OpenBao vs HashiCorp Vault
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted password managers options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
OpenBao
Open-source secrets management forked from Vault
VS
HashiCorp Vault
Secrets management and data protection for infrastructure
| Feature | OpenBao | HashiCorp Vault |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 91 · Excellent | 99 · Excellent |
| Category | Password Managers | Password Managers |
| License | MPL-2.0 | BUSL-1.1 |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, binary | docker, kubernetes, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 7,472 | ★ 36,283 |
| First released | 2024 | 2015 |
| Replaces | AWS Secrets Manager, HashiCorp Vault | AWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault |
What are OpenBao and HashiCorp Vault?
OpenBao
OpenBao is a community-driven, open-source fork of HashiCorp Vault maintained under the Linux Foundation. It manages, stores and tightly controls access to secrets such as tokens, passwords and certificates.
- Truly open-source Vault alternative
- Dynamic secrets generation
- Encryption as a service
- Community governed under Linux Foundation
HashiCorp Vault
HashiCorp Vault is a tool for securely storing and accessing secrets such as API keys, passwords and certificates. It provides dynamic secrets, encryption as a service and fine-grained access control.
- Dynamic, short-lived secrets
- Encryption as a service
- Detailed audit logging
- Pluggable secrets and auth backends
OpenBao vs HashiCorp Vault: key differences
Both projects are written in Go. Licensing differs — MPL-2.0 for OpenBao versus BUSL-1.1 for HashiCorp Vault. HashiCorp Vault is the more established project (first released 2015), while OpenBao arrived in 2024. HashiCorp Vault has the considerably larger community, at 36,283 GitHub stars versus 7,472.
Why pick each one
Choose OpenBao if…
- MPL-2.0 licensed
- Compatible with Vault tooling
Watch out for
- Young fork still stabilizing
Choose HashiCorp Vault if…
- Industry standard for secrets
- Powerful policy engine
Watch out for
- Steep operational complexity
- License changed from open source
Frequently asked questions
Is OpenBao or HashiCorp Vault better?
Neither is universally better. HashiCorp Vault has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are OpenBao and HashiCorp Vault free and open-source?
Yes. OpenBao is licensed under MPL-2.0 and HashiCorp Vault under BUSL-1.1. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run OpenBao and HashiCorp Vault with Docker?
OpenBao: yes. HashiCorp Vault: yes.