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Bitwarden vs HashiCorp Vault 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
7th
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
HashiCorp Vault
Ranking in Enterprise Password Managers
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Enterprise Password Managers category, the mindshare of Bitwarden is 5.8%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HashiCorp Vault is 12.8%, down from 14.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Password Managers
 

Featured Reviews

Marcus Quinn - PeerSpot reviewer
Good Documentation, reliable, zero failure and fast
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. A feature I appreciate in another app, EndPass, is a shortcut that opens a mini window for quick access to credentials. Bitwarden could benefit from something like this, in addition to duplicating credentials. Other functionalities like team management and collections in Bitwarden are already simple. It doesn't need much more. We appreciate the simplicity and slow evolution rather than being overwhelmed with unnecessary features. It doesn't need to be pretty, just functional and accessible. And accessibility is crucial. If you're deploying to many people resistant to change, accessibility can be an objection. When someone claims they can't use a tool because of an accessibility issue, you're faced with a compliance challenge. Bitwarden does well in this regard. Still, accessibility should never be overlooked in favor of features. As you add more features, you potentially increase complexity and risk.
AKASHGUPTA3 - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to manage and maintain the password API but stability could be improved
I would advise doing a Proof of Concept first and then deciding accordingly because your use case might be simple. You can try out AWS Key Management or Azure Key Vault. They are different products. Do the POC and then decide what you need. Overall, I would rate the solution a six out of ten. No solution is a ten in my opinion.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"The product has a very friendly community."
"Its integration capabilities and versatility, like the ability to securely save passwords and other critical information, make it incredibly useful."
"The customer service and support are good. The technician is on time and the follow-up is amazing."
"It is open source and the premium package is reasonable."
"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."
"Having all the passwords in one place is helpful."
"The most valuable feature of HashiCorp Vault is that it's an open source solution. Second, it's cloud agnostic, so it's very easy to maintain and control, which is why we prefer HashiCorp."
"We were using it because we have compliance requirements around secret management. Having a secure vault and encrypting data was an additional requirement. When we looked at it first, we were just looking for a vault, like a lockbox. The greatest benefit of HashiCorp is its ability to manage encryption on the fly. It provides encryption of data at rest, in use, in transit, on the fly, and linked with applications, which was really attractive."
"This solution is easy to use and to integrate."
"The feature I find most beneficial in HashiCorp Vault is the secret engine. It integrates smoothly with many applications, making it easy to set up and implement quickly. This allows you to test it easily and see good results rapidly. When you integrate an internal API or application, it quickly manages that application's secrets."
"It's stable. I would rate the stability a nine out of ten."
"For me, the most valuable features include that it's easy to manage and maintain the password API for retrieving passwords and other things."
"The most valuable feature of HashiCorp Vault is the management of tickets in the pipeline."
"It can still be configured by a separate team other than developers. That's why I think it's more secure."
 

Cons

"I would like to log in with a master account using a passkey, that would be easy."
"The product could be cheaper."
"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."
"It would be ideal if the application could be seamlessly integrated into our open-source software, especially for the purpose of enabling straightforward logging."
"The product must be a bit more unified and refined."
"Enhancing the tool by including additional security variables would be a valuable improvement."
"The solution should be made more secure as it has the banking sector and assets saved."
"The solution's initial setup process is complicated."
"The onboarding is a challenge. It should be more self-service, but it involves reviews and approvals."
"The product is complicated to install."
"The solution could be much easier to implement."
"An improvement needed is the ability for auto-initialization."
"There could be a plugin for the database to change the secret automatically. It would be an efficient feature for password security."
"The technical support was hard to get a hold of and lacking in service."
"An improvement needed is the ability for auto-initialization. There should be an inbuilt option for automatic initialization rather than running it manually."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is an open-source tool."
"I use a free version and it works well for me."
"The solution is reasonably priced."
"In our region, it comes at an affordable price."
"The product is not costly. I pay $10 per month."
"The product is expensive."
"I am using the open-source version of Vault and I would have to buy a license if I want to get support."
"The solution's cost is reasonable."
"The AWS version is much cheaper than HashiCorp Vault."
"In my case, the open-source version works well. It's advisable for small to medium-scale organizations, but for large-scale organizations, you should go with the enterprise version."
"It could do everything we wanted it to do and it is brilliant, but it is super pricey. To be fair to HashiCorp, we drove the price up with our requirements around resiliency. Because of the nature of our company, we don't really operate in the cloud."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Government
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Financial Services Firm
20%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Bitwarden?
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 ...
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. ...
Which is better - HashiCorp Vault or AWS Secrets Manager?
HashiCorp Vault was designed with your needs in mind. One of the features that makes this evident is its ability to work as both a cloud-agnostic and a multi-cloud solution. As a cloud-agnostic sol...
What do you like most about HashiCorp Vault?
The feature I find most beneficial in HashiCorp Vault is the secret engine. It integrates smoothly with many applications, making it easy to set up and implement quickly. This allows you to test it...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HashiCorp Vault?
If I were to set it up in AWS Secret Management, I would have to manage it, pay, and create secrets without being cloud agnostic. The advantage with Vault is that it is cloud agnostic. I can deploy...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Adobe, SAP Ariba, Citadel, Spaceflight, Cruise
Find out what your peers are saying about Bitwarden vs. HashiCorp Vault and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
848,716 professionals have used our research since 2012.