CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Akeyless vs Fortanix

Akeyless is an Identity Security Platform for securing machine, AI agent, and human identities across cloud, hybrid, and on-prem environments. Fortanix sells the Fortanix Data and AI Security Platform, which protects data, AI models, keys and applications while they are in use, and is built on Confidential Computing. CISO Tribune files both under Encryption, tokenization and key management. 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
  • Fortanix
Akeyless vs Fortanix: 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.ioFortanixFortanix sells the Fortanix Data and AI Security Platform, which protects data, AI models, keys and applications while they are in use, and is built on Confidential Computing.fortanix.com
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.
  • DSM SaaS[5]Provides key management and cryptography service across public, private, hybrid or multicloud environments.
  • Runtime Encryption[3][4]Protects applications and data in use inside a trusted execution environment.
  • Key Insight[6]A key management and inventory tool for multicloud and on-premises environments.
Categories
Headquarters
Not stated on its pagesSanta Clara, United States[2]
Founded
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Ownership and funding
Privately held[3]Not stated on its pages
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]
  • October 19, 2026Fortanix announced support for CNCF Confidential Containers in Fortanix Confidential AI, letting organizations run AI workloads on Kubernetes inside hardware-based trusted execution environments.[11]
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: listed, seen November 10, 2026[3]
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • 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, Fortanix sells mainly to organizations with sensitive workloads that run in untrusted environments such as the public cloud and remote clouds. Fortanix says it serves financial organizations and their ICT providers. Fortanix says it gives healthcare organizations the ability to protect e-PHI and the intellectual property in AI algorithms even on untrusted infrastructure. Fortanix says customers can deploy as SaaS, on-premises, or air-gapped, and that it supports regulated industries. Fortanix walks through real-world use cases in fintech, retail and transportation.
Last verified
October 7, 2026September 27, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Akeyless and Fortanix are both filed under Encryption, tokenization and key management.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Akeyless's primary category is Non-human identity security; Fortanix's is Encryption, tokenization and key management.
  • Akeyless is also filed under Privileged access management and Machine identity and PKI. Fortanix is also filed under Post-quantum cryptography.
  • Akeyless lists SecretlessAI® and Agentic Runtime Authority. Fortanix lists DSM SaaS, Runtime Encryption and Key Insight.
  • Fortanix is headquartered in Santa Clara, United States.
  • Akeyless is privately held.

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.

What it sells: Fortanix

What DSM SaaS does[5]
Provides secure key management and cryptography service across public, private, hybrid or multicloud environments. Simplifies provisioning and control of encryption keys.
What Runtime Encryption does[3][4]
Includes an EnclaveOS that transparently protects applications without requiring modifications. Protects containerized applications during runtime from host-level attacks.
What Key Insight does[6]
A key management and inventory tool that provides visibility and simplifies security controls across multicloud and on-premises environments. Fortanix proposes it to address complex encryption and key management challenges.

Questions about Akeyless and Fortanix

What do Akeyless and Fortanix sell?
Akeyless sells SecretlessAI® and Agentic Runtime Authority. Fortanix sells DSM SaaS, Runtime Encryption and Key Insight.
Are Akeyless and Fortanix in the same category?
They share Encryption, tokenization and key management. Akeyless's primary category is Non-human identity security and Fortanix's is Encryption, tokenization and key management.
Where are Akeyless and Fortanix headquartered?
Fortanix is headquartered in Santa Clara, United States.
Who owns Akeyless and Fortanix?
Akeyless is privately held.
Who are Akeyless and Fortanix sold to?
Akeyless describes a clientele that ranges from startups to multinational corporations. From its own pages, Fortanix sells mainly to organizations with sensitive workloads that run in untrusted environments such as the public cloud and remote clouds.
What have Akeyless and Fortanix announced recently?
October 26, 2026: Akeyless announced its first inclusion in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Privileged Access Management. October 19, 2026: Fortanix announced support for CNCF Confidential Containers in Fortanix Confidential AI, letting organizations run AI workloads on Kubernetes inside hardware-based trusted execution environments.

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

Fortanix full record

  1. [1]fortanix.comFortanix · fortanix.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Fortanix and site partner to deliver multicloud saas data security offering to saudi arabian marketFortanix · fortanix.com · published July 1, 2023 · Tier A
  3. [3]Securing Data in an AI worldFortanix · undated page, accessed October 24, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Runtime EncryptionFortanix · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]SOX Security | Solutions | ComplianceFortanix · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]CustomersFortanix · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]HSM Modernization: Simplifying data security | WhitePaperFortanix · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Applying Zero Trust Principles to Data Security | WhitepaperFortanix · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]BeeKeeperAI Case StudyFortanix · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Data Security-as-a-Service: Easier Security & ComplianceFortanix · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Fortanix Announces Confidential AI for Enterprise Grade Kubernetes Workloads on CNCF® Confidential Containers (CoCo)Business Wire · published October 19, 2026 · Tier A

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