Bitwarden vs 1Password: Which Is Better in 2026?
Reviewed · Updated
Quick answer: Bitwarden is the cheaper pick: a real free plan, then $19.80 a year for Premium with a 30-day refund, and audit reports published every year. 1Password costs $47.88 a year with no free plan and no refunds, but its checkout printed the full total with tax before a card and its account adds a Secret Key. Pick Bitwarden for price and openness, 1Password for the polish and the extra key. Checked 10/09/2026.
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One disclosure before the table. 1Password has an affiliate program that this site may join; Bitwarden has none in our route, and this site has no Bitwarden test account. So 1Password gets the buttons on this page and Bitwarden doesn’t, and Bitwarden’s column comes from its own pricing, terms, audit, and blog pages on 10/09/2026. That doesn’t change the facts below.
Side-by-side comparison
| Feature | Bitwarden | 1Password |
|---|---|---|
| Our score | Not scored: no test account, no affiliate program | 7.1/10 |
| Company | Bitwarden, Inc., California law in the terms | AgileBits Inc., Toronto, Canada |
| Free plan | Yes, unlimited devices and passwords | No, 14-day trial |
| Cheapest paid plan, per year | $19.80 (Premium) | $47.88 (Individual) |
| Paying month to month | Not offered on the pricing page | $4.99 |
| Family plan | Families, $47.88 for 6 people, free trial | Families, $71.88 for 5 people, 14-day trial |
| Card for the trial | Not checked | No |
| Total with tax before a card | Not checked; page says “Taxes not included” | Yes: $52.13 with New York tax |
| Refund | 30 days on all paid services (terms) | None after a charge |
| Two-factor authentication | “Advanced two-step login” on every plan | Authenticator app or security key, off by default |
| What protects the vault | Master password, zero-knowledge encryption | Account password plus a 128-bit Secret Key |
| Open source | Yes, per the pricing page | No |
| Published audits | Cure53 every year 2018–2025, ETH Zurich 2025, SOC 2 and 3, ISO 27001, reports linked | ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type 2, pen tests via a Trust Center |
| Last disclosed incident | Malicious CLI package on npm, 04/22/2026, no vault data affected | Okta support-system intrusion, 09/2023, no user data accessed |
| Export | Encrypted export on the free plan | Desktop and mobile apps only, unencrypted 1PUX or CSV |
| Check prices | No affiliate link |
Prices verified on 10/09/2026 on Bitwarden’s and 1Password’s sites.
Price: free plan, first year and renewal
This is the biggest gap. Bitwarden’s free plan has no time limit and includes unlimited devices and passwords, passkeys, a generator, encrypted export, and sharing with one other person. Premium costs $1.65 a month billed annually, $19.80 a year, and adds the built-in authenticator, file attachments, emergency access, and vault health reports. Families is $3.99 a month, $47.88 a year, for 6 people. Taxes are not included.
1Password has no free plan. Individual is $47.88 a year or $4.99 a month, and Families is $71.88 a year for 5 people, plus tax. Its checkout with a New York ZIP printed $52.13 a year before any card.
Both companies raised prices in 2026. Bitwarden’s blog post of 01/21/2026 introduced the $19.80 Premium price, with a one-time 25% loyalty discount for existing subscribers’ next renewal and no change to the free plan. 1Password’s regular prices rose on renewals from 03/27/2026, to $47.88 and $71.88, according to the customer email quoted in press reports and a Hacker News thread; 1Password’s own announcement wasn’t on its site when I looked. Neither checkout prints a separate renewal price. The 1Password pricing page has the full breakdown.
Trial, refunds and getting out
1Password’s 14-day trial asked for no card and turns read-only if it ends without one. Bitwarden’s free plan makes a trial less important; its Families plan offers a free trial and Premium’s button reads “Create Premium Account,” with no trial mentioned.
On refunds, Bitwarden’s terms say “we offer a 30 day refund policy on all paid Services.” 1Password’s terms say all amounts are non-refundable, with case-by-case exceptions, and its help center says it can’t refund past charges or unused time. On export, Bitwarden lists an encrypted export in every plan; 1Password exports only from its desktop and mobile apps, in plain-text 1PUX or CSV files, per its help center.
Security: audits, incidents and the second key
Bitwarden publishes its audit reports: Cure53 assessments every year from 2018 to 2025 across the extension, desktop, web vault, and core library, a 2025 cryptography review by ETH Zurich’s Applied Cryptography Group, plus SOC 2 Type 2, SOC 3, and ISO 27001 (help center, 10/09/2026). Its code is open source. On 04/22/2026 a malicious version of the Bitwarden command-line tool was published to npm for about 90 minutes; Bitwarden said, as quoted by BleepingComputer, that the problem was limited to the npm distribution channel and that no vault data or production systems were affected. I couldn’t find that statement on Bitwarden’s own site.
1Password lists ISO 27001, 27017, 27018, and 27701 and a SOC 2 Type 2 report, and moved its pen-test reports to a Trust Center in November 2025, so fewer reports are public than before. Its last disclosed incident was the September 2023 Okta support-system intrusion, which it said reached no user data. Its design adds a 128-bit Secret Key, generated on your device and never stored by 1Password, to the account password; you need both on every new device.
Vault and autofill
In the 1Password web app I saved a login with the built-in generator (20 characters by default, symbols off) and saw Watchtower score the vault. The browser extension, with 7,000,000 users and a 3.1 rating in the Chrome Web Store on 10/09/2026, wasn’t installed in my test browser. Bitwarden’s apps and extension weren’t tested at all, so I can’t compare autofill here. Moving in the other direction is easy on paper: 1Password’s import screen listed Bitwarden as a source on 10/09/2026, and commenters on Hacker News described the reverse import into Bitwarden as painless, which I didn’t test.
What it’s like to be a U.S. customer
| Bitwarden | 1Password | |
|---|---|---|
| What you’ll pay at checkout | $19.80 a year, taxes not included; checkout not opened | $47.88 plus tax; $52.13 with New York tax, shown before a card |
| How to cancel | Not checked | Billing → Cancel subscription; active to the end of the term, then read-only |
| Refund | 30 days, per the terms | None after a charge |
| Deleting your data | Not checked | Manage Account → Permanently Delete Account; 30 days to restore |
| Who can sign up | Terms under California law | Worldwide; data region US, Canada or EU; Ontario law |
| Support | Priority support for paid plans, per the pricing page; not contacted | Email, form, chatbot; auto-reply in a minute, human reply pending |
Details for 1Password are in the 1Password review.
Who should pick Bitwarden
- You want a free plan with no time limit, or Premium at $19.80 a year.
- You want audit reports you can read and open-source code.
- You want a 30-day refund window and an encrypted export on any plan.
Who should pick 1Password
- You want the Secret Key as a second secret on top of your password.
- You want the total with sales tax printed before you enter a card.
- You’d pay $47.88 a year for the apps’ polish and Watchtower, and you’ll use the 14 trial days to decide.
Verdict
On the facts this site can check, Bitwarden wins on price, openness, and refunds: a free plan, $19.80 a year for Premium, yearly audit reports, and a 30-day refund. 1Password wins on the checkout, which printed $52.13 with tax before a card, and on the Secret Key. Neither has reported a breach of stored vaults; Bitwarden’s 2026 incident was a tampered command-line package, 1Password’s 2023 incident was its Okta instance. If you’d rather not pay, start with Bitwarden. If you’ll pay either way, the 14-day 1Password trial costs nothing to try. Read the 1Password review for the account walkthrough.
What we checked
- Test accounts: 1Password 14-day trial opened 10/09/2026 and used in the web app. Bitwarden: none, this site has no test account there
- Checkout: 1Password Individual taken to the payment step on 10/09/2026, $52.13 with New York tax shown before a card. Bitwarden: prices read on its pricing page the same day, no checkout opened
- Vendor pages: both pricing pages, 1Password's terms, refund policy and audits page, Bitwarden's terms, audits page and the 01/21/2026 pricing blog post — captured 10/09/2026
- Support: one email to 1Password on 10/09/2026, auto-reply only so far. Bitwarden not contacted
- Owners: Hacker News threads of 02/24/2026 and 09/03/2026 on leaving 1Password; Reddit blocked our network, so no Reddit threads were read
FAQ
Is Bitwarden better than 1Password?
On price, yes: Bitwarden has a free plan with unlimited devices and passwords, and Premium costs $19.80 a year against 1Password's $47.88 (10/09/2026). Bitwarden also publishes more audit reports and gives a 30-day refund. 1Password's checkout printed its total with tax before a card, and it adds a Secret Key to the account password. I opened a test account only at 1Password.
Is Bitwarden free?
Yes. On 10/09/2026 Bitwarden's pricing page listed a free plan with unlimited devices and passwords, passkeys, a generator, encrypted export, and sharing with one other user. Premium adds the built-in authenticator, file attachments, emergency access, and vault health reports for $19.80 a year.
Is there a free version of 1Password?
No. 1Password offers a 14-day trial of its paid plans, which asked for no card on 10/09/2026 and turns read-only when it ends. After that, Individual costs $47.88 a year plus tax. The 1Password free trial page has the details.
Has Bitwarden or 1Password been hacked?
Neither has reported a breach of stored vaults. Bitwarden said a malicious version of its command-line tool was published to npm for about 90 minutes on 04/22/2026 and that no vault data or production systems were affected. 1Password reported suspicious activity on its Okta instance in September 2023 and said no user data was accessed.
Why do people switch from 1Password to Bitwarden?
In the Hacker News threads I read, the reasons were 1Password's price increase on renewals from 03/27/2026, a preference for a free or open-source tool, and in September 2026 objections to a sponsorship decision. Several commenters said the import into Bitwarden was easy. I didn't verify each account.