Best Password Managers Curated by Github Users

Abstract

This technical assessment provides an evidence-based analysis of password management services. In contrast to commercial review sites, this framework prioritizes empirical analysis via independent security audits, public source code availability, and cryptographic verifiability.

Simply the facts.

Methodology

Evaluation Criteria

Our evaluation considers:

1. Code Transparency: Public availability of source code

2. Independent Verification: Third party security audits

3. Architectural Verifiability: Fact or trust

4. Metadata Protection: Technical implementation

5. Encryption Design: Client-side cryptography

Ignore the marketing. Read the facts.

Password Manager Comparison

Rank	Service	Open Source	Independent Audit	Client-Side E2EE	Self-Host	Local-Only	Metadata Protected	Argon2 Support
1	KeePassXC	Yes	Yes (code reviews)	Yes	Yes (file-based)	Yes	Yes (local file)	Yes
2	KeePass	Yes	Yes (design review)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
3	Bitwarden	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No (cloud-focused)	No (partial)	Yes
4	1Password	No (closed client)	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes
5	Proton Pass	Yes (clients)	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes
6	Pass	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
7	KeePassium	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
8	Enpass	No	No (partial)	Yes	No	Yes	No (partial)	No (PBKDF2-based)
9	NordPass	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No (details not fully documented)	Yes
10	Dashlane	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No (details not fully documented)	Yes
11	LastPass	No	No (partial)	No (partial)	No	No	No	Yes

Critical Understanding: Local Vaults vs. Cloud Vaults

Class 1: Architectural Privacy (Local Vault, No Cloud)

The following password managers represent maximum privacy by design. They cannot leak metadata by design.

KeePassXC: File-based architecture with no cloud component. Metadata leakage is architecturally impossible without user-chosen sync mechanism.
KeePass: Original reference implementation. Zero server dependency; complete user control over data location and sync.
Pass: GPG-based encrypted text files. Minimal attack surface; no cloud infrastructure; optionally self-managed git sync.

Class 2: Cloud + Audit-Based Privacy

These password managers encrypt client-side, verified through audits and open-source code.

Bitwarden: Verified by independent audits. Open-source client and server. Can be self-hosted for complete control.
1Password: Verified by audits. Strong Secret Key design adds entropy beyond master password. Closed-source client limits verifiability.
Proton Pass: Verified by audits. End-to-end encrypted within Proton ecosystem (including vault metadata). Clients are open source; server-side components remain proprietary.
Enpass: Local-first design with optional cloud sync. Proprietary codebase limits verification.

Class 3: Closed Cloud with Limited Transparency

NordPass: Proprietary cloud-first model with limited audit transparency.
Dashlane: Cloud-dependent architecture with significant metadata exposure and limited transparency.
LastPass: A major multi-stage breach in 2022–2023 exposed encrypted vault backups and unencrypted metadata, with ongoing real-world account theft reported into 2024. Demonstrated architectural weaknesses and poor incident response. Not recommended.

Detailed Service Analysis

1. KeePassXC

Code transparency: Fully published
Verification: Numerous community and academic code reviews
Org transparency: Fully disclosed
Privacy architecture: File-based; AES-256; Argon2 KDF; no cloud component
Signup & payment: Free; no account required
What's logged (by policy): Nothing (local-only)
Demonstrated metadata exposure: None
Operational history: ~9 years (fork of KeePassX)

2. KeePass (KDBX)

Code transparency: Fully published
Verification: Widely reviewed open design and implementation
Org transparency: Fully disclosed
Privacy architecture: File-based; AES-256; Argon2 KDF; KDBX format standard
Signup & payment: Free; no account required
What's logged (by policy): Nothing (local-only)
Demonstrated metadata exposure: None
Operational history: ~20 years

3. Bitwarden

Code transparency: Fully published
Verification: Multiple security audits
Org transparency: Fully disclosed
Privacy architecture: Client-side E2EE; PBKDF2/Argon2; self-hostable server
Signup & payment: Email required; free tier available; paid plans for premium features
What's logged (by policy): Item count, timestamps (encrypted vault only)
Demonstrated metadata exposure: Some metadata visible to server (item count, sync times)
Operational history: ~9 years

4. 1Password

Code transparency: Proprietary (closed-source client)
Verification: External security assessments
Org transparency: Fully disclosed
Privacy architecture: SRP + Secret Key design; AES-256; dual-key derivation
Signup & payment: Email required; paid subscription
What's logged (by policy): Account & telemetry data; vault item metadata (titles, URLs, tags) remain encrypted
Demonstrated metadata exposure: Limited metadata visible to service
Operational history: ~18 years

5. Proton Pass

Code transparency: Partially published
Verification: Cure53 security audit
Org transparency: Fully disclosed
Privacy architecture: Client-side E2EE; Argon2 + bcrypt key derivation; Proton infrastructure with encrypted vault metadata
Signup & payment: Email required; free tier available
What's logged (by policy): Account and billing data, alias addresses needed for forwarding; vault contents and most metadata are end-to-end encrypted
Demonstrated metadata exposure: None reported; aliases necessarily remain unencrypted for mail routing
Operational history: Launched 2023 (~2–3 years)

6. Pass (Unix Password Store)

Code transparency: Fully published
Verification: Open design; GPG-based
Org transparency: Fully disclosed
Privacy architecture: GPG encryption; text-file based; optional git sync
Signup & payment: Free; no account required
What's logged (by policy): Nothing (local-only unless self-synced)
Demonstrated metadata exposure: None (unless user configures cloud sync)
Operational history: ~13 years

7. KeePassium (iOS KeePass Client)

Code transparency: Fully published
Verification: Community reviewed
Org transparency: Fully disclosed
Privacy architecture: Inherits KeePass KDBX format; local or self-synced files
Signup & payment: Free tier; optional paid features
What's logged (by policy): Nothing (local-only)
Demonstrated metadata exposure: None
Operational history: ~6 years

8. Enpass

Code transparency: Proprietary
Verification: Limited audit information
Org transparency: Partially disclosed
Privacy architecture: Local-first with optional cloud sync; AES-256
Signup & payment: Optional account for sync; one-time purchase or subscription
What's logged (by policy): Sync metadata if cloud enabled
Demonstrated metadata exposure: Metadata visible if cloud sync used
Operational history: ~12 years

9. NordPass

Code transparency: Proprietary
Verification: Limited audit transparency
Org transparency: Not fully disclosed. Owned by Nord Security
Privacy architecture: XChaCha20; cloud-dependent
Signup & payment: Email required; paid subscription
What's logged (by policy): Account, device, and sync information; vault contents stored encrypted
Demonstrated metadata exposure: No public breaches of encrypted vaults; standard cloud-service metadata exposure (accounts, devices, sync events)
Operational history: ~6 years

10. Dashlane

Code transparency: Proprietary
Verification: Limited audit information
Org transparency: Partially disclosed
Privacy architecture: AES-256; cloud-dependent
Signup & payment: Email required; paid subscription
What's logged (by policy): Account, billing, device and usage telemetry; vault contents stored as encrypted blobs
Demonstrated metadata exposure: No public breaches of encrypted vaults; standard cloud-service metadata exposure (accounts, devices, billing)
Operational history: ~13 years

11. LastPass

Code transparency: Proprietary
Verification: Limited audit information
Org transparency: Not fully disclosed. Owned by LogMeIn/GoTo
Privacy architecture: AES-256; cloud-dependent; compromised design (PBKDF2 with added Argon2 key derivation since 2023)
Signup & payment: Email required; free tier with limitations
What's logged (by policy): Full vault metadata
Demonstrated metadata exposure: Multiple breaches 2022-2024 exposed metadata and encrypted vaults
Operational history: ~18 years

Conclusion

KeePassXC and KeePass represent the gold standard for password management through architectural privacy. Their file-based, local-first design makes metadata leakage impossible without user action, and their fully open-source codebases enable complete verification.

Bitwarden stands out as the best cloud-based option, combining open-source transparency with independent audits and self-hosting capability. For users requiring cloud sync convenience, Bitwarden provides the best balance of usability and verifiable security.

1Password offers strong cryptography through its Secret Key design but remains limited by its proprietary codebase. Users must trust rather than verify its implementation.

LastPass should be avoided entirely due to its demonstrated security failures and poor incident response history. The 2022-2024 breach sequence exposed fundamental architectural weaknesses and inadequate security practices.

The ideal password management strategy prioritizes local-first architecture (KeePassXC/KeePass) when possible, or open-source cloud solutions (Bitwarden) when sync convenience is essential. Proprietary cloud solutions require trusting unverifiable claims about security implementation.