What is Azure Key Vault used for?

Azure Key Vault is a Microsoft Azure service for securely storing and controlling access to passwords, encryption keys, certificates and other secrets used by cloud apps. It is a good fit for keeping connection strings out of application settings and managing encryption keys for Azure workloads.

How much does Azure Key Vault cost?

Azure Key Vault is a paid product with no free plan.

Is Azure Key Vault open source?

No. Azure Key Vault is proprietary (closed-source) software and can't be self-hosted. Open-source alternatives to Azure Key Vault include Infisical and OpenBao.

What are some alternatives to Azure Key Vault?

Azure Key Vault competes with AWS Secrets Manager, Google Secret Manager and Doppler. For open-source options, see Enlisted's ranked list of open-source Azure Key Vault alternatives.

Azure Key Vault: features, pricing and alternatives

About Azure Key Vault

Azure Key Vault is a managed Microsoft Azure service for protecting secrets, cryptographic keys and certificates. Developers and administrators use it so that applications can retrieve sensitive values from a controlled location instead of storing them in configuration files, which helps with compliance and with limiting who can see them.

Microsoft describes it as offering enhanced compliance, control and global scalability for cloud applications. It sits alongside the rest of the Azure platform, so access can be governed through Azure's identity features and its activity can be monitored with the platform's monitoring and security tools.

Azure Key Vault is proprietary and available only as a cloud service on Azure. Customers pay through their Azure subscription, with details on the Azure pricing pages, and Microsoft publishes documentation and architecture guidance for common scenarios.

Key features

Storage for secrets and passwords
Management of encryption keys
Certificate storage and handling
Access governed through Azure identity
Global scalability for cloud applications

Good fit for

→Keeping connection strings out of application settings
→Managing encryption keys for Azure workloads

Tags: secrets-management; azure; key-management; certificates; security; cloud

Azure Key Vault: questions and answers

What is Azure Key Vault used for?: Azure Key Vault is a Microsoft Azure service for securely storing and controlling access to passwords, encryption keys, certificates and other secrets used by cloud apps. It is a good fit for keeping connection strings out of application settings and managing encryption keys for Azure workloads.
How much does Azure Key Vault cost?: Azure Key Vault is a paid product with no free plan.
Is Azure Key Vault open source?: No. Azure Key Vault is proprietary (closed-source) software and can't be self-hosted. Open-source alternatives to Azure Key Vault include Infisical and OpenBao.
What are some alternatives to Azure Key Vault?: Azure Key Vault competes with AWS Secrets Manager, Google Secret Manager and Doppler. For open-source options, see Enlisted's ranked list of open-source Azure Key Vault alternatives.