# AWS Secrets Manager vs Doppler

Canonical: https://inetgeek.com/compare/aws-secrets-manager-vs-doppler/

Every value below is read from AWS Secrets Manager's and Doppler's own documentation. See https://inetgeek.com/methodology/ for how.

## At a glance

| Criterion | AWS Secrets Manager | Doppler |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Free tier | No | Yes |
| Entry paid plan | $0.40 per secret per month, plus $0.05 per 10,000 API calls. | Team plan: $21/month per user, with a 14-day free trial. |
| Pricing model | Per-secret monthly fee plus metered API calls. Rotating a secret creates a new version but is not separately charged beyond the API calls it makes. | Per-seat pricing for human team members. AI agents and non-human identities are not billed. |

## Where they differ

### Free tier

- AWS Secrets Manager: No ([source](https://aws.amazon.com/secrets-manager/pricing/))
- Doppler: Yes ([source](https://www.doppler.com/pricing))

### Entry paid plan

- AWS Secrets Manager: $0.40 per secret per month, plus $0.05 per 10,000 API calls. ([source](https://aws.amazon.com/secrets-manager/pricing/))
- Doppler: Team plan: $21/month per user, with a 14-day free trial. ([source](https://www.doppler.com/pricing))

### Pricing model

- AWS Secrets Manager: Per-secret monthly fee plus metered API calls. Rotating a secret creates a new version but is not separately charged beyond the API calls it makes. ([source](https://aws.amazon.com/secrets-manager/pricing/))
- Doppler: Per-seat pricing for human team members. AI agents and non-human identities are not billed. ([source](https://www.doppler.com/pricing))

## Which should you choose?

Pick AWS Secrets Manager if Teams already deep in AWS IAM, Lambda and RDS — the integration is native rather than bolted on, and the per-secret price is simple to reason about.

Pick Doppler if Teams whose secrets access is dominated by CI/CD and service identities rather than human users — those ride free, so cost tracks headcount, not automation volume.

Consider something else: AWS Secrets Manager — Secrets sprawl across many small values rather than a few large ones — at $0.40/secret/month, a service charging per identity or per seat instead can work out cheaper for a team with a handful of engineers and hundreds of individual secrets.

Consider something else: Doppler — Dynamic (short-lived) secrets are a requirement now — that's an Enterprise-only feature here, where a competitor may offer it lower in the plan tier.

## Documented by only one

- Audit logs: Doppler: 3 days of activity log retention on Developer (free), 90 days on Team, custom retention on Enterprise.
- Secret versioning: AWS Secrets Manager: Supported — rotating a secret automatically creates a new version, at no additional per-secret charge.
- Dynamic (short-lived) secrets: Doppler: Not included on Developer or Team. Available on Enterprise.

## Questions this comparison answers

**Entry paid plan: AWS Secrets Manager or Doppler?**

AWS Secrets Manager: $0.40 per secret per month, plus $0.05 per 10,000 API calls.
Doppler: Team plan: $21/month per user, with a 14-day free trial.

**Free tier: AWS Secrets Manager or Doppler?**

AWS Secrets Manager: No
Doppler: Yes

**Should I choose AWS Secrets Manager or Doppler?**

Pick AWS Secrets Manager if Teams already deep in AWS IAM, Lambda and RDS — the integration is native rather than bolted on, and the per-secret price is simple to reason about.
Pick Doppler if Teams whose secrets access is dominated by CI/CD and service identities rather than human users — those ride free, so cost tracks headcount, not automation volume.