How to Compare Password Manager Pricing for a Small Team

A password manager for a team is a small purchase that is easy to get wrong, because vendors package it three different ways: a flat pack that covers a fixed number of people, a per-user rate, or a per-user rate with a minimum. This note reads the business pricing pages of 1Password, Bitwarden and Proton Pass, as published on October 10, 2026, and works the annual bill for an eight-person team on each tier. Keeper, NordPass and Dashlane were also attempted; their pages returned no prices or an access error, so they are noted but not priced.

Identify the packaging before you compare rates

1Password's Teams Starter Pack is a flat price: $24.95 a month billed annually, $299.40 a year, including 10 members, with a 10-user minimum and a cap of 20. Seats beyond 10 cost $4.99 each per month. The page also shows the same pack as $2.49 per user, which is the flat price divided by ten.

Bitwarden is per user: Teams at $4 per user per month billed annually, Enterprise at $6. No minimum is stated on the page. Proton Pass is per user with a floor: Pass Essentials at $1.99 and Pass Professional at $4.49 per user per month billed annually, each with a minimum of 3 users.

A flat pack is cheap per head when full and expensive when half empty. A three-user minimum is irrelevant to a team of eight and decisive for a team of two. Write down the packaging before the rate, the same habit that makes help desk bills predictable in how to read a help desk pricing page.

Work the annual bill for eight people

Editorial calculation, eight users, annual billing, list prices as of October 10, 2026, no add-ons:

• Proton Pass Essentials: 8 x $1.99 x 12 = $191.04 a year
• 1Password Teams Starter Pack: $299.40 a year flat, covering up to 10 members, so two seats are unused
• Bitwarden Teams: 8 x $4 x 12 = $384 a year
• Proton Pass Professional: 8 x $4.49 x 12 = $431.04 a year
• Bitwarden Enterprise: 8 x $6 x 12 = $576 a year
• 1Password Business: 8 x $8.99 x 12 = $863.04 a year ($107.88 per user per year, per the page)

The spread between cheapest and most expensive is about 4.5 times for the same head count. That range is not noise; it reflects which tier includes single sign-on, admin policies and reporting, which the next section covers. The pattern, a low headline rate and a feature that forces a tier change, is the one described in how to read a help desk pricing page.

The flat pack changes shape with head count. At 10 people, 1Password's Starter Pack is still $299.40, or $2.50 a head, cheaper than Bitwarden Teams at $480. At 5 people, it is still $299.40, now $4.99 a head, and Bitwarden Teams costs $240. The pack wins when it is full. Promotional pricing has the same expiry shape, as shown in how to compare small business accounting software pricing.

Find the tier where SSO starts

Single sign-on is the feature that most often forces a tier change. Bitwarden's page lists passwordless SSO integration on Enterprise at $6, with directory sync and SCIM on Teams at $4. Proton Pass lists SSO as a feature of Pass Professional at $4.49, not of Essentials.

1Password's business pricing page, as read for this note, does not state which of Teams Starter Pack or Business includes SSO; its Enterprise material lists SSO within a larger bundle without a price. Treat 1Password's SSO tier as a question for the feature table, not the price card.

For a team that uses Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 sign-in and wants the password manager behind it, the comparison narrows to Proton Pass Professional at $431.04 and Bitwarden Enterprise at $576 for eight people, by the figures above. Without SSO, the entry tiers at $191.04 to $384 apply.

Check the trial and what it does not require

All three vendors state a 14-day free trial on their business pages. 1Password states no credit card required for both Teams Starter Pack and Business. Bitwarden's banner offers a 14-day Enterprise trial; the Teams card says Start Free Trial without a length. Proton Pass lists 14 days on each business plan.

A 14-day trial is long enough to import the team's existing passwords, set up two or three shared vaults and test the browser extension on every operating system the team uses. It is not long enough to see how onboarding a new hire works, so test that step deliberately inside the window. Decide during the trial who needs a full seat at all, the question worked through in what per-agent pricing means when agents are part-time.

Price the extras that sit outside the per-user rate

Bitwarden Enterprise includes a free Families plan for every user, per the page, which is a benefit for staff rather than a cost. 1Password's Starter Pack charges $4.99 per seat above 10, almost double the pack's effective per-head rate. Proton's bundles, VPN and Pass Professional at $10.99 and Workspace Standard at $12.99, add products the team may not need.

The Proton VPN and Pass bundle also shows an annual total of $875.52 that does not reconcile with $10.99 x 12 for one user, and the page does not say how many users it covers. Where a page's own arithmetic does not add up, confirm in checkout before quoting it.

What could not be read

Keeper's business pricing page loaded with blank price fields for Business Starter, Business and Enterprise on October 10, 2026; it did say Business Starter covers 5 to 10 users and that SSO is an Enterprise feature. NordPass's business plans page and Dashlane's pricing page returned access errors or no per-seat amounts.

Those three are therefore not in the eight-person table. A buyer should read their pages directly rather than rely on third-party price lists, which go stale. The same caution applies to the AI pricing that is changing month to month, as described in what AI add-ons cost in small business tools.

Bottom line

For eight people without SSO, the published annual bills run from $191.04 on Proton Pass Essentials to $384 on Bitwarden Teams, with 1Password's $299.40 Starter Pack in between and two seats to spare. With SSO, Proton Pass Professional at $431.04 and Bitwarden Enterprise at $576 are the priced options, as of October 10, 2026.

Pick by packaging first: a flat pack for a stable team of eight to ten, per-user seats for a team that changes size. Then confirm the SSO tier in the feature table, and run the 14-day trial on every device type. Budget the seats the way you would phone lines, counting who truly needs one, as in what unlimited calling really means.

Frequently asked questions

How much does 1Password cost for a small team?

1Password's business pricing page lists the Teams Starter Pack at $24.95 a month billed annually, $299.40 a year, for up to 10 members with a 10-user minimum and a 20-user cap; extra seats are $4.99 each. Business is $8.99 per user per month billed annually, $107.88 a year, as of October 10, 2026.

Is Bitwarden cheaper than 1Password for business?

Per user, Bitwarden Teams at $4 is below 1Password Business at $8.99, both per month billed annually. But 1Password's flat $299.40 Starter Pack beats Bitwarden Teams at $480 for a full team of 10, by editorial calculation from the October 2026 pages. The answer depends on head count.

Which password manager tier includes SSO?

Bitwarden lists passwordless SSO on Enterprise at $6 per user per month; Proton Pass lists SSO on Pass Professional at $4.49. 1Password's price cards read for this note do not state the SSO tier. Keeper's page says SSO is an Enterprise feature, as of October 10, 2026.

Does Proton Pass have a minimum number of users?

Yes. Proton Pass Essentials at $1.99 and Pass Professional at $4.49 per user per month, billed annually, each state a minimum of 3 users on the business pricing page checked October 10, 2026. Both plans list a 14-day free trial.