Proton Pass vs 1Password vs Bitwarden: which password manager should you pick?
Bitwarden is the best free plan for passwords alone. Proton Pass is the pick if you also want email aliases from a privacy-first company. 1Password costs money from day one but has the most polished apps and a Secret Key that makes a stolen vault far harder to crack.
By the editors of ProtectYour.com Last reviewed 5 min read
Key takeaways
- Free and only need passwords: Bitwarden. Unlimited passwords on unlimited devices, open source, audited every year.
- Want hide-my-email aliases too: Proton Pass. Its free plan includes 10 aliases and unlimited logins and devices.
- Willing to pay for polish and family recovery: 1Password. No free plan, a 14-day trial, and a Secret Key on top of your password.
- All three support passkeys, run on Windows, Mac, iPhone, Android and the major browsers, and offer six- or five-person family plans.
- None of the three pays us. Pick on features, not on who is advertising.
Why these three
Our password manager comparison covers seven options, including the free managers built into Apple and Google devices. If everyone in your house uses one of those ecosystems, you may not need a separate app at all. Once you do, these three come up most often, and they are different enough that the right one depends on what you want beyond storing passwords.
Features below come from each company's own pricing and help pages, read in October 2026: Bitwarden pricing, Proton Pass pricing and 1Password Families. Plans change, so check before you pay.
The three side by side
Bitwarden, Proton Pass and 1Password, from each company's published plans (October 2026)
| Bitwarden | Proton Pass | 1Password | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes: unlimited passwords and devices, share with one other user | Yes: unlimited logins and devices, 2 vaults, 10 email aliases, share with 2 others | No; 14-day trial |
| Built-in 2FA code generator | Paid plans | Paid plans | Yes |
| Passkeys | Yes, all plans | Yes, all plans | Yes |
| Email aliases | Generates aliases through outside services you connect | Built in: 10 free, unlimited on paid plans | Through Fastmail masked email integration |
| Emergency access | Premium and Families | Paid plans | Family organizer can help members recover |
| Family plan | Up to 6 users | Pass Family, up to 6 users | Families, 5 users |
| Open source | Yes, whole codebase | Yes, apps | No |
| Security extras | Annual third-party audits | Dark web monitoring on paid plans | Secret Key, Travel Mode, Watchtower |
Bitwarden: the free plan to beat
Bitwarden's free plan puts no limit on how many passwords you store or how many devices you sync, and it includes passkey storage. The whole codebase is public on GitHub, and Bitwarden says it commissions annual third-party audits, including source code reviews and penetration tests, from firms such as Cure53 (Bitwarden audit page).
The paid Premium plan adds the built-in authenticator, vault health reports, file attachments, emergency access and support for up to 10 hardware security keys. The Families plan covers up to six people with unlimited shared collections. The apps are functional rather than beautiful, and that is the main complaint people have.
Proton Pass: passwords plus email aliases
Proton Pass is made by Proton AG, the Swiss company behind Proton Mail and Proton VPN. Its free plan includes unlimited logins and devices, two vaults and 10 hide-my-email aliases, according to Proton. An alias is a forwarding address you hand to a website instead of your real email, so a breach or a spam list at that site never reaches your main address; see our email aliases guide.
Pass Plus adds unlimited aliases, the built-in 2FA authenticator, dark web monitoring, emergency access and secure link sharing. Pass Family covers six people. Proton's Unlimited bundle includes the same Pass features alongside Mail, VPN and Drive, according to its pricing page.
1Password: paid, polished, harder to crack
1Password has no free plan. What you pay for, according to 1Password's security page, is a two-part key: your account password plus a 128-bit Secret Key that lives on your devices and is never sent to 1Password. If someone stole 1Password's copy of your encrypted vault, they would need both to open it. That makes a weak account password far less dangerous than it is with most managers. That design matters; see what the LastPass breach taught.
Every plan includes Travel Mode, to hide chosen vaults on your devices while you cross a border, and Watchtower, to flag breached, weak and reused passwords. The Families plan covers five people, and the family organizer can help a member who is locked out recover the account: the feature that matters most for parents and older relatives.
How to decide
- Lowest cost: Bitwarden Free, or Bitwarden Families if you want shared vaults for the house.
- Least spam and fewest breached addresses: Proton Pass, using a new alias for every signup.
- Family with someone likely to forget their master password: 1Password Families, for organizer-assisted recovery. Our family password manager guide compares the family plans in more detail.
- Small business: all three have business plans; see the small business checklist.
Switching is easier than it looks
Whichever you choose, protect the manager itself with a long passphrase (see how to create a strong password) and two-factor authentication, ideally a hardware security key or passkey.
Common questions
Is Bitwarden really free?
Yes. Bitwarden's free plan stores unlimited passwords and syncs across unlimited devices, with passkey support and sharing with one other user. Paid plans add a built-in authenticator, attachments, emergency access and vault health reports.
Is Proton Pass better than Bitwarden?
For passwords alone they are close, and both are open source with free plans. Proton Pass adds built-in hide-my-email aliases, 10 on the free plan and unlimited on paid plans. Bitwarden handles aliases only by connecting an outside alias service.
Does 1Password have a free plan?
No. 1Password offers a 14-day free trial of its Families plan and paid individual, family and business plans.
Which password manager is most secure?
All three use end-to-end encryption and publish independent audits. 1Password's Secret Key adds protection if its servers are breached, because a stolen vault needs both your password and the key stored on your devices.
Your next step
Related guides
- The best password manager for you: 1Password, Bitwarden, Proton Pass and the built-ins comparedAny decent password manager beats reusing passwords. The right one depends on which devices you use, whether you want to pay, and who you share logins with.
- The best password manager for families: sharing, recovery and kidsIf every phone and computer in the house is Apple, or every one is Android and Chrome, the free built-in manager with password sharing may be all you need. For a mixed household, Bitwarden Families is the low-cost pick and 1Password Families is the easiest for less technical relatives.
- Passkeys explained: what they are, where they live, and whether to switchA passkey is a login that replaces the password with a cryptographic key stored on your devices and unlocked with your face, fingerprint or PIN. It cannot be phished or leaked in a breach, so switch wherever a site offers one.
- Email aliases: how to hide your real email address from every site you sign up forAn alias is a separate address that forwards to your real inbox. Give every site its own, and spam, leaks and phishing become much easier to spot and shut off.