Bitwarden vs PassBolt: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)
Features, pricing, ratings, and pros & cons — compared head-to-head.
Bitwarden is a free password management tool. PassBolt is a commercial password management tool by Passbolt. Compare features, ratings, integrations, and community reviews side by side to find the best password management fit for your security stack.
CST VerdictBased on our analysis of NIST CSF 2.0 coverage, company size fit, deployment model, here is our conclusion:
Teams of any size who need a password manager without vendor lock-in should start with Bitwarden; its open-source codebase means you're not trapped by proprietary formats or forced upgrades, and you can audit the code yourself instead of trusting a vendor's security claims. The tool handles NIST Identify functions well,credential storage, access controls, and encryption are solid,and costs nothing to deploy at small scale. Skip this if your organization demands single-vendor consolidation or needs deep integration with an existing identity platform; Bitwarden works best as a standalone tool, not as a compliance-reporting hub.
Teams in startups and mid-market companies that need encrypted credential sharing without trusting a third-party SaaS vendor should choose Passbolt. Its open-source architecture and hybrid deployment model eliminate vendor lock-in while meeting PR.AA and PR.DS requirements through end-to-end encryption that keeps the vendor itself unable to access stored secrets. Skip this if your organization requires advanced identity governance, audit workflows, or single sign-on integrations; Passbolt is a credential vault first, not an IAM platform.
