Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Vault by HashiCorp VS StackExchange Blackbox

Compare Vault by HashiCorp VS StackExchange Blackbox and see what are their differences

Vault by HashiCorp logo Vault by HashiCorp

Tool for managing secrets

StackExchange Blackbox logo StackExchange Blackbox

Safely store secrets in Git/Mercurial/Subversion. Contribute to StackExchange/blackbox development by creating an account on GitHub.
  • Vault by HashiCorp Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-26
  • StackExchange Blackbox Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-18

Vault by HashiCorp features and specs

  • Comprehensive Security
    Vault provides a high level of data security by using end-to-end encryption and secure access protocols, ensuring sensitive data is well-protected.
  • Dynamic Secrets
    Vault allows for dynamic generation of secrets and credentials, reducing the risk of secret sprawl and enabling better lifecycle management.
  • Audit Capabilities
    Vault offers extensive audit logging capabilities, which help organizations monitor access and changes to sensitive data, enhancing compliance and security monitoring.
  • Multi-cloud Support
    Vault supports various cloud providers and infrastructures, making it suitable for multi-cloud and hybrid environments.
  • Access Control
    Fine-grained access control policies can be defined in Vault, enabling precise management of who can access what secrets and under what conditions.

Possible disadvantages of Vault by HashiCorp

  • Complex Setup
    The initial setup and configuration of Vault can be complex, requiring a good understanding of its components and operational requirements.
  • Learning Curve
    Due to its extensive features and capabilities, there is a significant learning curve associated with effectively using Vault.
  • Performance Overhead
    The added security and features can introduce performance overhead, especially in large-scale systems with numerous secrets and transactions.
  • Cost
    While the open-source version is free, the enterprise version with additional features and support can be costly for organizations.
  • Dependency Management
    Organizations might need to adapt their existing systems to integrate Vault, which could involve significant changes and management of additional dependencies.

StackExchange Blackbox features and specs

  • Security
    StackExchange Blackbox provides a method to securely store secrets in a repository, ensuring sensitive data is encrypted and only accessible to authorized users.
  • Version Control Integration
    It seamlessly integrates with Git, allowing encrypted files to be version-controlled, which helps in managing changes over time and reverting if necessary.
  • Developer-friendly
    Blackbox is designed to be easy for developers to use, incorporating familiar command-line operations for those accustomed to Git, which streamlines the workflow.
  • No External Dependencies
    It relies on GPG for encryption, which is a widely-used and trusted encryption tool, eliminating the need for complex or unfamiliar encryption libraries.
  • Multi-user Support
    The tool supports multiple users by allowing access control to encrypted data, making it suitable for team environments where multiple developers need secure access.

Possible disadvantages of StackExchange Blackbox

  • GPG Dependency
    Relying on GPG means that all users must have GPG installed and configured properly, which can be a hurdle for users unfamiliar with it.
  • Complexity in Access Control
    Managing access control and GPG keys for a large number of users can become complex and administratively burdensome.
  • Learning Curve
    New users or teams may encounter a learning curve in understanding how to effectively use and manage the tool, alongside GPG's intricacies.
  • Limited to Git
    The tool is designed specifically for Git repositories, which limits its applicability for projects not using Git or for teams using other version control systems.
  • Operational Overhead
    Properly setting up and maintaining the environment for encrypting and decrypting files can introduce additional operational overhead for teams.

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Vault by HashiCorp and StackExchange Blackbox)
Password Management
88 88%
12% 12
Security & Privacy
83 83%
17% 17
Monitoring Tools
0 0%
100% 100
Password Managers
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

Share your experience with using Vault by HashiCorp and StackExchange Blackbox. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Vault by HashiCorp seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 5 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Vault by HashiCorp mentions (5)

  • Running the OpenTelemetry Demo App on HashiCorp Nomad
    Before you start, just a friendly reminder that HashiQube by default runs Nomad, Vault, and Consul on Docker. In addition, we’ll be deploying 21 job specs to Nomad. This means that we’ll need a decent amount of CPU and RAM, so Please make sure that you have enough resources allocated in your Docker desktop. For reference, I’m running an M1 Macbook Pro with 8 cores and 32 GB RAM. My Docker Desktop Resource... - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Running cron jobs in the cloud — Amazon EC2 vs AWS Lambda
    When running cron jobs on Amazon EC2, you can, for example, use a secrets store like Vault. With Vault, your cron jobs can dynamically get the credentials they need. The secrets don’t get stored on the machine that’s running the cron jobs, and if you change a secret, the cron jobs will automatically receive that change. The downside of implementing a solution like Vault, however, is the overhead of managing the... - Source: dev.to / about 3 years ago
  • How do you document your smart home stuff?
    Vaultproject.io handles secrets management, so dynamic policies deal with database creds etc. "Manual" creds are stored in 1password or lastpass and added manually to Vault if it needs rebuilding. Source: over 3 years ago
  • Whare are your preferred platforms and tools/services for self hosting?
    It's all in the blog series, including sample configuration, but it's vaultproject.io and it allows you to do everything from managing simple secrets to auto-rotation of database credentials or even run your own KPI setup. Source: over 3 years ago
  • How to backup Hashicorp Vault with Raft storage on Kubernetes
    Our team is experimenting with Hashicorp Vault as our new credentials management solution. Thanks to the offical Vault Helm Chart, we are able to get an almost production-ready vault cluster running on our Kubernetes cluster with minimal effort. - Source: dev.to / almost 4 years ago

StackExchange Blackbox mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of StackExchange Blackbox yet. Tracking of StackExchange Blackbox recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Vault by HashiCorp and StackExchange Blackbox, you can also consider the following products

Doppler - Doppler is the multi-cloud SecretOps Platform developers and security teams trust to provide secrets management at enterprise scale.

SecretHub - SecretHub is a developer tool to help you keep database passwords, API tokens, and other secrets...

KeePass - KeePass is an open source password manager. Passwords can be stored in highly-encrypted databases, which can be unlocked with one master password or key file.

CyberArk Conjur - Programmable open source interface that securely authenticates, controls and audits non-human access across tool stacks, apps, containers and cloud environments.

VAULT - A password manager for freelancers, developers, agencies, IT departments and teams. VAULT safely stores account information and makes it easy to share between co-workers, other team members and clients.

DBHawk - Datasparc features DBHawk, online SQL Tools designed for Oracle, MS SQL Server and other databases.