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I’ve been using password managers for a decade or so, with Bitwarden being my go-to password manager since 2021. I love it, and I don’t plan to switch anytime soon. Here’s why.
Only I Have Access to My Passwords
I had originally used LastPass, but afterthe company’s announcementthat it would remove cross-device syncing from its free tier, followed byreportsabout the LastPass mobile app hiding fishy trackers up its sleeve, I started perusingalternatives. Good thing I bailed before that2022 security breachwhen a hacker stole customer personal info such as names, emails, phone numbers, IP addresses, and more.
The main reason why Bitwarden piqued my interest was itsopen-sourcebackground coupled with the fact the service uses zero-knowledge encryption.
While zero-knowledge setup is present in many other solutions and while Bitwarden isn’t the only open-source password manager around, the fact that its free tier offers a ton of features and has everything I’m looking for in a password manager won me over in an instant.
The Free Version Gives Me Every Feature I Need
Bitwarden’sfree tieris generous. While your mileage may vary, the free tier offers every feature I might need in a password manager. You’ve got support for unlimited devices, which is great because I’m using Bitwarden on all my computers (two handhelds, one desktop PC, and a Mac Mini),passkeyand credit card support, and more.
While I’m not using the 2FA feature, I do find various vault reports available to premium users, informing you about weak passwords in your vault, or if any of your passwords were exposed in a data breach, quite handy. I just wish Bitwarden would enable this feature for free users as well.
It Works Perfectly on All My Devices
Bitwarden has been working great on all my devices without even a single instance where it bugged out, had issues with logging me in, or stopped working. My main way of using Bitwarden is as a browser extension, which functions flawlessly onFirefoxandChrome. The good news is that Bitwarden also supports Brave, Vivaldi, Edge, Safari, Tor, DuckDuckGo, and Opera browsers, which pretty much covers all the bases.
TheAndroid appalso works flawlessly, and all you iOS usersare covered as well. I remember that the LastPass Android app had lots of issues with autofill popups—which might beGoogle Chrome’s fault, to be honest. It was so annoying to have to open the app and manually copy and paste login credentials, but Bitwarden is a champ in this department. Since I started using Bitwarden, I have only experienced autofill issues with certain apps that are buggy in general.
Bitwarden’s browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox also work well. Autofill popups are instant. Editing credentials is simple and easy to access, and even though I find it a tad annoying, the browser extension locking your vault each time you close the browser by default is a good thing.
You can change the vault lock behavior in options in a few seconds, making it nothing more than a slight nuisance. If you own a device with a fingerprint sensor, a laptop, for instance, you can unlock the vault with biometrics in an instant, and not compromise your security by disabling vault lock completely like I did.
I Love Its Design and UI
I liked Bitwarden’s old UI but had issues with the browser extension’s buttons being too small, which made it tricky to use on handheld PCs. The updated UI design that rolled out to the browser extensions solved that issue.
Elements are larger now, making the extension work much better with touch-screen devices. That’s quite important to me since I use it on mySteam DeckandASUS ROG Allybecause I don’t want to type passwords on my handheld PCs; I just want to autofill them with as few taps as possible.
Before the UI update, using Bitwarden in a browser on a touch-screen device was a bit tricky because the UI elements and the popup window that opens when you click the extension icon were too small for comfort. But now that that’s solved, I don’t really have any negative things to say about the UI.
Filling credentials is also straightforward in cases when Bitwarden doesn’t have a URL of the service saved. A couple of clicks and a few keyboard hits do the job. I can fill in credentials straight from the search list instead of having to click on a result to open an autofill item, and only then being able to copy credentials. What I don’t like is that, sometimes, I’m not offered every choice for websites where I have multiple accounts.
I can also pop out the extension in a new window with a single click, right from the extension’s home screen. I don’t really use this feature on macOS, but on Windows, this is a godsend because ofannoying game launchers, half of which constantly nag me to log in even though I always click the “keep me logged in” button (looking at you EA app and Ubisoft Connect, or whatever you’re called at the moment).
The Bitwarden Android app works great as well. It’s fast, works without hiccups, is super stable, and doesn’t bug out when you need it most. It features a simple design language, has a great-looking dark mode, and has never “forgotten” to offer me verification via fingerprint (it’s so annoying when a mobile app that supports it doesn’t show you biometric verification, and then you have to type your password like some caveman).
As for themacOS app, I had only used it for a couple of days before realizing that I prefer the browser extension, but I can say that it worked fine for what it is. That said, in this day and age, I don’t have any reason to use my password manager as a standalone macOS orWindows app, but your mileage may vary. Bitwarden is available as a standalone app for Linux too. It supports pretty much every distro, and you’re able to select between various installation packages (Flatpak, Snap, AppImage, DEB, RPM).
Bitwarden’s open-source, implements zero-knowledge encryption, its free tier offers everything a regular user might need, its Premium tier is extremely affordable, the platform works great in every form it’s available, it looks good and is straightforward to use, and it’s my favorite password manager. I don’t think I will switch to another solution anytime soon.
