Proton Pass vs Bitwarden 2026: Price, Free Plan and Security

Bitwarden is the better password manager for most people in 2026 on price: Premium costs $19.80 a year, against $35.88 for Proton Pass Plus, and Bitwarden's family plan is cheaper too. Choose Proton Pass if you want unlimited hide-my-email aliases built in, or if a small business needs SSO and SCIM at the lowest seat price. Prices verified on both vendors' pricing pages on 19 October 2026.

Both products encrypt the vault on your device, publish their code and have been independently audited, so this is not a choice between a safe and an unsafe tool. They split on what you pay for: Bitwarden charges little for the core vault and sells admin features by tier, while Proton bundles privacy features, aliases above all, into its paid plans and its wider Proton account.

Toolradar data: among the 15 password managers Toolradar lists with a verified entry price in October 2026, Bitwarden's entry paid plan ties for the cheapest and Proton Pass ties for sixth, where the median entry plan is $2.99 a month. Bitwarden's head-to-head comparison pages drew 170 visits in the last 30 days, the most among password managers with at least 20 such visits. The records are Bitwarden on Toolradar and Proton Pass on Toolradar, and the category view is Toolradar's password manager statistics.

At a glance

Prices as of Oct 2026, in USD, before tax.

Which free plan is better?

Proton Pass has the stronger free plan for privacy, Bitwarden for sharing basics. Proton Free includes unlimited logins, notes and credit cards on unlimited devices, passkeys, password health alerts and 10 hide-my-email aliases, which let you sign up for sites without handing over your real address. Its limits are 2 vaults and vault sharing with 2 other people, and the built-in 2FA authenticator is a paid feature.

Bitwarden's free account stores unlimited passwords on unlimited devices, supports passkeys, includes Bitwarden Send for encrypted text sharing with anyone, and lets you share vault items with one other user through a free organization. It can generate email aliases too, but only by connecting to an outside forwarding service, so the aliases themselves are not Bitwarden's.

For someone who wants a free vault and nothing else, both work. The deciding question is aliases: a reader worried about spam and breach exposure gets more out of Proton Free, while someone who wants to share a few logins with a partner gets the same from either.

Which is cheaper for one person or a family?

Bitwarden is cheaper on both paid personal plans. Premium undercuts Proton Pass Plus by $16.08 a year on yearly billing. Premium adds the integrated TOTP authenticator, 5 GB of encrypted file attachments, emergency access, vault health reports and priority support.

Pass Plus costs more but includes more of Proton's privacy layer. It adds unlimited hide-my-email aliases with custom domains and extra mailboxes, the built-in 2FA authenticator, secure vault and link sharing, Dark Web Monitoring, file attachments, emergency access, the Proton Sentinel high-security program and a CLI. If you would otherwise pay for an alias service, the gap shrinks fast.

Billing flexibility differs. Proton sells Pass Plus month to month at $4.99, or $59.88 over a year, which costs $24 more than the yearly plan. Bitwarden shows its personal prices on an annual subscription only. Proton also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.

For families, Bitwarden Families costs $47.88 a year for six premium accounts with unlimited sharing and organization storage. Pass Family costs $59.88 a year for six Pass Plus accounts and a family admin panel, so the gap is $12 a year. The household comparison is covered in more depth in cheapest password manager for families.

Proton also sells Pass inside Proton Unlimited at $119.88 a year, bundled with Mail, Calendar, VPN and Drive. That only makes sense if you would buy those services anyway; for Pass alone, it is the most expensive route.

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Which is cheaper for a business?

Proton Pass is cheaper at every business tier we compared, but its entry plan has a user cap. Pass Essentials is $1.99 per user a month on yearly billing for 3 to 30 users and includes vault and link sharing, the 2FA authenticator, Dark Web Monitoring and unlimited aliases. Pass Professional, at $4.49 per user a month yearly, adds SSO and SCIM, activity logs, enterprise policies, SIEM integration, group sharing and an SSH agent.

Bitwarden Teams costs $4 per user a month billed annually and includes event logs, directory sync and SCIM provisioning. Bitwarden Enterprise, at $6 per user a month, adds SSO, granular access control, enterprise policies, self-hosting and a free Families plan for every user.

Totals multiply the published per-user yearly rate by 10 users, before tax. The SSO row is where the gap matters: ten Proton Pass Professional seats cost $181.20 a year less than ten Bitwarden Enterprise seats. Bitwarden's case is self-hosting, which Proton does not offer, and the free family vault it gives every Enterprise user.

On monthly billing, Proton's business seats rise to $4.99 for Essentials and $6.99 for Professional, and both business products offer a 14-day free trial. Proton's three-user minimum applies to both business plans.

Security model: Swiss privacy vs self-hosting

Both encrypt end to end. Proton says Pass encrypts every field, including usernames and web addresses, with 256-bit AES-GCM, that all Pass apps are open source, and that the service has been audited by third parties and runs a public bug bounty. Proton is based in Switzerland, and it presents Swiss law as a privacy advantage outside US and EU jurisdiction.

Bitwarden describes zero-knowledge encryption and open-source code for every account, and lists ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type II and SOC 3 for the company. Its SSO integration keeps vault decryption separate from the identity provider. Its unique card is self-hosting: an organization can run the Bitwarden server on its own infrastructure for data residency or compliance rules, which Proton Pass does not allow.

The practical difference is about control, not strength. A privacy-minded individual who trusts Proton's jurisdiction gets aliases and a broader encrypted ecosystem. An IT team that needs data on its own servers, or a long compliance paper trail, gets that from Bitwarden. The full Bitwarden tier map is on Bitwarden pricing and Proton's on Proton Pass pricing.

Where each one falls short

Proton Pass weaknesses: the free plan caps vaults and sharing at two, the 2FA authenticator is paid, Pass Essentials has a user ceiling, and there is no self-hosted option. Its personal plans cost more than Bitwarden's on yearly billing.

Bitwarden weaknesses: aliases depend on an outside forwarding service, personal plans show annual prices only, and SSO waits for the $6 Enterprise tier. Its free plan shares with only one other user.

Who should pick which?

Pick Bitwarden if you want the cheapest paid vault for yourself or your family, if you need to self-host, or if your company wants SCIM on its Teams seat without paying for SSO. Pick Proton Pass if hide-my-email aliases matter to you, if you already use Proton Mail, or if a small team wants SSO and SCIM for the lowest per-seat price.

For other matchups, see 1Password vs Bitwarden, Bitwarden vs Keeper and NordPass vs Bitwarden. Product reviews are the Proton Pass review and the Bitwarden review, and free options are ranked in best free password managers.

How we compared

Proton Pass personal prices, monthly and yearly billing, plan features and the money-back guarantee come from Proton Pass pricing; business prices, user limits and trials from Proton Pass business pricing; and the encryption, open-source, audit and Swiss jurisdiction claims from Proton Pass security. Bitwarden's personal prices and features come from Bitwarden pricing, and its business tiers, SSO, SCIM, self-hosting and certifications from Bitwarden business pricing. All were read on 19 October 2026.

The price ranks and comparison-page visits come from Toolradar's October 2026 data. Team totals are this page's multiplication of published rates, not vendor quotes. Louis Corneloup, founder of Toolradar and Dupple, wrote the page. How products are assessed is on how we rate, corrections go through the editorial policy, and the author note is on about.

FAQ

Proton Pass vs Bitwarden: which should I choose in 2026?

Choose Bitwarden for the lowest paid personal price and for self-hosting. Choose Proton Pass for built-in hide-my-email aliases and for the cheapest business seat with SSO and SCIM, Pass Professional at $4.49 per user a month on yearly billing. Prices were read on both vendors' pages on 19 October 2026.

How much does Proton Pass cost compared with Bitwarden?

Proton Pass Plus costs $35.88 a year or $4.99 month to month, and Pass Family $59.88 a year for six people. Bitwarden Premium costs $19.80 a year and Families $47.88 a year for six. For businesses, Proton starts at $1.99 per user a month yearly and Bitwarden Teams at $4.

Is Proton Pass more secure than Bitwarden?

Neither is clearly more secure. Both encrypt the vault end to end, publish their code and have independent audits. Proton adds Swiss jurisdiction and encrypts every field with AES-GCM; Bitwarden adds self-hosting and lists ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type II certifications.

Which free plan is better, Proton Pass or Bitwarden?

Proton Pass Free includes 10 hide-my-email aliases, unlimited logins and unlimited devices, but caps you at 2 vaults. Bitwarden Free includes unlimited passwords and devices, Bitwarden Send and sharing with one other user, and relies on an outside service for aliases.

Which one includes SSO and SCIM?

Proton Pass includes both on Pass Professional at $4.49 per user a month billed yearly. Bitwarden includes SCIM from Teams at $4 per user a month and SSO only on Enterprise at $6 per user a month, both billed annually.

Can I self-host Proton Pass or Bitwarden?

Only Bitwarden. Its Enterprise plan includes the flexibility to self-host, so an organization can run the Bitwarden server on its own infrastructure. Proton Pass offers no self-hosted option.

Cite this: Cyberpresso, "Proton Pass vs Bitwarden 2026: Price, Free Plan and Security", November 2026.

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