Sirr vs AWS Secrets Manager
AWS Secrets Manager is a fully managed service tightly integrated with the AWS ecosystem. Sirr is a self-hosted, cloud-agnostic alternative built for ephemeral secret sharing. Here's how they compare.
At a glance
Sirr
- Ephemeral secret sharing with burn-after-read
- Self-hosted — runs on any infrastructure
- Flat monthly pricing, no per-secret or API fees
- AES-256-GCM + optional client-side encryption
- Cloud-agnostic — no vendor lock-in
- ~30 second deploy via Docker
AWS Secrets Manager
- •Persistent secret storage with KMS encryption
- •Fully managed — no infrastructure to maintain
- •Per-secret + per-API-call pricing
- •KMS-backed encryption (AWS-managed or CMK)
- •AWS-only — tightly coupled to AWS ecosystem
- •Instant setup if already on AWS
Pricing comparison
AWS charges $0.40 per secret per month plus $0.05 per 10,000 API calls. Multi-region replication multiplies the per-secret cost. Sirr charges a flat monthly fee with no per-secret or API fees.
| Scenario | Sirr | AWS |
|---|---|---|
| 10 secrets | $0 (free tier) | $4/mo ($0.40 per secret) |
| 50 secrets | $19/mo (Pro) | $20/mo + API calls |
| 200 secrets | $49/mo (Team) | $80/mo + API calls |
| 1,000 secrets | $149/mo (Scale) | $400/mo + API calls |
| 5,000 secrets | Custom (Enterprise) | $2,000+/mo + API calls |
| 5,000 secrets, 3 regions | Custom (Enterprise) | $6,000+/mo (replicated) |
Feature comparison
| Feature | Sirr | AWS |
|---|---|---|
| Burn-after-read | ||
| TTL on secrets | ||
| Read-count limits | ||
| Client-side encryption | ||
| Self-hosted | ||
| SSO / SAML | Business+ tier | Via IAM |
| Audit logging | Business+ tier | CloudTrail ($) |
| SDKs | Node, Python, .NET, CLI | AWS SDKs only |
| MCP (AI agents) | Coming soon | |
| Secret rotation | N/A (ephemeral) | Via Lambda ($) |
| Multi-cloud | ||
| No vendor lock-in |
The hidden costs
AWS Secrets Manager looks affordable at small scale, but costs compound with API calls, multi-region replication, and rotation lambdas.
| Cost | Sirr | AWS |
|---|---|---|
| API call fees | Included in plan | $0.05 per 10K API calls — adds up fast in high-traffic |
| Multi-region | Deploy another instance | $0.40/secret/region for each replica |
| Rotation lambdas | N/A (ephemeral by design) | Requires Lambda functions ($) |
| Vendor lock-in | None — self-hosted, portable | Total — AWS only, no export path |
| Learning curve | REST API + SDKs, done in a day | Low if already on AWS, but IAM complexity grows |
| Data residency | Your infrastructure, your jurisdiction | AWS regions only — limited by AWS availability |
The lock-in problem
AWS Secrets Manager is deeply coupled to the AWS ecosystem. Your secrets are stored in AWS KMS, accessed via IAM policies, rotated by Lambda functions, and logged in CloudTrail. Migrating away means rebuilding all of these integrations.
Access control
Sirr: Standard API keys or SDK auth
AWS: IAM roles, policies, resource ARNs
Encryption
Sirr: Built-in AES-256-GCM, portable
AWS: AWS KMS keys, non-exportable
Audit trail
Sirr: Built-in audit log
AWS: CloudTrail (AWS-specific, additional cost)
When AWS Secrets Manager is the better choice
- All-in on AWS — If your entire stack is on AWS and you need secrets tightly integrated with IAM, Lambda, RDS, and other AWS services.
- No self-hosting appetite — If you don't want to manage any infrastructure at all and need a fully managed service.
- RDS credential rotation — AWS Secrets Manager has native integration with RDS for automatic database credential rotation.
- Compliance requirements — If your compliance framework requires a specific cloud provider's managed secret store with FIPS 140-2 validated HSMs.
When Sirr is the better choice
- Ephemeral secret sharing — Sharing passwords, API keys, or tokens that should expire after being read. AWS Secrets Manager stores secrets persistently — it has no burn-after-read or TTL.
- Multi-cloud or hybrid — Sirr runs on any infrastructure. No cloud vendor dependency. Deploy on AWS, GCP, Azure, bare metal, or your laptop.
- Predictable pricing — Flat monthly fee. No surprises from API call volume, multi-region replication, or rotation lambda invocations.
- Data sovereignty — Self-hosted means your secrets stay on your infrastructure, in your jurisdiction. No third-party cloud provider has access.
- AI agent workflows (coming soon) — Sirr is building MCP support for just-in-time secret delivery — AI agents fetch a token when needed, use it, and fetch a fresh one after rotation. No standing IAM roles, no persistent access.
Frequently asked questions
The bottom line
AWS Secrets Manager is a solid choice if you're already all-in on AWS and need persistent secret storage with native AWS integration. But if your use case is sharing temporary secrets — credentials, API keys, passwords that should self-destruct — AWS Secrets Manager is the wrong tool. It stores secrets forever, charges per-secret and per-API-call, and locks you into AWS. Sirr does one job and does it well: secure, ephemeral secret sharing with predictable pricing and zero vendor lock-in.