Looking for Bitwarden Send Alternatives? Here's What to Know in 2026
In January 2026, Bitwarden nearly doubled the price of their Premium plan — from $10/year to $19.80/year. A 98% increase.
The communication around it wasn’t great either. Fast Company covered the backlash, specifically calling out the “$1.65/month billed annually” framing when there’s no monthly billing option. That’s the kind of pricing trick that erodes trust, especially from a company that built its reputation on transparency.
Since then, I’ve watched a steady stream of people looking for Bitwarden Send alternatives. Which makes sense — if you were using Bitwarden primarily for Send (their secure sharing feature), a 98% price increase on what was already a secondary feature is a reasonable reason to look around.
I built Password Pusher, so I’m obviously not a neutral party here. But I’ve been building secure sharing tools since 2011 and I think I can offer some useful perspective on what to actually evaluate — regardless of where you end up.
The Price Hike Isn’t Really the Problem
Look, $20/year is still cheap software. If Bitwarden Send did everything you needed, the price increase alone probably wouldn’t be worth switching over.
The real question the price hike forces is: should you be paying for an entire password manager just to share secrets?
Bitwarden is a solid password manager. But Send is a feature inside that password manager — not a standalone product. Its roadmap, its priorities, its development resources are all driven by the password management use case. Sharing is secondary.
That’s not a knock on Bitwarden. It’s just the reality of how product development works. When you need a screwdriver, buying a whole toolbox works — but you’re paying for a lot of tools you don’t need.
And the price hike is part of a broader pattern that has the community paying attention. New CEO with private equity experience. “Always free” quietly removed from the website. Company values like “Transparency” and “Inclusion” scrubbed. People in the Bitwarden subreddit are drawing direct comparisons to the LastPass trajectory, and I can’t say those concerns are unfounded.
What Actually Matters in a Secure Sharing Tool
If you’re evaluating alternatives, here’s what I’d focus on:
Does it require an account to send? Most people sharing a secret need to do it right now. If the tool requires signup and login before you can share anything, that’s friction at exactly the wrong moment. Bitwarden Send requires a Bitwarden account. Some alternatives don’t.
What’s the expiry model? You want granular control over both view limits and time limits. Bitwarden Send caps at 31 days maximum. Some tools go longer. For most use cases, the more control you have over the lifecycle of a shared secret, the better.
Is there an audit trail? If you’re sharing credentials in a business context, you need to know: was this link opened? When? How many times? Bitwarden restricts audit logging to their Teams and Enterprise plans. For a tool focused on secure distribution, per-item audit logging should be the baseline — not a premium upsell.
Can it be self-hosted? If you’re in a regulated industry or just prefer to keep secrets on your own infrastructure, self-hosting matters. Both Bitwarden and some alternatives offer this — but the depth of self-hosted features varies widely.
Does it handle URL preview bots? This one gets overlooked. When you send a link via Slack, Teams, or iMessage, URL preview bots fetch that link before the recipient ever sees it. If the tool counts that bot fetch as a “view,” your recipient might find the secret already expired. A good sharing tool has a retrieval step or other mechanism to prevent this.
Where Password Pusher Fits
Password Pusher is purpose-built for exactly this use case — secure, temporary sharing of sensitive information. It’s been in production since 2011, it’s fully open source, and it’s handled over 100 million secrets to date.
No account required to send. Per-push audit logging on every tier. View limits, time limits, passphrase protection, and a one-click retrieval step that prevents bots from burning your links. Self-hosted or SaaS with dedicated EU and US data regions.
I wrote a detailed comparison page that puts Password Pusher and Bitwarden Send side by side — feature for feature — including the areas where Bitwarden is genuinely stronger (like their end-to-end encryption model). I’d encourage you to take a look:
Password Pusher vs. Bitwarden Send — Full Comparison →
One More Thing
Price hikes have a way of forcing useful conversations. If the Bitwarden increase made you actually evaluate what you need from a sharing tool, that’s a good outcome regardless of what you choose.
My hope is that this post helps a few people make a more informed decision. There are several solid options out there. Password Pusher is one of them, and it’s the one I’ve spent the last 14+ years building to be the best at this specific job.
Peter Giacomo Lombardo Founder & Principal, Apnotic · Creators of Password Pusher