CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Akeyless vs Grip Security

Akeyless is an Identity Security Platform for securing machine, AI agent, and human identities across cloud, hybrid, and on-prem environments. Grip Security sells a SaaS Security Control Plane that helps organizations pinpoint, prioritize, and mitigate SaaS identity risks, including shadow SaaS, shadow AI, and rogue cloud accounts. 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
  • Grip Security
Akeyless vs Grip 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.ioGrip SecurityGrip Security sells a SaaS Security Control Plane that helps organizations pinpoint, prioritize, and mitigate SaaS identity risks, including shadow SaaS, shadow AI, and rogue cloud accounts.grip.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.
  • Grip SaaS Security Control Plane (SSCP)Helps pinpoint, prioritize, and mitigate SaaS identity risks, including shadow SaaS, shadow AI, and rogue cloud accounts.
  • Grip Extend[8][14]A browser extension that addresses user managed identities across SaaS.
  • Grip SaaS Security Posture ManagementDelivers ongoing control over SaaS misconfigurations, security drift, and compliance gaps.
  • Grip ITDR 2.0Identity threat detection and response across SaaS.
Categories
Headquarters
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Founded
Not stated on its pages2021[2]
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]
Not stated on its pages
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[3]
  • 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, Grip sells to CISOs who raise visibility, risk, and access control as their concerns. Grip says its ITDR 2.0 product is aimed at SecOps teams. Grip's pages describe SaaS adoption by enterprises of all sizes and industries. Grip says its workflows suit existing control points such as CASB, endpoint protection, and IAM/SSO.
Last verified
October 7, 2026November 2, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Akeyless and Grip Security are both filed under Non-human identity security.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Akeyless's primary category is Non-human identity security; Grip Security's is SaaS security posture.
  • Akeyless is also filed under Privileged access management, Machine identity and PKI and Encryption, tokenization and key management. Grip Security is also filed under Workforce AI usage security.
  • Akeyless lists SecretlessAI® and Agentic Runtime Authority. Grip Security lists Grip SaaS Security Control Plane (SSCP), Grip Extend, Grip SaaS Security Posture Management and Grip ITDR 2.0.
  • Grip Security was founded in 2021.
  • 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: Grip Security

What Grip SaaS Security Control Plane (SSCP) does
Grip SSCP uses identity as the key control point. It creates a unified risk profile based on user adoption, data used, user roles, privileges, and app data sensitivity. Grip SSCP automates mitigation and remediation processes.
What Grip Extend does[8][14]
Grip Extend identifies credential risks including reused, weak, or compromised passwords. It detects shared accounts and flags SaaS apps without MFA. It is integrated with Grip's SaaS Security Control Plane.
What Grip SaaS Security Posture Management does
Grip says it automates discovery and visibility so customers know what risks exist. Grip continuously maps SaaS-to-SaaS integrations, third- and fourth-party connections, and OAuth tokens.
What Grip ITDR 2.0 does
Grip ITDR 2.0 detects identity threats in real time across all SaaS. It detects malicious OAuth grants between apps and installation of malicious browser extensions. It enables one-click and automated threat responses.

Questions about Akeyless and Grip Security

What do Akeyless and Grip Security sell?
Akeyless sells SecretlessAI® and Agentic Runtime Authority. Grip Security sells Grip SaaS Security Control Plane (SSCP), Grip Extend, Grip SaaS Security Posture Management and Grip ITDR 2.0.
Are Akeyless and Grip Security in the same category?
They share Non-human identity security. Akeyless's primary category is Non-human identity security and Grip Security's is SaaS security posture.
When were Akeyless and Grip Security founded?
Grip Security was founded in 2021.
Who owns Akeyless and Grip Security?
Akeyless is privately held.
Who are Akeyless and Grip Security sold to?
Akeyless describes a clientele that ranges from startups to multinational corporations. From its own pages, Grip sells to CISOs who raise visibility, risk, and access control as their concerns.
What have Akeyless and Grip Security announced recently?
October 26, 2026: Akeyless announced its first inclusion in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Privileged Access Management.

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

Grip Security full record

  1. [1]grip.securityGrip Security · grip.security · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Grip security raising 41 million series b led by third point venturesGrip Security · grip.security · published August 22, 2023 · Tier A
  3. [3]Grip Security Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features - G2G2 · undated page, accessed October 25, 2026 · Tier C
  4. [4]SaaS Identity Security | Grip SaaS Security Control PlaneGrip Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Grip Security | The SaaS & AI Security Control PlaneGrip Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]SaaS Security Control Plane (SSCP)Grip Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]ITDR 2.0: Advanced Identity Threat Detection and ResponseGrip Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Gain Complete SaaS Visibility | Grip SecurityGrip Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Streamline SaaS Risk Prioritization | Grip SecurityGrip Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Efficient SaaS Risk Mitigation | Grip SecurityGrip Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]SaaS Security Posture Management | Grip SecurityGrip Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]AI SaaS Security & Governance Control Plane | Grip SecurityGrip Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]Saas Security & Tech Integrations | Grip SecurityGrip Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]Grip Extend User Security | Browser ExtensionGrip Security · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A

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