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Password Management

Passbolt

EU-Made Report an error

Panel rating · 6 judges · How to read the stars

Category median

Sovereignty: not determined

0–5 in half steps. 5 means the rubric's top anchor is met on the evidence.

by Passbolt SA · www.passbolt.com

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Passbolt: AI-assisted analysis on whats-best.ai Passbolt: AI-assisted analysis on whats-best.ai (dark)

Add ?theme=dark to the image address for dark backgrounds. The badge shows the category and the month of the latest evaluation, and EU-Made where that is the product’s provenance. It never shows a score.

Passbolt at a glance

Vendor
Passbolt SA
Headquarters
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026
Data hosting
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026
Free plan
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026
Panel verdict
The AI panel rates Passbolt 3/5, the mean of 6 judges. Passbolt is a password manager from Passbolt SA in Luxembourg, offered self-hosted or as a cloud service on Google Cloud Platform databases located in Europe. how scores are made
As of
Vendor pages captured 13 Oct 2026; evaluated by the panel 14 Oct 2026. all sources

Passbolt alternatives, European ones first →

Read this page as one judge. Each weighs the same scores by what they care about.

The Skeptic

Weighted verdict

Has read the breach post-mortems. Reads "zero knowledge" next to unencrypted URLs and item names, "independently audited" with no report, "SSO unlock" where the vendor holds half the key, and "admin recovery" that means the vendor can decrypt — and treats a missing incident history as an answer.

Same scores as the panel view — this lens weights them the way this judge cares.

Scored by The Skeptic

Panel median The Skeptic This judge’s scores over the panel median. Each label opens its reasoning below.
Scores per criterion, in stars out of 5
Criterion Panel median The Skeptic
Encryption model & independent audits 4 of 5 3.5 of 5
Sharing, roles & recovery 3 of 5 3 of 5
SSO, directory sync & provisioning 2.5 of 5 2.5 of 5
Audit logs, policies & reporting 3 of 5 3 of 5
Hosting choice, offline access & export 3.5 of 5 3.5 of 5
European sovereignty 2 of 5 2 of 5

Encryption model & independent audits

How this is scored

What the vendor can prove about its security design: end-to-end encryption with named algorithms and key derivation, which fields are encrypted on the device and which are not, independent audits and penetration tests with published results, a bug bounty, and incident history disclosed.

0 — Security described in adjectives ("bank-grade", "military encryption") with no architecture, no audit and no statement of what the vendor can read.

3 — Encryption algorithms named and "zero knowledge" claimed, but no whitepaper, no statement of which fields stay unencrypted, and audits mentioned without dates, auditors or results.

5 — A published security whitepaper naming algorithms, key derivation and the client-side encryption model, a stated list of what is and is not encrypted (including URLs and metadata), and a named independent audit or certification (ISO 27001, SOC 2) with its date.

8 — Recurring independent penetration tests or code audits with reports or summaries published, a public bug bounty or vulnerability disclosure policy, past security incidents documented with their impact, and open-source clients or cryptography that can be reviewed.

10 — The design is verifiable end to end: full source or cryptographic design public, every field encrypted client-side including metadata, audits by named firms repeated yearly with full reports, a threat model that states what a compromise of the vendor's servers would expose, and incident post-mortems published.

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The Skeptic

The code is fully open source even in the commercial edition, built on OpenPGP with client-side encryption and a maintained security whitepaper — that is architecture, not adjectives. A named independent firm's white-box penetration test and source-code audit of the SCIM and directory-sync components was published with fixes tracked per release, and a bug bounty runs. I found no public information on incident history with impact, on repeated audits of the core cryptography, or on which fields such as URLs and metadata stay unencrypted — that silence is what keeps this below the top band. 1 5 6 7

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Sharing, roles & recovery

How this is scored

How credentials are shared and governed across a company: shared vaults or collections, role-based permissions, view-only and time-limited access, admin account recovery, emergency access, and what happens to shared items when an employee leaves.

0 — Personal vaults only, or sharing by sending a password to another user with no permissions and no record.

3 — Shared folders with all-or-nothing access, no roles, and no stated process for recovering an account or reclaiming credentials from a departing employee.

5 — Shared vaults or collections with read, edit and manage permissions, groups and admin roles, an admin recovery mechanism documented with its key model, and offboarding that transfers a leaver's shared items.

8 — Granular permissions down to hiding the password while allowing autofill, time-limited and one-time sharing with external parties, emergency access with a waiting period, delegated administration per team or location, and approval workflows for sensitive items.

10 — Access is governed and provable: least-privilege defaults, recovery and emergency access designed so the vendor never holds a key and stated so, periodic access reviews supported in the product, and every grant, change and revocation attributable to a person.

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The Skeptic

Sharing is genuinely fine-grained — single items or whole folder trees, permissions set at the password level, groups and role-based access control, plus an admin-approved account recovery the vendor itself labels Escrow, so the key model is at least named. Cryptographic-level instant revocation and least-privilege enforcement for privileged accounts are stated. I found no public information on hiding a password while allowing autofill, time-limited or one-time sharing, emergency access with a waiting period, or the transfer of a leaver's shared items. 1 2 5

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SSO, directory sync & provisioning

How this is scored

How the vault fits into the company's identity stack: SSO with Entra ID, Okta or Google, and the key model behind an SSO unlock; SCIM or directory sync for joiners and leavers; MFA options including hardware keys; and passkey support for users and the vault itself.

0 — Each user creates an account by email; no SSO, no directory sync and no MFA beyond an app code.

3 — SSO available only to sign in to the admin console or on the top tier with no description of how the vault is then decrypted, and users provisioned by CSV invite.

5 — SSO with named identity providers (Entra ID, Okta, Google) documented with how the vault key is derived or released, SCIM or directory sync for provisioning and deprovisioning, and MFA including FIDO2 or hardware keys.

8 — SSO unlock designed so the vendor cannot derive the vault key and stated so, group sync driving vault permissions, automated suspension on deprovisioning, conditional access or device policies, and passkeys stored and used across platforms.

10 — Identity is integrated without trust shortcuts: the SSO key model published and independently reviewed, deprovisioning that revokes vault access and shared items immediately with a log entry, passwordless vault unlock with passkeys, and support for the customer's own key-management or trusted-device approval.

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The Skeptic

SSO with Microsoft, Google, OpenID and AD FS, LDAP and SCIM provisioning, and MFA including Yubikey hardware keys are all on the captured pages, and the directory-sync components were independently audited and ship disabled by default. But I found no public information on how the vault key is derived or released after an SSO sign-in — precisely the point where SSO unlock so often means the vendor holds half the key. That gap holds this at the middle. 1 2 5 7

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Audit logs, policies & reporting

How this is scored

What an administrator and an auditor can see and enforce: event logs of access and changes, password health and breach reports, enforceable policies (master password, MFA, sharing, export), SIEM integration, and reports an ISO 27001 or NIS2 audit can use.

0 — No audit log and no admin policies; the administrator sees a user list.

3 — A basic activity list and a password-strength score, but no exportable log, no enforceable policies, and no record of who viewed or copied a shared credential.

5 — Event logs covering logins, item access, sharing and admin changes, exportable or available through an API, enforceable policies for master password and MFA, and password health and breach-monitoring reports.

8 — Native SIEM integration with named targets (Splunk, Microsoft Sentinel, Elastic or syslog), policies for sharing, export and browser-extension behaviour, log retention stated, and compliance reports aligned to ISO 27001, NIS2 or BSI IT-Grundschutz.

10 — Auditability is complete: every view, copy, autofill and permission change logged with user and device, logs tamper-evident and retained for a configurable period, alerting on anomalous access, and an auditor role that can read logs without access to secrets.

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The Skeptic

An activity log of audit changes, action logs as syslogs or log files, user activity exportable to your own monitoring systems, and enforceable password, passphrase and MFA policies, topped with breached-password checking — the expected baseline is met and exportable. I found no public information on log retention periods, named SIEM targets, policies governing sharing or export, or whether each view and copy of a shared credential is recorded. Syslog gets you to your own SIEM; nothing captured promises what an auditor will ask to see. 1 2 5

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Hosting choice, offline access & export

How this is scored

Where and how the vault runs and how the data leaves it: cloud region choice, a self-hosted or on-premises option, offline access during a vendor outage, client coverage across operating systems and browsers, and a complete, documented export and import path.

0 — Cloud only in an unstated region, no offline access, and no export or an export that drops attachments and shared items.

3 — Cloud with a region named, apps for common platforms, and an export in CSV only that leaves out attachments, folders, TOTP seeds or custom fields.

5 — An EU region or self-hosted option, offline read access on desktop and mobile, clients for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android and the major browsers, and an export that covers all item types including attachments.

8 — Both EU cloud and self-hosted or on-premises deployment documented, a status page with incident history, encrypted full-fidelity export and import from named competitors, and vault access continuing during an outage of the vendor's service.

10 — The customer can run and leave the vault on their own terms: self-hosting with documented high availability and backup, an open or documented export format that preserves structure, permissions and history, and a stated procedure for continued access if the vendor ends the service.

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The Skeptic

An EU cloud on Google Cloud Platform sits alongside a self-hosted path that runs all the way to air-gapped, with Docker, VM and turn-key installs, a documented move from cloud to self-hosted, and KeePass import and export — you can run and leave this on your own terms. Offline mode is labelled Beta, and I found no public information on macOS or Linux desktop apps, on whether exports carry attachments at full fidelity, or on any incident history behind the status page. Short of the top band by a beta label and those unanswered questions. 1 2 3 5 6 8

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European sovereignty

How this is scored

Who the contracting entity and the parent company are, where vault data and metadata are hosted, and who the subprocessors are. Independently sourced by the sovereignty pipeline; end-to-end encryption narrows what a foreign authority could compel, but metadata, logs and the update channel for the client software remain in the vendor's hands, so the chain still counts.

0 — Non-EU vendor and contracting entity, hosting unstated, and subprocessors unnamed.

3 — An EU data region offered while the contracting entity and parent are non-EU without a stated safeguard, or the subprocessor list is absent.

5 — EU hosting as standard or selectable and an EU contracting entity, but the parent company or parts of the chain (support, analytics, email, client distribution) are non-EU.

8 — EU hosting on named infrastructure, EU contracting entity, subprocessor list published with locations, a DPA covering vault metadata and logs, and a self-hosted option that removes the vendor from the data path.

10 — Sovereign end to end and evidenced: European ownership, entity, hosting and every subprocessor, certifications published (ISO 27001, BSI C5 or equivalent), and source code or builds verifiable so the client update channel is not a blind trust in the vendor.

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The Skeptic

The cloud runs in Europe on Google Cloud Platform, the server works standalone without third-party services, and self-hosting or air-gapping takes the vendor out of the data path entirely — 'Made in Europe' on the page is a slogan, not a contracting entity. I found no public information on the legal entity and jurisdiction, on ownership, or on a published subprocessor list with locations, while Cloudflare and Aikido handle caching and the web application firewall. The self-hosting escape hatch earns real credit; the unconfirmed chain spends most of it. 1 3 5 6

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Pricing transparency not rated — the vendor publishes no price

How this is scored

Whether a buyer can compute the real annual cost from public pages alone: price per user and tier, which features (SSO, SCIM, SIEM, self-hosting) sit in which tier, minimum seats, add-ons, and the minimum term.

0 — No public prices at all; every tier is a sales conversation.

3 — A starting price exists, but which business features (SSO, SCIM, audit logs) sit in which tier is unclear — the invoice is unknowable.

5 — Per-user tier prices public with the main features per tier, but at least one commonly needed piece (SSO, SIEM integration, self-hosting, minimum seats) is unpriced or "on request".

8 — Every tier priced publicly with its feature set and seat minimum, add-on prices listed, self-hosted licensing stated, minimum term and VAT treatment given.

10 — Complete price computability: annual invoice derivable for a given number of users, with every add-on, self-hosting licence, support level and renewal condition published.

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The Skeptic

The captured pricing page maps features to tiers legibly — Community, Pro with SSO, audit logs and SCIM, Enterprise with high-availability consulting and a four-hour business-hours SLA — but I found no public information on any price figure: no per-user rate, seat minimum, self-hosted licence, minimum term or VAT treatment. A buyer cannot compute even a rough invoice from these pages. The tier structure is public; the cost is not. 2

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European sovereignty — proven facts

0 of 4 dimensions proven

Built only from facts shown on the vendor's own pages. A dimension we could not prove is left open, not scored as zero.

Ownership Not determined — uncited Report an error
Data residency Not determined ⚠ unverified — uncited Report an error
Subprocessors Not determined ⚠ unverified — uncited Report an error

Questions about Passbolt

Is Passbolt European?

Yes. whats-best.ai classifies Passbolt as EU-Made.

Where does Passbolt store data?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026.

Does Passbolt have a free plan?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026.

What are the best alternatives to Passbolt?

As of 21 Oct 2026, the panel rates Password Depot (3.5/5), Keeper (3/5) and 1Password (3/5) highest among the other 18 Password Management products evaluated. Ratings that look equal are rounded to half stars; the order uses the unrounded rating, then the name. The highest-rated European alternative is Password Depot (EU-Made). Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: how scores are made. The full list, with European products first: Passbolt alternatives.

Where this could be wrong

What we left out

A claim that does not survive our checks costs us the claim, not the page. This is what was taken off this one.

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Sources (8)

The pages every claim on this page was read from — each one checked, dated, and kept verifiable.

  1. 1 Vendor homepage www.passbolt.com Checked 13 Oct 2026 Details →
  2. 2 Pricing page www.passbolt.com Checked 13 Oct 2026 Details →
  3. 3 Privacy policy www.passbolt.com Checked 13 Oct 2026 Details →
  4. 4 Terms of service www.passbolt.com Checked 13 Oct 2026 Details →
  5. 5 Encryption model & independent audits — found from sitemap www.passbolt.com Checked 13 Oct 2026 Details →
  6. 6 Encryption model & independent audits — found from sitemap www.passbolt.com Checked 13 Oct 2026 Details →
  7. 7 SSO, directory sync & provisioning — found from sitemap www.passbolt.com Checked 13 Oct 2026 Details →
  8. 8 Hosting choice, offline access & export — found from sitemap www.passbolt.com Checked 13 Oct 2026 Details →