Bitwarden, a Santa Barbara, California-based company, offers its software under an open source license. We think this is one of the best password managers available today. With a simple-to-use interface and a highly secure environment, it includes virtually everything individuals, teams, and companies would need in a password manager. In our Bitwarden Password Manager review, we tested whether this open source software is a valid replacement for commercial password management solutions.
Bitwarden business plans are packed with useful features for large companies. (Image credit: Bitwarden)
Features and Utilities
Bitwarden's basic plans focus on password management, but even the free plans include cross-device syncing, optional self-hosting, and unlimited cloud storage. Premium plans include reports on your passwords that highlight things like weak passwords and insecure sites. On top of this, advanced features are added, such as 2-factor authentication (2FA) and emergency access. A data breach report can tell you if an email address has been compromised in a famous data breach. Business plans include functionality to direct passwords for more employees, with password sharing so multiple colleagues can access a private corporate account. There's also fine-grained access control, user pools, 2-step login, and multi-factor authentication. There is also a free trial offer for businesses.
The Bitwarden installation process is one of the simplest you can find. (Image credit: Bitwarden)
Install
The Bitwarden installation process is easy. There are download buttons on the site for desktop apps, mobile apps, browser extensions, and also command-line installers, and you can access the web dome from anywhere, exactly in which browser, go to vault.bitwarden.com. The list of supported platforms is comprehensive and also includes:
- Windows seven with eight and ten
- macOS 10.14+ and Safari 14+
- Linux (most distributions)
- Web browsers: Chrome, Mozilla Firefox Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Microsoft Edge, Safari, Vivaldi, Brave, Tor Browser
- Smartphone apps: iOS, Android
Even with all this support, there is the option of using any browser to access the "Web Vault". This lets you access passwords from any device, even if you're using a friend's computer. If you download the desktop app, you can create your Bitwarden account from it by giving an email address and teacher password. Everything is very clear and easy.
All Bitwarden functionality can be addressed in the web application (Image credit: Bitwarden)
Everything can be configured in the web app, but if you prefer a standalone app, you'll find the desktop app easy to use. Some password managers go too far with unnecessary features, but Bitwarden keeps it simple while providing enough flexibility for most users. When you add a new access key, you can narrow down what exactly the URL pattern it is for and whether it should be added to a subfolder. You can also add notes and custom fields, but not much more. We prefer to use the web application as it includes 2-factor authentication options and access to reports. The browser extension resembles the web application and also includes a password generator, making it even easier to use the password manager on the go.
All Bitwarden source code is free on GitHub, and the developers invite security scholars to test for security vulnerabilities. (Image credit: Bitwarden)
Security
Bitwarden is one of the most sassy secure password managers out there today, and has been publicly audited by security firm Cure53. One of the benefits of open source software is that all of Bitwarden's source code is freely available online, which translates to more scrutiny by security specialists than commercial closed source password managers and security vulnerabilities are fixed in a timely manner. His Bitwarden dome is protected with AES-XNUMX (the government standard for top-secret data) and his professor password is never sent to Bitwarden. Instead, it is used to produce a key that is hashed with SHA-XNUMX. For those of you who are more obsessed, you can still host your access keys on your server. Each and every one of these quirks combine to create an ultra-secure system that you can confidently trust with your access keys.
Bitwarden has a useful help center and you can email the developers for help (Image credit: Bitwarden)
Support
Bitwarden is an active open source project, so there is a lot of support in the form of an online community, tutorials, knowledge base, and discussion forums. Every common feature has a well-written tutorial, and the user discussion forums, while basic, are active and helpful. You can even email developers for help via an online support portal, with Premium subscribers as priority. It's amazing that an open source project like Bitwarden has the level of user support that rivals commercial products. However, it is disappointing that, even for paying service customers, we could not find a direct number for situations that would benefit from direct contact.
Bitwarden's business plans are reasonably priced (Image credit: Bitwarden)
Packages and prices
Bitwarden offers a free personal plan, a premium personal plan, 2 family plans including a free lower tier, and 2 paid business plans. The free personal plan includes all the basic features of Bitwarden, including cross-device syncing and unlimited items in your vault. Upgrading to the Premium plan at €2 / year adds urgent access, 1-step connection with third parties and priority user support. The Premium plan costs €2 / year very affordable, with 2GB of shared encrypted file storage. The free tier of the shared family plan is essentially the free personal plan, but includes sharing between 33 users, but is limited to 6 shared access key builds. Upgrading to the Family Organization plan costs just €1/month for XNUMX users and unlocks unlimited builds and XNUMXGB of encrypted file storage. The team organization plan costs €XNUMX/user/month (billed annually) and also includes a number of ancillary features like user pools and RESTful API access. Lastly, there's the Enterprise Organization plan that runs at $XNUMX/user/month (also billed annually), which adds features like organization SSO and admin password reset.
Competition
If you're willing to spend a little more, Dashlane adds identity theft protection to the package. This adds credit monitoring, identity restoration support and identity theft insurance that covers you up to €1 million if the occasion arises. LastPass is another paid access key manager with more features than Bitwarden. Notably, LastPass can autofill passwords in desktop applications, a nice feature that some businesses will find invaluable.
Final verdict
Bitwarden is not only one of the best free password managers out there, it is so usable and feature-rich that it could put paid password managers out of business. The free plan has unlimited storage and syncing across multiple devices, AES-XNUMX encryption keeps everything safe, and the source code is accessible to anyone. We'd like to see a few more features, like desktop app password autofill, but other than that, we highly recommend Bitwarden. We have also pointed out the best access password manager