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Vouch is a credential broker – it turns a hardware key tap into short-lived credentials for SSH, AWS, GitHub, Docker, and more. It is not a secrets manager, a PAM tool, or a full identity platform. This page compares Vouch to tools you might be evaluating alongside it.
Feature matrix
| Vouch | AWS IAM Identity Center | HashiCorp Vault | 1Password SSH Agent | Teleport | Beyond Identity | Ory | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Credential broker | AWS SSO service | Secrets manager + PKI | Password manager with SSH | PAM + access platform | Passwordless identity | Identity + OAuth/OIDC platform |
| Hardware key required | Yes (FIDO2) | Optional (depends on IdP) | Optional | No | Optional | Yes (device-bound) | Optional (passkeys/WebAuthn) |
| AWS credentials | Yes (STS via OIDC) | Yes (native) | Yes (AWS secrets engine) | Stored keys via plugin | Yes (via app access) | No | No |
| SSH certificates | Yes (built-in CA) | No | Yes (SSH secrets engine) | Yes (key agent) | Yes (built-in CA) | No | No |
| GitHub tokens | Yes (installation tokens) | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Docker registry auth | Yes (ECR + GHCR) | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| CodeCommit | Yes (SigV4) | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| CodeArtifact | Yes (token exchange) | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Cargo registries | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Kubernetes (EKS) | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No |
| Database auth (RDS) | Yes (IAM auth) | No | Yes (database engines) | No | Yes | No | No |
| OIDC application SSO | Yes (23 app and agent guides) | Yes | Yes (OIDC provider) | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Session lifetime | 8 hours | Configurable | Configurable | N/A | Configurable | Configurable | Configurable |
| Device posture policies | Yes (CEL-based) | No | No | No | No | Yes | No |
| Phishing-resistant auth | Yes (FIDO2 origin binding) | Depends on IdP | Depends on auth method | No | Depends on config | Yes | Yes (passkeys/WebAuthn) |
| Self-hosted option | No (SaaS) | No (AWS-managed) | Yes | No (SaaS) | Yes | No (SaaS) | Yes |
| Open source | Yes | No | Source-available (BSL) | No | AGPL source + restricted binaries | No | Yes (core components) |
| Pricing | Free tier available | Free (included with AWS) | Free Community / Paid Enterprise or HCP | Included with 1Password | Free Community / Paid Enterprise or Cloud | Paid | Free developer / Paid SaaS + enterprise self-hosted |
When to choose Vouch
Vouch is the right choice when:
- You want a single authentication event (one YubiKey tap) to cover AWS, SSH, GitHub, Docker, package registries, and databases.
- You want every credential to be hardware-backed and phishing-resistant by default, not as an optional add-on.
- You are a small-to-medium team (2–50 people) that wants secure credentials without the operational overhead of running Vault or Teleport.
- Your team uses Google Workspace and you want organizational identity federated into AWS without setting up IAM Identity Center.
When to choose something else
AWS IAM Identity Center
Choose IAM Identity Center when:
- You only need AWS credentials (not SSH, GitHub, Docker, etc.).
- You have a large organization with complex permission sets across many AWS accounts.
- You want a fully AWS-managed solution with no third-party dependencies.
HashiCorp Vault
Choose Vault when:
- You need a secrets manager for application secrets (API keys, database passwords, encryption keys) in addition to developer credentials.
- You need dynamic secrets for databases, cloud providers, and PKI beyond what Vouch covers.
- You have a platform team that can operate and maintain a Vault cluster.
Vouch and Vault solve different problems. Vouch brokers developer credentials (human-to-service). Vault manages application secrets (service-to-service). Many organizations use both.
1Password SSH Agent
Choose 1Password when:
- You only need SSH key management and your team already uses 1Password.
- You do not need AWS, GitHub, Docker, or other integrations.
- Hardware keys are not a requirement.
Teleport
Choose Teleport when:
- You need a full privileged access management (PAM) solution with session recording, access requests, and approval workflows.
- You need to broker access to Kubernetes, databases, internal web applications, and Windows desktops – all through a unified access plane.
- You have a platform team that can operate Teleport (self-hosted) or budget for Teleport Cloud.
Beyond Identity
Choose Beyond Identity when:
- You need passwordless authentication for workforce identity across SaaS applications.
- You need device trust and posture checks deeply integrated into SaaS application authentication (Vouch now supports device posture policies for developer credential issuance, but Beyond Identity focuses on broader workforce SSO).
- Developer credentials (AWS, SSH, GitHub) are not a primary concern.
Ory
Choose Ory when:
- You want to build or operate a full identity platform for your own applications, including user registration, login, OAuth/OIDC, passkeys, permissions, or an identity-aware proxy.
- You need self-hostable identity infrastructure and have the engineering capacity to wire it into your application stack.
- Developer credential brokering (AWS, SSH, GitHub, Docker, package registries) is not the primary problem you are solving.
Vouch is not…
- A secrets manager. Vouch does not store or distribute application secrets. Use Vault, AWS Secrets Manager, or similar tools for that.
- A PAM tool. Vouch does not provide session recording, access request workflows, or just-in-time access escalation. Use Teleport or CyberArk for that.
- A password manager. Vouch does not manage website passwords or form-fill credentials. Use 1Password, Bitwarden, or similar tools for that.
- An identity provider. Vouch delegates authentication to your existing IdP (Google Workspace, Okta, etc.) and acts as a credential broker, not a source of identity.