Access | Yes | Limited | No | Yes | No | No | Yes |
Akeyless differentiates itself by combining SaaS agility with a Zero-Knowledge architecture and a broader feature set, including quantum-resilient encryption and deep certificate lifecycle capabilities.
Akeyless SaaS Secrets Management Platform Pricing and Scalability
Pricing:
- Flexible Subscription Plans: Akeyless offers tiered subscription pricing based on factors like the number of secrets, API calls, and users or machines accessing the platform.
- Cost Efficiency: By eliminating the need to manage vault infrastructure, Akeyless can reduce total cost of ownership by up to 70%.
- Custom Enterprise Plans: Tailored plans with SLAs, premium support, and compliance features are available for large organizations.
Scalability:
- Cloud-Native Vaultless Architecture: Akeyless automatically scales with demand no infrastructure provisioning or maintenance needed.
- Global Availability: Distributed SaaS platform provides low-latency, high-availability access worldwide.
- High Throughput: Designed to handle millions of API requests daily, supporting large-scale DevOps and cloud-native workloads.
- Multi-Cloud and Hybrid Support: Seamlessly integrates with AWS, Azure, GCP, on-premises, and hybrid environments, scaling with your infrastructure complexity.
- Elastic Performance: Adapts dynamically to spikes in secret usage, such as during deployments or automated rotations, ensuring uninterrupted service.
FAQs about Akeyless as a SaaS Secrets Management Tool
Is Akeyless a SaaS-based secrets management tool?
Yes. Akeyless is a fully managed SaaS platform that provides scalable, secure, and compliant secrets management capabilities with no infrastructure for customers to maintain.
Can Akeyless integrate with cloud-native services and IAM tools?
Absolutely. Akeyless supports IAM integrations across AWS, Azure, GCP, Okta, and others. It also supports Kubernetes, OIDC, LDAP, and its own Universal Identity™ model.
What features does Akeyless SaaS offer?
Key features include secrets management, certificate lifecycle management, encryption and KMS, secure remote access, native integrations, real-time audit logging, dynamic secrets, and zero-trust access enforcement.
Does Akeyless support hybrid and multi-cloud environments?
Yes. Akeyless was built for hybrid and multi-cloud from day one, with support for on-prem, private cloud, and public cloud environments including AWS, Azure, and GCP.
Is Akeyless compliant and secure for enterprise use?
Yes. The platform is compliant with ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type II, PCI DSS and FIPS 140-2, with advanced features like quantum-resilient encryption and Zero-Knowledge architecture for enterprise-grade security.
Can I migrate from HashiCorp Vault or other legacy systems to Akeyless?
Yes. Akeyless offers migration toolkits and professional support to assist organizations transitioning from Vault, CyberArk, or in-house solutions.
Conclusion
Akeyless offers a modern, cost-effective alternative to traditional secrets management, eliminating vault overhead, scaling effortlessly, and keeping you in full control of your secrets with a Zero-Knowledge architecture. Whether you’re securing DevOps pipelines, AI agents, or hybrid cloud infrastructure, Akeyless is built to grow with you.
Ready to modernize your secrets management?
Request a demo or start your free trial to see Akeyless in action.
