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Password Management

Secret Server

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Panel rating · 6 judges · How to read the stars

Category median

Sovereignty: not determined

0–5 in half steps. 5 means the rubric's top anchor is met on the evidence.

by Delinea · www.delinea.com

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Secret Server: AI-assisted analysis on whats-best.ai Secret Server: AI-assisted analysis on whats-best.ai (dark)

Add ?theme=dark to the image address for dark backgrounds. The badge shows the category and the month of the latest evaluation, and EU-Made where that is the product’s provenance. It never shows a score.

Secret Server at a glance

Vendor
Delinea
Headquarters
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 20 Oct 2026
Data hosting
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 20 Oct 2026
Free plan
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 20 Oct 2026
Panel verdict
The AI panel rates Secret Server 2/5, the mean of 6 judges. Delinea Secret Server is a password-management vault strongest on audit and policy, where scores cluster at 6-7, and sharing and access control at 5-6. how scores are made
As of
Vendor pages captured 20 Oct 2026; evaluated by the panel 21 Oct 2026. all sources

Secret Server alternatives, European ones first →

Read this page as one judge. Each weighs the same scores by what they care about.

The SME Owner

Weighted verdict

Runs a forty-person company where the shared passwords currently live in an Excel file. Wants shared vaults the team actually uses, a way back in when someone forgets the master password, credentials handed over when someone leaves, and a per-user price with SSO not hidden two tiers up.

Same scores as the panel view — this lens weights them the way this judge cares.

Scored by The SME Owner

Panel median The SME Owner This judge’s scores over the panel median. Each label opens its reasoning below.
Scores per criterion, in stars out of 5
Criterion Panel median The SME Owner
Encryption model & independent audits 1 of 5 1 of 5
Sharing, roles & recovery 3 of 5 2.5 of 5
SSO, directory sync & provisioning 2 of 5 2 of 5
Audit logs, policies & reporting 3.5 of 5 3 of 5
Hosting choice, offline access & export 2 of 5 2 of 5
European sovereignty 0.5 of 5 0.5 of 5

Encryption model & independent audits

How this is scored

What the vendor can prove about its security design: end-to-end encryption with named algorithms and key derivation, which fields are encrypted on the device and which are not, independent audits and penetration tests with published results, a bug bounty, and incident history disclosed.

0 — Security described in adjectives ("bank-grade", "military encryption") with no architecture, no audit and no statement of what the vendor can read.

3 — Encryption algorithms named and "zero knowledge" claimed, but no whitepaper, no statement of which fields stay unencrypted, and audits mentioned without dates, auditors or results.

5 — A published security whitepaper naming algorithms, key derivation and the client-side encryption model, a stated list of what is and is not encrypted (including URLs and metadata), and a named independent audit or certification (ISO 27001, SOC 2) with its date.

8 — Recurring independent penetration tests or code audits with reports or summaries published, a public bug bounty or vulnerability disclosure policy, past security incidents documented with their impact, and open-source clients or cryptography that can be reviewed.

10 — The design is verifiable end to end: full source or cryptographic design public, every field encrypted client-side including metadata, audits by named firms repeated yearly with full reports, a threat model that states what a compromise of the vendor's servers would expose, and incident post-mortems published.

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The SME Owner

The only concrete specifics are that Secret Server can be told to use a FIPS 140-2 compliant algorithm and a page that promises timely vulnerability advisories; there is no whitepaper, no named cipher or key derivation, and we found no public information on independent audits, certifications, or what Delinea itself can read. Moving my team off Excel on adjectives and one standard reference is not a sale. 3 8

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Sharing, roles & recovery

How this is scored

How credentials are shared and governed across a company: shared vaults or collections, role-based permissions, view-only and time-limited access, admin account recovery, emergency access, and what happens to shared items when an employee leaves.

0 — Personal vaults only, or sharing by sending a password to another user with no permissions and no record.

3 — Shared folders with all-or-nothing access, no roles, and no stated process for recovering an account or reclaiming credentials from a departing employee.

5 — Shared vaults or collections with read, edit and manage permissions, groups and admin roles, an admin recovery mechanism documented with its key model, and offboarding that transfers a leaver's shared items.

8 — Granular permissions down to hiding the password while allowing autofill, time-limited and one-time sharing with external parties, emergency access with a waiting period, delegated administration per team or location, and approval workflows for sensitive items.

10 — Access is governed and provable: least-privilege defaults, recovery and emergency access designed so the vendor never holds a key and stated so, periodic access reviews supported in the product, and every grant, change and revocation attributable to a person.

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The SME Owner

Collections with permissions for users and roles (rights such as Grant and Edit), a dual-control feature where an approver must enter credentials before a sensitive report or recording can be viewed, and role-based forbid rules in the platform playbooks are all genuinely documented. What I could not find anything on is the way back in when someone forgets the master password, emergency access, or what happens to shared items when an employee leaves — the three problems I actually need solved. 4 5 8

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SSO, directory sync & provisioning

How this is scored

How the vault fits into the company's identity stack: SSO with Entra ID, Okta or Google, and the key model behind an SSO unlock; SCIM or directory sync for joiners and leavers; MFA options including hardware keys; and passkey support for users and the vault itself.

0 — Each user creates an account by email; no SSO, no directory sync and no MFA beyond an app code.

3 — SSO available only to sign in to the admin console or on the top tier with no description of how the vault is then decrypted, and users provisioned by CSV invite.

5 — SSO with named identity providers (Entra ID, Okta, Google) documented with how the vault key is derived or released, SCIM or directory sync for provisioning and deprovisioning, and MFA including FIDO2 or hardware keys.

8 — SSO unlock designed so the vendor cannot derive the vault key and stated so, group sync driving vault permissions, automated suspension on deprovisioning, conditional access or device policies, and passkeys stored and used across platforms.

10 — Identity is integrated without trust shortcuts: the SSO key model published and independently reviewed, deprovisioning that revokes vault access and shared items immediately with a log entry, passwordless vault unlock with passkeys, and support for the customer's own key-management or trusted-device approval.

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The SME Owner

SAML single sign-on with Okta is documented step by step including single logout, and a SCIM Connector application handles Okta provisioning, though matching users is done by typing the Secret Server user name manually. There is no description of how the vault is decrypted after an SSO sign-in, MFA appears only as a passing mention of a short-code program, and we found no public information on hardware keys, Entra ID or Google as providers, or passkeys. 2 6 7

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Audit logs, policies & reporting

How this is scored

What an administrator and an auditor can see and enforce: event logs of access and changes, password health and breach reports, enforceable policies (master password, MFA, sharing, export), SIEM integration, and reports an ISO 27001 or NIS2 audit can use.

0 — No audit log and no admin policies; the administrator sees a user list.

3 — A basic activity list and a password-strength score, but no exportable log, no enforceable policies, and no record of who viewed or copied a shared credential.

5 — Event logs covering logins, item access, sharing and admin changes, exportable or available through an API, enforceable policies for master password and MFA, and password health and breach-monitoring reports.

8 — Native SIEM integration with named targets (Splunk, Microsoft Sentinel, Elastic or syslog), policies for sharing, export and browser-extension behaviour, log retention stated, and compliance reports aligned to ISO 27001, NIS2 or BSI IT-Grundschutz.

10 — Auditability is complete: every view, copy, autofill and permission change logged with user and device, logs tamper-evident and retained for a configurable period, alerting on anomalous access, and an auditor role that can read logs without access to secrets.

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The SME Owner

This is the deepest part of the product: an immutable audit log of privileged activity, a User Audit Report recording every action a user takes on a password including sharing, dozens of out-of-the-box reports that are SQL-based, a reports API with create, copy and email, and behavioral analytics with threat scores and alerts. Missing for a real audit are enforceable master-password and MFA policies, named SIEM destinations, and any statement of how long logs are kept. 8 9

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Hosting choice, offline access & export

How this is scored

Where and how the vault runs and how the data leaves it: cloud region choice, a self-hosted or on-premises option, offline access during a vendor outage, client coverage across operating systems and browsers, and a complete, documented export and import path.

0 — Cloud only in an unstated region, no offline access, and no export or an export that drops attachments and shared items.

3 — Cloud with a region named, apps for common platforms, and an export in CSV only that leaves out attachments, folders, TOTP seeds or custom fields.

5 — An EU region or self-hosted option, offline read access on desktop and mobile, clients for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android and the major browsers, and an export that covers all item types including attachments.

8 — Both EU cloud and self-hosted or on-premises deployment documented, a status page with incident history, encrypted full-fidelity export and import from named competitors, and vault access continuing during an outage of the vendor's service.

10 — The customer can run and leave the vault on their own terms: self-hosting with documented high availability and backup, an open or documented export format that preserves structure, permissions and history, and a stated procedure for continued access if the vendor ends the service.

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The SME Owner

There is a documented disaster-recovery path — an escrow export of vaulted passwords for systems, accounts, domains and databases delivered as a PGP-encrypted email attachment, plus resource-profile export and import packages — and an on-premises deployment is referenced in passing, with a Cloud Status link on the site. We found no public information on selectable hosting regions, offline access during a vendor outage, which desktop or mobile clients exist, or any incident history behind that status link. 1 10 11

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European sovereignty

How this is scored

Who the contracting entity and the parent company are, where vault data and metadata are hosted, and who the subprocessors are. Independently sourced by the sovereignty pipeline; end-to-end encryption narrows what a foreign authority could compel, but metadata, logs and the update channel for the client software remain in the vendor's hands, so the chain still counts.

0 — Non-EU vendor and contracting entity, hosting unstated, and subprocessors unnamed.

3 — An EU data region offered while the contracting entity and parent are non-EU without a stated safeguard, or the subprocessor list is absent.

5 — EU hosting as standard or selectable and an EU contracting entity, but the parent company or parts of the chain (support, analytics, email, client distribution) are non-EU.

8 — EU hosting on named infrastructure, EU contracting entity, subprocessor list published with locations, a DPA covering vault metadata and logs, and a self-hosted option that removes the vendor from the data path.

10 — Sovereign end to end and evidenced: European ownership, entity, hosting and every subprocessor, certifications published (ISO 27001, BSI C5 or equivalent), and source code or builds verifiable so the client update channel is not a blind trust in the vendor.

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The SME Owner

The privacy policy names Delinea Inc. of San Francisco as the entity, puts the Federal Trade Commission over its Data Privacy Framework commitments, and gives Delinea Europe Ltd. in London as a European contact; vault data location is not stated and the subprocessor picture is not confirmed on the vendor's own captured pages. Standard Contractual Clauses and the EU-US framework are offered as transfer safeguards, but nothing I could find shows European hosting of the vault itself. 2

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Pricing transparency not rated — the vendor publishes no price

How this is scored

Whether a buyer can compute the real annual cost from public pages alone: price per user and tier, which features (SSO, SCIM, SIEM, self-hosting) sit in which tier, minimum seats, add-ons, and the minimum term.

0 — No public prices at all; every tier is a sales conversation.

3 — A starting price exists, but which business features (SSO, SCIM, audit logs) sit in which tier is unclear — the invoice is unknowable.

5 — Per-user tier prices public with the main features per tier, but at least one commonly needed piece (SSO, SIEM integration, self-hosting, minimum seats) is unpriced or "on request".

8 — Every tier priced publicly with its feature set and seat minimum, add-on prices listed, self-hosted licensing stated, minimum term and VAT treatment given.

10 — Complete price computability: annual invoice derivable for a given number of users, with every add-on, self-hosting licence, support level and renewal condition published.

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The SME Owner

No per-user price, no tiers and no seat minimums are published anywhere in the captured pages — the only public figures are a free 30-day trial and a Get a quote button, so the annual invoice for my forty people is unknowable without a sales conversation. Where single sign-on sits relative to the tiers is likewise not stated, which is precisely the game I refuse to play. 5 8

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European sovereignty — proven facts

0 of 4 dimensions proven

Built only from facts shown on the vendor's own pages. A dimension we could not prove is left open, not scored as zero.

Ownership Not determined — uncited Report an error
Data residency Not determined — uncited Report an error
Subprocessors Not determined ⚠ unverified — uncited Report an error

Questions about Secret Server

Is Secret Server European?

Not determined: the vendor’s pages as captured do not say where Secret Server is based.

Where does Secret Server store data?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 20 Oct 2026.

Does Secret Server have a free plan?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 20 Oct 2026.

What are the best alternatives to Secret Server?

As of 21 Oct 2026, the panel rates Password Depot (3.5/5), Keeper (3/5) and Passbolt (3/5) highest among the other 18 Password Management products evaluated. Ratings that look equal are rounded to half stars; the order uses the unrounded rating, then the name. The highest-rated European alternative is Password Depot (EU-Made). Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: how scores are made. The full list, with European products first: Secret Server alternatives.

Where this could be wrong

What we left out

A claim that does not survive our checks costs us the claim, not the page. This is what was taken off this one.

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Sources (11)

The pages every claim on this page was read from — each one checked, dated, and kept verifiable.

  1. 1 Vendor page www.delinea.com Checked 20 Oct 2026 Details →
  2. 2 Privacy policy — found from the homepage delinea.com Checked 20 Oct 2026 Details →
  3. 3 Encryption model & independent audits — found from sitemap delinea.com Checked 20 Oct 2026 Details →
  4. 4 Sharing, roles & recovery — found from sitemap developer.delinea.com Checked 20 Oct 2026 Details →
  5. 5 Sharing, roles & recovery — found from sitemap delinea.com Checked 20 Oct 2026 Details →
  6. 6 SSO, directory sync & provisioning — found from sitemap support.delinea.com Checked 20 Oct 2026 Details →
  7. 7 SSO, directory sync & provisioning — found from sitemap support.delinea.com Checked 20 Oct 2026 Details →
  8. 8 Audit logs, policies & reporting — found from sitemap delinea.com Checked 20 Oct 2026 Details →
  9. 9 Audit logs, policies & reporting — found from sitemap developer.delinea.com Checked 20 Oct 2026 Details →
  10. 10 Hosting choice, offline access & export — found from sitemap support.delinea.com Checked 20 Oct 2026 Details →
  11. 11 Hosting choice, offline access & export — found from sitemap developer.delinea.com Checked 20 Oct 2026 Details →