Is It a Secure Password Supervisor?

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

Its free model is without doubt one of the most full provided by password managers, making it an attractive choice for these on a tighter price range. Whereas its desktop utility isn’t probably the most intuitive, its total bundle nonetheless makes it one of many high password administration apps at the moment.

Is Bitwarden free?

Sure, Bitwarden has a devoted free endlessly model. Bitwarden’s Free Plan is without doubt one of the finest free password managers out there, because it provides limitless passwords and entry for a limiteless variety of gadgets. That is in distinction to some password managers, resembling Dashlane, whose free model solely permits entry on one system at a time and solely shops 25 passwords.

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

Bitwarden’s free tier is without doubt one of the most full free variations out there. It’s excellent for customers on a decent price range wanting a fully-functioning password administration system.

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

Bitwarden pricing

Bitwarden provides pricing plans for each private and enterprise use.

Private plan pricing

Other than having a robust free model, Bitwarden continues to be an ideal worth choice with its reasonably priced pricing for its private plans. As premium subscriptions vary from $1.66 (RoboForm) to $4.99 (Dashlane) monthly, Bitwarden Premium provides a yearly payment of simply $10 per yr, or round $0.83 monthly, to be actual. This makes Bitwarden some of the reasonably priced password managers out there.

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. Nevertheless, you’re getting the basic options you want at a really reasonably priced value.

For first time customers, I like to recommend attempting out Bitwarden’s free model. It’s simple to arrange and provides you a good 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 throughout the traditional 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 really known as Groups Starter and was priced at $20 monthly for as much as 10 customers. In 2024, it’s now simply known as Groups and is priced per consumer at $4 monthly. It maintains the identical function set, resembling 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 worth. Which means that the identical 10 customers could be priced at $40 monthly. For those who’re on the lookout for a extra reasonably priced subscription in your small staff, 1Password’s Workforce Starter Pack is priced at $19.95 monthly for as much as 10 customers.

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

For options, self-hosting and passwordless SSO integration are solely out there 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 among its strongest options. If you’d like an reasonably priced password supervisor that doesn’t skimp out on key options, Bitwarden is a superb choose.

Is Bitwarden actually safe?

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

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

At time of publication, Bitwarden had no reported hacks or knowledge breaches. Altogether, Bitwarden is without doubt one of 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 just a few options that assist it stand out from the competitors.

Limitless passwords and gadgets totally free

Bitwarden is finest identified for its beneficiant free model. Specifically, the truth that Bitwarden permits for a limiteless variety of passwords and gadgets to apply it to totally free makes it an ideal starter password supervisor, particularly for these on a price range.

In idea, particular person customers don’t need to spend for a premium subscription to get a purposeful 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 could 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 will probably 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 e mail — permitting them to request vault entry when wanted. This course of is much more streamlined in comparison with 1Password’s Emergency Package 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 word that emergency entry is barely out there for premium Bitwarden customers and isn’t out there 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, resembling an authenticator app, e mail, through FIDO2 WebAuthn credentials, YubiKey, through Duo Safety, and extra. Take word, nevertheless, that solely the primary three 2FA strategies talked about are provided in Bitwarden’s free model.

By way of safety choices, Bitwarden permits customers to unblock vaults through biometric know-how resembling 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 helpful 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 favor that vital menus such because the Password Generator and Settings not be hidden in dropdown menus on the high of the applying.

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 bother with Bitwarden’s auto-fill performance. Not like different password managers that robotically had pop-up icons in username or password fields for straightforward auto filling, Bitwarden required me to open their browser extension first, then click on on the advised credential, for the login particulars to get stuffed in. You may see a pattern of this within the picture beneath.

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

Now that we’re in 2024, I’m very pleased 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 variation gives a big enchancment to the day-to-day consumer expertise, because it not solely makes kind filling a lot simpler but it surely additionally helps make utilizing Bitwarden really feel like a seamless expertise. Beneath is a screenshot of the Bitwarden brand for autofill in a username subject, as per the brand new adjustments carried out.

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 hundreds and Bitwarden detects a login kind throughout the web page, your login credentials will robotically get fed to the shape subject 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 respect Bitwarden going the additional mile in ensuring that its options are literally safe and don’t depart consumer credentials susceptible to being stolen. For customers prepared to tackle that danger, 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, nevertheless, is that Bitwarden doesn’t allow you to generate new passwords from throughout the kind subject itself. Once you click on on a password subject, you get an choice so as to add a brand new login as a substitute of getting a pop up of Bitwarden’s password generator.

Once you click on “+ New login,” you’re greeted with Bitwarden’s Add merchandise web page that permits you to fill out all of the login data in a single single pane, resembling the positioning identify, username, and password. From right here, you’ll be capable of use Bitwarden’s password generator and tweak it to your liking.

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

Bitwarden cell app

To Bitwarden’s credit score, their cell utility mimics that of their intuitive browser extension. I examined the Bitwarden cell utility on my Android telephone.

It adopts an easy-to-use interface and is pretty simple. I seen that the applying’s animations did really feel a bit clunky, but it surely was nonetheless a steady expertise total.

I additionally favored how the Bitwarden cell app doesn’t permit for any screenshots or screen-grabs by default. This can be a delicate however vital safety function that may assist forestall your credentials from being stolen by dangerous actors.

SEE: Tips on how to Create an Efficient Cybersecurity Consciousness Program (TechRepublic 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 repute.
• Improved auto fill capabilities.

Bitwarden cons

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

Is Bitwarden price it?

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

Whereas its desktop utility will be extra intuitive, Bitwarden packs loads of worth for cash throughout all its plans to make it maybe one of the best price range password supervisor out there.

Bitwarden options

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

Dashlane

Dashlane is a well known password supervisor answer that provides top-tier safety, tons of options, and a modern consumer interface. It comes with a powerful 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 overview.

1Password

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

To study extra, learn our full 1Password overview.

Keeper

For giant organizations, Keeper generally is a nice match. It gives a extra organizational strategy to password administration with folders, subfolders, and shared staff 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 overview.

Steadily 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 stories of incidents the place Bitwarden’s service or infrastructure has been compromised in any means.

The place are you able to discover a tutorial on methods to use Bitwarden?

You may try our Tips on how 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 suggestions and methods on methods to finest use Bitwarden for your small business and methods to maximize its function set.

Can Bitwarden be used on a number of gadgets?

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

What platforms does Bitwarden help?

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

By way of internet browser extensions, Bitwarden helps Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari, Opera, Courageous, Vivaldi, Tor, and DuckDuckGo.

Evaluation methodology

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

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

I rated Bitwarden on all the things from its password administration options to its pricing primarily based on an inside algorithm to get a ranking of 4.6 out of 5 stars. The scoring was primarily based each on Bitwarden by itself and in relation to different out there password managers.