Bitwarden pricing tiers — what's free, what's paid
Bitwarden's free tier is the most generous in the password manager space — genuinely usable without paying. Premium adds TOTP and attachments at $10/year, well below 1Password ($36) and Dashlane ($60).
Unlimited passwords, two devices.
- Unlimited vault items
- Two-device sync
- Web vault, browser, mobile, desktop
- Self-hosting
- Basic 2FA (TOTP authenticator app, email)
- Password generator
- Send (encrypted text/file sharing)
- Built-in TOTP authenticator
- File attachments (1 GB)
- FIDO2 / YubiKey 2FA
- Vault health reports
- Emergency Access
Everything in Free, plus advanced features.
- Everything in Free
- Built-in TOTP authenticator
- File attachments (1 GB)
- FIDO2 / YubiKey / Duo 2FA
- Vault health reports
- Emergency Access
- Priority support
- Self-host paid features
Up to six users with Premium features.
- Six Premium accounts
- Shared collections
- Family-wide vault organisation
- Admin user management
- Cheaper than 6× Premium ($60)
- Same Premium features per user
Per-seat for teams and small business.
- Everything in Premium per user
- Shared collections + groups
- Centralised user management
- Event logs / audit trail
- Directory sync (LDAP, Azure AD)
- SSO (Enterprise tier)
SSO, custom roles, advanced policies.
- Everything in Teams
- SSO (SAML 2.0, OIDC)
- Custom roles & policies
- Account recovery administration
- Self-host with full features
- Advanced 2FA enforcement
How Bitwarden pricing compares
| Product | Free tier | Premium | Family |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bitwarden | Unlimited passwords, 2 devices | $10/year | $40/year (6 users) |
| 1Password | None — 14-day trial only | $36/year | $60/year (5 users) |
| Dashlane | 50 passwords, 1 device | $60/year | $96/year (10 users) |
| NordPass | Unlimited passwords, 1 device active at a time | $36/year | $72/year (6 users) |
| LastPass | Mobile-or-desktop only (forced choice) | $36/year | $48/year (6 users) |
| Keeper | None | $35/year | $75/year (5 users) |
Bitwarden's pricing pattern is clear: free tier is the largest, paid tiers cost roughly 1/3 of competitors. The trade-off is in polish — Bitwarden's UI is less refined than 1Password's, and there's no equivalent of Dashlane's bundled VPN.
When to pay
You probably don't need Premium if:
- You're a single user with a separate TOTP app (Authy, Aegis, Google Authenticator).
- You don't store file attachments in your vault.
- Two-device sync is enough (browser + phone, typical).
- You're on the free tier currently and not hitting any limits.
Premium is worth $10/year if:
- You want a single app to handle TOTP — convenient for fewer apps.
- You need vault health reports (compromised password check, weak password list, breach exposure).
- Emergency Access matters — a designated contact can request your vault after a delay if you're incapacitated.
- You use a YubiKey and want FIDO2 protection on the vault itself.
- You want to support an open-source project genuinely.
Discounts and deals
Bitwarden rarely runs promotions. The pricing is already aggressive. Don't expect Black Friday discounts. Family tier is the practical "discount" — 6 Premium accounts for $40 vs $60 if bought separately.
Self-hosting pricing
The Bitwarden server itself is free for personal/family use (source-available licence). Self-hosted Premium features (Emergency Access, FIDO2, vault health) require a per-user licence, sold at the same Premium/Family/Enterprise prices as the cloud — Bitwarden licences your features, not your hosting.
Vaultwarden self-host has no licence concerns — Premium-equivalent features (TOTP, attachments) are unlocked by default. Trade-off documented in our self-host guide.
How this stacks up against competitors
Pricing context against the rest of the password-manager market — at $10/year Premium and $40/year Family, Bitwarden sits 60–80% below polished commercial alternatives. The gap is what funds either marketing budgets, polish budgets, or — in Bitwarden's case — an unusually generous free tier: