KMSOpen source · MPL-2.0
OpenBao
Community project
A community-governed fork of HashiCorp Vault, created in 2023 after Vault's license changed away from an OSI-approved open-source license, rebuilding the same secrets-management and encryption-as-a-service features under a fully open MPL-2.0 license. Joined the Linux Foundation's Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF) in 2025, and remains in the foundation's early Sandbox stage as of mid-2026.
Verified Source: 1
- Product type
- Community project
- Deployment
- On-premCLI
- Organization size
- SMBMid-marketEnterprise
- Pricing tier
- Free
Capability checklist
KMSHow OpenBao measures up against the full Encryption & Key Management taxonomy.
- Centralized key lifecycle management — supported
- Creates, distributes, rotates, and retires encryption keys from one system.
- HSM-backed key storage — not supported
- Stores the most sensitive keys in dedicated hardware security modules.
- Encryption enforcement — supported
- Ensures data at rest and in transit is actually encrypted, not just capable of it.
- Automated key rotation — supported
- Rotates keys on a schedule without requiring manual intervention.
- BYOK / HYOK cloud support — not supported
- Lets customers bring or hold their own keys for data stored in cloud provider services.
- Access audit logging — supported
- Logs every use of a key for security review and compliance evidence.
Alternatives
Other Encryption & Key Management tools with overlapping capabilities, sized for similar teams.