Business Password Managers for SMBs

A business password manager lets a company share passwords safely and lets an administrator cut off a departing employee's access. Spreadsheets and browser-saved passwords give the company no view of who can see what. For a 10-person company, 1Password's Teams Starter Pack is $24.95 per month billed annually and Bitwarden Teams is $4 per user per month billed annually, so the yearly cost stays small (confirmed November 2026; yen conversion depends on exchange rates). This article covers how to choose, what it costs, and how to roll one out when no one on staff is an IT specialist.

- Anyone who can open the folder can see every password
- There is no record of who viewed or copied what
- Passwords saved in a browser or downloaded files can stay with a departed employee even after the account is disabled
- Changed passwords are easy to forget to update in the sheet
- Passwords shared by chat or email stay in the message history

Browser built-in managers such as Google Password Manager or Microsoft Edge are convenient for individuals, but they are tied to a personal account. A company cannot list who holds which password or revoke access in bulk at offboarding. For the broader picture, see account, password and MFA management.

- Shared vaults, with access limited per team or project
- An admin console to add and remove users and change permissions
- Disabling a user to cut off access to company vaults
- Enforced multi-factor authentication for the tool itself
- Audit logs (varies by plan)
- Single sign-on with Microsoft Entra ID, Okta and similar (varies by plan)

Disabling a user does not make passwords they already saw secret again. For important accounts, include changing the password in your offboarding steps. See the offboarding IT checklist.

Prices are from each vendor's pricing page, in US dollars, billed annually. 1Password's page showed no yen prices. Keeper's price could not be confirmed from the page, so it is marked as to be confirmed. Check the official page before you sign up.

The figures simply multiply the listed unit prices; they exclude tax, exchange rates and future price changes. The gap comes mainly from whether you need SSO and detailed audit logs. A small company that only needs sharing and offboarding can start on a lower plan and move up later.

- Japanese interface and support (Bitwarden lists Japanese as a language option; check the others in a free trial)
- Integration with Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, and which plan includes it
- Admin features: disabling users, per-vault permissions, audit logs
- Where data is stored, if your contracts or policies specify it
- Free-plan limits (we could not confirm Bitwarden's free organization limits from its pricing page)
- Trial: 1Password lists a 14-day free trial without a credit card
- Payment: 1Password's page lists credit card or ACH for US accounts; confirm invoice payment if you need it

1. Name at least two administrators and store the recovery method.
2. Inventory services and shared accounts: who holds them, whether MFA is on.
3. Pilot with a few people for one to two weeks.
4. Migrate shared accounts into vaults, change old passwords, delete the old spreadsheet and browser-saved company passwords.
5. Add "disable the user" and "change shared passwords" to your offboarding rule, and "add the user and grant vault access" to onboarding.

- Only one administrator
- One vault for everyone
- A reused or weak master password without MFA
- Keeping the old spreadsheet alongside the tool
- Forgetting to change passwords at offboarding
- Not explaining the change to staff

- Two or more administrators and a recovery method
- A list of services and shared accounts
- Required features (SSO, audit logs, permissions) matched to a plan
- Japanese interface checked in a trial
- Payment method confirmed
- Onboarding and offboarding steps updated
- A date to delete the old list

Password management is one part of overall security. See first security steps for small businesses for priorities.