Password managers
Open-source alternatives to 1Password, priced
2 open-source tools that can replace 1Password, each shown with what it would actually cost to run for a team of 10 people. 1Password on the Business tier costs $89.90 a month at that size.
The cheapest way to replace 1Password here is Vaultwarden, at $42.30 a month against $89.90, with your own time already counted.
| Tool | Server only | With your time | vs 1Password | Operational weight | Licence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vaultwarden | $4.80 | $42.30 | +$1,564 | easy | AGPL-3.0 |
| Passbolt | $8.04 | $121 | -$1,553 | medium | AGPL-3.0 |
The final column is the 36-month difference: positive means self-hosting is cheaper.
Which one to pick
Vaultwarden 67,195 stars
A Rust reimplementation of the Bitwarden server. It runs comfortably in a fraction of a gigabyte because vault data is small and encrypted client-side.
At 10 people it needs 0.3 GB of memory and 2.2 GB of disk, which fits the Basic 512 MiB at DigitalOcean for $4.00 a month. Setting it up is roughly 2 hours of work, then 0.5 hours a month to keep it healthy.
Full 1Password versus Vaultwarden breakdown · Vaultwarden at every team size
Passbolt 6,115 stars
PHP application with MariaDB. GPG key handling makes onboarding slower than Vaultwarden but the audit trail is stronger.
At 10 people it needs 1.3 GB of memory and 5.2 GB of disk, which fits the CX23 (cost-optimized) at Hetzner Cloud for $6.70 a month. Setting it up is roughly 6 hours of work, then 1.5 hours a month to keep it healthy.
Full 1Password versus Passbolt breakdown · Passbolt at every team size
How the pricing was established
1Password pricing was read from its own pricing page on 2026-09-12. Server prices come from the providers listed on the hosting page. The sizing model and the cost of your time are set out in full on the methodology page.
Related
- All password managers compared
- Alternatives to LastPass
- Alternatives to Bitwarden
- Where to host it
What you would be running
| Tool | Licence | Written in | Setup | Upkeep | GitHub stars |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vaultwarden | GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 | Rust | 2 h | 0.5 h a month | 67,195 |
| Passbolt | GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 | PHP | 6 h | 1.5 h a month | 6,115 |
Questions people actually ask
Is there a free open-source alternative to 1Password?
There are 2 on this page, and every one of them is free of licence cost: they are published under AGPL-3.0. Running one is not free, though. The cheapest of them, Vaultwarden, costs $42.30 a month at 10 people once the server, backups and the time to look after it are counted.
How much does 1Password cost?
1Password Business costs $89.90 a month at 10 people: USD 8.99 per seat per month. That figure was read from the vendor's own pricing page on 2026-09-12.
What does it cost to self-host Vaultwarden?
$42.30 a month at 10 people. That is $4.00 for the Basic 512 MiB at DigitalOcean, plus backups, plus 0.5 hours a month of your own time priced at the published hourly rate.
How long before Vaultwarden is cheaper than 1Password?
3 months, counting $150 of first-time setup. Over 36 months the difference is $1,564.
Which 1Password alternative is the easiest to run?
Vaultwarden, rated easy: about 2 hours to set up and 0.5 hours afterwards.