Passwork Review (2023): What You Need to Know

Businesses juggling multiple accounts, each with different passwords, may find themselves in a situation where passwords need changing. Or requiring to grant someone access to said passwords. To do this safely, passwords need encrypting to prevent hacking and data breaches. 

This is where cloud-based, self-hosted password managers come into play. 

This sort of online tool allows businesses to manage all their passwords from the convenience of one place. On the employee side of things, they can easily and securely access passwords.

In light of that, here we’re looking at one such tool: Passwork. 

In this Passwork review, we’ll explore:

• A brief overview of Passwork
• Passwork's key features
• Passwork's prices
• Passwork's pros and cons
• Who Passwork's best for
• Our final verdict on Passwork

That’s lots to get into, so let’s dive in!

What is Passwork?

Passwork describes itself as a ‘self-hosted password manager for your business.' Located in Finland, the platform is used by many companies of all sizes – enterprises, IT companies, startups, and mid-size companies have all benefitted from Passwork. In fact, more than 1,000 businesses have signed up to Passwork, including notable names like TDK, Softline, and Lobis. 

As we've already hinted at, the company aims to help businesses manage all their passwords – from social media accounts, payment platforms, internal software, and external software like Slack, email, etc. So basically, Passwork can help you manage any account protected with a password. 

So, rather than managing passwords on a spreadsheet and manually sending each new user a password for each account. Or manually changing a password when a person leaves your company; Passwork can make light of this work. 

Instead, with Passwork, you store all your passwords in “protected vaults.” From here, all your passwords are organized and protected across all sites and devices, so rest assured that you're not at risk of security threats. 

You can also use Passwork to collaborate with teammates, manage user rights to different accounts, and monitor password security. Passwork even enables you to grant employees access to all relevant passwords securely and safely, including analyzing weak or compromised passwords that need changing.  

All data is encrypted using the AES-256 algorithm and hosted on your server. Passwork also guarantees that your data won’t be leaked if requested by third parties. 

Passwork's Key Features

Now that we've laid the groundwork, let’s run through some of Passwork’s most notable features:

Automated Security Auditing

This feature is broken down into three components:

Security Dashboard: Remove weak, compromised, and/or old passwords that haven’t been changed in a long time. You can do this via a security dashboard. From here, you can see at a glance the number of weak passwords, old or expired ones, or those at risk. 

User Management: This part of the dashboard allows you to set custom permissions for the aforementioned vaults and folders. For example, you can assign different employees with varying access levels to different accounts. Access levels include: navigation, no access, read-only, read and edit, or full access. You can also manage how many account users there are and their level of responsibility. For example, a company may have several employees assigned Admin responsibility for your accounts. Still, that same company may also have given external clients and sales teams password access too.

Activity: This does exactly what it says on the tin. Here you can monitor all activity, including previously used passwords. For example, you can see when an account user last logged in, which account or vault they logged into, and what action they took. For instance, creating a new password or signing in using a password.

Work and Collaborate

Colleagues can work together in shared (password-protected) folders and vaults. For example, you can invite individual team members to vaults and shared folders and assign them different access levels such as Read-Only or Full Access. 

Users can also utilize the search bar, tags, and color labels in the Passwork dashboard for quick and easy access to different vaults and accounts. 

Lastly, Passwork integrates with AD (active directory), Azure, and LDAP.

Password Generator Tool

You can use Passwork’s password generator tool to create unique and secure passwords for all your accounts. You're asked to select several criteria before password generation:

• Special characters
• Numbers
• Uppercase
• Lowercase
• Similar characters

On the flip side, you can also exclude particular characters from your password. 

Mobile Accessible

Passwork is fully mobile accessible via an app that you can download from Google Play or the Apple App Store. This enables you to instantly access your corporate passwords wherever you are. 

Browser Extensions

In just a few clicks, you can insert, generate or manage your company’s passwords using several browser extensions: Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Mozilla Firefox, or Microsoft Edge.

Passwork Pricing

Passwork has five price levels:

1. Small team
2. Start
3. Business
4. Premium
5. Enterprise

Within each pricing tier, you can opt for either a Standard License or an Advanced License. The exception is with the Small team plan, which only has access to the Standard License. 

Whichever plan you choose, the features you receive are the same if you opt for the Standard License. Only if you opt for an Advanced License that you obtain additional features.

That said, let’s look at each one in turn:

Small team

This is a one-off fee of $480 for teams of up to ten users. The price also includes a one-year subscription to updates and technical support. These will cost you an additional $366 per year when you renew. You can also add a subscription renewal to your price plan when you sign up, and this is offered at a discounted rate from $366 to $240 per year.

Here’s what you get:

• You can fine-tune the access rights of each user
• You can manage user rights by assigning roles
• You can generate detailed reports on the activities of each user
• LDAP / AD support
• Flexible data import and export (JSON and CSV)
• Two-factor authentication
• A password security panel 
• Access to a customizable password generator
• You can review your password history
• API integration 
• Access to mobile apps and browser extensions
• Prompt technical support

Start

This is a one-off fee of $840 for teams of up to 25 users. The terms are as we describe above, but renewal for updates and technical support costs $588 a year after the first free year. Your subscription renewal is discounted if you add it to your price plan when you sign up, and this is discounted from $588 a year to $480 a year. These prices relate to anyone taking out a Standard License.

In contrast, opting for an Advanced License will set you back $1,380 as a one-off fee. In addition, your technical support and update renewal will cost $966 a year after the first year. However, if you opt for this when you first sign up, you'll get it at a discounted $690 a year or $6,900 for lifetime support and updates. 

The additional features with an Advanced License are:

• Authorization with SAML SSO
• Mapping LDAP groups with Passwork roles
• Clustering and failover support 
• Installation in branches 
• Integration support to help you set up Passwork in your offices
• A video presentation of Passwork and how it works for employees 
• Access to a personal manager

Business

This plan is for businesses with up to 50 users. Your one-off fee for a Standard License is $1,560. Your technical support and update renewal will cost you $1,092 a year. However, adding this to your price plan when you first sign up is discounted to $780 a year or $7,800 for lifetime support and updates. 

Or, if you opt for an Advanced License, this will set you back $2,520 as a one-off fee. In addition, your technical support and update renewal will cost $1,764 a year after the first year. However, if you opt for this when you sign up, you can get it at a discounted $1,260 a year or $12,600 for lifetime support and updates. 

You receive the same advanced features listed above. 

Premium

This plan is for businesses with up to 100 users. Your one-off fee for a Standard License is $2,880. When you renew your technical support and updates, it will cost you $2,016 a year. If you add this when you initially sign up, it's discounted to $1,440 a year or $14,400 for lifetime renewals and support. 

Alternatively, opting for an Advanced License will set you back $4,560 as a one-off fee. In addition, after the first year, your technical support and updates will cost you $3,192 a year. If you add this on when you sign up, it will be discounted to $2,280 a year or $22,800 for lifetime support and updates.

Again, you receive the same advanced features listed above.

Enterprise

The Advanced and Standard License prices on this plan are bespoke and aren't available on the Passwork website. Instead, you'll have to contact Passwork directly to receive a custom quote. This plan is aimed at companies with more than 100 users. 

Passwork Pros and Cons

Every platform has its pros and cons, and Passwork is no different. That said, here's a quick run-down of Passwork's most notable advantages and disadvantages:

Who Is Passwork Best For? 

Having looked at its features, we think Passwork is best for you if:

Your business has lots of different password-protected accounts (such as social media, payments, and so on), and you don't have a centralized or unified password storage solution. 

Passwork may also come in handy if you're aware that your accounts are not as protected as they should be, and you may have had security breaches. If you're also considering a cybersecurity audit, Passwork may also come in handy. 

Lastly, if you want to reduce the risk of stolen or compromised passwords, Passwork is definitely worth a second gland. 

Passwork Review: Our Final Verdict

Hopefully, you have a bigger and better picture of Passwork and whether it’s suitable for your business. On the face of it, it looks like a good, secure option for companies keen to protect access to their accounts and platforms. Its dashboard looks simple to understand, and its interface is accessible.

However, it's costly, so we can’t see how a small business could afford to shell out this amount of money. This is especially true when they could simply rely on Google Password Manager or Apple’s Keychain. 

However, if you’re a business with dozens of passwords and several team members, then Passwork may be a good choice. That said, we recommend utilizing the free trial and comparing Passwork against other such platforms before making any final decisions. 

Are you ready to try Passwork? Let us know in the comments box below!