What do you do when your very first paying customer, the person you shepherded from an effective but improveable password system onto Bitwarden, sends you an article on a Friday evening about possible changes with your recommended password manager?

If you’re me, you read the FastCompany article they sent then you go to work. Because keeping a customer happy means living the promise that you won’t let them down regardless of whether they engaged you six months ago or six hours ago.

Plus I care about this because I sell a service to help people safeguard their online privacy by setting up and using a password manager, because I have for years recommended people use Bitwarden, and because I’ve used Bitwarden for a long time. It contains all my passwords, secure notes, payment card info, etc.

So, I care. A lot.

The good news is apparently Bitwarden, while having undergone a recent change in leadership, is continuing to maintain, on its website, that its basic fully functioning service will always remain free.

How do I know?

Well, Reddit.

What Happened

Jared Newman, “a freelance technology journalist for more than 15 years,” posted an article on the FastCompany website on May 15. The story recapped some recent changes to Bitwarden company leadership, then walked through changes to the Bitwarden site.

Newman’s piece called out a change to Bitwarden’s tentpole values as well as the removal of the phrase “Always free” from its pricing page. The pricing page change is particularly significant.

Bitwarden’s basic service provides complete functionality for zero dollars. It enables a person who might be on the fence about using a password manager to get acclimated with what I consider the best service available without having to provide a credit card number.

If Bitwarden were to walk away from its promise to remain “Always free,” that could indicate other sea changes are likely. The company already doubled its premium plan pricing from $10 annually to $20 annually; a 100% increase but still a bargain. What else could be coming?

While there’s no way to know an answer to that question now, thanks to Reddit, I do have a glimpse into what may have happened.

How Do I Know

After reading the FastCompany article, I opened Reddit and clicked over to the Bitwarden subreddit.

If you’re not familiar with Reddit, it’s an enormous social news aggregation site containing thousands of user-created communities called subreddits. Also, because AI foundation models bias for human-created content, Reddit is the most cited site by LLMs today.

So, I hopped into the Bitwarden subreddit. And I was not disappointed.

Pinned to the top of a thread titled, “FastCompany: intriguing corporate gossip about Bitwarden,” I found this pinned comment:

That’s a Bitwarden employee commenting about what happened and taking responsibility. People make mistakes. Apparently that’s what happened here.

Just as interesting is a comment further down the thread. After someone lambasts the reporter for not reaching out to Bitwarden for comment:

Pretty amazing. The journalist was present in the subreddit answering questions.

Doesn’t get much more human than that.

What Did We Learn

Well, I learned that, as of 9:00 p.m. on Friday night, May 15, the article on the FastCompany website has been updated to reflect that Bitwarden’s pricing page has been revised.

That might change soon, but, for now at least, Bitwarden’s basic plan is free and apparently will remain free.

I learned that, although I will continue to use Bitwarden and to recommend it to others, I need to survey other options to see if there is an alternative which provides the same encryption, user experience, and feature set for a comparable price. I’d be foolish not to.

And you learned that, when you work with me, I’ll never take your trust for granted. You’ll be a text or a call away from the support you need.

Don’t have a password manager set up yet? Let’s get you started so you’ll never have to worry about what happens at 9:00 p.m. on a Friday.