CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Akeyless vs Astrix Security

Akeyless is an Identity Security Platform for securing machine, AI agent, and human identities across cloud, hybrid, and on-prem environments. Astrix Security sells software that maintains a real-time inventory of all AI agents, MCP servers, and NHIs, with context to understand risk and business usage. CISO Tribune files both under Non-human identity security. This page sets the two records side by side: what each sells, where it is based, who owns and funds it, the customers it names and its recent news, each fact numbered to its source.

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  • Akeyless
  • Astrix Security
Akeyless vs Astrix Security: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
AkeylessAkeyless is an Identity Security Platform for securing machine, AI agent, and human identities across cloud, hybrid, and on-prem environments.akeyless.ioAstrix SecurityAstrix Security sells software that maintains a real-time inventory of all AI agents, MCP servers, and NHIs, with context to understand risk and business usage.astrix.security
What it sells
  • SecretlessAI®[4]Brokers just-in-time access without exposing credentials to the agent.
  • Agentic Runtime Authority[4][6][10]Controls and audits runtime agent access to supported Dynamic Secrets.
  • AI Agent Discovery[4][9]Maintains a real-time inventory of AI agents, MCP servers, and non-human identities, with context on risk and business usage.
  • Secure AI Agents[10]Identifies and remediates AI agents and non-human identities that have excessive privileges, vulnerable configurations, or abnormal activity.
  • Agent Control Plane[4][7]Provisions AI agents with short-lived credentials and precisely scoped, just-in-time access at creation.
Categories
Headquarters
Not stated on its pagesNew York City, United States[2]
Founded
Not stated on its pages2021[2][4]
Ownership and funding
Privately held[3]Owned by Cisco since 2026[3][6]
Named customers
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Recent news
  • October 26, 2026Akeyless announced its first inclusion in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Privileged Access Management.[11]
  • March 31, 2026Akeyless announced Agentic Runtime Authority, a runtime control capability for AI agents, and Agentic Identity Intelligence, extending its AI Agent Identity Security solution.[10]
  • May 4, 2026Astrix Security announced that Cisco has declared its intent to acquire the company.[16]
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: listed, seen November 10, 2026[3]
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
  • G2: listed, seen November 5, 2026[6]
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
Who it fits
Akeyless describes a clientele that ranges from startups to multinational corporations. Akeyless is designed for cloud, multi-cloud, hybrid and on-prem environments, with a SaaS control plane and customer-deployed Gateways. Akeyless provides deployment guidance for organizations that deploy Gateway on cloud-managed compute platforms.From its own pages, Astrix Security sells mainly to enterprises that need to govern AI agents and non-human identities that fall outside traditional IAM. Its pages describe security admins who pre-define agent policies and developers who launch agents from their preferred tool. Its inventory correlates data across cloud, SaaS, on-prem, databases, vaults, CI/CD and AI platforms.
Last verified
October 7, 2026November 2, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Non-human identity security is the primary category of both Akeyless and Astrix Security.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Akeyless is also filed under Privileged access management, Machine identity and PKI and Encryption, tokenization and key management.
  • Akeyless lists SecretlessAI® and Agentic Runtime Authority. Astrix Security lists AI Agent Discovery, Secure AI Agents and Agent Control Plane.
  • Astrix Security is headquartered in New York City, United States.
  • Astrix Security was founded in 2021.
  • Akeyless is privately held. Astrix Security is owned by Cisco, since 2026.

How they differ

CISO Tribune files Akeyless under Non-human identity security, Privileged access management, Machine identity and PKI, and Encryption, tokenization and key management, with Non-human identity security as its primary category. Akeyless sells an Identity Security Platform that combines secrets management, Modern PAM, certificate lifecycle management, encryption and KMS, Multi-Vault Governance, and AI agent security. CISO Tribune files Astrix Security under Non-human identity security only, and that is also its primary category. Astrix Security sells AI Agent Discovery, Secure AI Agents, and Agent Control Plane, which cover inventory, remediation, and short-lived scoped access for AI agents and non-human identities. Both companies address AI agent access, and both describe short-lived, just-in-time credentials.

Akeyless sells SecretlessAI® and Agentic Runtime Authority, which keep credentials out of AI agents and control and audit runtime agent access to supported Dynamic Secrets. Akeyless is privately held, and it describes a clientele that ranges from startups to multinational corporations. It is designed for cloud, multi-cloud, hybrid, and on-prem environments, with a SaaS control plane and customer-deployed Gateways. Astrix Security is headquartered in New York City, United States, and was founded in 2021. It is owned by Cisco, since 2026. Astrix Security says it helps Fortune 1,000 enterprises, and names Workday among its customers.

On March 31, 2026, Akeyless announced Agentic Runtime Authority and Agentic Identity Intelligence. Astrix has ended standalone sales of new licenses effective June 30th, 2026, and existing customers continue to receive service and support under their current agreements.

What it sells: Akeyless

What SecretlessAI® does[4]
SecretlessAI® brokers just-in-time access without exposing credentials to the agent. Akeyless keeps credentials out of AI agents and governs their access to enterprise systems.
What Agentic Runtime Authority does[4][6][10]
Agentic Runtime Authority controls and audits runtime agent access to supported Dynamic Secrets. Agentic Runtime Authority evaluates and enforces what agents are allowed to do at runtime. Akeyless tracks every agent session from prompt to action.

Questions about Akeyless and Astrix Security

What do Akeyless and Astrix Security sell?
Akeyless sells SecretlessAI® and Agentic Runtime Authority. Astrix Security sells AI Agent Discovery, Secure AI Agents and Agent Control Plane.
Are Akeyless and Astrix Security in the same category?
Yes. Non-human identity security is the primary category of both on CISO Tribune.
Where are Akeyless and Astrix Security headquartered?
Astrix Security is headquartered in New York City, United States.
When were Akeyless and Astrix Security founded?
Astrix Security was founded in 2021.
Who owns Akeyless and Astrix Security?
Akeyless is privately held. Astrix Security is owned by Cisco, since 2026.
Who are Akeyless and Astrix Security sold to?
Akeyless describes a clientele that ranges from startups to multinational corporations. From its own pages, Astrix Security sells mainly to enterprises that need to govern AI agents and non-human identities that fall outside traditional IAM.
What have Akeyless and Astrix Security announced recently?
October 26, 2026: Akeyless announced its first inclusion in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Privileged Access Management. May 4, 2026: Astrix Security announced that Cisco has declared its intent to acquire the company.

About Akeyless

Akeyless is an Identity Security Platform for securing machine, AI agent, and human identities across cloud, hybrid, and on-prem environments. Akeyless combines secrets management, Modern PAM, certificate lifecycle management, encryption and KMS, Multi-Vault Governance, and AI agent security in one platform. Akeyless manages secrets, keys, certificates and machine identities through a single policy engine, operational model and interface.[1][4][5]

Akeyless describes a situation in which AI agents, workloads and services now perform most system access, while security tools still assume a human behind the keyboard. Akeyless states that the result is secrets everywhere, standing privileges, and identities no one can fully track. Akeyless gives applications, workloads, automation and AI agents secure access to the resources they need without relying on long-lived credentials. Akeyless provides short-lived, identity-based access while centrally managing the secrets, certificates and keys that still need to exist across cloud, hybrid and on-prem environments.[4][5]

Akeyless includes enterprise secrets management, and the platform extends beyond storing and rotating secrets. Akeyless supports short-lived, identity-based access, privileged access, certificates, encryption keys, machine identities and AI agent security. Akeyless secures, stores and delivers secrets dynamically. Secretless access in Akeyless lets applications, workloads and other identities authenticate and access resources without storing long-lived credentials. Akeyless can issue short-lived, just-in-time credentials when access is required and automatically expire or revoke them afterward. Akeyless supports authentication and access for applications, workloads, services, automation and other non-human identities using methods including cloud identities, Kubernetes identities, certificates and SPIFFE/SPIRE. Akeyless centralizes and secures credentials, certificates and keys across the CI/CD pipeline.[1][4][5]

Akeyless provides multiple AI-focused capabilities across the identity security platform. Akeyless keeps credentials out of AI agents and governs their access to enterprise systems. SecretlessAI® brokers just-in-time access without exposing credentials to the agent. Agentic Runtime Authority evaluates and enforces what agents are allowed to do at runtime, and Akeyless states that every agent action is validated, scoped and enforced in session. Agentic Runtime Authority controls and audits runtime agent access to supported Dynamic Secrets. Akeyless tracks every agent session from prompt to action. Akeyless AI Insights enables natural-language interaction with Akeyless resources. Identity and Secrets Intelligence provides AI-related visibility and governance surfaces in the Console. Akeyless MCP Server integrates MCP clients and tools with Akeyless services.[4][5][6]

Akeyless automates certificate issuance, renewal and compliance, and offers automated certificate lifecycle monitoring. Akeyless centralizes visibility and policy across all vaults and environments, and provides centralized governance across distributed secrets vaults. Akeyless offers a browser plugin for creating and securing employee passwords. Akeyless centralizes and automates encryption, tokenization and key management, with centralized encryption and key management across cloud platforms. Akeyless offers customers control of their encryption keys and encrypted data.[4][5]

Akeyless uses patented Distributed Fragments Cryptography™ as the foundation of its Zero-Knowledge Architecture. Akeyless includes hybrid post-quantum encryption alongside patented Distributed Fragments Cryptography™. Akeyless is designed for cloud, multi-cloud, hybrid, and on-prem environments, with a SaaS control plane and customer-deployed Gateways for local access, policy enforcement, and cryptographic operations. Akeyless provides deployment guidance for organizations that deploy Gateway on cloud-managed compute platforms. Across EKS, AKS, GKE, and Azure Container Apps, the core Gateway model is consistent. Akeyless provides a command, eventForwarderUpdateServiceNow, that updates a service now event forwarder.[4][5][7][8]

Akeyless describes a clientele that ranges from startups to multinational corporations. Akeyless offers applications, workloads, automation and AI agents secure access to resources without long-lived credentials.[1][2][4][5][9]

Akeyless on the record

Sources

Akeyless full record

  1. [1]akeyless.ioAkeyless · akeyless.io · undated page, accessed October 7, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Press releaseAkeyless · akeyless.io · published September 10, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Akeyless Identity Security Platform Reviews & Product Details - G2G2 · undated page, accessed October 31, 2026 · Tier C
  4. [4]Akeyless DocumentationAkeyless · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Identity Security for Machines, AI Agents & Humans | AkeylessAkeyless · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]AI Security With AkeylessAkeyless · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Cloud-Managed Kubernetes PlatformsAkeyless · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]/event-forwarder-update-servicenowAkeyless · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Customer JourneysAkeyless · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Akeyless Launches Runtime Authority for AI Agents, Introducing Intent-Aware Security for Autonomous Systems | AkeylessAkeyless · published March 31, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Akeyless Recognized in the 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Privileged Access ManagementPRNewswire · published October 26, 2026 · Tier A

Astrix Security full record

  1. [1]astrix.securityAstrix Security · astrix.security · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Astrix security establishes north american headquarters as demand for third party connectivity grows in 2023 301719691Astrix Security via PR Newswire · prnewswire.com · published January 12, 2023 · Tier A
  3. [3]Cisco announces intent to acquire astrix securityCisco · blogs.cisco.com · published May 4, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Identity Security for AI Agents & NHIs | Astrix SecurityAstrix Security · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Secure AI Agents & NHIs with One Platform | AstrixAstrix Security · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Astrix AI Agent Security Platform Reviews & Product Details - G2G2 · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier C
  7. [7]Agent Control Plane | Deploy Secure-by-Design AI AgentsAstrix Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]About Astrix Security: Mission, Team & VisionAstrix Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]AI Agent Discovery & Visibility Platform | AstrixAstrix Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Secure AI Agents & NHIs at Scale | Astrix SecurityAstrix Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]NHI Lifecycle Management: Automate, Control & Secure NHIsAstrix Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Next-Gen Secret Scanning - Astrix SecurityAstrix Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]NHI Auto-Remediation - Astrix SecurityAstrix Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]NHI Discovery | Discover Non-Human IdentitiesAstrix Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  15. [15]NHI Posture Management - Astrix SecurityAstrix Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  16. [16]A New Chapter: Astrix Security is Joining CiscoAstrix Security · published May 4, 2026 · Tier A

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