Updated on: December 27, 2024
Short on time? Here’s the final verdict:
- 🥇 Bitwarden — Winner in Security & Data Privacy, Basic Features, Advanced Features, Apps & Browser Extensions, and Plans & Pricing. Bitwarden is secure and open-source, offering strong password management and advanced features like end-to-end encryption, flexible password sharing, and extensive 2FA support.
Due to its history of data breaches and ongoing security concerns, I no longer recommend LastPass as a secure password manager. For the best password manager in 2025, I recommend 1Password. It combines top-notch security, a seamless user experience, and robust features, making it the most reliable and secure option on the market.
LastPass and Bitwarden are two widely used password managers — both offer feature-rich plans, strong encryption, and free and low-cost premium options for individuals and families. However, I don’t recommend LastPass because I’m not 100% confident it can protect your data.
The two products have a lot in common, providing all of the essential features of a premium password manager, such as:
- 256-bit AES encryption.
- Advanced 2FA options.
- Password vault auditing.
- Secure password sharing.
But LastPass and Bitwarden are different in a lot of important ways — LastPass is easier to use and comes with more unique features, including multiple account recovery options. And Bitwarden is open-source, provides both cloud and self-host data options, and is around a third of the cost of most competitors.
Concerned about the safety of their data, many of our readers have asked us about the best LastPass alternatives. So, I put LastPass and Bitwarden in a head-to-head matchup to see how they compare in terms of security, features, plans and pricing, ease of use, and customer support.
After weeks of testing and research, I chose a winner for this comparison — and while both products perform well in many areas, the decision ultimately came down to which one offers better security and overall value.
LastPass vs. Bitwarden — Quick Overview
Security & Data Privacy — Bitwarden Has a Local Data Storage Advantage
Both LastPass and Bitwarden offer basic security features, but Bitwarden has a better track record of keeping user data safe (it’s among the best password managers in 2025). The similar security features include:
- 256-bit AES encryption — unbreakable encryption which governments and banks use to protect data.
- Zero-knowledge architecture — neither LastPass nor Bitwarden staff can access users’ password vaults.
- Two-factor authentication (2FA) — uses a second form of verification to confirm user identity when logging in.
LastPass is a cloud-based password manager that stores encrypted user data on its company servers. While data is encrypted and decrypted locally before being sent to LastPass’s servers, these servers were compromised during breaches in 2022. There have also been reports that attackers later exploited the stolen encrypted vault data (LastPass denies this) in December 2024 to steal millions of dollars in cryptocurrency.
Bitwarden stores all encrypted data in the Microsoft Azure Cloud. Like with LastPass, data is encrypted and decrypted at the device level. However, Bitwarden also offers a self-hosting option for tech-savvy users that want to host their own data, and it has no history of data breaches.
LastPass and Bitwarden also offer a wide range of 2FA options. LastPass supports USB tokens (Duo, YubiKey), biometric scanners, and card readers, whereas Bitwarden offers the same in addition to email verification. Both also offer built-in TOTP generators. LastPass will auto-fill one-time passwords with a single click, but Bitwarden will auto-fill the TOTP only if you’re not using auto-fill on page load. If you’re using auto-fill on page load, you’d have to copy and paste the TOTP. However, Bitwarden has auto-fill on page load off by default.
LastPass offers several account recovery options to help users regain access to their vault if they forget their master password. The account recovery options include mobile account recovery with Face or Touch ID, a recovery one-time password, SMS recovery, and a master password reminder. There’s also an option to restore a previous master password — but this is only available if the master password was changed within the last 30 days.
Bitwarden, on the other hand, doesn’t provide account recovery options, but it’s possible to get into your vault by using biometric logins on another device or emergency access if it’s enabled. Additionally, you can set up a master password hint. Bitwarden also allows you to make an encrypted backup of your vault (prior to losing access), which you can import into your new account if you lose your master password. But this isn’t nearly as convenient as the account recovery options that LastPass offers.
Finally, Bitwarden is an open-source password manager and is considered very safe — it has an impeccable track record, and its source code is regularly reviewed by security experts worldwide.
Winner (Security & Data Privacy): Bitwarden
LastPass and Bitwarden have strong security measures, but Bitwarden has a clear advantage due to its open-source nature, optional local data storage, and spotless security record.
In contrast, LastPass has faced multiple security breaches, including a significant incident in 2022, which makes me question its ability to protect users’ sensitive data.
While Bitwarden lacks the convenience of LastPass’s intuitive built-in TOTP authenticator and broader compatibility with third-party TOTP apps, its lack of breaches gives it the edge.
Basic Features — Bitwarden Is Better for Flexibility
LastPass and Bitwarden’s basic password management features are both pretty good. Both are compatible with the most popular operating systems and a wide range of browsers, and they both come with essential features like:
- Unlimited password storage.
- Multi-device synchronization.
- Auto-save and auto-fill.
- Password generator.
- Secure notes.
- Identity storage (personal information, credit cards, addresses).
Both LastPass and Bitwarden provide unlimited password storage across multiple devices. They also have an auto-fill feature that correctly identifies saved sites and automatically fills in information like logins, credit cards, and personal details. They both handle auto-fill well — though Bitwarden needs a few more settings enabled for it to work smoothly.
LastPass and Bitwarden both offer password-sharing features, too. LastPass allows for easy password sharing with other users, but you can’t share entire folders with other users without upgrading to LastPass Families. Bitwarden’s Send feature allows for sharing a single piece of text or file with an unlimited number of users, but if you want to share passwords you need to do so through the Organization feature. Annoyingly, unless you have a Family account you can only add 2 users to an Organization — it’s quite limiting, and I wish you could just enter in a recipient email address.
During my tests, LastPass’s auto-save and auto-fill functionalities worked great. Every time I created a new account, LastPass immediately asked me whether I wanted to save it. And every time I navigated to a login field, LastPass auto-filled my login credentials — but users can also choose to disable auto-fill for specific sites (for additional security). Bitwarden’s auto-fill is equally user-friendly, and you have the option to enable auto-fill on page load if you choose, or alternatively to set it to auto-fill just when you click in the login field. However, Bitwarden makes it a bit harder to disable auto-fill for specific domains — you have to manually disable it on each individual login entry.
LastPass’s password generator is good. The default password length is 12, which isn’t great, but you can easily change it to create passwords that are up to 99 characters long. Passwords can contain uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. That said, Bitwarden’s password generator is one of my favorites. It lets you create passwords that are 5–128 characters long (the default password length is 14). Passwords can include numbers, letters, and symbols like LastPass, but I like the passphrases option the best. It allows you to easily create random word combinations that are still reasonably easy to remember. LastPass and Bitwarden also both allow you to view your generated password history, which is useful if the auto-save failed or you forgot to save a password.
LastPass lets you save payment cards, bank accounts, addresses, and notes. LastPass’s addresses template is decent, but it doesn’t have fields for passport or license numbers. There isn’t a dedicated identity folder either. You can create one manually — but that isn’t super intuitive. Likewise, while Bitwarden’s identities work just as well, you have to manually create folders to store your identities in.
Winner (Basic Features): Bitwarden
LastPass and Bitwarden offer similar basic password management features, but Bitwarden’s password generator can create passphrases. That said, LastPass makes it easier to share passwords and data, and its auto-fill settings are more straightforward. However, Bitwarden’s customizable features offer a more flexible experience overall (and it’s a more secure option).
Advanced Features — Both Have Good Extras, but Bitwarden Is More Secure
LastPass and Bitwarden offer several advanced features. The ones they have in common include:
- Password auditing.
- Emergency access.
- Secure file storage.
- Passkey support.
LastPass’s Security Dashboard performs dark web monitoring and a vault audit. It gives you a vault score according to password strength, weak or reused passwords, and accounts with inactive MFA. It also makes it very easy to change weak or potentially compromised passwords.
Bitwarden can also audit password strength, look for password breaches, and show you weak or reused passwords, but you have to check everything manually — there are no automatic alerts.
LastPass also automatically monitors all your linked email addresses — I didn’t have to add them — whereas Bitwarden only monitors the email address you use to create your account. There’s also an option to remove email addresses you don’t want LastPass to monitor.
LastPass lets you pick a contact to gain emergency access to your account after a pre-set waiting period (up to 30 days). It’s super easy to set up — it took me about 5 minutes to designate my brother as my emergency contact. Bitwarden’s emergency access is also pretty simple to set up, and it works similarly to LastPass’s. It was really easy to add my friend as my emergency contact and to set up her access level and the waiting period.
LastPass also has Country Restriction, which allows you to change and limit the countries your vault can be accessed from.
Bitwarden does have the advantage of more extensive passkey support. Passkeys are a next-generation authentication tool, providing many benefits that traditional passwords don’t have. LastPass does support passkeys, but right now, they’re in beta and only available when you use LastPass’s Chrome browser extension on desktop. In contrast, Bitwarden supports passkeys on desktop and mobile alike.
Finally, LastPass and Bitwarden both offer 1 GB of encrypted storage for your data — which is a helpful way to ensure the security and accessibility of your sensitive information.
Winner (Advanced Features): Bitwarden
While LastPass offers valuable features like dark web monitoring and country restriction, Bitwarden provides more comprehensive passkey support. Ultimately, both password managers have good advanced features, but Bitwarden takes the edge simply because it’s more secure.
Apps & Browser Extensions — Bitwarden Is Slightly Better
The feel of both LastPass and Bitwarden’s desktop apps is quite similar, and the functionality is also similar. Bitwarden, however, has more functionality and allows for easy sharing on its desktop app. LastPass forces you to use the web app for sharing passwords and files.
Overall, both LastPass and Bitwarden provide a robust set of password management features, but Bitwarden offers some additional functionality that’s useful for both tech-savvy users and those looking for more customization options.
LastPass’s mobile app has a clean and user-friendly interface — it’s well-organized, making it easy to navigate and access various features. The layout is intuitive, and you can easily add, edit, and manage your stored data on the app. Bitwarden’s mobile app also has a clean and organized user interface.
LastPass’s mobile app also offers the same features as the desktop app, including auto-fill for passwords and forms, a password generator, secure notes, and the ability to organize data with folders. The app also supports biometric authentication, such as fingerprint or Face ID for added security. The Bitwarden mobile app offers less functionality than LastPass, although it does include auto-fill, a password generator, secure notes, and biometric authentication.
LastPass and Bitwarden’s browser extensions offer a similar range of features, such as auto-fill for passwords and forms, password generator, and secure notes. Bitwarden will still let you share notes or passwords from the browser extension, but LastPass takes you to the sharing center in the web app. LastPass and Bitwarden both have browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari, and Opera — with Bitwarden also offering extensions for Brave, Vivaldi, and Tor.
Winner (Apps & Browser Extensions): Bitwarden
Bitwarden edges out LastPass with broader browser extension support, including Brave, Vivaldi, and Tor, and superior desktop app functionality, allowing easy sharing directly within the app.
Ease of Use & Setup — LastPass Is Easier to Use
LastPass’s vault importing process is good, and it provides excellent auto-saving and auto-filling. Bitwarden is also good at importing, auto-saving, and auto-filling, but sharing is less intuitive than with LastPass, and some of its features are needlessly complicated.
LastPass lets you import passwords from a range of other password managers and browsers. Importing passwords into the LastPass vault is very simple — there are even on-screen instructions that guide users through the entire process.
Bitwarden supports importing passwords from a wider range of password managers and browsers, and it also supports more file formats than LastPass. Unfortunately, Bitwarden doesn’t provide a tutorial or guidelines but the import process is basically the same as with LastPass — it was fairly easy to import a CSV file with my passwords into Bitwarden.
Additionally, I really like that Bitwarden allows you to import passwords via any of its apps and even the browser extension. LastPass forces you to use the web app to import passwords, which is a bit limiting.
LastPass’s apps and browser extensions are very easy to use. Once you set up your account, LastPass provides a short vault tutorial that shows you how to use all of its features. It almost holds your hand through the entire setup and getting started process — which is great for first-time password manager users. But even if you skip the tutorials, all of LastPass’s functions are easy to find and understand — the interface is very intuitive, both for non-technical and advanced users.
Bitwarden isn’t as easy to use as LastPass. During my tests, I found it hard to locate some features or understand how they worked, and I had to check Bitwarden’s FAQ pages a few times to find my way around. And unlike LastPass, which has useful in-app tutorials, Bitwarden doesn’t provide tutorials for any of its features.
Winner (Ease of Use & Setup): LastPass
LastPass is very user-friendly, offering useful in-app tutorials, simple features, and an overall intuitive interface. While Bitwarden is also a good password manager, it’s a little less intuitive to use.
Plans & Pricing — Bitwarden Is a Lot Cheaper
Both LastPass and Bitwarden provide more free features than many other password manager plans on the market. Their paid plans are both pretty affordable, but Bitwarden has a clear edge in terms of pricing.
LastPass Free is a fair option with 50 MB of encrypted storage and unlimited password storage. It includes LastPass’s password generator, auto-fill for forms and payments, compatibility with 2FA authenticator apps, LastPass’s authenticator for passwordless login, a built-in TOTP generator, one-to-one password sharing, and data breach notifications. It doesn’t however allow syncing between device types, so you have to choose whether to use it on desktop or mobile devices.
Bitwarden’s free plan for personal use is one of the best free plans on the market — it includes unlimited password storage, syncing across unlimited devices, one-to-one password sharing, 2FA compatibility with TOTP authenticators, biometric logins, and a local data storage option.
LastPass and Bitwarden both offer premium plans for individuals and families, too. LastPass Premium ($3.00 / month) includes unlimited password storage on unlimited devices, password vault auditing, advanced 2FA options, 1 GB secure storage, and multiple recovery options, while Bitwarden Premium ($1.00 / month) offers the same — just without the recovery options.
LastPass Families ($4.00 / month) provides coverage for up to 6 users, with unlimited vault sharing between users and a helpful sharing dashboard to help sort out who has access to which passwords. Bitwarden Families ($3.33 / month) also provides coverage for up to 6 users, as well as an extra 1 GB of storage for shared items.
LastPass offers a 30-day free trial on both its Premium and Families plans, but no money-back guarantee. While Bitwarden doesn’t offer a free trial of its Premium plan, it offers a 30-day money-back guarantee and has a 7-day free trial of its Families plan.
Winner (Plans & Pricing): Bitwarden
Bitwarden and LastPass’s free plans offer unlimited password storage and one-to-one password sharing. However, Bitwarden provides syncing across multiple device types with its free plan. Additionally, Bitwarden’s paid plans offer a higher level of protection at a much lower cost than LastPass.
Customer Support — LastPass Has Better Support Options
LastPass and Bitwarden provide some similar customer support options. However, LastPass offers helpful live chat and phone support, and its knowledge base is much easier to understand than Bitwarden’s knowledge base.
LastPass has an extensive help center with very thorough answers to the most popular questions and video tutorials on how to use LastPass’s features. Bitwarden also has a detailed knowledge base and extensive FAQ pages, covering all of its features. However, the answers aren’t always easy to understand for non-technical users.
LastPass also offers live chat for premium users during US business hours, which is really useful. It has a phone support option, too — when I tested this I got a call back within 5 minutes and the support rep was super helpful. In contrast, Bitwarden doesn’t offer live chat or phone support.
LastPass also has a community forum and email support. The forum is ok for talking and exchanging information with other LastPass users, and the user community is fairly active. Bitwarden’s forum has a very active and helpful user community.
The email support from LastPass is also decent, but it’s only available for premium users, and it’s pretty hard to find a link for it. LastPass first takes you to the FAQ page to search for answers to your questions, and only then is a link to LastPass’s email support displayed at the bottom of the page if you can’t find the answer via the FAQ. They got back to me with a detailed answer to my question in just under 4 hours though, which is a really good response time.
When it comes to email support, Bitwarden is excellent. I sent a query to the support team, and they got back to me in less than 2 hours! The answer I received was very helpful and detailed, and the customer support representative was polite and professional.
Winner (Customer Support): LastPass
LastPass and Bitwarden both offer decent customer support options — but LastPass’s knowledge base and video tutorials are better, and it offers phone support and live chat where Bitwarden doesn’t. While Bitwarden’s email support was slightly better, it was much easier to find answers to my questions in LastPass’s extensive and user-friendly knowledge base. Bitwarden’s knowledge base can be hard to understand for non-technical users.
Overall Winner: Bitwarden
Bitwarden is the better choice for most users in 2025. As an open-source password manager with local data storage options, Bitwarden offers better security and transparency. While not as user-friendly as LastPass, Bitwarden’s straightforward interface and lower pricing make it great if you prioritize security and value.
LastPass, while still providing good features like password vault auditing and account recovery options, has been compromised by several high-profile security breaches. The security risks posed by these breaches make it a less trustworthy choice.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is LastPass better than Bitwarden?
While LastPass offers a more intuitive user interface, additional account recovery options, and automatic dark web monitoring, recent security breaches have impacted its reliability. For non-technical users who prioritize ease of use, LastPass may still seem like the better choice, but the ongoing security risks make it less trustworthy compared to Bitwarden.
Bitwarden has better security, transparency, and affordability. As an open-source password manager with the option for local data hosting, it offers superior protection and greater control over your data.
Does Bitwarden have better security than LastPass?
Bitwarden and LastPass have a very similar security infrastructure — both programs use 256-bit end-to-end AES encryption to secure user data on their servers, and they both provide advanced 2FA options like biometric scanning, TOTP authentication, and even USB token login.
However, LastPass has faced multiple security breaches in recent years that exposed encrypted user vaults. While LastPass’s encryption has never been broken, repeated security incidents raise concerns about the reliability of its infrastructure.
On the other hand, Bitwarden’s open-source design allows its code to be regularly reviewed and scrutinized by security experts around the world. This transparency and peer review process give Bitwarden an edge when it comes to security, as vulnerabilities can be identified and addressed more quickly.
Do Bitwarden and LastPass work on Android and iOS devices?
Yes, LastPass and Bitwarden both provide excellent apps for Android and iOS, as well as Windows, macOS, and Linux. However, LastPass’s mobile apps are more intuitive and user-friendly and also offer better functionality than Bitwarden’s mobile apps.
LastPass also allows access to its Security Dashboard on its mobile apps, while Bitwarden only offers vault auditing via its web app.
Is LastPass still free?
LastPass still offers a free plan with unlimited password storage, but without syncing between device types. If you want to access your saved logins on both a mobile device and a computer, you now have to upgrade to LastPass Premium.
However, I no longer recommend LastPass, even with its free plan, due to recent security concerns and breaches. Bitwarden, on the other hand, offers one of the best free options available, providing unlimited password storage across unlimited mobile and desktop devices.