Every other password manager keeps a copy of your vault.
PassVult doesn't.
1Password, Bitwarden, Dashlane, LastPass and Proton Pass all sync your secrets to their servers. That's the product. PassVult takes the opposite bet: your passwords never leave your phone — so there is no server to breach, no account to phish, and no subscription to renew.
One-time purchase. Every major competitor now charges a yearly subscription — and most raised prices in 2026.
No cloud vault exists. A breach like LastPass 2022 is architecturally impossible — there's nothing to steal.
No email, no sign-up, no identity tied to your vault. You can't be phished for credentials that don't exist.
PassVult vs. the big six
Same job — storing your secrets. Radically different ideas about where they should live and what they should cost.
| PassVult | 1Password | Bitwarden | Dashlane | LastPass | Proton Pass | KeePass | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Where your vault lives | Your device only | Their cloud | Their cloudself-host possible | Their cloud | Their cloud | Their cloud | Local file |
| Pricing model | $12.99 once$2.99 on Android | ~$36/yr | ~$20/yrfree tier exists | ~$60/yrfree plan ended 2025 | subscription | subscriptionfree tier exists | Freedesktop-first |
| Account / email required | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Public vault-breach history | None — no vault to breach | None public | None public | None public | 2022 vault theft | None public | No central vault |
| AES-256 encryption | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Built-in 2FA authenticator | ✓ Included | ✓ | Paid tier | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Plugin |
| Email breach scanner | ✓ Included | ✓ | Paid tier | ✓ | ✓ | Paid tier | ✗ |
| Travel Mode (timed lockout) | ✓ 24h – 7 days | Differenthides vaults, needs cloud | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Duress erase code | ✓ Only PassVult | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Dead man's switch | ✓ Only PassVult | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Device-to-device sync, no cloud | ✓ Bluetooth / WiFi-Direct | ✗ | Self-host only | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | Manual file copy |
| Loyalty & physical cards | ✓ Barcodes included | Notes only | Notes only | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Browser extension / autofill | ✗ By design — see tradeoffs | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Plugin |
| Works fully offline | ✓ Always | Cached only | Cached only | Cached only | Cached only | Cached only | ✓ |
Competitor pricing and plans as of mid-2026, annual billing, rounded; tiers change often — check each vendor for current rates. "None public" means no publicly disclosed theft of customer vault data to date. LastPass disclosed theft of customer vault backups in 2022.
Drag the slider. Watch the subscriptions compound.
Passwords are a forever problem — so renting the solution gets expensive. PassVult is a flat line.
Pick your current manager. Here's the honest matchup.
PassVult vs 1Password
1Password has the most polished apps in the business — and a price to match, now around $36/year, forever. Its Travel Mode hides vaults but still depends on their cloud. PassVult's Travel Mode locks the vault on-device for 24 hours to 7 days, costs nothing after the first $12.99, and never asks a server for permission.
Switch if: you're done rentingPassVult vs Bitwarden
Bitwarden is excellent open-source software — but in 2026 it doubled its premium price, and the 2FA authenticator sits behind that paywall. Its vault still defaults to their cloud unless you run your own server. PassVult includes the authenticator, breach scanner and offline sync out of the box, no server administration degree required.
Switch if: you want local-first without self-hostingPassVult vs LastPass
In 2022, attackers stole copies of LastPass customer vault backups — and those encrypted blobs are still out there being cracked at leisure. That entire category of disaster cannot happen to a PassVult user, because no copy of your vault exists anywhere except the phone in your hand.
Switch if: 2022 still bothers you (it should)PassVult vs Dashlane
Dashlane killed its free plan in 2025 and now starts around $60/year — the priciest mainstream option. It bundles a VPN you may not need. PassVult charges once, and a decade of use costs less than three months of Dashlane.
Switch if: $600/decade sounds absurdPassVult vs KeePass
KeePass is the original local-only vault and we respect it deeply — but it's a desktop-era tool with a hobbyist mobile story, plugin-based 2FA, and manual file shuffling to move between devices. PassVult is the same local-only philosophy rebuilt for your phone: Face ID, built-in TOTP, breach checks, and tap-to-sync over Bluetooth.
Switch if: you want local-only with a 2026 UXPassVult vs Apple / Google Passwords
The built-ins are free and convenient — and they sync everything to iCloud or your Google account, tying your secrets to the same identity you use for everything else, inside an ecosystem designed to know you. PassVult holds your vault outside any big-tech account, with security features (duress erase, travel lock, dead man's switch) the platforms will never ship.
Switch if: "free" from big tech makes you squintSix things only PassVult does
Emergency erase code
Forced to unlock your phone? Enter your erase code instead of your password and the vault wipes itself on the spot.
Dead man's switch
Set a message, an email and an SMS contact. If the worst happens, the people you choose get what they need.
True Travel Mode
Lock the entire vault for 24h, 48h, 72h or 7 days. Not even you can open it at the border — which is exactly the point.
No-Cloud Sync
Move your vault to a new phone over Bluetooth or WiFi-Direct. Device to device, encrypted, never touching the internet.
Loyalty & physical codes
Barcodes, gym codes, locker combos, loyalty cards — stored privately instead of inside a data-mining wallet app.
Breach hunting, built in
Check any email against known breach databases from inside the app. Others charge a subscription tier for this.
Who PassVult is not for
Local-only is a real tradeoff, not a magic trick. If these dealbreak you, a cloud manager is genuinely the better fit — we'd rather tell you now.
- You want automatic sync across five devices. PassVult syncs device-to-device on your command, not continuously in the background. That's the price of having no server.
- You live in desktop browser autofill. PassVult is phone-first. You'll copy passwords from your phone or use no-cloud sync between mobile devices.
- You want a "forgot password" button. There isn't one. Nobody can reset your master password — including us. Maximum security means the recovery backdoor doesn't exist.
If instead you read those three points and thought "good" — PassVult was built for you.
Questions people ask before switching
If there's no cloud, what happens if I lose my phone?
Use No-Cloud Sync to keep a second device (or an old phone in a drawer) as your encrypted backup, and export encrypted backups whenever you like. You control redundancy instead of outsourcing it — and Travel Mode plus your master password protect the lost device itself.
Is "offline" actually more secure, or just different?
Cloud managers protect millions of vaults in one place, which makes them the single most valuable target on the internet — that's why LastPass's 2022 incident was so damaging. PassVult shrinks the target to one device that an attacker would need physically, plus your master password, plus your biometrics. There is no bulk-theft scenario.
What encryption does PassVult use?
AES-256 encryption protects the vault, with keys held in your phone's hardware-backed secure storage and unlocked by your master password or biometrics. Sensitive fields like card numbers and CVVs are additionally encrypted with unique random IVs.
Why a one-time price when everyone else subscribes?
Subscriptions pay for servers. We don't run any — your phone does the storage. So you pay once for the software, and there's no recurring infrastructure bill to pass on to you.