Proton Pass free vs Bitwarden free

Both free tiers store unlimited passwords and sync across unlimited devices, so neither makes you pay for the basics. The split comes after that. Proton Free adds 10 hide-my-email aliases and up to two vaults you can share with two people. Bitwarden Free lets you share with one other user, and it's the only one of the two you can self-host.

If you'll pay, Bitwarden Premium is the cheaper upgrade at $19.80 a year, against $35.88 for Pass Plus on a 12-month plan (USD prices as displayed on 29 September 2026). Pass Plus bundles more, mainly unlimited aliases and dark-web monitoring.

#Quick verdict

#The free tiers side by side

Bitwarden Free. The pricing page describes it as "basic password management … Always free." The core features listed for every account include unlimited devices and passwords, browser, mobile and desktop apps, and the password and username generator. Free accounts can also store notes, cards and identities, and manage passkeys. They get integration with email-alias services, encrypted export and Bitwarden Send. Sharing is limited: you can "share items with one other existing Bitwarden user by creating a Free organization."

Proton Free. Proton's plan table lists unlimited logins, notes and credit cards, unlimited devices, browser, mobile and desktop apps, and the password generator. It also has alerts for weak and reused passwords, passkeys on all devices, easy import and 10 hide-my-email aliases. It gives you 2 vaults, each shareable with 2 others, plus secure sharing of individual items and 1GB of storage.

Where each free tier stops:

• Built-in 2FA codes. Neither free tier includes them. Bitwarden puts the "integrated authenticator" in Premium, and Proton puts "Integrated 2FA" in Pass Plus.
• File attachments. These are paid on both.
• Emergency access. This is paid on both.
• Aliases. This is Proton's clear advantage. Bitwarden can generate aliases through outside services you connect, while Proton includes 10 of its own for free.

For one person who wants a free manager and nothing else, both are complete. Proton's free sharing is a little more generous. Bitwarden's free tier has an escape hatch Proton lacks: the same account works against a self-hosted server.

#Paid plans

Prices below are in USD, checked 29 September 2026. Proton's page renders its prices in the browser and offers CHF, EUR and USD, so the figures you see may differ by region or promotion.

Bitwarden

• Premium: $1.65/month, billed annually at $19.80. It adds the integrated authenticator, file attachments (5GB, expandable), emergency access and vault health reports.
• Families: $3.99/month for up to 6 users, billed annually at $47.88. It includes six premium accounts and unlimited sharing and collections.

Proton Pass

• Pass Plus: $4.99 billed monthly, or $2.99/month billed at $35.88 every 12 months. It adds unlimited aliases, built-in 2FA, vault sharing with up to 10 others, secure link sharing, Dark Web Monitoring, file attachments, emergency access, custom alias domains, the CLI and 10GB of storage.
• Pass Family: $6.99 billed monthly, or $4.99/month billed at $59.88 every 12 months, for 6 Pass Plus accounts and a family admin panel.
• Proton Unlimited: $9.99/month billed at $119.88 every 12 months ($12.99 month-to-month). It bundles Pass with Mail, Calendar, VPN and Drive.

So Bitwarden is cheaper per feature if you just want TOTP and attachments. Proton is better value if you'd otherwise pay separately for an email-alias service, or you already want other Proton apps.

#Security, as each vendor documents it

This is security software, so here is what each company states, with links, and nothing more.

Bitwarden (security whitepaper and compliance page):

• Vault data is encrypted on your device with AES-CBC 256-bit plus HMAC authentication. Bitwarden says keys are "generated and managed by the client" and it "never stores and cannot access your master password."
• The master password is stretched with PBKDF2-SHA256 at 600,000 iterations by default. You can switch to Argon2id after creating the account.
• Third-party assessments are listed annually. The 2025 list includes Cure53 audits of the core application, web vault, browser extension and desktop app, and Fracture Labs on the web app and network. It also includes Palo Alto Networks' Unit 42 on the mobile apps, and ETH Zurich's Applied Cryptography Group on core cryptography, "under the assumption of a fully malicious server." Bitwarden also cites ISO 27001, SOC 2 and SOC 3 and HIPAA compliance.

Proton Pass (Pass security page and audit blog):

• Items sit in vaults encrypted with 256-bit AES-GCM. Each vault has a random 32-byte key.
• Vault keys are protected, and sharing works, using OpenPGP with elliptic-curve cryptography (Curve25519).
• Proton says metadata is encrypted too, "not even Proton can access this data." That includes things like which websites you have accounts with.
• Cure53 audited the Pass mobile apps, browser extensions and API in May–June 2023. Proton's post says all issues were resolved except one medium-severity Android finding (PRO-01-003) that it couldn't fix because of an Android platform limitation. The report is public. Proton also runs a public bug bounty.

Both have public, independent audits and open-source clients. Bitwarden publishes more recent and more numerous assessments. Proton's most prominent Pass-specific public audit dates from 2023. Proton also stresses its Swiss jurisdiction. Neither page gives you grounds to call one "more secure" in absolute terms, and this page doesn't.

#Platforms

Both cover Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS, plus a web app and browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, Brave and more. Bitwarden also lists a command-line client and extensions for Opera, Vivaldi, Tor Browser and DuckDuckGo. Proton lists a CLI as a Pass Plus feature.

#Self-hosting

This one is simple. Bitwarden can be self-hosted officially, with Bitwarden lite for homelabs and the standard deployment for businesses, or with the unofficial Vaultwarden server. Proton Pass is a hosted service, and its pricing page lists no self-hosted edition. If owning the server matters, see Vaultwarden vs Bitwarden.

#Which to choose

• Pick Bitwarden Free if you want a complete free manager with a path to self-hosting, or the cheapest paid upgrade later.
• Pick Proton Free if email aliases matter to you, or you want slightly more generous free sharing.
• Pick Bitwarden Premium if TOTP and attachments are all you want to pay for.
• Pick Pass Plus if you'd use unlimited aliases and dark-web monitoring, or you'll end up on Proton Unlimited anyway.

Neither locks you in. Bitwarden exports to JSON, CSV, encrypted JSON or a .zip with attachments, and Proton Pass to a PGP-encrypted ZIP, a plain ZIP or CSV. For other options, including offline and self-hosted ones, see Bitwarden alternatives and the best open-source password managers.