1Password vs Bitwarden

1Password is a password manager for individuals, families and businesses, made by AgileBits, a company founded in 2005 in Toronto, Canada. It is known for a strong security track record, polished apps on every major platform and a design that makes good password habits easy for non-technical people.

1Password stores passwords, passkeys, credit cards, secure notes, documents, SSH keys and software licenses in encrypted vaults that can be shared with family members or colleagues. Data is protected by end-to-end encryption that combines your account password with a locally generated Secret Key. Watchtower flags weak, reused and breached credentials and sites that support passkeys or two-factor authentication, and Travel Mode hides selected vaults when crossing borders. For businesses, plans add SSO with Okta, Microsoft Entra ID and Google Workspace, admin policies, activity reporting, provisioning and free Families accounts for employees. Developer tools include a CLI, an SSH agent, Git commit signing and Secrets Automation for infrastructure. Extended Access Management, built partly on the 2024 acquisition of Kolide, adds device trust and discovery of unmanaged apps.

1Password fits households and companies that want strong security with excellent usability. There is no free plan, only a trial. Bitwarden is the leading open-source alternative with a free tier, Proton Pass suits privacy-focused users, and Dashlane and Keeper compete in the business market.

Bitwarden is an open-source password manager developed by Bitwarden, Inc., founded in 2015 by Kyle Spearrin and based in Santa Barbara, California. Its free plan is unusually complete for individuals: unlimited passwords on unlimited devices, passkey storage, a password generator and secure sharing with one other person, with apps for every major browser, desktop and mobile platform.

Premium adds a built-in authenticator for 2FA codes, encrypted file attachments, emergency access and vault health reports for a low yearly price, and Families covers six users with shared collections. For companies, Teams and Enterprise plans add organization vaults, collections, groups, event logs, the API, SSO, SCIM provisioning, enterprise policies and the option to self-host the server. Bitwarden Send shares encrypted text or files, Secrets Manager stores developer secrets for CI/CD pipelines, and Passwordless.dev offers passkey authentication for developers. The code is public and audited by independent firms.

Bitwarden is the default recommendation for cost-conscious individuals and businesses that value transparency and self-hosting. Its interface is functional rather than polished, and autofill sometimes needs a manual nudge. 1Password offers a smoother experience and stronger family and travel features at a higher price, Proton Pass is the other open-source option inside the Proton privacy suite, and Keeper and Dashlane focus on enterprise administration.