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Cybersecurity · head to head

Akeyless vs Soketi

Akeyless logo

Akeyless

Cybersecurity

Runtime identity security at agentic scale

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite
Soketi logo

Soketi

Developer Tools

Self-hosted, Pusher-compatible WebSockets server with a stalled maintenance record

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Akeyless pricing is usage-based and complex, requires sales consultation; Soketi maintenance has effectively stalled: the maintainer has said time is severely limited, releases are infrequent, and the community has been discussing whether the project is abandoned, which means security fixes may not arrive.
  • They diverge on capability: Akeyless covers Secrets management, Soketi covers Pusher protocol compatibility.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Akeyless and Soketi actually diverge.

Attributes where Akeyless and Soketi differ
AttributeAkeylessSoketi
Pricing modelUsage-based pricing units that vary by product moduleOpen source, no licence fee
PlatformsCloud, Hybrid, On-PremisesLinux, macOS, Windows
CategoryCybersecurityDeveloper Tools

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Akeyless

  • Secrets management
  • Machine identity
  • AI agent identity
  • Certificate management
  • Privileged access management
  • Multi-vault governance
  • Encryption and KMS
  • Password manager

Only in Soketi

  • Pusher protocol compatibility
  • Presence and private channels
  • Horizontal scaling
  • App management backends
  • Webhooks
  • Prometheus metrics

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Akeyless

  • Securing AI agents with dedicated identity trackingnot Soketi
  • Managing machine-to-machine credentials at scalenot Soketi
  • Automating PKI and certificate lifecyclenot Soketi
  • Implementing just-in-time privileged accessnot Soketi

Soketi

  • A Laravel application that already uses Echo and wants to stop paying a hosted realtime providernot Akeyless
  • Realtime notifications or presence indicators where data must not leave your own infrastructure for compliance reasonsnot Akeyless
  • A local or CI environment that needs a Pusher-compatible server without hitting a paid accountnot Akeyless
  • A high-connection-count application where hosted per-connection pricing has become the largest line in the infrastructure billnot Akeyless

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Akeyless

  • Pricing is usage-based and complex, requires sales consultation
  • Free tier is very limited with restricted access
  • No transparent pricing published for enterprise features
  • Pricing model varies significantly by product module

Soketi

  • Maintenance has effectively stalled: the maintainer has said time is severely limited, releases are infrequent, and the community has been discussing whether the project is abandoned, which means security fixes may not arrive.
  • Dependency drift on Node and uWebSockets.js will eventually force you to fork or migrate, and that cost is unbudgeted at the point you adopt it.
  • There is no commercial support to buy, so a production incident at three in the morning is entirely your problem with no escalation path.
  • Scaling beyond a single node needs Redis and careful configuration, and getting presence channels correct across nodes is a genuine source of subtle bugs.
  • It implements the Pusher protocol rather than tracking it, so any protocol feature Pusher adds later will not appear, and the compatibility guarantee slowly decays.

Pricing, plan by plan

Akeyless

Free
  • FreeFree
    • Limited feature access
    • Restricted usage quotas
  • Enterprise$undefined/custom
    • Custom pricing based on usage
    • Unlimited resource quotas
    • Full feature access

Soketi

Free
  • SoketiFree
    • MIT licensed
    • Unlimited connections subject to your own hardware
    • No vendor billing

Which should you pick?

Choose Akeyless if

  • You need secrets management.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Cloud, Hybrid, On-Premises.
  • You also want machine identity.
Akeyless review

Choose Soketi if

  • You need pusher protocol compatibility.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS, Windows.
  • You also want presence and private channels.
Soketi review

Questions people ask

Is Akeyless or Soketi better?
Neither clearly leads. Akeyless starts at Free and Soketi at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Akeyless or Soketi?
Akeyless starts at Free and Soketi at Free.
Does Akeyless or Soketi run on more platforms?
Akeyless runs on Cloud, Hybrid, On-Premises. Soketi runs on Linux, macOS, Windows.
Can I use Akeyless for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Akeyless best used for?
Akeyless is most often used for securing ai agents with dedicated identity tracking, managing machine-to-machine credentials at scale, automating pki and certificate lifecycle, implementing just-in-time privileged access. Of those, securing ai agents with dedicated identity tracking and managing machine-to-machine credentials at scale are not what Soketi is typically brought in for.
What can Akeyless do that Soketi cannot?
Akeyless covers Secrets management, Machine identity, AI agent identity, Certificate management. Soketi covers Pusher protocol compatibility, Presence and private channels, Horizontal scaling, App management backends.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Akeyless: What pricing model does Akeyless use?

Akeyless uses usage-based pricing units that vary by product. For example, Secrets Management is priced by clients, Certificate Management by managed certificates, Encryption by transactions, and PAM by users. Contact sales for a custom quote.

Source
Soketi: Is Soketi still maintained?

Barely. The maintainer has stated that available time is very limited and releases have been sparse; treat it as community-maintained.

Akeyless: Does Akeyless support hybrid deployment?

Yes, Akeyless offers Pure SaaS cloud-managed deployment and Hybrid SaaS with on-premise gateways and zero-knowledge encryption for sensitive environments.

Source
Soketi: Do I need to change my client code?

No. Pusher client SDKs and Laravel Echo work by changing the host, port and credentials.

Akeyless: How does Akeyless handle AI agent identities?

Akeyless provides dedicated AI agent identity tracking with runtime access control, allowing organizations to manage AI agent access separately from human and machine identities.

Source
Soketi: What does it cost?

Nothing in licence fees. It is MIT licensed; you pay for the server it runs on.

Soketi: What are people moving to?

Laravel Reverb for Laravel applications, and Sockudo, a Rust reimplementation, for others.

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