# Bitwarden vs Passbolt — Password Management

As of 28 Oct 2026, the panel rates [Bitwarden](https://whats-best.ai/software/password-management/bitwarden) 3.5/5 and [Passbolt](https://whats-best.ai/software/password-management/passbolt) 2.5/5 in Password Management. Weighted by what each judge cares about, 3 of the 6 judges pick Bitwarden and 2 pick Passbolt, 1 calls it a tie. Bitwarden scores higher on 5 of 6 criteria (Audit logs, policies & reporting, SSO, directory sync & provisioning, Sharing, roles & recovery, plus 2 more). Passbolt scores higher on 1 of 6 criteria (European sovereignty). Provenance — Bitwarden: Rest of world, United States; Passbolt: EU-Made. Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: [how scores are made](https://whats-best.ai/methodology#ordering).

- Canonical page: https://whats-best.ai/compare/bitwarden-vs-passbolt
- Bitwarden: https://whats-best.ai/software/password-management/bitwarden ([md](https://whats-best.ai/software/password-management/bitwarden.md))
- Passbolt: https://whats-best.ai/software/password-management/passbolt ([md](https://whats-best.ai/software/password-management/passbolt.md))
- Category: [Password Management](https://whats-best.ai/software/password-management.md)
- Data as of: 2026-10-29

**AI-generated.** Both products were evaluated from public evidence by the same panel of AI judges under the same rubric; without that, no comparison is published. Not a hands-on test; no score can be bought, on either side. How scores are made: https://whats-best.ai/methodology

## The short answer

Bitwarden's means run higher on audit and policy (7.7 vs 5.0), identity integration (7.3 vs 4.7), sharing and access control (6.7 vs 4.7), deployment and portability (7.0 vs 5.8) and pricing transparency (5.5 vs 2.5), with the lean 6 to 0 on the first, second and last. Passbolt leads sovereignty 6.0 vs 3.7, 5 leans to 1. Security architecture splits: Bitwarden's mean is 6.8 vs 6.0, yet 2 judges lean Passbolt, 1 Bitwarden, 3 tie. Weighted totals split too — CISO 6.6 vs 6.5, identity engineer 7.1 vs 0, skeptic 6.2 vs 6 favor Bitwarden; compliance auditor 6.5 vs 5.8 and DevOps engineer 6.8 vs 6.6 favor Passbolt; one judge's totals are not shown. Attributes: Bitwarden — US legal entity, US by default data residency, ownership and subprocessor exposure unknown; Passbolt — LU legal entity, EU only residency, US CLOUD Act reach subprocessor exposure, ownership unknown. Passbolt publishes no prices, and pricing is not weighted in its verdicts.

**Choose Bitwarden if:**
- You need single sign-on over SAML 2.0 and OIDC with three documented decryption paths — identity integration means are 7.3 vs 4.7 and the lean is 6 Bitwarden, 0 Passbolt, 0 tie.
- Your auditors drive the purchase — audit and policy means are 7.7 vs 5.0 and the lean is 6 Bitwarden, 0 Passbolt, 0 tie.
- You must budget from a published per-user price — Bitwarden lists Teams at "$4 per month / per user billed annually" and Enterprise at "$6 per month / per user billed annually"; pricing transparency leans 6 to 0, and no per-user price is published for Passbolt (pricing is not weighted in Passbolt's verdicts).
- Your team relies on documented offboarding and emergency access — sharing and access control leans 5 Bitwarden, 0 Passbolt, 1 tie, and the captured pages for Passbolt give no public information on offboarding or emergency access.

**Choose Passbolt if:**
- Your contract requires a European legal entity and European data residency — Passbolt's attributes read legal entity jurisdiction LU and data residency EU only, and sovereignty leans 5 Passbolt, 1 Bitwarden, 0 tie (means 6.0 vs 3.7).
- You must run air-gapped, or self-host from a Raspberry Pi up to a high-availability setup — the Passbolt verdict documents both, weighed in the sovereignty means of 6.0 vs 3.7 (5 leans to 1).
- Your policy requires open-source code in the paid edition — the security architecture lean is 2 Passbolt, 1 Bitwarden, 3 ties, though Bitwarden's mean is higher at 6.8 vs 6.0.
- Your DevOps engineer owns the decision — the weighted total reads Passbolt 6.8 vs Bitwarden 6.6.
- Your compliance auditor signs off — the weighted total reads Passbolt 6.5 vs Bitwarden 5.8.

## Overall

| | Bitwarden | Passbolt |
|---|---|---|
| Panel rating | 3.5/5 | 2.5/5 |
| Provenance | Rest of world | EU-Made |
| Sovereignty | 1 of 4 dimensions proven | 1 of 4 dimensions proven |

## The bench's picks

| Judge | Bitwarden | Passbolt | Pick |
|---|---|---|---|
| The CISO | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 | Bitwarden |
| The Identity Engineer | 3.5/5 | 0/5 | Bitwarden |
| The Compliance Auditor | 3/5 | 3.5/5 | Passbolt |
| The SME Owner | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 | tie |
| The DevOps Engineer | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 | Passbolt |
| The Skeptic | 3/5 | 3/5 | Bitwarden |

## Criterion by criterion

Bench average per criterion, out of 5; the lean counts which product each judge scored higher.

| Criterion | Bitwarden | Passbolt | The bench leans |
|---|---|---|---|
| Encryption model & independent audits | 3.5/5 | 3/5 | Passbolt, 2 of 6 judges |
| Sharing, roles & recovery | 3.5/5 | 2.5/5 | Bitwarden, 5 of 6 judges |
| SSO, directory sync & provisioning | 3.5/5 | 2.5/5 | Bitwarden, 6 of 6 judges |
| Audit logs, policies & reporting | 4/5 | 2.5/5 | Bitwarden, 6 of 6 judges |
| Hosting choice, offline access & export | 3.5/5 | 3/5 | Bitwarden, 1 of 6 judges |
| European sovereignty | 2/5 | 3/5 | Passbolt, 5 of 6 judges |
| Pricing transparency | 3/5 | no published price | not comparable |

## Sovereignty, side by side

| Dimension | Bitwarden | Passbolt |
|---|---|---|
| Legal entity | Incorporated in US | Not determined |
| Ownership | Not determined | Not determined |
| Data residency | Not determined | Not determined |
| Subprocessors | Not determined | US CLOUD Act reach |

## Facts, side by side

Only facts both products carry under the same definition; each is the vendor's own dated statement ([S*n*] → Sources).

| Fact | Bitwarden | Passbolt |
|---|---|---|
| Compliance · ISMS | ISO27001 ISMS [S1] | yes · Passbolt SA [S2] |
| Hosting · Provider | Microsoft Azure · Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS) [S1] | Google Cloud Platform · Belgium · Germany [S3] |
| Legal · Copyright entity | Bitwarden, Inc. [S4] | Passbolt SA [S5] |
| Legal · Entity | 8bit Solutions LLC [S6] | Passbolt SA [S7] |
| Product · Account recovery | enterprise · yes [S1] | yes · yes [S8] |
| Product · Encryption | PBKDF2 SHA-256 · Argon2id · yes · AES-CBC 256-bit [S1] | End-to-end encryption; client-side encryption [S9] |
| Product · Open source | x [S10] | yes · yes [S11] |
| Product · Self hosting | yes [S10] | yes [S7] |

## Sources

- [S1] Encryption model & independent audits — found from sitemap: https://bitwarden.com/help/bitwarden-security-white-paper/ (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S2] Encryption model & independent audits — found from sitemap: https://www.passbolt.com/security/more (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S3] Privacy policy: https://www.passbolt.com/privacy (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S4] Vendor homepage: https://bitwarden.com/de-de/ (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S5] SSO, directory sync & provisioning — found from sitemap: https://www.passbolt.com/incidents/scim-cure53-security-audit-results (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S6] Terms of service: https://bitwarden.com/terms/ (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S7] Hosting choice, offline access & export — found from sitemap: https://www.passbolt.com/downloads (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S8] Vendor homepage: https://www.passbolt.com/ (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S9] Pricing page: https://www.passbolt.com/pricing/pro (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S10] Hosting choice, offline access & export — found from sitemap: https://bitwarden.com/self-hosted-password-manager-on-premises/ (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S11] Encryption model & independent audits — found from sitemap: https://www.passbolt.com/security (checked 2026-10-13)

## Questions

### Which is better, Bitwarden or Passbolt?

As of 28 Oct 2026, the panel rates Bitwarden higher: 3.5/5 against 2.5/5. Weighted by what each judge cares about, 3 of the 6 judges pick Bitwarden and 2 pick Passbolt, 1 calls it a tie. Which one fits depends on the criteria that matter to you; the table on this page shows both side by side, and each judge’s reading has its own page. Both were scored by the same AI bench under the same rubric, from public evidence only, [as the methodology describes](https://whats-best.ai/methodology).

### Is Bitwarden or Passbolt European?

Bitwarden is not European by provenance (Rest of world, United States). Passbolt is European (EU-Made). Provenance is read from each company’s own legal pages: who builds it and who owns it.

---

Cite as: whats-best.ai, "Bitwarden vs Passbolt", AI panel comparison, as of 2026-10-29. https://whats-best.ai/compare/bitwarden-vs-passbolt