Bitwarden Overview: The Finest Password Supervisor

A password supervisor makes creating sturdy passwords—and remembering them!—simple. Good password managers will generate sturdy passwords for you, retailer them in a safe vault and log you into web sites, all with out you doing something. There are dozens of cloud-based password managers in the marketplace, however in my testing one persistently rises to the highest—Bitwarden.

Bitwarden is open supply, safe, works throughout platforms, and affords an intuitive workflow that makes it simple to handle your passwords throughout all of your units. The free plan makes a great, primary, however safe password supervisor, and Bitwarden’s premium options price lower than the competitors.

The Open Supply Benefit

The code that runs Bitwarden is open supply. Meaning it is freely obtainable for anybody to examine, assault, search out flaws, and report them. In principle, the extra eyes on the code, the extra hermetic it turns into. Not one of the different main cloud-based password managers on the market are open supply. Whereas this does not make Bitwarden invulnerable, the corporate has by no means had a breach.

Like most password managers, Bitwarden makes use of AES-256 encryption to guard your information. Your passwords are solely ever unencrypted by yourself units. Bitwarden maintains a zero-knowledge system. All of your usernames, passwords, URLs, notes, and different vault information are end-to-end encrypted, which implies that Bitwarden can not see or entry any of your information.

To additional improve its safety standing, Bitwarden is often audited by third-parties to make sure it is safe. The latest general take a look at is from 2023, when the Cure53 safety agency did a supply code audit and penetration take a look at of the core software and library. Particular person platform apps and the online interface have additionally been audited, all of which leaves me feeling fairly good in regards to the safety behind Bitwarden. It is also price noting that, if what you are doing, you’ll be able to set up Bitwarden’s backend code by yourself server for self-hosting should you favor to run your individual cloud.

Utilizing Bitwarden

All the safety on this planet is kinda ineffective, although, if really utilizing the apps and providers is not a great expertise. Thankfully, Bitwarden has a largely easy workflow that integrates properly with completely different platforms and takes benefit of standardized security measures like passkeys. You may even log into Bitwarden with a passkey, which suggests you do not even want to make use of your username or password to open your vault.

There are apps for Android, iOS, Home windows, macOS, and Linux, in addition to extensions for all main internet browsers. I’ve used Bitwarden on each platform and in each browser. Sure, even Opera. Firstly of 2025, Bitwarden switched to native apps for Android and iOS. I by no means minded the outdated app, however that is decidedly quicker in my testing (no less than on Android. The ultimate iOS model isn’t out of beta but).

Bitwarden additionally lately revamped its browser extension, giving it a cleaner look with extra customization choices to tailor the consumer expertise to suit your workflow. There is a new compact mode that saves a little bit of house, and light-weight and darkish themes to suit together with your PC’s theme.