Bitwarden or KeePassXC: synced cloud or local vault?

Bitwarden and KeePassXC start from the same observation: your passwords deserve better than Chrome’s password manager, tied to your Google account. Both are open source, audited and free. But they answer a different question: where should your vault live? Bitwarden encrypts it and syncs it in the cloud, across all your devices. KeePassXC keeps it in a file on your machine, and nowhere else.

The match in one table

Criterion	Bitwarden	KeePassXC
Price	Very complete free plan. Premium at $19.80/year, Families at $47.88/year (6 people)	Free and open source, everything included
Storage	Encrypted vault synced via the cloud	Local file encrypted with AES-256
Sync	Automatic across all your devices	Up to you, via Nextcloud, Syncthing or another service
Mobile app	Official, on every platform	No official app: KeePassDX on Android, KeePassium on iOS
Built-in 2FA codes	Premium only	Yes, from the free version
Source code	Open and audited	Open and audited
Level	Beginner	Intermediate

What Bitwarden does better

Comfort. You create an account, you import your passwords, and everything shows up everywhere: computer, phone, tablet. Importing from Chrome or another manager takes five minutes. Autofill works in the browser and on mobile alike, with nothing to configure.

The free plan already covers the essentials: unlimited passwords, multi-device sync, a generator. To equip a household, the Families plan at $47.88/year covers six people with secure sharing. It’s the easiest manager to recommend to the people around you, including those who know nothing about any of this.

What KeePassXC does better

Control. No account, no server, no subscription: your vault is a file encrypted with AES-256, stored on your own machine. No data passes through the cloud, which counts for a lot in sensitive environments. Nobody can close your account, since there isn’t one.

It’s also more generous than it looks: a generator, a browser extension for autofill, and built-in TOTP codes from the free version, where Bitwarden reserves them for Premium. All of it runs on Windows, macOS and Linux.

That autonomy has a price. Syncing between devices is yours to set up, with the service of your choice such as Nextcloud or Syncthing. On the phone, you’ll go through community apps, KeePassDX on Android and KeePassium on iOS. Nothing insurmountable, but you have to accept spending a bit of time on it.

Verdict

Choose Bitwarden if you want a vault that works on its own, on all your devices, without thinking about it. It’s the right choice for the vast majority of people, and for equipping a family.

Choose KeePassXC if you refuse to entrust your passwords to a server, even encrypted, and managing sync yourself doesn’t scare you. It’s the most sovereign option in the catalog, reserved for technically comfortable profiles.

Either way, your passwords get out of your Google account, and that’s what counts. My default recommendation in the category remains Proton Pass, which I compared to Bitwarden. The detailed profiles: Bitwarden and KeePassXC, and all the alternatives to Google’s password manager.