API keys in a Git repository are one of the most common and most avoidable security failures for small teams. A key committed by accident can be scraped within minutes, and rotating it across every service takes hours. Secrets management fixes this by storing keys in one encrypted place and injecting them into apps at runtime, so code never contains a real secret.

This comparison covers three realistic options for small teams: Doppler and Infisical as managed services with generous free tiers, and HashiCorp Vault as the self-hosted power tool. The right choice depends less on features and more on how much operational work your team can absorb.