Bitwarden vs NordPass
NordPass, from Nord Security (the company behind NordVPN), uses Argon2id and XChaCha20; Bitwarden is open source and self-hostable, with Argon2id available as an option.
Where they differ most
Free plan
- Bitwarden
- Unlimited passwords on unlimited devices; sharing with one other user (free two-person organization)
- NordPass
- One user; unlimited passwords with sync; limited simultaneous active sessions
Personal plan, per year
- Bitwarden
- $19.80, Premium
- NordPass
- Unknown
After the first year
- Bitwarden
- Same price
- NordPass
- Not stated
Master password hashing
- Bitwarden
- PBKDF2-HMAC-SHA256, 600,000 iterations (default); optional Argon2id, 32 MiB memory, 6 iterations, 4 parallelism
- NordPass
- Argon2id with a 16-byte salt; memory, iteration and parallelism parameters are not published
Open-source apps
- Bitwarden
- All appsAll apps
- NordPass
- NoNo
Run it yourself
- Bitwarden
- Own serverOwn server
- NordPass
- NoNo
Which one to pick
Pick Bitwarden if
- You want open-source apps and server, and self-hosting
- You want a stated price: $19.80 a year for Premium
Pick NordPass if
- You already pay for Nord Security products
- You prefer Argon2id by default without changing any settings
Every fact, side by side
Open a row to see notes and sources. Highlighted rows differ.
Price
What's encrypted, and how
Who you're trusting
Apps, passkeys and sign-in
Sharing, recovery and extras
Sources (27)
- Research summary of the vendor's pages (no single link)AI-assisted research, spot-checked, checked 2026-10-16
- About BitwardenVendor, checked 2026-10-16
- Bitwarden security white paperVendor, checked 2026-10-16
- Research summary of the vendor's pages (no single link)AI-assisted research, spot-checked, checked 2026-10-16
- Bitwarden help: vault dataVendor, checked 2026-10-16
- Bitwarden: encryption key derivationVendor, checked 2026-10-16
- Bitwarden on GitHubSource code, checked 2026-10-16
- Bitwarden compliance, audits and certificationsAudit, checked 2026-10-16
- Bitwarden pricingVendor, checked 2026-10-16
- Bitwarden help: password manager plansVendor, checked 2026-10-16
- Bitwarden help: product highlights and recent updatesVendor, checked 2026-10-16
- Bitwarden blog: passkey managementVendor, checked 2026-10-16
- Bitwarden help: SSH agentVendor, checked 2026-10-16
- Bitwarden help: export your dataVendor, checked 2026-10-16
- Bitwarden help: emergency accessVendor, checked 2026-10-16
- NordPass securityVendor, checked 2026-10-16
- NordPass support: encryption algorithmVendor, checked 2026-10-16
- NordPass zero-knowledge architectureVendor, checked 2026-10-16
- NordPass Business white paperVendor, checked 2026-10-16
- NordPass pricingVendor, checked 2026-10-16
- NordPass plansVendor, checked 2026-10-16
- NordPass support: Premium vs FreeVendor, checked 2026-10-16
- NordPass support: passkeys FAQVendor, checked 2026-10-16
- NordPass passkeysVendor, checked 2026-10-16
- NordPass featuresVendor, checked 2026-10-16
- NordPass product update, September 2026Vendor, checked 2026-10-16
- NordPass for LinuxVendor, checked 2026-10-16