HashiCorp Vault vs CyberArk Conjur

The honest comparison

Both manage secrets, but they come from different worlds. HashiCorp Vault is the de facto secrets platform for cloud-native and platform-engineering teams, built around dynamic secrets, broad engine support, and an API-first model. CyberArk Conjur is CyberArk's secrets manager, designed to extend privileged access management into application and DevOps secrets under one governance umbrella.

When HashiCorp Vault wins

• You run multi-cloud or Kubernetes-heavy infrastructure and want a single secrets API across it
• Dynamic, short-lived credentials (databases, cloud IAM, PKI) are a core requirement
• A platform team owns secrets as part of the developer platform
• You value the breadth of community and ecosystem integrations

When CyberArk Conjur wins

• You already run CyberArk for human privileged access and want machine and app secrets under the same governance
• Audit and compliance teams expect secrets to live inside the existing PAM control plane
• You need the enterprise-grade support, certifications, and reference architectures CyberArk brings to regulated industries
• Centralized policy and reporting across human and non-human identities matters more than cloud-native flexibility

Pricing

Vault has a widely used open-source core with paid Enterprise and HCP (managed) tiers. Conjur has an open-source edition but is most often adopted as part of a commercial CyberArk program, so its cost tends to track the broader PAM investment.

Verdict

For platform teams standardizing secrets across cloud-native infrastructure, HashiCorp Vault is the reference choice. For organizations already invested in CyberArk that want machine secrets governed alongside privileged human access, Conjur keeps everything in one control plane. The decision usually follows who owns the program: platform engineering or the PAM team. See the broader secrets management category and the machine identity guide for context.