As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases — including a commission if you buy the YubiKey security key linked near the end. None of the password managers on this page pay us anything: not Bitwarden, Proton, 1Password, Keeper or Dashlane, and not Apple or Google. Our top pick earns us nothing. See our methodology.
A paid password manager costs between $19.80 and $65.04 a year for one person, and most of the companies in this article also offer a free tier or a free trial. So the real question isn’t which is best. It’s whether the paid features are worth anything to you at all — and, if they are, whether you’d notice the difference between the cheapest and the most expensive.
Over five years that difference is more than $220 for a single person. It’s worth knowing what you get for it.
What each one costs, from its own page
All figures below were read from each company’s own pricing page on 5 October 2026. Annual billing is shown because it’s what all five push you towards; monthly rates follow underneath where the company publishes one.
| Plan | Per month (billed yearly) | Per year | People covered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bitwarden Premium | $1.65 | $19.80 | 1 |
| Proton Pass Plus | $2.99 | $35.88 | 1 |
| 1Password Individual | $2.99 first year, then $3.99 | $35.88, then $47.88 | 1 |
| Keeper Personal | $3.58 | $42.99 | 1 |
| Dashlane Premium | $5.42 | $65.04 (our ×12) | 1 |
| Bitwarden Families | $3.99 | $47.88 | 6 |
| Proton Pass Family | $4.99 | $59.88 | 6 |
| 1Password Families | $4.49 first year, then $5.99 | $53.88, then $71.88 | 5 |
| Keeper Family | $7.67 | $91.99 | 5 |
| Dashlane Friends & Family | $8.13 | $97.56 (our ×12) | 10 |
Three notes on that table, because the small print matters more than the big numbers.
1Password’s headline is a first-year promotion. Its page says the $2.99 and $4.49 rates are for new customers subscribing directly on 1Password.com, for the first year, on annual billing — and not through Google Play, the App Store or other app stores. From year two you pay the regular $3.99 and $5.99. Pay monthly instead and it’s $4.99 for Individual and $7.99 for Families: $59.88 and $95.88 a year.
Keeper charges extra for breach alerts. Its BreachWatch add-on — alerts when your passwords turn up on the dark web — is listed separately at $26.99 a year, which takes Keeper Personal to $69.98. Proton Pass Plus, 1Password and Dashlane each list dark-web or compromised-credential alerts in the plan price, and Bitwarden Premium lists security reports.
Dashlane only shows a monthly figure. Its page lists $5.42 and $8.13 “per month, billed annually” and doesn’t print the yearly total. The $65.04 and $97.56 above are those figures multiplied by twelve. Dashlane Premium also bundles a VPN; on Friends & Family, only the plan manager gets it.
Proton Pass’s yearly price is a discount against its own monthly rate of $4.99 ($59.88 a year), and Proton Pass Family is $6.99 month to month. Proton’s page shows no separate renewal price for the yearly plan.
The calculation: five years, one person
A password manager is the stickiest subscription you will ever buy. Moving hundreds of logins out of one is a chore, so assume you’ll keep whichever you pick. Here’s what five years costs at the prices published today:
| Plan | Five-year arithmetic | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Bitwarden Premium | $19.80 × 5 | $99.00 |
| Proton Pass Plus | $35.88 × 5 | $179.40 |
| Keeper Personal | $42.99 × 5 | $214.95 |
| 1Password Individual | $35.88 + ($47.88 × 4) | $227.40 |
| Dashlane Premium | $65.04 × 5 | $325.20 |
| Keeper + BreachWatch | $69.98 × 5 | $349.90 |
Bitwarden costs $128.40 less than 1Password over five years, and $226.20 less than Dashlane. Those numbers assume today’s prices hold, which subscription prices rarely do. The order matters more than the exact totals.
Do it for yourself: take the yearly price you’d pay after any first-year promotion, multiply by five, then add back the promotion saving. If you’re paying monthly, use the monthly rate × 60 instead — for 1Password Individual that’s $299.40, which is $72 more than paying annually. Annual billing is the right call for something you won’t cancel, for the reasons laid out in annual vs monthly billing.
Per person, the family plans are where it gets cheap
Divide each family plan by the number of people it covers, assuming you fill every seat:
- Bitwarden Families: $47.88 ÷ 6 = $7.98 per person a year
- Dashlane Friends & Family: $97.56 ÷ 10 = $9.76
- Proton Pass Family: $59.88 ÷ 6 = $9.98
- 1Password Families: $71.88 ÷ 5 = $14.38 after the first year
- Keeper Family: $91.99 ÷ 5 = $18.40
Even with only three people on it, Bitwarden Families works out to $15.96 each — still under a dollar and a half a month. The catch with Dashlane’s ten-seat plan is in its own wording: it’s sold as “Friends & Family”, and the per-head figure only looks that good if you actually have ten people to put on it. Our guide to which subscriptions allow family sharing covers the general rules for splitting plans like this.
Is free enough?
For a lot of people, yes. Four free options:
- Bitwarden‘s free plan includes unlimited passwords on unlimited devices. Bitwarden’s page lists what Premium adds on top: an integrated authenticator, file attachments, emergency access and security reports.
- Proton Pass Free includes unlimited logins on unlimited devices, a password generator, alerts for weak and reused passwords, and 10 hide-my-email aliases. Plus adds unlimited aliases, a built-in 2FA authenticator, vault sharing and dark web monitoring.
- Apple Passwords is built into iPhone, iPad and Mac at no cost and syncs through your Apple Account. If you also pay for iCloud+ there’s more to Apple’s offer — see whether iCloud+ is worth paying for.
- Google Password Manager is built into Chrome and Android, also free.
The honest test for the paid tier is this: do you need a built-in authenticator, file attachments, emergency access for a family member, or to share logins with someone on a different platform? If none of those apply, a free tier does the core job — generating and remembering a different strong password for every site — perfectly well.
The built-in managers have one real weakness: they’re tied to the ecosystem. Apple’s works best if everything you own is Apple; Google’s works best inside Chrome. A household with an iPhone, an Android phone and a Windows laptop is exactly where a cross-platform manager earns its fee.
One thing worth buying alongside it
Your password manager is now the single key to everything, so the account protecting it deserves more than a text-message code. A hardware security key is the strongest second factor most people can buy. Something like the YubiKey 5C NFC plugs into USB-C or taps against a phone. It’s a one-off purchase, not a subscription. We don’t quote Amazon prices here, and nobody needs one — an authenticator app on your phone is a big step up from SMS on its own. But if you’re the person in the family who looks after everyone else’s vault, it’s worth considering.
The verdict
Best for most people: Bitwarden. Premium is $19.80 a year, the cheapest paid tier here by a distance, and its free plan has no device or password limit. Families is $47.88 for six people. Unless you have a specific reason to pay more, this is the one.
Worth it if you want privacy extras: Proton Pass Plus at $35.88 a year adds unlimited hide-my-email aliases, so every site can get a different address. If you already pay for a Proton VPN plan, check whether Proton Unlimited ($119.88 a year on Proton’s page) replaces both bills.
Worth it if you’ll pay for polish: 1Password at $47.88 a year after the first-year offer. It costs more than twice as much as Bitwarden for the same core job. Some people will think that’s worth it. You’ll only know by using the 14-day trial, so put the end date in your calendar.
Don’t buy Dashlane for the VPN. Dashlane Premium at $65.04 a year is the most expensive base plan for one person here, and a VPN is the item on its feature list that the cheaper plans don’t have. If you need a VPN, buy one on its own terms; if you don’t, you’re paying for it anyway.
Don’t buy Keeper Personal plus BreachWatch when you’re comparing like for like. At $69.98 a year combined, it costs more than three times Bitwarden Premium, which already includes security reports.
And don’t pay at all if you live entirely in one ecosystem — all Apple, or all Android and Chrome — store logins only for yourself, and don’t need emergency access. The free built-in manager does the job you were about to pay for.
Prices verified 5 October 2026 at the source: bitwarden.com/pricing, proton.me/pass/pricing, 1password.com/pricing/personal, keepersecurity.com/pricing/personal-and-family.html and dashlane.com/pricing-personal. Dashlane’s yearly totals are our multiplication of the monthly figure its page shows. Five-year totals assume today’s prices hold. No Amazon price appears in this article. We analyse published pricing and terms; we don’t test software.