CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Akeyless vs Protegrity

Akeyless is an Identity Security Platform for securing machine, AI agent, and human identities across cloud, hybrid, and on-prem environments. Protegrity sells data protection that can be applied wherever sensitive information lives or flows. 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
  • Protegrity
Akeyless vs Protegrity: 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.ioProtegrityProtegrity sells data protection that can be applied wherever sensitive information lives or flows.protegrity.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.
  • Enterprise Security Administrator (ESA)[8][10]The central hub where security teams define and manage data security policies.
  • Vaultless Tokenization[8][9]Replaces sensitive data with anonymized values at the source.
  • Protegrity Application Protector for Java[10]Provides APIs for performing security operations in a client's applications.
Categories
Headquarters
Not stated on its pagesStamford, 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]
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: 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.Protegrity's data sharing material addresses security architects who enable collaboration across hybrid and multi-cloud environments, and data architects who design scalable systems. Protegrity's solutions pages address sensitive-data workflows in financial services for generative AI. Protegrity's privacy material covers cohort analytics, clinical research and outcome studies on sensitive patient data. Protegrity's pages cover data in the cloud and on premises, at rest and in motion.
Last verified
October 7, 2026September 27, 2026

Where they overlap

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

Where they differ, field by field

  • Akeyless's primary category is Non-human identity security; Protegrity's is Encryption, tokenization and key management.
  • Akeyless is also filed under Privileged access management and Machine identity and PKI. Protegrity is also filed under Data security posture management and Privacy management.
  • Akeyless lists SecretlessAI® and Agentic Runtime Authority. Protegrity lists Enterprise Security Administrator (ESA), Vaultless Tokenization and Protegrity Application Protector for Java.
  • Protegrity is headquartered in Stamford, 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: Protegrity

What Enterprise Security Administrator (ESA) does[8][10]
Protegrity Enterprise Security Administrator is an interface for centralized, visual administration of data security policies, key management, auditing and reporting of sensitive data assets across the enterprise. Policies are deployed from the ESA to downstream components like the Data Security Gateways (DSGs).
What Vaultless Tokenization does[8][9]
PVT uses small, static token tables to create unique, random token values without a traditional vaulted token lookup table. Vaultless Tokenization enables alphabet, format and length-preserving data security for all of the world's languages, including Eastern character sets.
What Protegrity Application Protector for Java does[10]
The Protegrity Application Protector for Java provides APIs for performing security operations in a client's applications. The Protegrity Application Protector for Java is used in combination with the Enterprise Security Administrator (ESA).

Questions about Akeyless and Protegrity

What do Akeyless and Protegrity sell?
Akeyless sells SecretlessAI® and Agentic Runtime Authority. Protegrity sells Enterprise Security Administrator (ESA), Vaultless Tokenization and Protegrity Application Protector for Java.
Are Akeyless and Protegrity in the same category?
They share Encryption, tokenization and key management. Akeyless's primary category is Non-human identity security and Protegrity's is Encryption, tokenization and key management.
Where are Akeyless and Protegrity headquartered?
Protegrity is headquartered in Stamford, United States.
Who owns Akeyless and Protegrity?
Akeyless is privately held.
Who are Akeyless and Protegrity sold to?
Akeyless describes a clientele that ranges from startups to multinational corporations. Protegrity's data sharing material addresses security architects who enable collaboration across hybrid and multi-cloud environments, and data architects who design scalable systems.
What have Akeyless and Protegrity 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

Protegrity full record

  1. [1]PlatformProtegrity · protegrity.com · published September 1, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Protegrity announces settlement data security 164150889Protegrity · finance.yahoo.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Protegrity | AI Security and Data Protection for EnterprisesProtegrity · undated page, accessed October 27, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Policy-Driven AI Data Security Platform | Protegrity DAIS | ProtegrityProtegrity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Data Discovery – ML-Powered Sensitive Data Identification | ProtegrityProtegrity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Privacy Service – Data Anonymization & De-Identification | ProtegrityProtegrity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Protection Service – Field-Level Data Protection & Utility | ProtegrityProtegrity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Secure Data Sharing | Vaultless Tokenization & Compliance Solutions | ProtegrityProtegrity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Industry Data Protection | ProtegrityProtegrity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Training and Learning Hub | Data Protection, Cloud & Compliance - ProtegrityProtegrity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Protegrity Data Security Integrations | Scalable Protection for Your Tech StackProtegrity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Data Protection Solutions for Sensitive Data | ProtegrityProtegrity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A

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