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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 March 2025, in the Enterprise Password Managers category, the mindshare of Bitwarden is 5.3%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HashiCorp Vault is 12.9%, down from 14.4% 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

"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."
"Having all the passwords in one place is helpful."
"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."
"It is open source and the premium package is reasonable."
"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 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."
"The product is free and easy to use. It is well documented with an easy implementation process."
"It is an added value for our customers to have a Secrets Management workflow available that is PaaS/CaaS/KaaS Platform agnostic."
"The most valuable feature of HashiCorp Vault is version control."
"The most valuable feature of HashiCorp Vault is version control."
"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."
"The interface is very simple to navigate."
"It is a good product to consider for companies who are looking to build on-premise or hybrid infrastructure."
 

Cons

"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 solution should be made more secure as it has the banking sector and assets saved."
"I would like to log in with a master account using a passkey, that would be easy."
"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."
"Enhancing the tool by including additional security variables would be a valuable improvement."
"The product must be a bit more unified and refined."
"The product could be cheaper."
"The onboarding is a challenge. It should be more self-service, but it involves reviews and approvals."
"I don't think there are any major improvements required—so far, so good. However, I think that having more training materials, such as videos, and documentation available would be helpful. I would prefer to have more videos available either on the official site or on YouTube."
"An improvement needed is the ability for auto-initialization."
"An improvement needed is the ability for auto-initialization. There should be an inbuilt option for automatic initialization rather than running it manually."
"A drawback for some clients who have to be PCI compliant is that they still need to use and subscribe to an HSM (Hardware Security Module) solution."
"The product needs to improve its customization. It should be also more like easy to plug and play."
"In terms of features, the only thing that I found a little bit hinky was that there was no revocation or deletion on the model we were using. Once in a financial year, a client interacts, and you pay for that client for the year. So, there are just little things like that in the pricing. There should be more clarity around the end of the key. I know there is no system like this. They all are the same. I tested Microsoft, Google, and some others, and none of them really want you to delete a key, which makes sense. You delete a key, and you lose everything that it has wrapped or encrypted, but it's actually just a language. Deletion isn't really deletion. It's really revocation, but overall, HashiCorp Vault ticked all the boxes for us, and I couldn't fault it."
"The documentation is very general; it should have more examples and more use cases."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is not costly. I pay $10 per month."
"I use a free version and it works well for me."
"The solution is reasonably priced."
"It is an open-source tool."
"In our region, it comes at an affordable price."
"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."
"The solution's cost is reasonable."
"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."
"I am using the open-source version of Vault and I would have to buy a license if I want to get support."
"The product is expensive."
"The AWS version is much cheaper than HashiCorp Vault."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Government
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
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: January 2025.
839,319 professionals have used our research since 2012.