Passbolt vs Bitwarden (2024): Which Is Higher?

Bitwarden and Passbolt are two in style free open-source password managers. Each are a great match for many of your private or enterprise wants. However there are variations. As I seemed into them in additional element, it turned obvious that totally different use instances favor one or the opposite.

Bitwarden vs Passbolt: Comparability desk

Bitwarden vs Passbolt: Pricing

Winner: Bitwarden

Bitwarden wins on pricing as it’s a little cheaper than Passbolt. I famous, nevertheless, that because the variety of customers escalates to giant enterprise ranges, the worth hole between these merchandise is decreased.

Bitwarden pricing

Bitwarden provides two ranges of plans: one tier for private and household use and one other for companies solely. A free trial is offered for the Households, Groups, and Enterprise plans. The pricing for these plans is as follows:

Bitwarden Private has a free model that’s $0 without end for limitless units, a premium model at $10 billed yearly ($0.83 monthly), and a household model for $40 billed yearly ($3.33 monthly) for as much as six customers.

SEE: 5 Finest Password Managers for Android in 2024 (TechRepublic)

Bitwarden Enterprise has three variations. Groups is $4 per consumer monthly, billed yearly; Enterprise at $6 per consumer monthly, billed yearly; and a customized tier, which requires a direct quote from the gross sales workforce primarily based on what stage of customization is required.

Passbolt pricing

Just like Bitwarden, Passbolt provides a number of ranges of pricing. The neighborhood version is free for limitless customers.

SEE: 6 Finest Free Password Managers for 2024 (TechRepublic)

The enterprise model is $49 monthly for 10 customers billed yearly. After I entered 200 customers, the worth modified to $980 monthly; and for 4,000 customers, it was $19,600 monthly. Because the variety of customers rises, the worth premium for Passbolt in comparison with Bitwarden diminishes.

Enterprise pricing is customized and quotes can be found on request.

Bitwarden vs Passbolt: Function comparability

Platforms and browsers supported

Winner: Bitwarden

Each merchandise have intensive help for platforms and browsers, however I give the nod to Bitwarden because it has a pair extra. It helps Mac, Linux, Home windows, Android, iOS, in addition to browser extensions Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Vivaldi, Opera, Courageous, Microsoft Edge, Tor Browser, and DuckDuckGo for Mac.

SEE: 6 Finest Open Supply Password Managers for Home windows in 2024 (TechRepublic)

Passbolt provides virtually as many platforms and browser extensions. However it’s lacking a number of, similar to Opera, Tor, and Duckduckgo for Mac. The Passbolt consumer neighborhood provides a number of workarounds for a few of these.

Safety

Winner: Passbolt

I scored Passbolt forward of Bitwarden as Passbolt provides a broader vary of safety features than Bitwarden and a better stage of granularity.

Bitwarden provides encryption, 2FA, and is often audited by third-party safety corporations and unbiased safety analysis to search for weaknesses. Password sharing is restricted inside the free model. These desirous to self-host a password supervisor needs to be conscious that Bitwarden solely provides this in its enterprise model.

Passbolt provides the identical safety features as Bitwarden and extra. This consists of extra granular entry rights and password sharing. Passwords will be shared broadly or narrowly. Self-hosting will be completed on most variations. The free model provides limitless password sharing.

Ease of use / buyer help

Winner: Bitwarden

Each merchandise deal with on-line documentation as their principal stage of help. Nonetheless, Bitwarden has a ticketing line with a customer support rep that may reply. It’s also simpler to make use of than Passbolt. Therefore, I’ve Bitwarden because the winner on this class.

Bitwarden is comparatively straightforward to make use of. It comes with the automated synching of particular person passwords within the private and household editions. Organizational passwords sync each half-hour. In distinction, Passbolt’s broader vary of enterprise options require a barely greater stage of technical sophistication.

SEE: Bitwarden Assessment: Options, Pricing, Safety, Professionals & Cons (TechRepublic)

Bitwarden provides a number of avenues for assist, together with written articles within the Assist Heart and video tutorials within the Studying Heart. A neighborhood discussion board has a bit the place you may ask different customers questions. If none of that works, submit a help ticket through the web site and the customer support workforce will get again to you. There’s no option to contact them via telephone or dwell chat, so that you’ll have to attend till they reply to you.

As Passbolt is completely open-source, it doesn’t have a buyer help workforce that you could contact for assist. There may be an in depth Assist Heart with loads of documentation, set up guides, a weblog, and an lively neighborhood discussion board the place assist is offered from different customers.

Each Passbolt and Bitwarden supply integrations with in style browsers and working methods. Nonetheless, Bitwarden has a wider vary of integrations, together with help for a wider vary of third-party purposes and plugins. For instance, current integrations embody Microsoft Sentinel Okta, and Azure AD.

Open supply

Winner: Passbolt

Bitwarden and Passbolt are each considered open-source password administration instruments. However it’s a query of diploma. The supply code for Passbolt is publicly accessible, permitting for better transparency and neighborhood collaboration within the growth and auditing course of. Bitwarden, alternatively, doesn’t present entry to its supply code, limiting the power for unbiased verification and customization. Its supply code is hosted on GitHub as a way to evaluation how safe it’s, however it’s technically generally known as a closed-source software.

I give Passbolt a better grade as it’s 100% open supply.

Bitwarden execs and cons

Bitwarden execs

• Free model for people with limitless passwords.
• Reasonably priced pricing.
• Straightforward to arrange and use.
• Varied choices for buyer help and coaching.

Bitwarden cons

• Free model imposes some limitations when it comes to options and password sharing.
• Solely partially open supply.
• Self-hosted model is barely accessible within the enterprise model.

Passbolt execs and cons

Passbolt execs

• 100% open supply.
• Big selection of safety features.
• Wonderful in large-scale installations.

Passbolt cons

• Pricing is usually greater than Bitwarden.
• Buyer help is restricted.

Bitwarden vs Passbolt on Reddit

Over on Reddit, customers had loads to say concerning the two corporations.

“Generally speaking, Bitwarden is built for individual use, while Passbolt is built for collaboration and security,” stated one Reddit consumer. “Bitwarden allows sharing, but not at a granular level, for instance you can share an entire vault (containing multiple passwords) with an entire team but not a single password. In Passbolt it is possible to share passwords with more granularity in literally two clicks. Security: in Passbolt, the secret key (used for signing in and encryption / decryption) is auto-generated (or provided by the user) at first login. Bitwarden … provides less entropy and means that when you are sharing passwords with a group of users, the encryption is as strong as the weakest master password of the users it is shared with. Passbolt also provides protection for anti-phishing, logs tampering, accesses revocation, and more. It doesn’t mean that Bitwarden is less secure, there is no black and white, just that if you have higher security requirements you should definitely look into both the security models in details since there are scenarios that might be covered in one and not the other.”

SEE: How one can Create an Efficient Cybersecurity Consciousness Program (TechRepublic Premium)

One other Reddit consumer in the identical posting, nevertheless, stated, “Why would you consider anything other than the open source, tried and true Bitwarden?”

One other consumer in the identical thread famous, “Passbolt is more so for teams sharing passwords for managing corporate or developer accounts. Whereas Bitwarden is just for managing passwords and logins in general.”

Ought to your online business use Bitwarden or Passbolt?

Select Bitwarden if:

• You desire a good common password supervisor.
• You want a password supervisor for people, households, or teams of lower than 1,000.

Select Passbolt if:

• If you need 100% open supply.
• If in case you have greater than 1,000 customers.
• If you have to share passwords often amongst groups.

SEE: 5 Finest Password Managers Constructed for Groups in 2024 (TechRepublic)

Assessment methodology

To match Bitwarden in opposition to Passbolt, I thought-about a wide range of elements. These included value, vary of safety features, and buyer help. So as to add much more depth to this evaluation, third-party evaluations, Reddit, and analyst opinions had been consulted.