IT AI Index
September 2026 Edition · The permanent record of this edition. The unqualified address always carries the latest edition.
Index › Identity and access › September 2026 Edition

Business password managers

Asked as “business password manager”, and as “team password vault”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 45 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Bitwarden
Clear leader
49% of first choices, clear leader.
ShowinginAll 67 categories in the September 2026 Edition →

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.
Small business1Password42%Clear leaderStanding →Mid-marketBitwarden49%Clear leaderThis pageEnterpriseBitwarden43%Clear leaderStanding →

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Bitwarden49%11%65endorsed leader
021Password42%15%62endorsed leader
03NordPass4%3%34accepted challenger
04RoboForm2%12%16accepted challenger
05Zoho Vault2%10%10accepted challenger
Show the four products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
09LastPass0%85%27criticized challenger
07Dashlane0%26%42criticized challenger
06Keeper Security0%4%45accepted challenger
08Proton Pass0%0%12accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.
Head to head
Bitwarden vs 1PasswordBitwarden vs NordPass1Password vs NordPass

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative60%
Key
01Bitwarden49%
021Password42%
03NordPass4%
04RoboForm2%
05Zoho Vault2%
06Keeper Security0%
07Dashlane0%
08Proton Pass0%
09LastPass0%

02What they warned about

Five of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. GPT-5.4 mini, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Kimi K2 and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
LastPass
85%
23 of 27 labels negative · 12 of 12 models · 17 hard negative
“**Recommendation:** If you already use LastPass for business, **migrate immediately**. If you're evaluating options, this is the clear "avoid."” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
Dashlane
26%
11 of 42 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“**Avoid LastPass/Dashlane** for now—past breaches and weaker recent business scores make them riskier.” Grok 4.1 Fast, paraphrase prompt
1Password
15%
9 of 62 labels negative · 7 of 12 models
“While premium services like 1Password and Dashlane are highly polished, they can quickly become expensive, often costing $8 or more per user per month.” Gemini 3.5 Flash, budget prompt
Bitwarden
11%
7 of 65 labels negative · 7 of 12 models
“Researchers identified 12 working attack vectors under a malicious-server scenario, the highest of the tested platforms” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt

03What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: twelve of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

63 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 5 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 739 links across 178 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

pcmag.com
32 answers · 38 citations · 9 models
security.org
29 answers · 31 citations · 10 models
petronellatech.com
27 answers · 27 citations · 10 models
bitwarden.com
vendor site · Bitwarden26 answers · 44 citations · 9 models
techrepublic.com
23 answers · 30 citations · 8 models
pwdfortress.com
21 answers · 33 citations · 9 models
topickz.com
19 answers · 19 citations · 7 models
techbullion.com
15 answers · 15 citations · 9 models
zdnet.com
15 answers · 15 citations · 6 models
blog.lastpass.com
vendor site · LastPass13 answers · 18 citations · 6 models
passwordmanager.com
13 answers · 16 citations · 8 models
ifeeltech.com
13 answers · 13 citations · 8 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

pcmag.com/picks/the-best-password-managers-for-businesses
32 answers · 9 models
petronellatech.com/blog/best-password-managers-for-business-2026-comparison…
27 answers · 10 models
security.org/password-manager/best/business
26 answers · 10 models
techrepublic.com/article/enterprise-password-managers
21 answers · 8 models
pwdfortress.com/en/blog/best-password-manager-for-business
19 answers · 9 models
topickz.com/list/best-password-managers
18 answers · 7 models
techbullion.com/best-password-manager-business
15 answers · 9 models
zdnet.com/article/best-password-managers-for-business
15 answers · 6 models
bitwarden.com/resources/business-password-manager-comparison-report
12 answers · 6 models
ifeeltech.com/blog/best-password-manager
12 answers · 7 models

04How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ModelDirect“What is the best business password manager for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which team password vault would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top business password managers and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best business password manager for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a business password manager. What should we look at?”Negative“Which business password managers should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.51Password
Four alternativesBitwarden, Dashlane, Keeper Security, RoboForm
1PasswordHeld
Four alternativesBitwarden, Dashlane, LastPass, Microsoft Entra ID
1Password
Seven alternativesBitwarden, Dashlane, Keeper Security, LastPass, NordPass, RoboForm, Zoho Vault
Bitwarden
Three alternatives1Password, Dashlane, KeePass
against: LastPassno first choiceagainst: 1Password, Bitwarden, Dashlane, LastPass, Norton Password Manager
GPT-5.4 miniBitwarden
Three alternatives1Password, Dashlane, Keeper Security
1PasswordChanged
Three alternativesBitwarden, Dashlane, Keeper Security
1Password, Bitwarden
Four alternativesDashlane, Keeper Security, NordPass, Passbolt
against: LastPassBitwardenagainst: 1Password, LastPassno first choiceagainst: Dashlane
Gemini 3.5 Flash1Password
Two alternativesBitwarden, Keeper Security
1PasswordHeld
Two alternativesBitwarden, Keeper Security
against: LastPass1Password
Four alternativesBitwarden, Dashlane, Keeper Security, NordPass
Bitwarden, Zoho Vault
Two alternativesProton Pass, RoboForm
against: 1Password, Dashlane1Password
Three alternativesBitwarden, Dashlane, Keeper Security
against: Bitwarden, Browser-Built Password Managers, Dashlane, LastPass, Norton Password Manager
Perplexity Sonar1Password
Two alternativesBitwarden, Keeper Security
1PasswordHeld
Four alternativesBitwarden, Keeper Security, NordPass, Securden Password Vault
1Password, Keeper Security
Four alternativesBitwarden, Dashlane, NordPass, RoboForm
Bitwarden
Two alternativesNordPass, RoboForm
no first choiceagainst: Apple Passwords, Google Password Manager, LastPass
Grok 4.1 Fast1Password, Bitwarden
One alternativeKeeper Security
against: LastPassBitwardenChanged
Three alternatives1Password, Keeper Security, NordPass
against: Dashlane, LastPass1Password
Four alternativesBitwarden, Dashlane, Keeper Security, NordPass
against: LastPassBitwardenagainst: 1Password, Keeper Security, LastPass, Zoho Vaultno first choiceagainst: Dashlane, LastPass, Norton Password Manager, Passwordstate
Mistral Small1Password, Bitwarden1PasswordChanged
Two alternativesDashlane, Zoho Vault
Bitwarden
Three alternatives1Password, Dashlane, Keeper Security
Bitwarden, NordPass
Two alternativesProton Pass, RoboForm
no first choiceagainst: LastPass
DeepSeek V4 Flash1Password, Bitwarden
One alternativeKeeper Security
1PasswordChanged
Three alternativesBitwarden, Keeper Security, NordPass
against: LastPass1Password, Bitwarden, Keeper Security
Two alternativesDashlane, NordPass
Bitwarden
Two alternativesKeeper Security, NordPass
against: RoboFormno first choice
Two alternatives1Password, Bitwarden
against: Dashlane, Keeper Securityagainst: Bitwarden, Google Password Manager, LastPass, Norton Password Manager, PassSecurium, mSecure
Llama 4 Maverick1Password, Bitwarden1PasswordChanged
Two alternativesDashlane, Zoho Vault
no first choiceNordPass, RoboForm
Three alternativesBitwarden, Proton Pass, Zoho Vault
no first choiceagainst: Apple Passwords, Google Password Manager, LastPass
Qwen 3.7 Flash1Password
Two alternativesBitwarden, NordPass
1PasswordHeld
Two alternativesBitwarden, Dashlane
1Password
Three alternativesBitwarden, Dashlane, Keeper Security
against: LastPassBitwarden
Two alternativesNordPass, Passpack
against: 1Passwordno first choiceagainst: Bitwarden, ExpressKeys, LastPass
Kimi K2Bitwarden
Three alternatives1Password, Keeper Security, NordPass
against: Dashlane, LastPass1PasswordChanged
Three alternativesBitwarden, Keeper Security, NordPass
Bitwarden
Four alternatives1Password, Dashlane, Keeper Security, NordPass
against: LastPassBitwarden
Two alternativesNordPass, RoboForm
against: 1PasswordBitwarden
Two alternatives1Password, Keeper Security
against: 1Password, Bitwarden, Dashlane, LastPass, Norton Password Manager
GLM 4.7 FlashXBitwarden
Two alternatives1Password, Keeper Security
BitwardenHeld
Three alternatives1Password, Keeper Security, NordPass
Bitwarden
Three alternatives1Password, Dashlane, Keeper Security
Bitwarden
Four alternativesKeeper Security, NordPass, Proton Pass, RoboForm
against: 1Passwordno first choiceagainst: 1Password, Bitwarden, CyberGhost Password Manager, Dashlane, Dropbox Passwords, ESET Password Manager, LastPass, Microsoft Authenticator, NordPass, RoboForm
MiniMax M2.5Bitwarden
Two alternatives1Password, Keeper Security
1PasswordChanged
Three alternativesDashlane, Keeper Security, Zoho Vault
1Password
Four alternativesBitwarden, Keeper Security, NordPass, Zoho Vault
Bitwarden
Four alternativesKeeper Security, LitePassword, NordPass, Proton Pass
no first choiceagainst: Bitwarden, Dashlane, LastPass
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 11:45yes98 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 12:55yes25 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 12:04yes817 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 12:55yes204 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 12:24yes2616 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 12:27yes54 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 09:27yes1616 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 13:43yes53 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 13:46yes963 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 11:28yes1326 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 13:10yes15132 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 10:34yes823 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 11:34no05 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 13:38no03 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 09:36yes520 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 12:53yes205 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 13:14yes1910 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:23yes522 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 11:54yes1011 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 13:33yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 11:05yes518 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 11:21yes1445 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 13:07yes920 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 13:42yes931 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 10:04yes99 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 09:37yes68 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 12:37yes1421 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 10:52yes208 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 10:04yes2312 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 10:47yes57 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 11:23yes1919 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 13:39yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 13:33no032 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 12:14yes1342 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 11:55yes2569 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 11:08yes936 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 10:36no04 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 12:26yes45 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 09:32yes1424 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 11:03yes204 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 11:28yes4515 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:32yes55 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 10:03yes89 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 13:18yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 09:54yes954 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 13:52yes1022 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 11:50yes14187 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 10:39yes1027 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 13:16no07 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 10:55no010 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 09:55no015 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 13:43yes207 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 12:25yes159 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 09:31no08 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 10:44yes922 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 12:46yes54 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 13:48yes529 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 12:38yes1027 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 10:46yes1482 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 12:12no013 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 12:50yes198 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 11:08yes34 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 09:43yes2227 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 12:18yes206 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 11:50yes4015 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 10:47yes55 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 13:18yes2951 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 12:18yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:28yes524 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 12:33yes1421 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 09:51yes19165 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 11:20yes1430 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

Category-scoped readings
Keeper read as Keeper Security
Keeper (Enterprise) read as Keeper Security
Keeper Business read as Keeper Security
Keeper Business Starter read as Keeper Security
Keeper Enterprise read as Keeper Security
ManageEngine read as ManageEngine Password Manager Pro
Microsoft Edge read as Microsoft Edge Password Manager
Proton read as Proton Pass
Securden read as Securden Password Vault
Unresolved, counted raw
Browser-Built Password Managers (Chrome, Safari, Edge)
CyberGhost Password Manager
Dropbox Passwords
ESET Password Manager
PassSecurium
mSecure
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in identity and access

The other categories of this function, with the leader in each.
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