Which One Should You Choose?

As two of the highest password managers at this time, each Bitwarden and 1Password provide high quality password administration — albeit in numerous methods. Bitwarden is an open-source answer with a robust emphasis on affordability and transparency. In the meantime, 1Password is a closed-source service that provides a streamlined consumer expertise with top-tier safety.

On this article, we check out which password supervisor is greatest for you and your group.

Bitwarden vs 1Password: Comparability

Bitwarden vs 1Password: Pricing

Each Bitwarden and 1Password divide their paid subscriptions into Private and Enterprise tiers. When it comes to free plans, solely Bitwarden has a free model, whereas 1Password doesn’t at the moment provide a devoted free plan.

SEE: LogMeOnce vs Bitwarden (2024): Which Password Supervisor is Higher? (TechRepublic)

Luckily, each password managers have free trials for his or her paid subscriptions. Of the 2, 1Password is extra beneficiant because it offers a 14-day free trial for all its plans, apart from its Enterprise subscription. In distinction, Bitwarden has a good seven-day free trial for each its Bitwarden Groups and Enterprise subscriptions.

Bitwarden pricing

Bitwarden Private:

• Free: Limitless passwords, limitless gadgets.
• Premium: $0.83 per thirty days; limitless gadgets; built-in authenticator, file attachments, emergency entry, amongst others.
• Households: $3.33 per thirty days; as much as 6 customers; limitless sharing, limitless collections, group storage.

Bitwarden Enterprise:

• Groups: $4 per thirty days per consumer; knowledge sharing, occasion and audit log monitoring, consumer teams, listing integration, amongst others.
• Enterprise: $6 per thirty days per consumer; all Groups options plus enterprise insurance policies, passwordless SSO integration, account restoration capabilities.
• Customized quote: Contact gross sales for pricing; scalable subscription.

If you wish to study extra, learn our full Bitwarden assessment.

1Password pricing

In comparison with Bitwarden’s month-to-month subscriptions, 1Password offers an choice for both a month-to-month or an annual plan. Under is an outline of pricing of 1Password’s plans for each contract choices:

1Password Private

1Password Enterprise

If you wish to study extra, learn our full 1Password assessment.

Bitwarden vs 1Password: Function comparability

Safety and encryption

Winner: Tie

Each Bitwarden and 1Password provide high-end safety with their respective password managers. When it comes to encryption, each providers make the most of the AES-256 encryption algorithm — broadly thought-about the business normal within the area.

SEE: Bitwarden vs KeePass (2024): Battle of the Finest — Who Wins? (TechRepublic)

As well as, I’m glad to report that each Bitwarden and 1Password take third-party testing significantly. Within the realm of safety software program, security and safety claims can solely achieve this a lot. That’s why having impartial safety audits is a crucial characteristic to look out for.

For Bitwarden, they’ve proven a robust dedication to third-party testing with its suite of safety audits relationship again to 2018. It’s additionally SOC 2, GDPR, and HIPAA-compliant. Its most up-to-date third-party audit was an evaluation of its Internet App carried out by safety agency Cure53 again in August 2023.

Then again, 1Password likewise presents a formidable portfolio of third-party audit outcomes. As of Could 2024, 1Password has 24 third-party audits protecting varied points of its password administration service.

1Password has additionally achieved SOC 2 kind 2, ISO 27001:2022, 27017:2015, 27018:2019, and 27701:2019 certifications — displaying it meets business and worldwide requirements for data safety.

On August 6, 2024, 1Password shared {that a} vulnerability on 1Password 8 for Mac (variations earlier than 8.10.36) was found, probably affecting the appliance’s platform safety. Per 1Password, the problem “permits a malicious course of working regionally on a machine to bypass inter-process communication protections.”

Luckily, 1Password has patched the problem with 1Password for Mac model 8.10.36 and has stated that there have been no studies of the problem being exploited by anybody else. On this occasion, I commend 1Password for its simple, swift, and clear response to the problem.

Lastly, the 2 password managers differ in software program distribution. Bitwarden is open-source, permitting the general public to freely view its supply code for doable holes or vulnerabilities. On the flipside, 1Password is closed-source and has its full supply code non-public.

Personally, I favor open-source software program because it offers a further layer of transparency. Nonetheless, I acknowledge that closed-source software program has its benefits — sometimes providing issues like extra premium buyer assist.

All in all, I’ve no bother recommending both Bitwarden or 1Password when it comes to safety. Each password managers have the mandatory safety measures to make sure your passwords will probably be protected and safe.

Multi-factor authentication choices

Winner: Bitwarden

Relating to multi-factor authentication or two-factor authentication, I give the win to Bitwarden. Bitwarden presents a spread of 2FA choices. For its free model, it helps 2FA by way of FIDO2 WebAuthn credentials, authenticator apps, and electronic mail.

In the event you go for their paid model, you get 2FA by Duo Safety with Duo Push, SMS, cellphone name, and safety keys, in addition to YubiKey assist. I respect how Bitwarden nonetheless presents MFA/2FA to its free customers — actually making it a sensible free choice that doesn’t sacrifice important security measures like MFA.

That isn’t to say that 1Password is lagging behind. 1Password helps 2FA by authenticator apps and safety keys like YubiKey and Titan. Particularly, 1Password helps authenticator apps like Authy, Microsoft Authenticator, or Okta Confirm.

That being stated, if you happen to’re particularly in search of a greater variety of MFA choices, I like to recommend going for Bitwarden over 1Password.

Ease of use and efficiency

Winner: 1Password

Relating to ease of use and efficiency, I’ve to present it to 1Password. 1Password’s desktop utility has a contemporary and intuitive consumer interface that I discovered nice to make use of all all through my testing.

The entire consumer expertise felt polished and nicely thought out. To me, that is crucial for companies that plan to combine 1Password of their workforce, because it helps much less tech-savvy customers be comfy with the software program and maximize worker adoption.

SEE: The High 5 1Password Alternate options for 2024 (TechRepublic)

Then again, Bitwarden implements a extra minimalist interface with a less complicated design. Subjectively talking, I don’t have any main points with Bitwarden’s UI. It’s respectable and will get the job performed.

Nonetheless, it’s clear that Bitwarden has the extra dated-looking utility of the 2. After testing each password managers, I personally desire 1Password’s extra user-friendly and refined utility.

For efficiency, I discovered Bitwarden and 1Password had been comparable in providing a strong — however not excellent — password administration expertise. Each providers had no bother producing passwords or saving new log-in credentials.

Nonetheless, I did expertise just a few quirks with each providers with their respective autofill capabilities.

For Bitwarden, I discovered it peculiar that autofill wasn’t toggled on by default. Throughout my first time utilizing Bitwarden, I needed to manually click on on the advised password from the browser extension to insert my log-in particulars as an alternative of Bitwarden mechanically filling in. Whereas this may be modified within the settings menu, I want this was turned on out of the field.

On the 1Password aspect, I had situations the place it outright didn’t autofill my credentials, even once I made certain it was turned on.

Luckily, these hiccups from each providers had been typically outliers. For essentially the most half, each Bitwarden and 1Password offered a dependable password seize and replay expertise. That being stated, it have to be talked about that little quirks right here and there are to be anticipated.

Further options

Winner: 1Password

For additional options, I give the sting to 1Password. Whereas each password managers provide dependable password storage and password era, 1Password comes with distinctive performance that helps it standout.

One distinctive 1Password characteristic I discovered noteworthy was its inclusion of Journey Mode. Journey Mode permits customers to take away a vault of their alternative when touring.

I envision this to be helpful for customers who incessantly go on enterprise journeys and wish to defend sure logins when going by customs or border companies. 1Password additionally has a complete Watchtower dashboard that mechanically scores all of your passwords when it comes to password well being and power.

I notably like how Watchtower additionally acts as a knowledge breach monitor, alerting customers if any of their credentials have been compromised or uncovered in a breach. To Bitwarden’s credit score, it additionally has a model of this referred to as Vault Well being Reviews — which may create summaries of uncovered passwords, knowledge breach knowledge, and the like.

Nonetheless, I discovered 1Password’s Watchtower to be extra handy because it creates all this knowledge mechanically. As compared, Bitwarden customers need to manually generate every Vault Report on their very own.

One clear benefit Bitwarden has over 1Password is its devoted free model. The place 1Password fully lacks a free plan, Bitwarden has among the best free password managers because it presents limitless password storage for limitless gadgets.

That is important since different free password managers, like Dashlane or McAfee True Key, restrict the utmost quantity of passwords free customers can retailer.

Bitwarden additionally has Bitwarden Ship, its end-to-end encrypted textual content and file-sharing characteristic that can be utilized to share passwords, monetary or authorized paperwork, and different delicate data.

Whereas each providers present their very own standout options on prime of password storage, I really feel 1Password’s Watchtower and Journey Mode capabilities, amongst different options, present considerably extra worth than Bitwarden’s characteristic set.

If you need extra in-depth protection on 1Password’s prime options, take a look at TechRepublic’s High 5 1Password Options video.

Buyer assist

Winner: 1Password

Whereas each Bitwarden and 1Password embody a wholesome quantity of assist choices, I discovered 1Password was barely higher within the customer support division. For Bitwarden, we get their devoted Assist Middle that includes information base articles and tutorials; an electronic mail and ticketing system; and its Bitwarden Group Discussion board.

Then again, 1Password presents comparable buyer assist with its 1Password Assist web page housing first-party guides; electronic mail and ticketing system; and its 1Password Group buyer discussion board.

Sadly, each password managers don’t have dwell chat assist to attach customers with an precise assist agent. Nonetheless, 1Password presents an AI chatbot that acts as a reasonably useful substitute.

It was capable of reply a lot of the questions I had with an affordable quantity of accuracy. After all, a human assist agent is extra preferrred, however I feel having the chatbot to handle fast questions is an underrated benefit. This may be particularly helpful if you happen to’re pressed for time and don’t essentially wish to scour by assist articles to reply a easy query.

I additionally respect how the chatbot itself is on the market for non-1Password customers, not requiring an energetic 1Password subscription to entry and use.

Worth and worth

Winner: Bitwarden

The place Bitwarden excels is in its reasonably priced pricing. At $0.83 per thirty days, its base premium plan is sort of thrice extra reasonably priced than 1Password’s equal subscription at $3.99 per thirty days. Its Households plan can also be less expensive, priced at $3.33 per thirty days for six customers in comparison with 1Password’s Households choice at $4.99 for 5 relations.

That’s to not say that 1Password doesn’t have any worth plans. 1Password’s Groups Starter pack at $19.95 per thirty days covers as much as 10 customers, which comes out to round $2 per consumer. It is a whole lot contemplating Bitwarden’s Groups plan would require round $40 for a similar quantity of customers.

When it comes to enterprise plans, Bitwarden is as soon as once more extra reasonably priced with its $6 per thirty days Enterprise plan in comparison with 1Password’s equal Enterprise subscription at $9.99 per thirty days, per consumer.

I additionally wish to point out Bitwarden’s free model with limitless password storage and limitless gadget assist — strengthening Bitwarden’s case as a major choose for budget-oriented customers. If affordability is an enormous precedence, Bitwarden is the clear alternative.

Bitwarden professionals and cons

Execs

• Open-source software program.
• Reasonably priced pricing throughout paid subscriptions.
• Free model with limitless storage, limitless gadgets.
• Vast platform assist and intensive MFA/2FA choices.
• Independently audited.

Cons

• Much less polished consumer interface.

1Password professionals and cons

Execs

• Refined and intuitive consumer expertise.
• Distinctive Journey Mode and Watchtower options.
• 24 third-party audits since Could 2024.
• Gives AI chatbot for buyer assist.
• Worth-laden Groups subscription.

Cons

Ought to your group use Bitwarden or 1Password?

Whereas this round-up noticed a detailed battle between two high quality password managers, 1Password comes out on prime over Bitwarden. Per my testing, I discovered 1Password’s refined consumer expertise, distinctive additional options, and barely higher buyer assist to have important benefits over Bitwarden.

SEE: Find out how to Run a Cybersecurity Danger Evaluation in 5 Steps (TechRepublic Premium)

Even with its much less reasonably priced subscriptions, I feel 1Password’s extra user-friendly utility is nicely well worth the extra spend. That is very true within the context of a enterprise attempting to combine a password supervisor of their group, because it reduces the educational curve for much less tech-savvy people and workers.

Don’t get me improper, I nonetheless assume Bitwarden is an excellent password supervisor in its personal proper. Its  open-source nature will probably be appreciated by each privateness lovers and builders. As well as, its beneficiant free model and reasonably priced paid plans are excellent for these on a tighter funds.

Select Bitwarden if:

• You need an open-source password supervisor.
• You’re in search of a free password supervisor with limitless password storage.
• You’re a budget-oriented consumer in search of an reasonably priced but high-quality password supervisor.
• You need a numerous set of MFA choices.

Select 1Password if:

• You need an all-around password supervisor that gives a well-designed and intuitive consumer expertise.
• You favor closed-source software program.
• You need an reasonably priced Groups plan that covers as much as 10 members.
• You need a set-and-forget password well being and knowledge breach monitoring system.
• You’re a frequent traveler that wants a technique to safe passwords whereas overseas.

Take a look at our full opinions of Bitwarden and 1Password for extra particulars.

Overview methodology

My match-up of Bitwarden and 1Password concerned a complete evaluation of every password supervisor’s options, price, and real-world efficiency.

Each password managers had been scored on every part from their MFA choices to their extra security measures. Particularly, we took under consideration 5 important pillars with their corresponding weights:

• Pricing (25%).
• Core password administration options (35%).
• Ease of use (15%).
• Buyer assist (15%).
• Knowledgeable evaluation (10%).

I additionally supplemented my findings with real-world consumer testimonials and different respected assessment websites to spherical out my suggestions.

For extra data on how we assessment password managers, you may view our full Overview Methodology for Password Managers.