Every development team knows the pain: you need to share API keys, database credentials, and service tokens across your team, but you don't have the headcount (or the budget) to manage a full-blown enterprise vault. The cloud-native solutions from AWS and Azure work, but they lock you into a single ecosystem and scatter your secrets across half a dozen consoles. For small teams shipping fast, what you really need is a tool that treats secrets the same way you treat code — with versioning, sync, and access controls that don't require a dedicated security engineer.
We tested the leading secrets management platforms that come in under $50 per month per team. Our picks focus on three things: actual security hygiene (rotation, RBAC, audit logs), developer experience (CLI, SDKs, Git sync), and pricing that doesn't punish you for having a team. Here are the things actually worth buying.
Best for Open Source & Control: Infisical
Infisical is the open-source darling of the secrets management world, and for good reason. Its Pro plan runs $18 per month per identity1 — well under our $50 ceiling — and includes secret versioning, role-based access control (RBAC), and automated secret rotation. The open-source core means you can self-host if compliance demands it, but the cloud-hosted Pro tier is polished enough for most small teams. Infisical's CLI and SDKs integrate naturally into CI/CD pipelines, and the dashboard gives you a single pane for all your environments.
Who it's for: Teams that want full control over their secrets infrastructure and prefer open-source transparency. If you're already running a self-hosted stack, Infisical fits right in.
Best for Workflow & Developer Experience: Doppler
Doppler has built a reputation as the secrets manager that developers actually enjoy using. The Team plan costs $21 per month per user2 and delivers SAML SSO, RBAC, and up to 100 config syncs per month. Where Doppler really shines is its Git-style workflow — you can branch configs, run diffs, and roll back changes just like you would with code. The Doppler CLI is fast, the integrations (Vercel, Railway, GitHub Actions) are deep, and the "secrets as a service" model means you never store a .env file locally again.
Who it's for: Teams that prioritize developer velocity and want a secrets tool that feels more like a modern dev tool than a security appliance.
Best for Budget & Simplicity: Bitwarden Secrets Manager
If your team is already using Bitwarden for passwords, the Secrets Manager is a no-brainer. The Teams subscription starts at just $6 per month per user3 — by far the most affordable option here. You get the same battle-tested encryption model Bitwarden is known for, plus machine-to-machine secret syncing, access controls, and native integrations with popular CI/CD tools. It's simpler than Infisical or Doppler — fewer bells and whistles — but for a lean team that just needs to share secrets securely, it's more than enough.
Who it's for: Bootstrapped teams, early-stage startups, or any organization that wants enterprise-grade encryption at a fraction of the cost.
Why These Beat Cloud-Native Options
AWS Secrets Manager and Azure Key Vault are powerful, but they come with hidden complexity. Each service has its own IAM model, its own SDK, its own pricing (often per secret, per API call, and per region). For a small team working across multiple clouds or hybrid environments, that fragmentation becomes a tax on productivity. The tools above centralize your secrets into one workflow, one CLI, and one bill — and they all come in under $50/month for a small team. That's the kind of simplicity the things actually worth buying should deliver.
