passbolt

passbolt Competitive Intelligence & Landscape

passbolt.com ·

Overview

passbolt Overview

Passbolt (passbolt.com) is an open-source password manager for teams that specializes in secure credential and secret management. The company provides a platform designed to help organizations centralize, organize, and securely share digital credentials, aiming to streamline collaboration, enhance security, and ensure traceability in password sharing.

Passbolt targets security-conscious IT teams, agile, and DevOps teams, while also being simple enough for company-wide adoption across businesses of any size, from teams of 5 to organizations of 5000.

Passbolt offers a collaborative password manager that centralizes the secure storage, sharing, and management of digital credentials. Its core products include both an on-premise installation option and a Passbolt Cloud service. The platform operates with server, browser, desktop, and mobile clients, allowing users to securely store, share, and manage passwords, notes, and OTP credentials.

Passbolt emphasizes features that empower teams to securely share credentials, untangling the chaos of insecure password sharing, and reclaiming productivity and control.

While the first version of the platform was created 12 years ago (prior to the blog post in which it was mentioned), the company Passbolt SA was established in 2011. It is headquartered in Belvaux, Luxembourg, and is officially recognized with the “Made in Luxembourg” label.

Passbolt has garnered significant traction, being used by over 50,000 organizations worldwide, including governments, defense agencies, and various IT companies. Notable users include Bosch, Ministère de l'intérieur, GLS, and several universities.

Passbolt's mission is to help modern digital teams align their productivity, security, and data privacy requirements by providing a single platform to manage the entire password lifecycle. The company is SOC 2 Type II Compliant, GDPR compliant, a member of the FIDO Alliance, and has entered the ANSSI CSPN certification process. In an exciting milestone, Passbolt recently raised an $8 million Series A funding round, led by Airbridge Equity Partners.

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Competitors

passbolt Competitors

Among the competitors of Passbolt, Bitwarden stands out as a freemium, open-source password manager known for its secure, cross-device vault synchronization. While Passbolt is built specifically for security-conscious IT teams and uses OpenPGP for granular sharing, Bitwarden offers a broader appeal with its comprehensive client ecosystem, including browser extensions, mobile apps, and desktop apps, often supported by lightweight server implementations like Vaultwarden for self-hosting. Both offer open-source solutions for password management, with Bitwarden providing a more generalized approach and Passbolt focusing on team-first, security-intensive collaboration.

1Password Developer is another significant competitor, offering paid secrets management specifically tailored for developers. While Passbolt provides open-source credential management for a wide range of organizations, 1Password Developer targets a more niche, professional developer market with specialized features.

Passbolt is positioned as a mid-range solution in terms of pricing among its direct competitors, offering a balance of features and cost for teams of various sizes.

Psono Password Manager is an open-source and self-hosted alternative that, like Passbolt, assists organizations with password management policies to protect credentials. Both Psono and Passbolt emphasize self-hosting and open-source principles, appealing to users who prioritize data sovereignty and control.

Passbolt differentiates itself with its OpenPGP-based encryption and its extensibility to integrate with developer-preferred tools such as chats, emails, browsers, and terminals.

Enpass distinguishes itself with a strong emphasis on data sovereignty, allowing users to keep their encrypted data on their own cloud storage. While most password managers, including Passbolt, offer core features like password generation, autofill, and end-to-end encryption, Enpass's unique selling proposition is its privacy-first, zero-knowledge approach, ensuring users maintain full control over their data, aligning with a key aspect of Passbolt's sovereign and adaptable solution philosophy.

Alternatives

passbolt Alternatives

Product & Pricing

passbolt Product and Pricing Intelligence

Passbolt (passbolt.com) offers an open source password manager designed for IT and DevOps teams but adaptable for any business size, from a team of 5 to an organization of 5000 [https://www.passbolt.com/]. The platform provides secure credential sharing, aiming to untangle insecure password collaboration and enhance productivity and traceability [https://www.passbolt.com/]. It supports managing various credentials including SSH keys, cloud account passwords, and API tokens [https://www.passbolt.com/solutions/for-devops], with features like private and shared folders, user and group management, and Role Based Access Control [https://www.passbolt.com/pricing/pro].

Passbolt offers both self-hosted and cloud-managed solutions. The Passbolt Pro self-hosted option is priced at €4.5 per user per month, billed annually, with a minimum of 10 users and volume discounts starting after 100 users [https://www.passbolt.com/pricing/pro]. This plan includes unlimited users, is open source under the AGPLV3 license, and offers features such as secret key authentication (2FA) and additional factor authentication [https://www.passbolt.com/pricing/pro]. For those requiring custom solutions or enterprise-level features, Passbolt Pro Enterprise allows companies to request a custom quote, including options for installation services, premium support, high availability, disaster recovery setup, on-premise management, and customization [https://www.passbolt.com/contact/pro/enterprise].

The Passbolt Cloud option is available with two pricing structures: €6 per user per month when billed monthly, and €5 per user per month when billed annually, both requiring a minimum of 10 users [https://www.passbolt.com/pricing/cloud]. The cloud service is hosted in Belgium and Germany on GCP datacenters, or in Luxembourg within a sovereign private data center, offering free yearly full database backups and next business day email support [https://www.passbolt.com/pricing/cloud]. Both cloud options are SOC2 Type II Audited, with the Luxembourg hosting environment also being ISO-27001 certified and compliant with GDPR, NIS2 & DORA [https://www.passbolt.com/pricing/cloud]. Users can try Passbolt for free for various solutions, including those for IT Teams, DevOps, and Public Institutions [https://www.passbolt.com/solutions/for-it-teams].

Passbolt emphasizes its open-source nature, allowing for thorough security auditing and ensuring sensitive data resides within the user's infrastructure with self-hosted, air-gapped security architecture for public sector compliance [https://www.passbolt.com/solutions/for-public-institutions]. The platform is built with a security-first, privacy-centric approach, is made in Europe, and is highly versatile [https://www.passbolt.com/about]. Recent updates, such as Passbolt 5.0, focus on a redesigned user experience to simplify collaboration on access and credentials for both technical and non-technical users [https://www.passbolt.com/blog/passbolt-5-0-released-a-simpler-way-to-share-credentials-at-scale].

Hiring & Layoffs

passbolt Hiring and Layoffs

Passbolt (passbolt.com) demonstrates a strategic approach to hiring, focusing on careful expansion rather than rapid growth. The company emphasizes its company culture and takes significant time in its recruitment process, as evidenced by its journey from 7 to 15 collaborators over an entire year. This deliberate pace suggests a commitment to finding individuals who are a strong cultural fit and contribute to the long-term vision of the open source password manager for teams.

Recent funding, specifically an 8M Series A round led by Airbridge, is set to accelerate Passbolt's mission. This investment is earmarked to grow the team, indicating an anticipated increase in hiring to fast-track the development and delivery of new features for both its free community edition and paid offerings. Despite being financially profitable prior to this funding, Passbolt is leveraging the investment to enhance its workforce and product offerings.

While specific recent job openings are not detailed, Passbolt's Human Resources Privacy Policy outlines how job seekers' information is handled during the application and recruitment process, implying ongoing recruitment efforts. The growth from 15 to 30 collaborators by the time 100% of their source code was audited further highlights a consistent, albeit measured, hiring trend. The company's headquarters are in Belvaux, Luxembourg, reinforcing its identity as a "Made in Luxembourg" product.

There is no indication of layoffs mentioned in the provided information. Instead, the focus is on growth and expansion, particularly to empower digital teams with secure password, access, and secrets collaboration. This sustained growth, supported by strategic funding, signals a strong commitment to enhancing its product and expanding its market reach within the credential management platform sector for security-conscious IT teams.

Leadership

passbolt Management and Leadership Team

The leadership team at Passbolt was formed when Kevin (CEO) and Remy (CTO), who initially led a digital agency in India called E-nova, were joined by Cedric, a childhood friend and cybersecurity practitioner. This trio forms the core founding team of Passbolt.

Passbolt recently announced an $8 million Series A funding round led by Airbridge Equity Partners. This round also saw continued participation from historic investors including Expon Capital's Digital Tech Fund, ScaleFund, Seeder, Dedicated, Bondi Capital, Carricha Capital, and LBAN. The company has also been advised by industry veterans Xavier Buck (co-founder of Datacenter Luxembourg) and Christophe Bianco (co-founder of Excellium Services).

As of recent updates, Passbolt has grown significantly, reaching a team of 30 collaborators. The company emphasizes a culture of careful hiring, with a focus on executing its roadmap while maintaining the quality standards its team is known for.

Passbolt is a Luxembourg-based company, a fact recognized with the official “Made in Luxembourg” label by the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce.

Financials

passbolt Financial Performance, Fundraising, M&A

Passbolt has successfully secured significant funding rounds to fuel its growth. The company closed an initial total funding round of 3 million EUR to scale its team and accelerate product development. More recently, Passbolt announced an 8 million Series A funding round led by Airbridge Equity Partners, with participation from existing investors including Expon Capital's Digital Tech Fund, ScaleFund, Seeder, Dedicated, Bondi Capital, Carricha Capital, and LBAN [https://www.passbolt.com/blog/passbolt-raises-8m-series-a-led-by-airbridge]. This capital injection is intended to scale operations and meet the demand for their open-source security solutions, highlighting market interest in transparent credential management [https://www.passbolt.com/blog/2025-a-year-in-review].

Financially, Passbolt has demonstrated strong growth, reporting a 115% increase in revenue in 2022. During the same year, they also saw an 8K increase in Pro & Cloud users, representing a 47% increase from the previous year, and a 285% increase in organizations using Passbolt [https://www.passbolt.com/blog/2022-a-year-in-review]. The company's customer base includes over 50,000 organizations worldwide, encompassing governments, defense agencies, and IT companies [https://passbolt.com/]. As of a recent update, Passbolt boasts 2000 customers, including governments and defense agencies [https://www.passbolt.com/about].

Passbolt offers various pricing models for its password management solutions, catering to different organizational needs. The Passbolt Pro self-hosted version is priced at €4.5/month per user, billed annually, with a minimum of 10 users and volume discounts for over 100 users [https://www.passbolt.com/pricing/pro]. For its cloud offerings, Passbolt provides Business, Sovereign, and Enterprise options, with pricing models ranging from per-user (pay-as-you-go) monthly/yearly for Business to tailor-made for Enterprise [https://www.passbolt.com/pricing/cloud]. The company also operates a reseller program, where partners can earn commissions ranging from 10% to 30% on Passbolt contracts, with commission tiers tied to annual revenue generated for Passbolt, starting from €3,500 for Official: Silver partners and going up to €150,000 for Official: Platinum partners [https://www.passbolt.com/reseller].

Partnerships

passbolt Partnerships, Clients and Vendors

Passbolt has established key partnerships and serves a diverse range of clients across various sectors. Notably, Passbolt has partnered with SUSE to enhance open-source security solutions, focusing on providing enterprise credential collaboration tools within the open-source community, especially in Europe [source]. This collaboration highlights a shared commitment to open-source values and strong European footholds for both companies.

Passbolt boasts an impressive client roster, including prominent organizations such as Bosch, the German multinational engineering and technology company, and the Ministère de l'intérieur, the Interior minister of the French government. Other significant clients include GLS, a parcel services provider, and several public research universities like Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and TU Graz. Government and public sector entities also utilize Passbolt, such as ZIT-RLP (Center for University IT Rhineland-Palatinate), Hochschule Ruhr West, Information Services (National system integrator of the Republic of Bulgaria), and CTIE (IT services for Luxembourg’s government). Beyond these, over 50,000 organizations worldwide, including governments, defense agencies, and IT companies, rely on Passbolt.

Several case studies further illustrate Passbolt's impact on its clients.

Boxtal, a Paris-based logistics scale-up, utilizes self-hosted Passbolt for secure DevOps [source].

Descor, an Italian software house, and Numadic have integrated Passbolt to enhance their security and scalability, with Numadic praising its robust security features and efficient password management [source] [source]. Humanitarian NGOs like Cordaid and INSO leverage Passbolt to strengthen data sovereignty and simplify credential sharing, enabling secure operations in fragile environments [source] [source]. Additionally, law firms such as Dr. Metschkoll GmbH use Passbolt for secure password sharing in compliance with stringent data protection requirements [source].

In terms of technology integrations and ecosystem relationships, Passbolt's API is designed for flexibility, operating over HTTPS in a RESTful manner, making it language and framework agnostic. This allows for seamless integration into existing workflows [source]. A notable integration includes the new n8n community node for Passbolt, which facilitates the automation of tasks like employee onboarding and password rotation, bridging the gap between security and workflow automation [source].

Passbolt also emphasizes end-to-end encryption, with encryption and decryption performed on the client side, ensuring that the server primarily handles relational data integrity and storage [source].

Events

passbolt Event Participations

Passbolt actively participates in and contributes to various industry events and communities. In 2024, the Passbolt team attended FOSDEM, a prominent gathering for free and open-source software enthusiasts in Brussels, providing an opportunity to connect with other open-source communities, share insights, and explore innovations in the field [https://www.passbolt.com/blog/fosdem-2024-retrospective].

The company also engages with its audience through webinars and online workshops. When users inquire about Passbolt products or free trials, they are asked "Where did you hear about Passbolt?", with options including "Tech Conference or Event" and "Webinar or Online Workshop," indicating these are active channels for engagement [https://www.passbolt.com/contact/sales].

Passbolt has also published a webinar slide deck focusing on its integration with SUSE Linux Enterprise, highlighting its capabilities as an open-source credential manager for collaboration and secret management in pipelines [https://www.passbolt.com/sles/Passbolt_SUSE_Linux_Enterprise_Webinar_Slides.pdf].

Beyond direct participation, Passbolt's activities suggest engagement with security certification processes, such as its formal submission for ANSSI CSPN certification, following months of preparation with Quarkslab [https://www.passbolt.com/blog/passbolt-enters-the-cspn-certification-process]. This demonstrates their commitment to independent security assessments and transparency. The company also fosters a community forum where topics such as product reviews and community feedback are discussed [https://community.passbolt.com/t/tech-expert-gary-sims-asks-is-passbolt-5-the-best-open-source-password-manager-for-teams/12867].

Frequently Asked Questions

What strategic implications does Passbolt's recent Series A funding round have for its hiring and product development?

Passbolt's recent $8 million Series A funding, led by Airbridge Equity Partners, is earmarked to accelerate team growth and product development. This capital injection will enable the company to fast-track new features for both its free community edition and paid offerings, despite being financially profitable prior to the funding. This signals an intent to scale operations and enhance its market reach more rapidly.

How does Passbolt's deliberate hiring pace, despite significant funding, reflect its strategic priorities?

Passbolt's deliberate hiring pace, growing from 7 to 15 collaborators over a year and then to 30, reflects a strategic emphasis on company culture and a commitment to long-term vision rather than rapid, unfettered expansion. This approach, supported by recent Series A funding, indicates a focus on finding strong cultural fits and maintaining quality standards while scaling its workforce to enhance product development.

Given Passbolt's 115% revenue increase in 2022, what growth trends can be observed in its user base and organizational adoption?

In 2022, Passbolt experienced substantial growth, marked by a 115% increase in revenue. This was accompanied by an 8K increase in Pro & Cloud users, representing a 47% rise from the previous year, and a 285% increase in organizations using Passbolt. These figures indicate strong market traction and increasing adoption across its target segments.

What is the strategic significance of Passbolt pursuing ANSSI CSPN certification?

Passbolt's formal submission for ANSSI CSPN certification, following extensive preparation with Quarkslab, demonstrates a strong commitment to independent security assessments and transparency. This initiative is strategically important for gaining credibility, particularly with government and defense agencies that are already among its 50,000+ organizational users worldwide.

How does Passbolt's partnership with SUSE and client roster in the public sector shape its market positioning?

Passbolt's partnership with SUSE, focused on open-source security solutions in Europe, and its client roster including entities like the Ministère de l'intérieur and various public research universities, strategically positions it as a trusted provider for security-conscious organizations, especially in the public sector. These collaborations and adoptions reinforce its credibility and commitment to open-source values and strong European footholds.

What competitive advantages does Passbolt gain from its OpenPGP-based encryption and extensibility compared to competitors like Bitwarden or Psono?

Passbolt gains a competitive advantage through its OpenPGP-based encryption and extensibility, which allows for granular sharing and integration with developer-preferred tools. While Bitwarden offers a broader appeal and Psono focuses on self-hosting, Passbolt's specific security architecture and flexibility cater directly to security-conscious IT and DevOps teams, differentiating it in the open-source password manager market.

How do Passbolt's pricing models for Pro self-hosted and Cloud versions cater to different organizational needs and potentially attract diverse customer segments?

Passbolt's pricing models cater to diverse organizational needs by offering both a Passbolt Pro self-hosted option at €4.5/month per user (billed annually) and Cloud options (Business, Sovereign, Enterprise) starting at €5-€6/month per user. The self-hosted version appeals to organizations prioritizing data sovereignty and control, while the cloud options, with their different tiers and hosting locations (including sovereign private data centers), address varying requirements for managed services, compliance, and enterprise features, thus attracting a wide range of customer segments.

What does Passbolt's engagement with industry events like FOSDEM and its webinar focus on SUSE Linux Enterprise suggest about its strategic direction?

Passbolt's active participation in FOSDEM and its specific webinar focusing on SUSE Linux Enterprise suggest a strategic commitment to strengthening its presence within the open-source community and expanding its reach among enterprise Linux users. These activities indicate a deliberate effort to engage with its core audience of security-conscious IT teams and demonstrate its capabilities as an open-source credential manager for collaboration and secret management.

How does the 'Made in Luxembourg' label and headquarters location influence Passbolt's strategic identity and market appeal?

The 'Made in Luxembourg' label and its headquarters in Belvaux reinforce Passbolt's identity as a European company, appealing to clients who prioritize data sovereignty and local compliance, particularly within the EU. This geographic and branding emphasis can enhance trust and differentiate Passbolt in a global market, especially for public sector clients and organizations subject to stringent data protection regulations like GDPR, NIS2, and DORA.

What distinguishes Passbolt from alternatives like HashiCorp Vault and LastPass in terms of core product focus?

Passbolt is primarily an open-source password manager for teams, focused on secure credential and secret management. In contrast, HashiCorp Vault emphasizes broader multi-cloud infrastructure automation and security lifecycles, while LastPass specializes in password and identity management with single sign-on capabilities. Passbolt's core product focus is more niche, prioritizing team-centric, open-source secure password sharing and management.

What is the strategic value of Passbolt's reseller program, offering commissions up to 30%, for its market expansion?

Passbolt's reseller program, offering commissions from 10% to 30% based on annual revenue generated, provides a strategic channel for market expansion. This incentivizes partners to sell Passbolt contracts, effectively extending its sales reach and increasing adoption without direct overhead, particularly targeting new customer segments and growing its presence through indirect channels.

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