head to head · open source
HashiCorp Vault vs UnKey
HashiCorp Vault has 36,462 GitHub stars, 4,801 forks, 1,435 open issues and last shipped yesterday. UnKey has 5,483 stars, 636 forks, 163 open issues and last shipped yesterday. HashiCorp Vault leads on adoption by 565% (36,462 vs 5,483 stars). HashiCorp Vault is written in Go under a custom or non-standard licence; UnKey is written in Go under a custom or non-standard licence. HashiCorp Vault has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, UnKey 12%. HashiCorp Vault was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| HashiCorp Vault | UnKey | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 36K | ★ 5.5K |
| License | Custom / other | Custom / other |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.8K | ⑂ 636 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick HashiCorp Vault if
- You weight community size — 36K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick UnKey if
- You want the UnKey feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and UnKey fits your workflow better
About HashiCorp Vault
Vault Please note : We take Vault's security and our users' trust very seriously. If you believe you have found a security issue in Vault, please responsibly disclose by contacting us at security@hashicorp.com. Website: developer.hashicorp.com/vault Announcement list: Google Groups Discussion forum: Discuss Documentation: Tutorials: Certification exam: Documentation source: Vault is a tool for securely accessing secrets. A secret is anything that you want to tightly control access to, such as API keys, passwords, certificates, and more. Vault provides a unified interface to any secret, while providing tight…
read the full HashiCorp Vault overview →
About UnKey
Unkey The Developer Platform for Modern APIs unkey.com · Docs · Engineering · Discord What is Unkey? Unkey is the developer platform for modern APIs. We unify your infrastructure so you can ship faster: deploy APIs instantly, route traffic through global gateways, and understand usage — all in one place. Deploy — push an API to production in seconds, with zero infrastructure to manage Gateway — route, authenticate, and shape traffic through globally distributed gateways API Keys — issue, verify, and revoke keys with fast global verification Ratelimiting — globally consistent, durable ratelimiting for any…
read the full UnKey overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is HashiCorp Vault or UnKey more popular?
HashiCorp Vault has 36,462 GitHub stars and UnKey has 5,483. HashiCorp Vault has the larger community by that measure.
Are HashiCorp Vault and UnKey free?
Neither HashiCorp Vault nor UnKey declares a licence in this registry, so check each project's own repository before relying on either for a commercial use. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between HashiCorp Vault and UnKey?
HashiCorp Vault is written in Go and UnKey in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, HashiCorp Vault or UnKey?
Choose HashiCorp Vault if you want the larger community (36,462 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose UnKey if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.