Bitwarden is an open supply password supervisor that gives a beneficiant free model, a formidable privateness and safety structure, and reasonably priced pricing throughout the board.

Its free model is among the most full supplied by password managers, making it an attractive choice for these on a tighter price range. Whereas its desktop software isn’t probably the most intuitive, its general bundle nonetheless makes it one of many high password administration apps right now.

Is Bitwarden free?

Sure, Bitwarden has a devoted free ceaselessly model. Bitwarden’s Free Plan is among the finest free password managers accessible, because it provides limitless passwords and entry for an infinite variety of gadgets. That is in distinction to some password managers, corresponding to Dashlane, whose free model solely permits entry on one gadget at a time and solely shops 25 passwords.

Bitwarden’s Free Plan comes with all of Bitwarden’s core password administration options, corresponding to zero-knowledge encryption, username and password generator, and two-step logins. Nonetheless, it doesn’t include Bitwarden’s 24/7 e-mail assist, emergency entry, and encrypted file attachments just like the paid subscriptions.

Bitwarden’s free tier is among the most full free variations accessible. It’s excellent for customers on a good price range wanting a fully-functioning password administration system.

SEE: Bitwarden Free vs Premium: Which Plan Is Greatest for You? (roosho)

Bitwarden pricing

Bitwarden provides pricing plans for each private and enterprise use.

Private plan pricing

Other than having a powerful free model, Bitwarden continues to be an incredible worth choice with its reasonably priced pricing for its private plans. As premium subscriptions vary from $1.66 (RoboForm) to $4.99 (Dashlane) per 30 days, Bitwarden Premium provides a yearly price of simply $10 per yr, or round $0.83 per 30 days, to be precise. This makes Bitwarden one of the crucial reasonably priced password managers accessible.

Given the lower cost, I might say Bitwarden Premium isn’t probably the most feature-packed password supervisor. It lacks additional options like Dashlane’s built-in VPN or 1Password’s extra polished consumer interface. Nonetheless, you’re getting the basic options you want at a really reasonably priced value.

For first time customers, I like to recommend making an attempt out Bitwarden’s free model. It’s straightforward to arrange and offers you an honest really feel for his or her service. It additionally helps that upgrading to a premium model isn’t that costly both.

Marketing strategy pricing

Bitwarden’s business-tailored Groups plan falls inside the common pricing in comparison with the competitors. You get 10 customers, all of Bitwarden’s core and premium options, occasion and audit logs, consumer teams, and a listing connector.

In 2023, Bitwarden’s Groups plan was truly referred to as Groups Starter and was priced at $20 per 30 days for as much as 10 customers. In 2024, it’s now simply referred to as Groups and is priced per consumer at $4 per 30 days. It maintains the identical function set, corresponding to all Bitwarden premium options, occasion and audit logs, and consumer teams. 

Whereas I personally like how Groups is now priced at a per consumer foundation, which will be nice for companies that don’t essentially want all 10 seats stuffed, it’s unlucky that it’s now additionally double the value. Which means that the identical 10 customers could be priced at $40 per 30 days. For those who’re searching for a extra reasonably priced subscription to your small workforce, 1Password’s Staff Starter Pack is priced at $19.95 per 30 days for as much as 10 customers.

Fortunately, Bitwarden’s cost-effective Enterprise subscription at $6 per 30 days, per consumer was retained from final yr. Compared with different business-to-enterprise stage plans, it nonetheless sits as one of many extra reasonably priced choices. LastPass’ Marketing strategy is priced at $7 per 30 days; whereas 1Password’s Enterprise subscription is at $8 per consumer, per 30 days.

For options, self-hosting and passwordless SSO integration are solely accessible on Bitwarden’s Enterprise subscription. You get limitless customers, insurance policies, account restoration administration, and free Households Plan for customers.

Total, Bitwarden’s reasonably priced pricing on most of its subscriptions is one in every of its strongest options. If you’d like an reasonably priced password supervisor that doesn’t skimp out on key options, Bitwarden is a superb decide.

Is Bitwarden actually safe?

Sure, Bitwarden is a secure password supervisor. It operates on a zero-knowledge structure, which signifies that the end-user is the one one with actual entry to their information. It’s additionally distinctive in that it’s open supply software program, permitting the general public to evaluation their code and monitor it for any vulnerabilities. That is a tremendous little bit of transparency that I do know privateness fans will discover helpful.

As well as, Bitwarden makes use of trade main AES 256 encryption and undergoes common safety audits that validate its safety claims. I additionally recognize how Bitwarden makes it clear that consumer grasp passwords are by no means saved both regionally or in reminiscence. That is large, provided that your grasp password is your principal key to unlocking all of your different passwords.

At time of publication, Bitwarden had no reported hacks or information breaches. Altogether, Bitwarden is among the most secure password managers to make use of in 2024.

Key options of Bitwarden

On high of the basic password supervisor options like password era and encrypted vaults, Bitwarden provides a couple of options that assist it stand out from the competitors.

Limitless passwords and gadgets without spending a dime

Bitwarden is finest recognized for its beneficiant free model. Specifically, the truth that Bitwarden permits for an infinite variety of passwords and gadgets to apply it to without spending a dime makes it an incredible starter password supervisor, particularly for these on a price range.

In principle, particular person customers don’t must spend for a premium subscription to get a useful and safe password supervisor. Different password managers, like Dashlane, solely permit for 25 saved passwords, whereas 1Password doesn’t even supply a free tier of their service altogether.

Bitwarden Ship

Bitwarden Ship permits customers to ship out encrypted information and textual content for safe file-sharing. It will possibly transmit textual content of as much as 1000 encrypted characters or information of as much as 500 MB. The cool factor about Bitwarden Ship is the configurable lifespan, permitting customers to set how lengthy a textual content or file will be accessed or considered earlier than being deleted from the system.

This function shall be particularly helpful to customers who usually ship out delicate or confidential paperwork like contracts, agreements, and the like.

Emergency entry

Whereas many password managers supply emergency entry, Bitwarden’s implementation stands out for its comfort. In Bitwarden, customers can grant emergency entry to trusted contacts by means of e-mail — permitting them to request vault entry when wanted. This course of is much more streamlined in comparison with 1Password’s Emergency Equipment system, which makes use of a stowed PDF or Dashlane’s use of a proprietary DASH file for emergency entry.

I like how one can set a Wait Time for vault entry, which provides the account proprietor time to just accept or deny emergency entry requests if essential. Do notice that emergency entry is barely accessible for premium Bitwarden customers and isn’t accessible on their free tier.

Bitwarden authentication and safety choices

Bitwarden contains two-factor authentication for customers to entry their Bitwarden vaults. It provides quite a few 2FA strategies, corresponding to an authenticator app, e-mail, by way of FIDO2 WebAuthn credentials, YubiKey, by way of Duo Safety, and extra. Take notice, nonetheless, that solely the primary three 2FA strategies talked about are supplied in Bitwarden’s free model.

When it comes to safety choices, Bitwarden permits customers to unblock vaults by way of biometric expertise corresponding to fingerprint or face authentication. Throughout my testing, I used to be capable of manually set a vault timeout motion to both require re-authentication or a grasp password to unlock my vault after a given period of time.

For password era, Bitwarden allowed me to create a random password with as much as 128 characters. I used to be additionally capable of create a username utilizing Bitwarden’s password generator — a useful function to make sure I didn’t reuse the identical username for various accounts.

Bitwarden interface and efficiency

Bitwarden’s desktop consumer interface follows a quite simple and minimalistic design. Whereas it appears clear, I do really feel that it may be extra intuitive by way of menu placement.

I would like that vital menus such because the Password Generator and Settings not be hidden in dropdown menus on the high of the appliance.

Bitwarden’s browser extension is extra intuitive to make use of, as vital menus just like the vault and settings are extra simply accessible.

In 2023, I had a little bit of hassle with Bitwarden’s auto-fill performance. In contrast to different password managers that routinely had pop-up icons in username or password fields for simple auto filling, Bitwarden required me to open their browser extension first, then click on on the recommended credential, for the login particulars to get stuffed in. You’ll be able to see a pattern of this within the picture under.

For those who check out the Amazon e-mail tackle discipline, there’s no Bitwarden emblem or icon in sight to click on on for simple password filling. Whereas this wasn’t the tip of the world, it did add an extra step to the log-in course of and was barely inconvenient — particularly contemplating how that is the same old apply with different password managers.

Now that we’re in 2024, I’m very completely happy to report that Bitwarden has addressed this situation and now has its autofill menu showing on kind fields whenever you click on on them by default.

In my opinion, this transformation supplies a major enchancment to the day-to-day consumer expertise, because it not solely makes kind filling a lot simpler however it additionally helps make utilizing Bitwarden really feel like a seamless expertise. Under is a screenshot of the Bitwarden emblem for autofill in a username discipline, as per the brand new adjustments applied.

Like final yr, Bitwarden’s auto-fill on web page load function continues to be off by default. For context, what auto-fill on web page load does is that when a webpage masses and Bitwarden detects a login kind inside the web page, your login credentials will routinely get fed to the shape discipline with none motion from the consumer. Per Bitwarden, this function is turned off as a result of some untrusted or malicious web sites might use this to steal consumer credentials.

To me, I recognize Bitwarden going the additional mile in ensuring that its options are literally safe and don’t go away consumer credentials susceptible to being stolen. For customers prepared to tackle that threat, it’s nice that Bitwarden provides you the choice to take action.

For password seize and replay, I had zero points with Bitwarden. It was capable of reliably seize new logins and passwords and replay them as soon as I revisited the corresponding websites.

One small nitpick I’ve, nonetheless, is that Bitwarden doesn’t allow you to generate new passwords from inside the kind discipline itself. If you click on on a password discipline, you get an choice so as to add a brand new login as an alternative of getting a pop up of Bitwarden’s password generator.

If you click on “+ New login,” you’re greeted with Bitwarden’s Add merchandise web page that allows you to fill out all of the login data in a single single pane, corresponding to the location title, username, and password. From right here, you’ll have the ability to use Bitwarden’s password generator and tweak it to your liking.

Whereas some might like this extra organized method, I personally favor for the password generator to seem as a pop up within the kind discipline itself. To me, this may make for a faster and extra seamless expertise in saving a brand new login. Once more, that is extra of a private alternative, as Bitwarden’s password seize labored with no hassle in any respect.

Bitwarden cellular app

To Bitwarden’s credit score, their cellular software mimics that of their intuitive browser extension. I examined the Bitwarden cellular software on my Android cellphone.

It adopts an easy-to-use interface and is pretty simple. I observed that the appliance’s animations did really feel a bit clunky, however it was nonetheless a secure expertise general.

I additionally preferred how the Bitwarden cellular app doesn’t permit for any screenshots or screen-grabs by default. This can be a refined however vital safety function that may assist stop your credentials from being stolen by unhealthy actors.

SEE: Methods to Create an Efficient Cybersecurity Consciousness Program (roosho Premium)

Bitwarden execs

• Free model with limitless password storage.
• Very reasonably priced pricing throughout plans.
• Simple-to-use emergency entry function.
• Encrypted file-sharing system.
• Open-source.
• Clear safety popularity.
• Improved auto fill capabilities.

Bitwarden cons

• Desktop UI will be extra intuitive.
• Doesn’t have a ton of additional options.

Is Bitwarden value it?

Bitwarden’s beneficiant free model, zero-knowledge encryption, and reasonably priced pricing make it an incredible alternative for customers searching for a bang-for-your-buck password supervisor. The truth that you get limitless passwords and may entry them on limitless gadgets, on high of its open supply platform, makes Bitwarden a powerful contender within the password supervisor house.

Whereas its desktop software will be extra intuitive, Bitwarden packs quite a lot of worth for cash throughout all its plans to make it maybe the very best price range password supervisor accessible.

Bitwarden options

For those who discover that Bitwarden lacks in performance, I’ve listed a couple of options that may very well be a greater match to your wants and workflow.

Dashlane

Dashlane is a widely known password supervisor resolution that gives top-tier safety, tons of options, and a modern consumer interface. It comes with a formidable darkish internet monitor function that sends customers alerts in case a saved password or credential is concerned in a knowledge breach. It additionally permits for limitless safe password-sharing to share credentials with a number of customers.

To study extra, learn our full Dashlane evaluation.

1Password

For individuals who prioritize safety above all, 1Password is an effective alternative. On high of the common password administration options, it comes with vulnerability alerts and phishing safety to safeguard towards malicious people. It additionally routinely locks the password vault in periods of inactivity, including an extra stage of safety to defending your logins.

To study extra, learn our full 1Password evaluation.

Keeper

For big organizations, Keeper is usually a nice match. It supplies a extra organizational method to password administration with folders, subfolders, and shared workforce folders. For safety, Keeper additionally implements darkish internet monitoring that scans worker data and informs them of any points with their credentials.

To study extra, learn our full Keeper evaluation.

Ceaselessly requested questions on Bitwarden

Has Bitwarden been breached earlier than?

No, Bitwarden has by no means been breached. As of October 2024, there have been no experiences of incidents the place Bitwarden’s service or infrastructure has been compromised in any method.

The place are you able to discover a tutorial on the best way to use Bitwarden?

You’ll be able to take a look at our Methods to Use Bitwarden information that takes you thru the step-by-step course of of selecting a Bitwarden subscription, establishing the Bitwarden browser extension, and saving your first password, amongst different issues.

We additionally present some ideas and methods on the best way to finest use Bitwarden for your small business and the best way to maximize its function set.

Can Bitwarden be used on a number of gadgets?

Sure, Bitwarden can be utilized on an infinite variety of gadgets regardless when you’ve got an lively Bitwarden Premium subscription or are a Bitwarden Free Plan consumer.

What platforms does Bitwarden assist?

For desktop, Bitwarden has functions for Home windows, macOS, and Linux. It additionally has cellular apps for each iOS, Android, and F-Droid

When it comes to internet browser extensions, Bitwarden helps Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari, Opera, Courageous, Vivaldi, Tor, and DuckDuckGo.

Evaluate methodology

My evaluation of Bitwarden concerned an in depth evaluation of its security measures, value, and real-world efficiency. I had hands-on expertise with Bitwarden by means of its free model and supplemented my findings with consumer testimonials and respected opinions.

To check Bitwarden, I put in its desktop software on my Home windows laptop computer and its cellular app on my Google Pixel 6. I additionally examined Bitwarden’s Chrome extension on my browser.

I rated Bitwarden on every thing from its password administration options to its pricing based mostly on an inside algorithm to get a score of 4.6 out of 5 stars. The scoring was based mostly each on Bitwarden by itself and in relation to different accessible password managers.