{"data":{"slug":"vault","name":"HashiCorp Vault","tagline":"HashiCorp's secrets manager and encryption service; BUSL-1.1 source-available, free to self-host","category":"devops","categoryName":"DevOps","url":"https://developer.hashicorp.com/vault","github":"https://github.com/hashicorp/vault","pricing":"source-available","hook":"Vault stores and hands out secrets: static keys, short-lived database and cloud credentials, certificates, and encryption as a service, all behind policies and an audit log.","whatsGood":"Release v2.2.0 (2026-10-15), commit on 2026-10-20. ★~36k over eleven years (~60 a week). Useful when you want apps and CI to fetch short-lived credentials instead of long-lived secrets in env files, with one place to revoke and audit them.","theCatch":"License first: Vault 1.15.0 and later are under BUSL-1.1, which is source-available, not open source. You may use it in production and host it for your own organization. You may not offer it to third parties as a paid hosted or embedded product that competes with IBM's paid Vault. Each version becomes MPL-2.0 four years after release. GitHub shows NOASSERTION; read the LICENSE file. Some features, such as namespaces and performance replication, are Enterprise-only. Running it well (unsealing, HA storage, backups) takes real ops work. OpenBao is the MPL-2.0 fork.","verdict":"The reference secrets manager and fine to self-host internally; pick OpenBao if you need open source.","addedAt":"2026-10-21","featured":false,"domain":"DevOps","subSpecialty":"Infrastructure","subcategory":"Security","tags":["self-host","source-available","security","active"],"capabilities":[],"surfaces":["Self-host"],"ecosystem":["Multi-platform"],"licenseModel":"Source-available (BUSL-1.1)","githubStars":36411,"starsPerWeek":60,"access":"free","archived":false,"repo":{"createdAt":"2015-02-25","pushedAt":"2026-10-20","license":"NOASSERTION","archived":false,"checkedAt":"2026-10-21"}},"related":[{"slug":"github-actions","name":"GitHub Actions","tagline":"CI/CD that lives where your code does"},{"slug":"docker","name":"Docker","tagline":"Container runtime that changed deployment"},{"slug":"kubernetes","name":"Kubernetes","tagline":"Container orchestration at scale"},{"slug":"pulumi","name":"Pulumi","tagline":"Infrastructure as code in real languages"},{"slug":"fly-io","name":"Fly.io","tagline":"Deploy apps to VMs close to your users"}],"links":{"self":"/api/gems/vault","html":"/gems/vault","markdown":"/gems/vault.md","category":"/api/gems?category=devops","categoryPage":"/stacks/devops"}}