CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Akeyless vs Thales

Akeyless is an Identity Security Platform for securing machine, AI agent, and human identities across cloud, hybrid, and on-prem environments. Thales sells cybersecurity solutions that protect applications, data and identities. 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
  • Thales
Akeyless vs Thales: 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.ioThalesThales sells cybersecurity solutions that protect applications, data and identities.cpl.thalesgroup.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.
  • CipherTrust Data Security Platform[2][5]A platform to discover, protect and control sensitive data anywhere.
  • CipherTrust DSPM[5]A data security offering Thales describes as new.
  • Thales AI Security Fabric[5]An offering to keep AI apps, agents, data and models secure.
  • Imperva Application Security Platform[5]A platform to protect applications, APIs and websites.
  • OneWelcome Identity Platform[5]An identity platform for digital experiences.
  • SafeNet Trusted Access[9]An offering to secure VDI access from any endpoint.
  • Sentinel Software Monetization Platform[5]A platform to monetize and protect software.
Categories
Headquarters
Not stated on its pagesParis, France[4]
Founded
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Ownership and funding
Privately held[3]Public (Euronext Paris: HO)[3][12]
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]
  • November 2, 2026Thales appointed David Zolet as CEO of Thales Defense & Security, Inc., effective November 2, 2026, succeeding Michael Sheehan, who is retiring.[11]
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[12]
  • 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, Thales sells mainly to organizations across finance, healthcare, retail, manufacturing and critical infrastructure. Thales says its data security solutions work across hybrid IT. Thales says its solutions can help organizations in the Defense Industrial Base with CMMC requirements. Thales positions its identity platform for customers, employees and partners.
Last verified
October 7, 2026September 27, 2026

Where they overlap

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

Where they differ, field by field

  • Akeyless's primary category is Non-human identity security; Thales's is Encryption, tokenization and key management.
  • Akeyless is also filed under Privileged access management and Machine identity and PKI. Thales is also filed under Post-quantum cryptography.
  • Akeyless lists SecretlessAI® and Agentic Runtime Authority. Thales lists CipherTrust Data Security Platform, CipherTrust DSPM, Thales AI Security Fabric, Imperva Application Security Platform, OneWelcome Identity Platform and 2 more.
  • Thales is headquartered in Paris, France.
  • Akeyless is privately held. Thales is a public company listed on Euronext Paris as HO.

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: Thales

What CipherTrust Data Security Platform does[2][5]
Thales says the platform gives real-time visibility of threats, risks and compliance gaps. It provides centralized key management with data discovery and classification, data protection and granular access control across multiple on-premises and cloud infrastructure providers.

Questions about Akeyless and Thales

What do Akeyless and Thales sell?
Akeyless sells SecretlessAI® and Agentic Runtime Authority. Thales sells CipherTrust Data Security Platform, CipherTrust DSPM, Thales AI Security Fabric, Imperva Application Security Platform, OneWelcome Identity Platform and 2 more.
Are Akeyless and Thales in the same category?
They share Encryption, tokenization and key management. Akeyless's primary category is Non-human identity security and Thales's is Encryption, tokenization and key management.
Where are Akeyless and Thales headquartered?
Thales is headquartered in Paris, France.
Who owns Akeyless and Thales?
Akeyless is privately held. Thales is a public company listed on Euronext Paris as HO.
Who are Akeyless and Thales sold to?
Akeyless describes a clientele that ranges from startups to multinational corporations. From its own pages, Thales sells mainly to organizations across finance, healthcare, retail, manufacturing and critical infrastructure.
What have Akeyless and Thales announced recently?
October 26, 2026: Akeyless announced its first inclusion in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Privileged Access Management. November 2, 2026: Thales appointed David Zolet as CEO of Thales Defense & Security, Inc., effective November 2, 2026, succeeding Michael Sheehan, who is retiring.

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

Thales full record

  1. [1]cpl.thalesgroup.comThales · cpl.thalesgroup.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]CipherTrust Data Security Platform | ThalesThales · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Thales reports its order intake and sales first quarter 2026Thales · thalesgroup.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Thales moves head office paris la defenseThales · thalesgroup.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Cyber Security Solutions | ThalesThales · undated page, accessed October 29, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Thales Cybersecurity SolutionsThales · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Forrester Research Shows Economic Impact of CipherTrust PlatformThales · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]CMMC 2.0 Cybersecurity Compliance Solutions | ThalesThales · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]VDI Security SolutionsThales · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]2025 Cloud Security Research - Latest TrendsThales · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Thales appoints David Zolet as CEO of TDSIThales Group · published November 2, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Thales Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features - G2G2 · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier C

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