AWS Secrets Manager review
A managed AWS service for storing, rotating, auditing, and delivering application secrets.
Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
AWS Secrets Manager is a managed cloud service for storing, retrieving, controlling access to, and rotating database credentials, application credentials, OAuth tokens, API keys, and other secrets. It is designed for teams running applications on AWS, with programmatic retrieval through AWS APIs and integrations across IAM, KMS, Lambda, CodeBuild, Amazon EKS, CloudTrail, and CloudWatch. Kubernetes workloads can mount secrets through the AWS Secrets and Configuration Provider.
Pricing is usage-based rather than tiered. The published pricing model charges $0.40 per stored secret per month, plus API-call charges. There is no permanent free plan, although eligible new customers may receive a time-limited Free Tier. This structure suits applications that already operate within AWS and want secret costs to follow stored-secret and retrieval activity. Teams should account for both storage and API usage when estimating ongoing spend.
Its strongest fit comes from the depth of its AWS integration. IAM policies provide fine-grained access control, KMS supports encrypted secret storage, and CloudTrail and CloudWatch integrations support audit and monitoring workflows. Automatic scheduled or on-demand rotation, Multi-Region replication, CodeBuild injection, and EKS mounting extend secrets management into application delivery and operations. The trade-off is a cloud-only deployment model, with no verified dynamic secrets capability. Choose AWS Secrets Manager when AWS-native access control, rotation, auditing, and workload integration are priorities; consider an alternative when broader deployment coverage or dynamic secret generation is required.
AWS Secrets Manager pros and cons
- Where it wins
- Automatic scheduled or on-demand secret rotation
- IAM access control with KMS-encrypted storage
- CodeBuild injection and Amazon EKS secret mounting
- Where it doesn't
- Cloud-only deployment model
- No permanent free plan
- No verified dynamic secrets capability
AWS Secrets Manager fact sheet, pricing and score →
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