KeePassXC and Proton Pass both show up on every "best password manager for teams" list, and they sit in genuinely different parts of the market. KeePassXC is free, local-first, open-source vault file format — provably zero-knowledge, but with no native sync, SSO, SCIM or audit log. Proton Pass, by contrast, is proton AG's password manager — Swiss-jurisdiction, open-source clients, full enterprise identity at a low per-seat price, with the rest of the Proton suite available as a bundle.
This comparison is written for the people actually making the call: founders, IT leads and ops folk at startups, agencies and small teams. No affiliate rankings, no "best of" filler — just the trade-offs that matter once more than one person touches the vault.
Quick verdict
Pick KeePassXC if tech-savvy or air-gapped teams comfortable owning the sync layer. Free and provably zero-knowledge — but you wear the sync, mobile and access-control layers yourself.
Pick Proton Pass if privacy-conscious teams or anyone already on the proton ecosystem. Open-source clients, Swiss jurisdiction, SSO + SCIM at $4.49/user. Server stays closed.
Both are zero-knowledge and both have a defensible recent security story. The choice is almost never about cryptography — it's about collaboration model, governance, and how much per seat per month you want to spend.
Team pricing at a glance
| Feature | KeePassXC | Proton Pass |
|---|---|---|
| Smallest team planAll prices USD, billed annually unless noted. Verify on vendor sites before buying. | Free (GPL-3.0) | Pass Essentials: $1.99/user/mo (min 3 users) |
| Next tier for growing teams | Free — no paid tiers | Pass Professional: $4.49/user/mo · Workspace Standard $12.99/user/mo (full Proton suite) |
| Free tier available | ||
| SSO (SAML / OIDC) | Pass Professional (SAML) | |
| SCIM provisioning | Pass Professional (Okta, Entra ID) |
Collaboration model
| Feature | KeePassXC | Proton Pass |
|---|---|---|
| Shared vaults / collections | File-level only (.kdbx on shared storage) | |
| Per-item permissions | Vault-level roles; per-item sharing | |
| External / one-time secure share | Yes — secure links (paid) | |
| Group-based sharing | Via KeeShare or multiple .kdbx files | Pass Professional and above |
| Activity / audit log | Pass Professional and above |
Security & transparency
| Feature | KeePassXC | Proton Pass |
|---|---|---|
| Zero-knowledge end-to-end encryption | ||
| Cipher | AES-256 / Twofish / ChaCha20 | AES-256-GCM (per-item keys) |
| Key derivation | Argon2id (default) or AES-KDF | bcrypt + SRP (Argon2 for local cache) |
| Open-source clients | Clients only (GPL-3.0) | |
| Self-hosting option | Local-first by design | |
| Published independent audit | ANSSI CSPN (2025), BSI/mgm (2024–25 for KeePass), Molotnikov (2023) | Cure53 (2023), Recurity Labs (2026) |
| Publicly disclosed vault breach | No vault breach; KeePassXC NOT affected by CVE-2023-32784 (KeePass2) | No customer vault breach |
Pricing for teams: where the real difference is
KeePassXC is free under GPL-3.0. There is no SaaS, no per-seat cost, and no vendor invoice — the trade-off is that you absorb the operational cost of sync, mobile clients and access control.
Pass Essentials is $1.99/user/month (min 3 users), Professional adds SSO/SCIM/audit logs at $4.49/user. Workspace Standard at $12.99/user bundles Mail, Drive, Calendar, VPN and Pass Professional — competitive if you'd buy any of those anyway.
For a fast-growing team, the slope matters as much as the starting price. Model it at the size you actually expect to be in 12 months — not the size you are today.
How teams actually share credentials
KeePassXC. Sharing means putting a .kdbx file on shared storage (Nextcloud, SMB, Syncthing, Dropbox) and accepting that everyone with the master key sees everything. KeeShare lets you sync a subset of groups, but there's no per-user RBAC and no audit log.
Proton Pass. Vault sharing (with any Proton account), per-item sharing via individual item keys, secure links and group sharing on Professional. No anonymous external sharing — recipients must have a Proton account.
The everyday question is: when a contractor joins on Monday and leaves on Friday, how much work is it to give them access to exactly the credentials they need, watch what they touched, and revoke cleanly? That's where the daylight between these two shows up.
Security architecture
KeePassXC. Encrypts databases with AES-256, Twofish or ChaCha20, with Argon2id as the default KDF and tunable parameters. ANSSI CSPN-certified in 2025 and unaffected by CVE-2023-32784 (which hit mainline KeePass 2.x). There's no server to breach because there is no server.
Proton Pass. All client code is open source under GPL-3.0 with per-item AES-256-GCM keys and bcrypt + SRP for user authentication. Two published audits (Cure53 2023, Recurity Labs 2026) and Swiss-jurisdiction hosting underpin the trust story; the server stays closed source.
If you're forced to choose on cryptography alone, modern AEAD ciphers (AES-GCM, XChaCha20-Poly1305) paired with a memory-hard KDF (Argon2id) are the bar. Both vendors are inside that range; the harder differences are open-source posture, audit history, and whether you can self-host.
Admin & governance for teams
Both products support some flavour of role-based access, forgotten-password recovery, and audit logging on the right tier. Where they diverge is on the boring-but-critical stuff: SSO, SCIM provisioning, and whether group policies can keep up with how your team actually grows.
SSO tier: KeePassXC — not available; Proton Pass — Pass Professional (SAML). SCIM tier: KeePassXC — not available; Proton Pass — Pass Professional (Okta, Entra ID).
If Okta, Entra ID or Google Workspace SSO is non-negotiable from day one, factor the tier price into the per-seat number — it's often the thing that flips the cheaper-on-paper option into the more expensive real-world bill.
KeePassXC
Pros
- Free forever, GPL-3.0, no vendor lock-in
- ANSSI CSPN-certified in 2025 (KeePassXC 2.7.9)
- Argon2id by default with tunable hardness
- Air-gap capable; nothing leaves your network unless you put it there
Cons
- No built-in sync, audit log, SSO, SCIM or per-user permissions
- Mobile apps are third-party (KeePassium, Strongbox, KeePassDX, KeePass2Android)
- Concurrent writes over shared storage can lose data
- Offboarding requires rotating the master password and redistributing the key
Proton Pass
Pros
- All client code open source under GPL-3.0
- Encrypts metadata (URLs, usernames, notes) — not just passwords
- SSO + SCIM at $4.49/user, well below Bitwarden Enterprise
- Swiss jurisdiction and strong privacy posture; bundled with Mail/VPN on Workspace plans
Cons
- Server is closed source — no self-hosting
- Vault-level permission model is less granular than 1Password
- External sharing requires recipient to have a Proton account
- Newer product (launched 2023) — smaller enterprise case-study base
A third option worth considering
KeePassXC vs Proton Pass is really a debate about how much collaboration you're willing to give up to get the trust model you want. One side is a managed SaaS with shared vaults; the other is a local file you sync yourself. Pwdly is built for the team in the middle — people who want real per-project sharing without running a sync script or paying for a heavy enterprise plan to get it.
- Per-project vaults. Most teams don't share "everything with everyone" — they share by client, repo or product. Pwdly makes that the primary unit, not an afterthought folder.
- $2/user/month, flat. No seat-count cliff, no SSO upsell on the cheapest paid plan. See the full pricing.
- XChaCha20-Poly1305 + Argon2id under the hood. The cipher explainer walks through why those defaults matter.
- Trade-offs we own. No breach monitoring (we literally can't read your data), no self-hosting yet, no browser extension on day one. The security page has the honest list.
If your team has outgrown a shared KDBX but isn't ready to hand credentials to a vendor without a clear story, Pwdly is the in-between worth trialling.
Frequently asked questions
Is KeePassXC or Proton Pass better for a small team?
KeePassXC fits best when tech-savvy or air-gapped teams comfortable owning the sync layer, while Proton Pass is the stronger choice when privacy-conscious teams or anyone already on the proton ecosystem. Model both at the seat count you expect in 12 months — the cheaper option at 5 seats isn't always the cheaper option at 25.
Which has stronger encryption — KeePassXC or Proton Pass?
KeePassXC uses AES-256 / Twofish / ChaCha20 with Argon2id (default) or AES-KDF. Proton Pass uses AES-256-GCM (per-item keys) with bcrypt + SRP (Argon2 for local cache). Both are zero-knowledge. In practice the cipher choice is rarely the differentiator — KDF (Argon2id vs PBKDF2), open-source clients, and audit history matter more.
Does either support SSO and SCIM on the cheapest team plan?
KeePassXC: SSO not available, SCIM not available. Proton Pass: SSO Pass Professional (SAML), SCIM Pass Professional (Okta, Entra ID). If SSO is non-negotiable, price it on the tier that includes it, not the entry tier.
Has either vendor had a vault breach?
KeePassXC: No vault breach; KeePassXC NOT affected by CVE-2023-32784 (KeePass2). Proton Pass: No customer vault breach. A clean record isn't a guarantee, but a known prior incident materially raises the cost of trust.
Keep comparing
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Also worth a read: The XChaCha20-Poly1305 explainer, our security model, and the free password generator.
Sources & further reading
- KeePassXC — Homepage
- KeePassXC — Independent audits
- ANSSI CSPN certificate for KeePassXC 2.7.9 (2025)
- CVE-2023-32784 (KeePass2 — KeePassXC unaffected)
- KeePassXC — KeeShare
- Proton Pass — Business pricing
- Proton Pass — Security model
- Proton Pass — Cure53 audit (2023, PDF)
- Proton Pass — Recurity Labs audit (2026)
- Proton Pass — GitHub
Worth fact-checking
- Vendor pricing for both KeePassXC and Proton Pass has changed more than once in the past 24 months — verify on the official site before purchasing.
- SSO / SCIM tier inclusion can change between plans; confirm with vendor sales for your exact seat count.
Last updated May 2026. Vendor pricing and features change frequently — always confirm on the official site before purchasing. Pwdly is not affiliated with 1Password, Bitwarden, LastPass, or Dashlane.