Fair question. A few differentiators:
On open source: tools like Vault, Doppler, or Infisical are excellent but require setup, maintenance, and infra (or their hosted tier). KeyEnv's value prop is zero infra — install the CLI, run `keyenv run -- your-command`, done. For small teams that don't want to manage secrets infra, it's faster.
On hyperscalers: AWS Secrets Manager / GCP Secret Manager work well at scale but have per-secret pricing that adds up, and the DX friction is non-trivial (IAM, SDK calls, region config). We're optimized for developer teams who want CLI-first access without cloud-specific lock-in.
On pricing: the per-user model is intentional — it stays predictable as the secret count grows. You're right that at very high secret counts hyperscalers win on cost. We're not competing there; we're competing on simplicity for teams of 2–20 devs.
Not a fit for every team — just trying to make the tradeoffs honest.
On open source: tools like Vault, Doppler, or Infisical are excellent but require setup, maintenance, and infra (or their hosted tier). KeyEnv's value prop is zero infra — install the CLI, run `keyenv run -- your-command`, done. For small teams that don't want to manage secrets infra, it's faster.
On hyperscalers: AWS Secrets Manager / GCP Secret Manager work well at scale but have per-secret pricing that adds up, and the DX friction is non-trivial (IAM, SDK calls, region config). We're optimized for developer teams who want CLI-first access without cloud-specific lock-in.
On pricing: the per-user model is intentional — it stays predictable as the secret count grows. You're right that at very high secret counts hyperscalers win on cost. We're not competing there; we're competing on simplicity for teams of 2–20 devs.
Not a fit for every team — just trying to make the tradeoffs honest.