Side by side

Secrets Manager vs Shelve

Both stand on secrets management tools. Which one you can start free with, which one lets you read the code, and what each costs once you pay.

Secrets Manager

Free plan APILinuxMac+3

Secrets Manager combines encrypted storage, access grants, audit events, and CLI-based secret injection in a self-hosted package. Review the maker’s master-key warning and deployment requirements before adopting it.

Visit Secrets Manager

Shelve

Free plan APISelf-hostedWeb

Shelve offers free, open-source secret management with scoped access, CLI injection, and GitHub synchronization. Decide whether its self-hosting responsibilities, best-effort support, and availability terms fit your team.

Visit Shelve

The facts

	Secrets Manager	Shelve
Free plan	Yes	Yes
Open source	Not published	Not published
Runs on	API, Linux, Mac, Self-hosted, Web, Windows	API, Self-hosted, Web
Lowest paid plan	Free or on request	Free or on request
Plans published	1	2
Maker	Not published	Not published
Website	github.com	shelve.cloud
On secrets management tools	#16 of 46	#20 of 46

Secrets Manager: what it does well

Free and open source under the MIT license
Versions can be rolled back
CLI passes secrets without creating a `.env` file
Access grants cover users and service accounts
Audit events include secret reveals

What to know first

Requires Docker and Docker Compose
CLI quickstart requires Node 20 or later
Losing the master key makes secrets unrecoverable
Earlier repository master key must never be used

Shelve: what it does well

Open-source and free plans
Supports hosted and self-hosted deployment
Scoped role-based access and API tokens
GitHub Actions secret synchronization
Per-project AES-256-GCM encryption

What to know first

No availability guarantees
Self-hosting requires managing core infrastructure
CLI supports one account at a time
Self-hosted HTTPS must be configured

Alternatives to Secrets Manager Alternatives to Shelve The whole list