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Bitwarden vs CyberArk Privileged Access Manager comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 16, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Bitwarden
Ranking in Enterprise Password Managers
11th
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
CyberArk Privileged Access ...
Ranking in Enterprise Password Managers
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
229
Ranking in other categories
User Activity Monitoring (1st), Privileged Access Management (PAM) (1st), Mainframe Security (1st), Operational Technology (OT) Security (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Enterprise Password Managers category, the mindshare of Bitwarden is 5.2%, down from 5.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of CyberArk Privileged Access Manager is 6.7%, down from 7.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Password Managers Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
CyberArk Privileged Access Manager6.7%
Bitwarden5.2%
Other88.1%
Enterprise Password Managers
 

Featured Reviews

AF
Chief Information Technology at a consultancy with 51-200 employees
Offers ease of use and app easily shows the password when I go to any application
The functionality to fully utilize passkeys could be improved. The last time I spoke to support, they said the development team was working on it. So far, it's working okay on my personal devices. I would like to log in with a master account using a passkey, that would be easy. The product is really great. I just miss the functionality to log in to Bitwarden using a passkey.
Atul-Gujar - PeerSpot reviewer
CyberArk manager at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Secures critical infrastructures with essential user session audit records
A potential area for improvement is enhancing support for cluster environments and distributed Vaults. Clients in multiple countries that need central access have different challenges that require better solutions from CyberArk. For financial services, CyberArk can improve incident response by ensuring fast support for critical priority tickets to meet compliance requirements. Providing more documentation on CyberArk is recommended for new team members to enhance their troubleshooting capabilities. I understand it's up to the client, but 99% fail to change the demo key, so it's crucial for CyberArk to emphasize changing the key and documenting it as part of the installation process.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The customer service and support are good. The technician is on time and the follow-up is amazing."
"I've found something else that is extremely valuable. Bitwarden refers to it as "emergency access". It's essentially a digital legacy where you can assign approved users who can request access. If you don't decline within a certain timeframe, they can access it in case you're incapacitated or deceased. When I last checked, only a few services offered this feature. Bitwarden had the simplest and best implementation."
"Its integration capabilities and versatility, like the ability to securely save passwords and other critical information, make it incredibly useful."
"In our organization, we use Bitwarden for managing product credentials. Bitwarden's collection feature enables us to securely create and store credentials, and we can easily provide team members with access to the relevant collections."
"The product has a very friendly community."
"Having all the passwords in one place is helpful."
"It is open source and the premium package is reasonable."
"On the customer accounts side, our account managers are responsive. If you ask them, they will get you whomever you need."
"CyberArk PAM can be easily automated."
"CyberArk Privileged Access Manager indeed helps meet compliance and regulatory requirements for customers, especially in the financial sector, by aligning with PCI DSS standards."
"The ability to monitor privileged accounts throughout the enterprises."
"Session monitoring includes recordings of all activities performed."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is session recording."
"The main feature of CyberArk Privileged Access Manager is the ability to manage who has access to what and when, especially with shared accounts."
"The product is an important security measure against credential theft. It ensures session isolation and password rotation including pushing passwords to the endpoints."
 

Cons

"Enhancing the tool by including additional security variables would be a valuable improvement."
"I often use another password manager as well to keep my passwords separate, ensuring redundancy. But one simple thing Bitwarden could improve is providing an option to duplicate credentials. Often, you're creating many sets of credentials for the same thing. If they all have the same information, notes, login, collection, and naming - all you're changing is the password. The ability to duplicate credential records quickly would be a big win. It doesn't do that right now."
"I would like to log in with a master account using a passkey, that would be easy."
"The solution should be made more secure as it has the banking sector and assets saved."
"The product must be a bit more unified and refined."
"The product could be cheaper."
"It would be ideal if the application could be seamlessly integrated into our open-source software, especially for the purpose of enabling straightforward logging."
"This is probably a common thing, but they do ask for a lot of log files, a lot of information. They ask you to provide a lot of information to them before they're willing to give you anything at all upfront. It would be better if they were a little more give-and-take upfront: "Why don't you try these couple of things while we take your log files and stuff and go research them?" A little bit of that might be more helpful."
"There should be more models and licensing plans for this software."
"The scalability, sometimes, is lacking. It works really well for more static environments... But for an environment where you're constantly spinning up new infrastructure or new endpoints, sometimes it has a hard time keeping up."
"I would love them to improve their UI customizing features."
"The initial setup can get complex."
"Stability is a huge concern right now. We are on a version which is very unstable. We have to upgrade to stabilize it. It is fine, but the problem is we have to hire CyberArk to do the upgrade. This costs money, and it is their bug."
"There is a lot of room for improvement in the report section. I also work on other tools, such as Thycotic, which allows you to create customized reports for your organization's needs. In CyberArk, there are limited reports, whereas in Thycotic or some of the other PAM tools, because the database is different, you can customize the report based on your needs through SQL queries."
"CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault can improve the distributive vault feature. Distributing the vault in multiple areas and multiple data centers should improve."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"In our region, it comes at an affordable price."
"It is an open-source tool."
"The solution is reasonably priced."
"I use a free version and it works well for me."
"The product is not costly. I pay $10 per month."
"The solution is very expensive and requires a license. We pay for an enterprise license."
"CyberArk has been Gartner's number-one pick for the past ten years, so you can infer that their pricing is higher than everyone else. When you are the best, you will charge appropriately for it."
"CyberArk is one of the best PAM solutions and one of the most expensive, but it works better than the others, so the pricing is fair."
"It's expensive, certainly. But CyberArk is the leader in the market with regards to privileged access management. You pay a lot, but you are paying for the value that is being delivered."
"There are no additional costs other than the standard licensing fees."
"This solution is considered to be more expensive than others out there on the market today."
"I would rate CyberArk's pricing a nine out of ten, with one being cheap and ten being expensive. It's one of the most expensive solutions in the market, but it's worth it."
"Payments have to be made on a yearly basis toward the licensing costs of the solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Large Enterprise3
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business59
Midsize Enterprise41
Large Enterprise173
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Bitwarden?
The product is not costly. I pay $10 per month. I use the basic plan, so I don't need the higher plan with more compliance features.
What needs improvement with Bitwarden?
The functionality to fully utilize passkeys could be improved. The last time I spoke to support, they said the development team was working on it. So far, it's working okay on my personal devices. ...
What is your primary use case for Bitwarden?
I use it to log in to my private websites, accounts, and banking information.
How does Sailpoint IdentityIQ compare with CyberArk PAM?
We evaluated Sailpoint IdentityIQ before ultimately choosing CyberArk. Sailpoint Identity Platform is a solution to manage risks in cloud enterprise environments. It automates and streamlines the m...
What do you like most about CyberArk Privileged Access Manager?
The most valuable features of the solution are control and analytics.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for CyberArk Privileged Access Manager?
My thoughts on the pricing of CyberArk Privileged Access Manager depend entirely on the vendors' requirements. If they want their things to be secure, they have to spend accordingly. We have four t...
 

Also Known As

No data available
CyberArk Privileged Access Security, CyberArk Enterprise Password Vault
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Rockwell Automation
Find out what your peers are saying about Bitwarden vs. CyberArk Privileged Access Manager and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
883,760 professionals have used our research since 2012.