By Zoha Ahmed · Nov 1, 2026
Ask Reddit which password manager to use and you get the same first answer every time. We read all 619 replies in 48 of those threads from the past year, mostly in r/sysadmin and r/webdev, counted one vote per person, and removed vendors posting about their own products.
Bitwarden wins on volume, but the self-hosted and niche tools are the ones with no complaints at all. Every quote below links back to the comment it came from.
The ranking
| Tool | Recommend | Complain | Threads | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 131 | 31 | 19 | |
| 2 | 87 | 16 | 18 | |
| 3 | 34 | 0 | 9 | |
| 4 | 34 | 11 | 15 | |
| 5 | 28 | 2 | 12 | |
| 6 | 16 | 0 | 6 | |
| 7 | 12 | 3 | 8 | |
| 8 | 11 | 0 | 6 | |
| 9 | 8 | 0 | 8 | |
| 10 | 8 | 0 | 6 | |
| 11 | 7 | 0 | 6 |
"Recommend" and "Complain" count different people, not comments. Also recommended, with too few opinions to rank: Uniqkey, Passwork, Securden, NordPass and Zoho Vault.
1. Bitwarden
Bitwarden
Best overall
The most recommended password manager by a wide margin, and the default answer in almost every thread.
Why people recommend it
- Free tier and open source, with the option to self-host
- Cheap for teams compared with everything else
- Native apps and browser extensions on every platform
Common complaints
- A price increase announcement annoyed long-time users
- Autofill and form detection break more often than 1Password's
- Admin console and team management are weaker than paid rivals
What Redditors said
Bitwarden is solid
Bitwarden. You can even self-host it
They announced a 100% price increase
2. 1Password
1Password
Best for non-technical staff
The paid pick, chosen when non-technical staff have to use it every day.
Why people recommend it
- More polished than Bitwarden, with autofill that breaks less
- Easier for non-technical staff to adopt
- Stores IDs, passports and certificates, not just passwords
Common complaints
- Repeated price rises, which several called gouging
- Admin control and SCIM provisioning come up as weak spots
- Device approval is painful on shared computers
What Redditors said
1Password is better.
I use 1Password for drivers licenses, passport, certificates, bank accounts, and notes.
That's just greedy price gouging
3. Vaultwarden
Vaultwarden
Best self-hosted
The self-hosted Bitwarden server. No complaints in our sample.
Why people recommend it
- Runs the full Bitwarden feature set on your own cheap server
- Easy to maintain once set up, including SSO
- Open source, with complete control of the data
Common complaints
- None in our sample
What Redditors said
Vouch for vaultwarden. Once you get it fully set up it is amazing.
Also a cool self hosted project with Vaultwarden.
4. Keeper
Keeper
Best admin controls
The business pick for central admin control, though its PAM product draws separate complaints.
Why people recommend it
- Strong central admin controls, SCIM and SSO
- FedRAMP authorised, which matters for government work
- Long-running users report a decade without trouble
Common complaints
- Admin console called clunky, with a broken command line tool
- Autofill fails in odd ways for some users
- MSPs report a difficult onboarding and reseller process
What Redditors said
we could just make those changes centrally in Keeper.
been using Keeper for 10 years now
Stay clear of Keeper PAM
5. KeePass / KeePassXC
KeePass / KeePassXC
Best offline and free
The free, offline option that technical users keep recommending to each other.
Why people recommend it
- Free, open source and cross-platform
- Fully offline, so nothing depends on a vendor
- Small attack surface and complete control of the file
Common complaints
- A shared database causes merge conflicts between people
- No inheritance or recovery path without your own backup process
What Redditors said
Keepass is free, cross-platform
unless you enjoy merge conflicts and mystery edits at 2am
6. Proton Pass
Proton Pass
Best newcomer
The newcomer people keep adding to threads, with no complaints in our sample.
Why people recommend it
- Modern interface that converts people quickly
- Fills multi-factor codes alongside passwords
- Part of the Proton suite teams may already pay for
Common complaints
- None in our sample
What Redditors said
but it’s amazing
0password or Proton Pass
7. Devolutions
Devolutions
Best for IT teams and MSPs
Built for IT teams who need remote sessions and credentials in one place.
Why people recommend it
- Remote Desktop Manager handles RDP, SSH and many other protocols
- Reasonably priced next to enterprise PAM
- Keeps credentials organised across hundreds of machines
Common complaints
- The move from perpetual licences to subscription upset customers
- Some find it less consistent than Royal TS
What Redditors said
Devolutions Password Server is pretty good and reasonably priced.
We moved to Devolutions PAM and have had good experiences.
I find RDM having more inconsystancy than Royal TS.
8. RoboForm
RoboForm
Best autofill
Recommended almost entirely for one thing: autofill that works. No complaints in our sample.
Why people recommend it
- The most consistent autofill in these threads
- Simple admin panel for a small business
- No breaches reported by long-time users
Common complaints
- None in our sample
What Redditors said
it's been solid for us
the autofill experience was a lot more consistent for us
9. Passwordstate
Passwordstate
Best free under five users
A self-hosted enterprise vault that is free under five users. No complaints in our sample.
Why people recommend it
- Free for up to five users, then enterprise priced
- Heavy logging and auditing with SSO
- Close to a PAM tool without PAM pricing
Common complaints
- None in our sample
What Redditors said
Passwordstate state has worked great for us.
I loooove PasswordState
10. Psono
Psono
Best for permission control
A self-hosted vault chosen for fine-grained permissions. No complaints in our sample.
Why people recommend it
- Clearer permission and visibility controls than the big names
- Self-hosted, so changes don't wait on a vendor
- The cheapest option that met some teams' requirements
Common complaints
- None in our sample
What Redditors said
ended up going with psono because it gave us clearer control
Psono gave us far better visibility
11. Passbolt
Passbolt
Best open source for teams
The open-source team vault for developers. No complaints in our sample.
Why people recommend it
- Open source and self-hostable
- Built around sharing secrets inside a team
- Cheap, and it does the job
Common complaints
- None in our sample
What Redditors said
Open source and can be self hosted
We're using Passbolt, enjoying it so far
The ones Reddit complains about
These three draw more complaints than recommendations. LastPass is a trust problem, while Delinea and CyberArk are enterprise privileged access tools that people find powerful and painful in equal measure.
LastPass
LastPass
The one people left
Still named in threads, almost always as the thing people left. Its breaches dominate the discussion.
Why people recommend it
- A few long-time users say it still works fine for a small business
Common complaints
- Repeated breaches, and anger at how they were communicated
- Several teams migrated away and say they never regretted it
- No longer treated as a serious option in these threads
What Redditors said
Unfortunately LastPass just works well unlike everything else.
We migrated a few years ago from LastPass, and have never regretted it.
did they hide it for months, lie about the depth, etc (LastPass)
Delinea
Delinea
Enterprise PAM, divisive
Enterprise privileged access, and one of the most divided opinions in our whole dataset.
Why people recommend it
- The finest-grained policy control of any option here
- Secret Server is powerful if you genuinely need full PAM
Common complaints
- Buggy, with support people called awful
- Expensive, and it pushes costly professional services
- Several users told others outright to avoid it
What Redditors said
nobody else comes close to the kind of granularity and policy complexity you can achieve with Delinea
Do not use Delinea
Delinea is the biggest piece of hot garbage I have ever had the displeasure of using.
CyberArk
CyberArk
Enterprise PAM, divisive
The enterprise PAM standard. People respect what it does and dislike living with it.
Why people recommend it
- Session recording has saved teams during incidents
- The endpoint privilege product gets good reviews
Common complaints
- Implementation and troubleshooting are complicated
- Expensive and time-consuming to run
- Interface called outdated, with unhelpful support
What Redditors said
Great product, just terrible naming.
implementation and troubleshooting is complicated
We've had nothing but trouble with Cyberark PAM.
How we built this ranking
We pulled every Reddit thread from the past 12 months in IT, security and developer subreddits, then kept the threads about password managers, vaults and privileged access. An AI model read each comment that named a tool and labelled it as a recommendation, a complaint or a neutral mention, and we checked that every quote appears word for word in the original comment. Vendors posting about their own products were removed, as was any opinion copy-pasted across different accounts. We refresh the data regularly.
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What is the best password manager according to Reddit?
Bitwarden, by a wide margin. 131 people recommended it against 87 for 1Password, its nearest rival. Bitwarden wins on price and the option to self-host; 1Password wins on polish for non-technical staff.
Is LastPass still safe to use?
Reddit's answer is no. Only 3 people recommended it against 20 complaints, and almost every complaint is about the breaches and how they were communicated rather than the product itself.
What is the best self-hosted password manager?
Vaultwarden came up most often, since it runs Bitwarden's full feature set on your own server. Passbolt, Psono and Passwordstate were the other self-hosted options people recommended, all with no complaints in our sample.
Bitwarden or 1Password for a business?
Both were heavily recommended. Teams picked Bitwarden for price, open source and self-hosting, and 1Password when staff are non-technical and autofill reliability matters more than cost. The main complaint about both is the same: prices keep going up.