Bitwarden Inc.

Bitwarden — Open-Source Password Manager

Open-source password manager with a genuinely usable free tier and Premium at around £8 a year — independently audited and self-hostable if you want it.

Check price on Bitwarden
Close-up of a keyboard representing Bitwarden's open-source password manager
4.5/ 5
Our score
01

What we liked

  • Open-source under GPL-3.0 (clients) and AGPL-3.0 (server) — the codebase can be inspected by anyone, and has been audited by Cure53 multiple times
  • Free tier is genuinely usable — unlimited passwords, unlimited devices, basic 2FA, password sharing with one other person
  • Premium tier is around £8/year — among the cheapest paid password managers, with TOTP, hardware key support (YubiKey, FIDO2) and emergency access
  • Self-hostable via the official Docker server or the lightweight community Vaultwarden implementation — you can keep your vault entirely on your own hardware
  • Strong cross-platform support: iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Linux desktop apps plus browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge and Brave
02

What we didn't

  • Default web vault interface looks utilitarian compared to 1Password or Proton Pass — function over polish
  • Apps occasionally lag behind competitors on niche conveniences (Watch app, complex sharing workflows)
  • Self-hosting is genuinely simple but requires basic Docker knowledge — not push-button for non-technical users
  • Bitwarden Inc. is US-based (Santa Barbara, California) — for users with a specific preference for non-US jurisdictions, this is worth weighing
Company
Bitwarden Inc.
Headquarters
Santa Barbara, California, USA
Founded
2015 (as 8bit Solutions LLC)
License
GPL-3.0 (clients) / AGPL-3.0 (server)
Free tier
Unlimited passwords, unlimited devices, basic 2FA, sharing with 1 other user
Premium pricing
Around £8/year (subject to change — check current pricing)
Families pricing
Around £30–£40/year for 6 users
Encryption
AES-256-CBC with HMAC-SHA256, PBKDF2-SHA256 (600,000 iterations default) or Argon2id KDF
Audits
Cure53 (multiple), Insight Risk Consulting
Compliance
SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, HIPAA
Hardware key support
YubiKey, FIDO2 / WebAuthn (Premium)
Passkey support
Yes — store passkeys in vault and use passkey to log in to Bitwarden itself
Self-hosting
Official Docker server, community Vaultwarden (Rust)
Platforms
iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Linux, web vault, browser extensions, CLI