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StackHangar vs Doppler: secrets management for solo founders
Both tools hold secrets, but they do different jobs. Doppler delivers secrets to the apps and teammates that use them. StackHangar keeps track of everything each of your products depends on, and warns you before it expires. Every fact about Doppler below links to its source. We last checked them on 2026-11-09.
What each tool is for
Doppler describes itself as a secrets management platform for the credentials that developers, AI agents and automated workflows use to reach APIs, databases and cloud infrastructure. It is built to put the right config in front of running code (CLI, integrations, syncs to cloud platforms) and to give teams access controls and audit logs.
StackHangar is a zero-knowledge vault for a founder who runs several products. It groups API keys, logins, domains, certificates and subscriptions by project and environment, emails you before dates arrive, and walks you through the fix. It doesn't inject secrets into running apps.
Side by side
| Doppler | StackHangar | |
|---|---|---|
| What it stores | Secrets and config for apps, in projects, environments and configs (source). Domains and subscriptions: Not stated. | API keys, logins, domains, certificates, memberships, subscriptions, databases and notes, grouped by project and environment. |
| Who it's for | Developers, platform and security teams, and AI agents that need secrets at runtime (source). | A founder running several products, on their own. |
| Encryption model | Secrets are encrypted at rest with AES-GCM under a per-workplace key, wrapped by an HSM-backed cloud KMS key. Doppler returns plaintext through its API and dashboard, and its fact sheet makes no zero-knowledge or end-to-end claim for stored secrets (source). | Zero-knowledge. Values, item names and project names are encrypted on your device with a key your passkeys unlock. Our servers hold ciphertext. How it works. |
| Expiry alerts | Reminders: "scheduled notifications for when secrets expire or need to be rotated" (source). The Developer plan lists "email alerts and recurring reminders" (source). | Email reminders 30, 7 and 1 days before a date, and on the day, for keys, domains, certificates and memberships. Fixed schedule, email only. Details. |
| Domains and subscriptions | Not stated. | Domains get renewal reminders. Subscriptions appear in a renewal calendar and don't send email. |
| AI agents and MCP | An MCP server, described as experimental and for development, testing and evaluation. It can list secrets and "read secret values and download configs", with a --read-only mode. Doppler recommends scoped tokens (source). | An MCP server whose tools never return a value. You approve each request with a passkey, and the agent gets a reference ID and your answer. Details. |
| Pricing for a solo founder | Developer plan: "Free for 3 users", with limits of 10 projects and 4 environments. Team is $21 per user per month. Secret rotation is listed under Team (source, rotation). | Free for 2 projects. Solo is $12 a month, or $99 a year. Priced per project, never per key. Pricing. |
| Self-hosting | The Enterprise plan is listed as "Doppler On-prem or Cloud" (source). Other plans: Not stated. | Hosted only. |
Doppler facts checked on 2026-11-09 from doppler.com and docs.doppler.com. Plans and prices change; check their pricing page before you decide. On Developer, 3 users are free and each extra user is $8 a month. Its comparison table lists 25 users as the Developer limit.
Where Doppler is stronger
- Runtime delivery. Doppler injects secrets into running apps through its CLI and integrations. StackHangar doesn't do this.
- Team features. Team adds SAML SSO, change requests and 90-day activity logs; custom roles and user groups are paid add-ons at $9 per seat per month (source). StackHangar has no shared vaults yet.
- Automatic rotation. Doppler can rotate secrets for services that support two active credentials and programmatic create and delete, on its Team and Enterprise plans (source). Enterprise adds proxied rotation, dynamic secrets, customer-managed keys (EKM) and SCIM (source). StackHangar walks you through rotation and, on Solo, pushes the new key to Vercel, GitHub or Netlify.
- Sharing and masking. Doppler can hide secrets from humans, and Share sends secrets to outside parties through expiring, end-to-end encrypted links (source).
- Maturity and integrations. It has been used by engineering teams for longer, and covers more platforms than we do.
Choose Doppler if…
- Your apps need secrets injected at start-up, in every environment, from one source.
- You have a team that needs roles, audit logs or SSO.
- You want automatic rotation for databases or cloud credentials.
- You're fine with a service that can decrypt your secrets in order to serve them.
Choose StackHangar if…
- You run several products and lose track of which account owns which key.
- You also need to track domains, logins and subscriptions, not only environment variables.
- You want the vendor to be unable to read your values.
- You want an email before a key, domain or certificate expires, with the steps to fix it.
- You want AI agents to ask for keys without ever receiving them.
You can use both
The two don't connect. There is no sync between them, so a new value goes into each by hand. They answer different questions. Use StackHangar as the record of what each product depends on, who owns it and when it expires, and as the place you rotate from. Use Doppler to hand the current values to running apps and teammates.
One trade-off: any value you put in Doppler is stored where Doppler can decrypt it. Keep only what your apps need at runtime there.