CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Akeyless vs GitGuardian

Akeyless is an Identity Security Platform for securing machine, AI agent, and human identities across cloud, hybrid, and on-prem environments. GitGuardian sells a platform with continuous coverage across code, CI/CD, containers, developer endpoints, cloud IAM, vaults, AI coding tools, and collaboration platforms. 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.

Change the companies

Up to four companies side by side.

  • Akeyless
  • GitGuardian
Akeyless vs GitGuardian: 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.ioGitGuardianGitGuardian sells a platform with continuous coverage across code, CI/CD, containers, developer endpoints, cloud IAM, vaults, AI coding tools, and collaboration platforms.gitguardian.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.
  • GitGuardian CLI (ggshield)[6][10]Gives visibility wherever code is written.
Categories
Headquarters
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Founded
Not stated on its pages2017[2][12]
Ownership and funding
Privately held[3]Privately held[1][4][9][10]
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]
  • June 18, 2026GitGuardian introduced Developer Endpoint Protection, built into its ggshield command-line tool, to find credentials on developer machines.[15]
  • June 16, 2026GitGuardian introduced a new Endpoint Protection product that finds credentials on machines.[8]
  • February 11, 2026GitGuardian announced a $50 million Series C funding round led by Insight Partners, with Quadrille Capital also investing.[7]
  • December 16, 2025GitGuardian launched a Channel Partner Program aimed at VARs, solution providers and MSSPs.[14]
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: listed, seen November 10, 2026[3]
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
  • G2: listed, seen November 3, 2026[9]
  • 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, GitGuardian sells mainly to teams that need to secure credentials across developer laptops, AI agents, code, public repositories, collaboration tools, and non-human identities. It names many Fortune 500 companies among its developer users. GitGuardian says security teams can consolidate the secrets program into one platform, one queue, one contract. Its developer tooling, including ggshield CLI, pre-commit hooks, a VS Code extension, and AI IDE hooks, is included on every plan.
Last verified
October 7, 2026September 27, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Akeyless and GitGuardian are both filed under Non-human identity security.
  • Both are privately held.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Akeyless's primary category is Non-human identity security; GitGuardian's is Secrets detection.
  • 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. GitGuardian lists GitGuardian CLI (ggshield).
  • GitGuardian was founded in 2017.

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: GitGuardian

What GitGuardian CLI (ggshield) does[6][10]
GitGuardian CLI (ggshield) covers pre-commit, pre-push, the IDE, AI coding tools and sessions, plus the agent skills, plugins, and MCP servers developers run. The ggshield CLI comes with pre-commit hooks, a VS Code extension, and AI IDE hooks. It is included on every plan.

Questions about Akeyless and GitGuardian

What do Akeyless and GitGuardian sell?
Akeyless sells SecretlessAI® and Agentic Runtime Authority. GitGuardian sells GitGuardian CLI (ggshield).
Are Akeyless and GitGuardian in the same category?
They share Non-human identity security. Akeyless's primary category is Non-human identity security and GitGuardian's is Secrets detection.
When were Akeyless and GitGuardian founded?
GitGuardian was founded in 2017.
Who owns Akeyless and GitGuardian?
Akeyless is privately held. GitGuardian is privately held.
Who are Akeyless and GitGuardian sold to?
Akeyless describes a clientele that ranges from startups to multinational corporations. From its own pages, GitGuardian sells mainly to teams that need to secure credentials across developer laptops, AI agents, code, public repositories, collaboration tools, and non-human identities.
What have Akeyless and GitGuardian announced recently?
October 26, 2026: Akeyless announced its first inclusion in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Privileged Access Management. June 18, 2026: GitGuardian introduced Developer Endpoint Protection, built into its ggshield command-line tool, to find credentials on developer machines.

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

GitGuardian full record

  1. [1]gitguardian.comGitGuardian · gitguardian.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Gitguardian raises 12millionGitGuardian · blog.gitguardian.com · published December 4, 2019 · Tier A
  3. [3]Gitguardian raises 50m series c to address non human identities crisis and ai agent security gap 302684362GitGuardian via PR Newswire · prnewswire.com · published February 11, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Platform | GitGuardianGitGuardian · undated page, accessed October 25, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Credential Layer Security Explained: Scope and ControlsGitGuardian · published October 21, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Configure real-time alerting and notifications for your perimeter | GitGuardian documentationGitGuardian · undated page, accessed October 25, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]GitGuardian Raises $50M Series C to Address Non-Human Identities Crisis and AI Agent Security GapGitGuardian · published February 11, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Extending Our Mission With Developer Endpoint ProtectionGitGuardian · published June 16, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]GitGuardian Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features - G2G2 · undated page, accessed October 25, 2026 · Tier C
  10. [10]GitGuardian: Credential Layer Security PlatformGitGuardian · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]How GitGuardian Delivers Credential Layer SecurityGitGuardian · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Protect Your Company Secrets: Free GitHub Leaks Audit in One ClickGitGuardian · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]AI Coding Agents Are Leaking Credentials on EndpointsGitGuardian · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]GitGuardian Launches Channel Partner Program to Scale Non-human Identity SecurityGitGuardian · published December 16, 2025 · Tier A
  15. [15]How security teams are getting credential visibility into developer endpoints - Help Net SecurityHelp Net Security · published June 18, 2026 · Tier B

Spot a factual error? Request a correction.