Doppler is $6/user/mo (Team). Strongbox is a self-hosted alternative at $1.99/mo. Here's when each makes sense.
| Strongbox | Doppler | |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting | Self-hosted, your infra | Managed SaaS (cloud only) |
| Data location | Your server, your disk | Doppler's cloud |
| Free tier | 25 secrets, 1 vault | Paid only |
| Pro pricing | $1.99/mo | $6/user/mo (Team) |
| Dependencies | None (single binary + SQLite) | N/A (managed) |
| Setup time | ~30 seconds | Account signup |
| Dashboard | Built-in at /ui | Cloud dashboard |
| License | BSL 1.1 | Proprietary SaaS |
Strongbox is a single Go binary with embedded SQLite. Install it with one command, and you are running in under a minute. Your data stays on your server.
curl -fsSL https://stockyard.dev/strongbox/install.sh | sh
The decision between Strongbox and Doppler usually comes down to one question: do you need the breadth of features that Doppler offers, or would a focused tool that stays out of your way be a better fit? Doppler has spent years building an ecosystem around secret manager. Strongbox does one thing well and gives you complete control of the underlying data.
Strongbox runs as a single static binary with an embedded SQLite database. There is no application server, no cache layer, no background worker. One process handles HTTP requests and reads from and writes to the database file directly. This simplicity is the entire point — fewer moving parts means fewer things that can break at 2 AM.
Moving from Doppler does not have to be all-or-nothing. Some teams run Strongbox for new data while keeping Doppler as a read-only archive of historical records. The API makes it straightforward to build a sync script if you need both systems to reflect the same data during a transition period.
Single binary. Free to start. $1.99/mo for Pro.