1Password vs Bitwarden for Teams (2026): Plans & Security

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This is an editorial research comparison based on official documentation, pricing pages and the sources listed below — how we review. Prices and plans change often; confirm on the vendor’s site.

A shared password manager is one of the first security tools a growing tech company should standardize on. Once credentials for cloud consoles, registrars, SaaS admin panels and CI secrets start living in chat threads and personal browsers, the risk grows with every hire. 1Password and Bitwarden are the two options most small technical teams shortlist, and they take noticeably different approaches to pricing, openness and deployment.

This comparison is for founders, IT leads and engineering managers choosing a business plan for a team of roughly 5 to 200 people. It sits alongside the rest of the tooling decisions in our overview of project management and business software for software teams.

This is an editorial research comparison. It is based on both vendors’ pricing pages, security and compliance pages, published audit lists and help documentation, all checked on October 17, 2026. We did not run our own benchmarks or security tests. Where we describe a security property, we report what the vendor documents or what the cited audits cover.

Quick verdict

Both are credible, independently audited, end-to-end encrypted business password managers. Bitwarden costs less per user, is open source, and its Enterprise plan can be self-hosted, which matters for teams with strict data-residency or infrastructure-control requirements. 1Password costs more, but its Business plan bundles SSO unlock, broad identity-provider provisioning, SIEM streaming and developer integrations for IDEs, CI/CD and infrastructure-as-code tools in a single tier. Its Teams Starter Pack is a simple flat price for teams of up to 20. In our assessment, the choice usually comes down to two things: whether you need to self-host, and whether the per-user price difference outweighs 1Password’s all-in-one Business tier for your team.

At a glance

Dimension	1Password	Bitwarden
Small-team plan	Teams Starter Pack: $24.95/month billed annually for up to 10 members (up to 20 with add-on seats)	Teams: $4/user/month billed annually
Full business plan	Business: $8.99/user/month billed annually	Enterprise: $6/user/month billed annually
SSO	Business (unlock with SSO)	Enterprise (SAML 2.0 or OIDC)
SCIM / directory provisioning	Business (Entra ID/Azure AD, Google Workspace, Okta, OneLogin, Rippling, JumpCloud)	Teams and Enterprise (SCIM and Directory Connector)
Self-hosting	Not offered on its business pricing pages	Enterprise organizations
Hosting regions	US, Canada or EU (1Password.com, .ca, .eu)	Bitwarden cloud or your own servers
Source code	Proprietary	Open source on GitHub
Certifications listed	SOC 2 Type II; ISO 27001, 27017, 27018, 27701	SOC 2 Type II, SOC 3, ISO 27001, HIPAA
Free family accounts for staff	Business	Enterprise
Free trial	14 days (Business)	Free trial (14 days for Enterprise, per Bitwarden’s help center); a free personal plan also exists

Security model

Both products encrypt vault data on your device before it reaches their servers, so neither vendor can read your stored items under normal operation. The key-derivation designs differ.

1Password protects each account with two secrets: your account password, which it says it never stores, and a 128-bit Secret Key. Its security pages call this dual-key encryption and Two-Key Derivation: both secrets are needed, so a password alone is not enough. 1Password also uses the Secure Remote Password (SRP) protocol, so your password is not sent over the internet during sign-in. Vault data is encrypted with AES-256.

Bitwarden describes itself as zero-knowledge. Vault data is encrypted with AES-256-CBC and HMAC-SHA256, and sharing within organizations uses RSA-OAEP. Your master password is stretched with a configurable key-derivation function. PBKDF2 defaults to 600,000 iterations on the client, and Argon2id is available as an alternative. Bitwarden’s security therefore rests on the strength of the master password and the KDF settings rather than a second device-held secret. Admins should enforce strong master passwords through policy, which Bitwarden’s pricing page lists for Enterprise only.

Neither approach is “unbreakable”, and both depend on device security and sensible admin policies. In our assessment, 1Password’s Secret Key is a meaningful extra layer of protection, because a weak or reused account password alone is not enough. Bitwarden’s open codebase makes its implementation easier for outsiders to inspect.

Audits, certifications and incidents

Both vendors publish independent security work, in different ways.

1Password lists SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001:2022, 27017:2015, 27018:2019 and 27701:2019 certifications. Its security-assessments page says that, from November 3, 2025, annual penetration test reports are distributed through the 1Password Trust Center rather than posted publicly. It also runs a public bug bounty on HackerOne, which it moved there in December 2024. Older public reports on that page include a 2020 assessment by Independent Security Evaluators.

Bitwarden keeps a public list of assessments, with reports linked from its “Is Bitwarden audited?” page. The 2025 entries include Cure53 audits of the browser extension and autofill overlay, core application, desktop app, web vault and RustCrypto components. They also include a cryptography review by the Applied Cryptography Group at ETH Zurich, done under the assumption of a fully malicious server, a mobile app assessment by Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42 and a web app and network assessment by Fracture Labs. Bitwarden lists SOC 2 Type II, SOC 3, ISO 27001 and HIPAA compliance and runs a HackerOne bug bounty.

One recent incident is relevant to engineering teams. In an April 23, 2026 statement, Bitwarden said a malicious version of its CLI package (@bitwarden/cli 2026.4.0) was briefly distributed through npm on April 22, 2026, in connection with the wider Checkmarx supply-chain incident. The CVE record (CVE-2026-42994) puts the exposure window at about 90 minutes, from 21:57 to 23:30 UTC. Bitwarden said it found no evidence that end-user vault data or production systems were compromised. It advised anyone who installed that version from npm during the window to remove it, rotate any secrets exposed on the machine and update to 2026.4.1. The lesson applies to any tool your developers install from a package registry: pin versions and watch vendor advisories.

Self-hosting and data residency

This is the clearest difference. Bitwarden lets Enterprise organizations run the Bitwarden server on their own infrastructure, using Docker on Linux or Windows. Its help center also documents a lighter “Lite” deployment and offline or air-gapped installs. A self-hosted organization is licensed from your cloud subscription, and Bitwarden notes that only Families and Enterprise organizations can be imported to self-hosted servers. Self-hosting gives you full control of backups and network placement, but you are responsible for patching, uptime and monitoring. If you go that route, our guide to DigitalOcean, Vultr and Hetzner VPS plans covers VPS options, and our guide to hosting types explains what running your own server involves.

1Password is a hosted service, and its business pricing pages list no self-hosted option. It addresses residency with regions instead: you can create an account on 1Password.com (US), 1Password.ca (Canada) or 1Password.eu (European Union). The region you choose determines where your data is stored, and 1Password says its staff can’t access your saved items in any region.

Admin features, SSO and provisioning

For small teams, the tier boundaries matter more than the feature lists.

1Password Teams Starter Pack covers shared vaults, guest accounts (up to 5) and the core apps for up to 20 people. 1Password’s FAQ says Business adds identity-provider integrations, expanded role-based vault sharing and permissions, Watchtower alerts and broader administration and reporting.
1Password Business adds unlock with SSO, user and group provisioning from major identity providers, event streaming to Splunk, Elastic, Sumo Logic and Panther, custom groups, policies, usage reports and up to 20 guests. Organizations with 101+ users also get personalized onboarding and a customer success manager.
Bitwarden Teams already includes event logs, user groups, directory sync, SCIM provisioning, organization-wide two-step login through Duo and a management API. It does not include SSO, enterprise policies or custom roles.
Bitwarden Enterprise adds passwordless SSO with any SAML 2.0 or OpenID Connect identity provider, enterprise policies, custom roles, admin account recovery, Access Intelligence risk reports and the self-host option.

If your company runs on an identity provider and wants SSO on the password manager, compare 1Password Business with Bitwarden Enterprise, not Teams. If you are standardizing team chat at the same time, our Slack vs Microsoft Teams comparison covers that decision, and the same identity provider usually ends up in front of both.

Developer and secrets features

1Password’s pricing table lists SSH key signing, Git commit signing, the CLI and SDKs on both Teams Starter Pack and Business, while integrations with IDEs, CI/CD and infrastructure-as-code tools are Business-only. Bitwarden offers a CLI and a public API for organization management. Secrets for applications and pipelines live in Bitwarden Secrets Manager, a separate product that Teams and Enterprise organizations can add for an additional fee. Teams that plan to inject secrets into CI should price that add-on. These capabilities are not one-to-one, so compare the specific workflow you need, such as SSH agent, CI injection or a Kubernetes integration, against each vendor’s documentation.

Pricing compared (as of October 2026)

Plan	1Password	Bitwarden
Free	No free business plan; 14-day Business trial	Free personal plan; a Free organization shares with one other user
Small-team tier	Teams Starter Pack: $24.95/month billed annually ($299.40/year) for 10 members; extra seats $4.99/seat/month, max 20 members. Monthly billing shown at $2.99/user	Teams: $4/user/month billed annually
SSO-capable tier	Business: $8.99/user/month billed annually ($107.88/year) or $10.99 billed monthly	Enterprise: $6/user/month billed annually
Enterprise / large orgs	Contact sales; volume pricing available	Request a quote for tailored plans
Example: 25 users with SSO, annual	25 × $107.88 = $2,697/year	25 × $72 = $1,800/year

Prices are in USD, and taxes are excluded where the vendor says so. Bitwarden’s help center says Teams and Enterprise can be billed annually or monthly, but its pricing page shows only annual rates. 1Password also lists CAD and EUR prices. 1Password offers discounts for nonprofits and journalists, plus volume pricing through sales. The 25-user example uses list prices only and compares plans that are close, not identical, in features. 1Password business pricing · Bitwarden business pricing

Prices verified against each vendor’s official pricing page (listed under Sources). Plans, promotions and renewal prices change often — confirm on the vendor’s page before you buy.

Which should you choose?

Choose 1Password if…

You want SSO unlock, broad IdP provisioning, SIEM streaming and developer integrations (IDE, CI/CD, infrastructure as code) in one Business tier.
You are a team of 10 to 20 and want a flat, predictable Teams Starter Pack price.
You need data stored in the US, Canada or EU but don’t want to run servers.
You value the extra protection of a device-held Secret Key.

Choose Bitwarden if…

Price per user is a deciding factor, especially as headcount grows.
You need to self-host for compliance, sovereignty or air-gapped environments, and have the operations capacity to do it well.
You want an open-source codebase and a long public list of audit reports.
You need SCIM provisioning on a lower tier and can live without SSO until Enterprise.

Try 1Password Business · Try Bitwarden for teams

FAQ

Can 1Password be self-hosted?

1Password’s business pricing pages and the support pages we reviewed list no self-hosted server. It offers US, Canadian and EU hosting regions instead. If on-premises hosting is a hard requirement, Bitwarden Enterprise is the option of the two that supports it.

Is Bitwarden Teams enough for a startup?

For many small teams, yes. It includes shared collections, event logs, groups, directory sync and SCIM. You’ll need Enterprise for SSO, enterprise policies (such as master-password requirements) and self-hosting.

Do employees get personal accounts?

1Password Business includes a free Families plan for every user. Bitwarden includes a free Families plan for Enterprise users.

How do I check the latest audits?

1Password points to its Trust Center for current penetration test reports and offers its SOC 2 report on request. Bitwarden links its reports from its audit page and offers its SOC 2 report on request.

1Password vs Bitwarden for Teams: Business Password Managers Compared