Free and Paid Password Managers: What You Get
Chrome's manager has held my logins for more than four years and costs nothing. Bitwarden Premium is $19.80 a year. Here is what the money buys, and the one thing the free one keeps getting wrong.
More than four years on a password manager I have never paid a rupee for. That is the part of this that surprises people, so here are the numbers next to it.
| Option | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Google Password Manager | Free | Built into Chrome on every platform and into every Android app, with sync, password checkup and breach alerts |
| Bitwarden Free | Free | Unlimited devices and unlimited items, apps for browser, mobile and desktop, passkeys, sharing with one other person |
| Bitwarden Premium | $1.65 a month, billed $19.80 a year | The paid personal tier |
| Bitwarden Families | $3.99 a month, billed $47.88 a year | Up to 6 users |
Prices are from Bitwarden's pricing page and the Google Password Manager page, both read on 1 October 2026. I pay for NordPass once a year as well. I am not putting its price in the table, because its plans page would not load for me that day and I am not going to quote a figure from memory.
Run the bill for a family of four
Say four people in one house want a paid manager. Four Bitwarden Premium subscriptions come to $79.20 a year. One Families plan, which covers up to 6, comes to $47.88. The family plan saves $31.32 a year and has room for two more people. That is the whole calculation, and it is the same shape at most vendors: the second seat is where paying starts to make sense.
For one person the sum is different. $19.80 a year against a free tier that already stores unlimited items on unlimited devices. The extras on top are what the money buys.
What four years on the free one has been like
I have used Chrome's built-in password manager for more than 4 years, and I also pay once a year for NordPass. The free one holds everything and syncs to my phone without me arranging it. What it does badly is autofill in the wrong place: it drops my email or password into a box that is not a login field, usually a search box on a page that has a login somewhere else. I notice when the search results come back as my own email address.
That is not a security hole by itself, but it is the kind of mistake that puts a password into a form that gets submitted and logged somewhere. On any page where I am not sure, I now type the login myself rather than click the suggestion.
What would make me switch
The cost of the free Google option is being locked to one browser. Everything lives behind a Google sign-in, and the Android side works because Android is Google's. If I moved to a browser outside that family tomorrow, I would be exporting a file and starting again.
That is also why I have not cancelled the paid one. I keep logins I would hate to lose out of the browser's store, and a $20-a-year class of product is cheap next to one locked account. I wrote about the other subscriptions I weigh this way in which AI assistant is worth paying for.
Questions
Is a free password manager enough?
It has been for me for over four years. Bitwarden's free tier stores unlimited items on unlimited devices, so the storage itself is not what the paid tiers sell.
When does the family plan pay off?
At two people and up. Four Bitwarden Premium seats are $79.20 a year; one Families plan covering up to 6 is $47.88.
What is the catch with Chrome's manager?
Two things for me. It is tied to a Google sign-in, and its autofill sometimes puts my email or password into a box that is not a login field.
What I did myself
I have used Chrome's built-in password manager for more than 4 years, and I also pay once a year for NordPass. The free one holds everything and syncs to my phone without me arranging it. What it does badly is autofill in the wrong place: it drops my email or password into a box that is not a login field, usually a search box on a page that has a login somewhere else. I notice when the search results come back as my own email address.
Palak Patel, IT engineer, developer and researcherfacts confirmed October 1, 2026
Sources
Everything factual in this article traces back to one of these. Vendors change pricing and limits without changing the URL, so each entry records the date I last read it.
- Bitwarden pricing
Bitwardenchecked October 1, 2026
- Google Password Manager
Googlechecked October 1, 2026
Written by
Palak Patel
IT engineer, developer and researcher
Palak is an IT engineer, developer and researcher, and runs ToolNest. He uses the software he writes about in his own development work and says so when he has not. Every claim is checked against vendor documentation, changelogs and pricing pages before it goes live.