Octelium
Unified Access Platform
A unified secure access platform with secretless access, CEL/OPA-style ABAC, OpenTelemetry-native real-time visibility, and both client-based and clientless access.
Best for
Tradeoffs
Octelium is a free and open source, self-hosted zero trust access platform. It provides secretless access to SSH servers, databases and Kubernetes clusters, identity-based and layer-7 aware access control on a per-request basis, and full application-layer auditing, with the control plane and the data plane both running on your own infrastructure.
Every request from a human, a browser, a CLI, a workload or an AI agent is authenticated against your identity providers, authorized per request at the application layer by the Octelium Service in front of the resource, exported to your SIEM and observability stack whether it is allowed or denied, and only then routed to the upstream HTTP API, database, SSH server, Kubernetes cluster, LLM or MCP server.
Secure humans, workloads and AI agents with one model for identity, authorization, connectivity, credentials and visibility.
One architecture for client-based zero-config VPN-like access over WireGuard and QUIC tunnels and clientless access over browsers for humans and OAuth2 access for workloads.
Read moreIdentity-based, application-layer aware ABAC access control with policy-as-code via CEL and OPA, applied on a per-request basis.
Read moreDynamic secretless access where teams and AI agents access protected infrastructure without ever holding a credential.
Read moreTeams, workloads and AI agents share the same model for identity management, access control, and auditing.
Read moreOpenTelemetry-native, real-time, application-layer-aware visibility and structured logging.
Read moreOctelium is administered like Kubernetes. Define your resources in YAML files, store them in a Git repository.
Read moreEach protected resource is represented as a Service behind an identity-aware proxy that enforces application-layer access control, credential isolation and auditing. Infrastructure protocols are reached over the tunnel, and web resources can be published clientlessly at the same time.
Signing in once, then reaching Services with and without a client
Authorize every request from authenticated identity, request context and application-layer attributes with policy-as-code using CEL or Open Policy Agent.
Requests authorized one by one against CEL rules in the HTTP, LLM and Kubernetes modes
Application-layer credentials are stored in the Cluster as Secrets and injected into the upstream connection once a request is authorized. Nobody receives the database password, the private key or the kubeconfig, so there is nothing to rotate across laptops when someone leaves.
Upstream credentials injected per request by identity in the HTTP, SSH and PostgreSQL modes
Human and workload Users share the same identity management, authentication, access control and visibility model. A migration job reaching a production database is authorized and audited exactly as an engineer would be.
Signing in with a passkey and opening the Portal
Emit structured, application-layer access logs in real time and export them through OpenTelemetry OTLP to the observability, analytics and SIEM systems your organization already operates.
Run the Cluster on Kubernetes infrastructure you control, scale the data plane horizontally, manage resources declaratively, automate the platform through APIs and SDKs, and optionally deploy containerized Service upstreams with the Cluster itself.
Cluster resources applied declaratively from YAML with octeliumctl and managed programmatically with the Go, TypeScript, Python and Rust SDKs
Both products are compared from the same structured capability dataset and evaluated using the same evidentiary standard. Emerging or experimental capabilities are marked as partial regardless of vendor.
This is a curated subset of the full capability matrix, including areas where either product differs and areas where their capabilities are equivalent. Open the complete matrix for every row, source and filter.
Architecture
Workload Identity
SCIM Provisioning
Automated user/group lifecycle provisioning via SCIM, beyond just login-time IdP federation.
Policy Model
Policy-as-Code
Per-Request Authz
For L7 products, this means each HTTP/gRPC/API/K8s request can be evaluated. For overlays, session/connection policy is not counted as per-request. This modeling choice structurally favors L7 gateways over network overlays.
L7-Aware Policies
Zero Standing Privilege / JIT
Indicates strong architectural support for minimizing standing privilege; not an absolute claim that privileged access cannot exist.
Access Requests / Approvals
First-class request-and-approve / break-glass workflows (reviewers, time-bound grants), as opposed to static policy alone.
Device Posture
SSH
PostgreSQL
MySQL
Kubernetes
RDP
mTLS / cert injection
Raw TCP / UDP
WireGuard Data Plane
Whether the product's own client/data plane is built on WireGuard, versus a proprietary or TLS-based transport.
Embedded SSH
Platform provides its own SSH server/CA or SSH implementation, rather than only tunneling an external sshd.
NAT Traversal
OpenTelemetry-Native
L7-Aware Access Logs
SSH Session Recording
Client-Based VPN / Overlay
Clientless Browser Access
Private DNS
Dynamic Upstream Routing
Dynamic Credential Selection
Secrets Backend Integration
Integration with external secret stores / KMS (e.g. Vault, cloud KMS) or native secretless credential handling.
GitOps / Declarative Config
Secretless SaaS API Access
AI / LLM Gateway
MCP Gateway / MCP Access
Deploy Containers / PaaS
Kubernetes-Native
Auto Horizontal Scaling
Fully Self-Hosted
Server Code Open Source
No Mandatory Proprietary Cloud
Data Sovereignty
Unified Access Platform
A unified secure access platform with secretless access, CEL/OPA-style ABAC, OpenTelemetry-native real-time visibility, and both client-based and clientless access.
Best for
Tradeoffs
Infrastructure Access / PAM
Strong for enterprise PAM, database access, JIT workflows, and audit/recording; weaker for open-source self-hosting, API gateway, and broad secretless SaaS/API access.
Best for
Tradeoffs
The same platform capabilities ship with every deployment, whichever way you use it.
Secretless PostgreSQL and MySQL access with identity-aware authorization and application-layer database auditing.
Read moreIdentity-aware SSH access without distributing upstream private keys, with per-request Policy and session recording.
Read moreAuthorize Kubernetes access by identity, verb, resource and namespace while keeping the upstream kubeconfig in the Cluster.
Read moreInstall a self-hosted Cluster and start applying identity-aware access control to your Services.