# AWS Secrets Manager vs Infisical

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

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

## At a glance

| Criterion | AWS Secrets Manager | Infisical |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Free tier | No | Yes |
| Entry paid plan | $0.40 per secret per month, plus $0.05 per 10,000 API calls. | Pro tier: $20/identity/month billed annually, or $23/identity/month billed monthly. |
| 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. | Billed per identity per month. An identity is any principal that authenticates to Infisical, human or machine. |
| Secret versioning | Supported — rotating a secret automatically creates a new version, at no additional per-secret charge. | Not included on the free tier. Included from Pro: secret versioning and point-in-time recovery. |

## Where they differ

### Free tier

- AWS Secrets Manager: No ([source](https://aws.amazon.com/secrets-manager/pricing/))
- Infisical: Yes ([source](https://infisical.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/))
- Infisical: Pro tier: $20/identity/month billed annually, or $23/identity/month billed monthly. ([source](https://infisical.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/))
- Infisical: Billed per identity per month. An identity is any principal that authenticates to Infisical, human or machine. ([source](https://infisical.com/pricing))

### Secret versioning

- AWS Secrets Manager: Supported — rotating a secret automatically creates a new version, at no additional per-secret charge. ([source](https://aws.amazon.com/secrets-manager/pricing/))
- Infisical: Not included on the free tier. Included from Pro: secret versioning and point-in-time recovery. ([source](https://infisical.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 Infisical if Teams that want per-identity pricing that treats a machine credential the same as a human one, or that value the option to self-host the same open-source engine the cloud product runs.

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: Infisical — Dynamic secrets are needed immediately — that's an Advanced-tier feature here, two tiers above the entry paid plan.

## Documented by only one

- Audit logs: Infisical: None on Free. 30-day retention on Pro, 90-day on Advanced, custom retention on Enterprise.
- Dynamic (short-lived) secrets: Infisical: Not included on Free or Pro. Included from Advanced: dynamic secrets.

## Questions this comparison answers

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

AWS Secrets Manager: $0.40 per secret per month, plus $0.05 per 10,000 API calls.
Infisical: Pro tier: $20/identity/month billed annually, or $23/identity/month billed monthly.

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

AWS Secrets Manager: No
Infisical: Yes

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

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 Infisical if Teams that want per-identity pricing that treats a machine credential the same as a human one, or that value the option to self-host the same open-source engine the cloud product runs.
