ConfigMaps vs Secrets

Question

I've always used secrets in kubernetes so far. Now we also have ConfigMaps. Which one should I use in what situations?

Answer 1

From the author of both of these features, here's the idea behind when you should use both:

1. Use secrets for things which are actually secret like API keys, credentials, etc
2. Use config map for not-secret configuration data

In the future there will likely be some differentiators for secrets like rotation or support for backing the secret API w/ HSMs, etc. In general we like intent-based APIs, and the intent is definitely different for secret data vs. plain old configs.