Bitwarden announced a price hike in the worst way possible

Bitwarden is one of the more likable tech companies. It offers a great password manager for free, charges modestly for its paid version, and has mostly stayed in its lane with its focus on security products.

So it’s disappointing that it isn’t being more transparent about the first price hike in its 10-year history. Bitwarden’s Premium version now costs $20 per year, up from $10 per year previously. But instead of announcing the change directly, the company buried the news in a blog post about new features, such as more attachment storage and alerts about weak passwords.

Meanwhile, Bitwarden isn’t rushing to let customers know about the increase. They’ll only get an email about the price hike (or, as Bitwarden calls it, “updated pricing”) 15 days before their next renewal.

Those emails don’t spell out the actual yearly price, either. Instead, Bitwarden follows the SaaS industry scourge of listing a monthly price for an annual subscription, further obscuring the actual price. The company doesn’t offer a monthly subscription, yet it’s telling customers that they’ll pay “$1.65/month, billed annually.” (Existing customers are getting a onetime discount, at $15 for their next year.)

The extra $10 per year doesn’t bother me much. I’ve been a happy paying Bitwarden customer for a couple of years now, and I find value in Premium features like two-factor authentication code storage, password hygiene checks, and Emergency Access, which will let my wife access my vault if something happens to me. Proton Pass Plus and 1Password are the only other paid password managers I’ve considered, and they’re both nearly twice the price, at $36 per year.

But the way Bitwarden announced the price hike gives me pause.

Like a lot of Bitwarden users, I switched over from LastPass in 2021. At the time, LastPass had started limiting free users to a single device type, which meant no more syncing passwords between a phone and a computer. Bitwarden had no such restrictions, and moving my passwords over was easier than I expected. As its founder, Kyle Spearrin, later told me, LastPass’s various blunders (including a major security breach in 2023) helped drive a lot of new business to Bitwarden over the years.

The company has since grown from Spearrin alone to roughly 200 employees, with a business model that largely revolves around enterprise customers. When Bitwarden has raised money—an undisclosed Series A in 2019, then a $100 million round in 2022—it has been to satisfy business demands such as security certifications or to invest in workplace features like developer API key management.

Individual users, meanwhile, have served as a funnel for the more lucrative enterprise business, with CEO Michael Crandell calling it a “virtuous circle” between the two. Those who get Bitwarden from their work get lifetime access to its Premium plan for families, even when they change jobs.

Why, then, is Bitwarden sneakily announcing a price hike for individuals instead of owning it? Is the consumer side so fragile that Bitwarden can’t stand behind the value of a $20 annual subscription? Is the consumer-to-business funnel not working the way it used to? Is it a sign that Bitwarden has lost touch with the community that helped build it up in the first place?

I don’t know, but I’m not alone in thinking this way. Here’s a sampling of comments from Bitwarden’s Reddit thread about the news:

• “This is disappointing … not because of the price increase itself, but because of how it was handled and communicated.”
• “These premium ‘enhancements’ don’t really seem worth the extra $10 a year. Just be honest with us and say it’s for rising costs.”
• “Thing is, I don’t mind the increase (it was bound to happen sooner rather than later) so much as the way it’s being handled.”
• “A price increase had long been overdue, but still not so abruptly and not under the guise of adding marketing features nobody needs.”

The company said via email that its vision of helping individuals and companies manage sensitive information has not changed. I hope this is just a marketing blunder, and not anything bigger to worry about.