Bitwarden vs LastPass

The short answer

• Choose Bitwarden for the stronger free plan, the lowest per-user price, open-source code, self-hosting, and Bitwarden Send for sharing with people outside.
• Choose LastPass if its directory integrations and 100+ policies on Business fit your environment, or your team already uses it.
• Either way, neither covers collecting credentials from outside, or proving an outside share arrived. That's where CredenShare fits.

Who this page is for: teams weighing the two most-searched budget password managers.

Bitwarden vs LastPass at a glance

Checked on October 23, 2026. Bitwarden prices are from its pricing page. LastPass's pricing page showed placeholders, so its prices are from LastPass's own blog (May 2026), billed annually. See the sources below.

Which is cheaper, Bitwarden or LastPass?

Bitwarden, at every level, and it has the more generous free plan.

For individuals, Bitwarden Premium is $1.65 a month against $3 for LastPass Premium. Bitwarden's free plan covers unlimited devices; LastPass Free is limited to one device type.

Which is more secure, Bitwarden or LastPass?

Both encrypt your vault on your device with AES-256, and both say they can't read it.

• Bitwarden lets you choose Argon2id, a memory-hard key derivation function that's harder to attack with specialised hardware, as well as PBKDF2 at 600,000 iterations. Its code is open source, it runs annual source-code audits and penetration tests (Cure53 in 2025), and it can be self-hosted.
• LastPass uses PBKDF2-SHA256 at 600,000 iterations and states: "LastPass has zero knowledge of your encrypted vault data." It holds ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type II and SOC 3, and offers passwordless sign-in.

Bottom line: Bitwarden's openness lets anyone verify its claims, and Argon2id gives an extra margin. Both carry standard certifications.

Which is better for business administration?

• SSO: Bitwarden includes SAML 2.0 and OIDC on Enterprise ($6 per user). LastPass includes 3 SSO apps on Business and unlimited on Business Max ($9 per user).
• Provisioning: both support SCIM. Bitwarden's Directory Connector also syncs from LDAP and Active Directory.
• Policies: LastPass Business advertises 100+ policies. Bitwarden Enterprise covers the essentials, for example requiring SSO or two-step login, and removing export.
• Audit: Bitwarden Teams and Enterprise keep event logs with 60+ event types, exportable to SIEMs.

How do Bitwarden and LastPass share with people outside?

• Bitwarden Send shares text (up to 1,000 characters) or a file (up to 500 MB) with anyone, for up to 31 days, with an optional password, view limit and, on paid plans, email verification.
• LastPass shares between LastPass accounts. Its Sharing Center help says the recipient "must create a LastPass account", and we found no expiring share links.

Which should you pick? Scenarios

Whichever you pick, a credential that has to reach someone outside it, or come from someone outside, is the gap covered below.

What neither Bitwarden nor LastPass does

Both are built around your vault. How each reaches people outside it:

• Bitwarden: Bitwarden Send, text or files, up to 31 days.
• LastPass: shares between LastPass accounts; no expiring links found.

At the edge of the vault, three needs keep coming up that neither covers on its own pages:

1. Collecting a credential from someone outside. A client's hosting login or a vendor's API key: there's no request form, so it usually arrives by email or chat.
2. Proof that an outside handoff arrived. Their logs track your organization; a per-link record of who opened a share, when and from where, isn't described.
3. Handoffs on the recipient's schedule. Links that last longer, or start counting at the first open.

CredenShare is built for that edge, and works with either:

• Secure Requests (Business and Enterprise): send a form with the fields you need; each answer is encrypted in the sender's browser.
• Access logs for every share: views, times and IP addresses, kept 3 to 180 days by plan.
• Expiry from 1 hour to 3 months, optionally from the first open, plus passcodes and view limits.
• Slack, a browser extension, a REST API, SDKs and an MCP server for AI agents.

Shares made in the web app, API and SDKs are encrypted in your browser or client; Slack-created shares are encrypted on our servers. Only the people who create shares and requests need a CredenShare seat.

Before you share a credential: a checklist

These apply whichever tool you use.

1. Send the link and the passcode through different channels. For example, the link by email and the passcode by text message.
2. Watch out for link scanners. Some email security filters and chat apps open links automatically, which can use up a one-view link. Send the link as plain text through a channel that doesn't pre-open links, or allow a second view with a short expiry.
3. Don't open the link to test it. On a one-view link, your test is the view.
4. Pick the shortest expiry that works. If you don't know when the recipient will act, a link that starts counting at the first open is safer than a long fixed window.
5. Rotate after the handoff when you can. The link expires, but the credential is still valid.
6. Keep the original in your password manager. A sharing link is a delivery method, not storage.

Verdict: Bitwarden or LastPass?

• Pick Bitwarden for price, the free plan, open source and self-hosting.
• Pick LastPass if its policy depth and directory integrations match your environment.

Related: 1Password vs Bitwarden · 1Password vs LastPass · CredenShare vs Bitwarden

Sources (checked October 23, 2026):

• Bitwarden:
  • pricing, security white paper, KDF, compliance, audits
  • SSO, SCIM, event logs, Send
• LastPass: blog (business prices), blog (personal prices), business plans, zero-knowledge security, Sharing Center

Bitwarden, LastPass are trademarks of their respective owners. CredenShare is not affiliated with any of them.