Bitwarden removes 'Always free' from website: what is happening to the open source password manager?
If three clues make a proof, then there are some unpleasant news regarding Bitwarden, an open-source password manager with about ten million users. Fast Company has reported on the quiet leadership changes over the past months, the removal of the claim 'Always free' from the consumer product page, and the rewriting of the GRIT acronym that the company uses to define its values: none of these three elements alone would raise particular concern, but the temporal convergence raises more than one eyebrow.
Leadership change without announcement
Michael Crandell, CEO since 2019, transitioned to an advisory role in February. The transition was not announced by Bitwarden and can currently only be confirmed by consulting his LinkedIn profile. He has been succeeded by Michael Sullivan, formerly CEO of Acquia (acquired for a billion dollars by Vista Equity Partners in 2019) and subsequently of Insightsoftware (which received a billion-dollar investment from Hg in 2021). On his LinkedIn, Sullivan claims experience 'in all aspects of mergers and acquisitions' and cites Hg, Vista Equity Partners, and TA Associates among the private equity funds he has worked with directly.
CFO Stephen Morrison, who has been with the company since 2019, also left in April. He is replaced by Michael Shenkman, former CEO of InVision. Kyle Spearrin, who started the Bitwarden project in 2015 as a personal hobby and currently serves as CTO, remains in his position. It is worth noting that PSG, a growth equity fund, led a $100 million Series C round in the company in September 2022, with Tom Reardon and Govind Anand joining the board: the alignment of the new CEO with a profile specialized in M&A operations doesn't seem like mere coincidence.
'Always free' gone, and foundational values rewritten
In mid-April, the Bitwarden Personal Password Manager page stopped listing the term 'Always free' in the 'Pick a plan' section. The free plan remains accessible elsewhere on the same page, but the adjective affirming its immutability is no longer prominent. This change is documented by a snapshot from the Internet Archive dated April 14, 2026.
More significant is the rewriting of the GRIT acronym, a recurring cultural reference in the company’s materials. After May 4, on the careers page, GRIT changed from 'Gratitude, Responsibility, Inclusion, Transparency' to 'Gratitude, Responsibility, Innovation, Trust'. The term 'inclusive environment' survives in a subordinate description, while 'transparency' has been absorbed under the heading Trust. The About page of the website currently retains a residual reference to 'responsibility, inclusion, and transparency', which seems simply to be an oversight in updating. Bitwarden has not published any statements either on the official blog or through press releases to justify the change and did not respond to Fast Company’s request for comment.
More pieces of a single puzzle
The changes come in the wake of the announced doubling of the individual Premium plan in January, which increased from $10 to $19.80 per year and was communicated within a blog post focusing on new features rather than through a dedicated announcement. Customers were informed of the increase only 15 days before renewal, with the price indicated in monthly format based on an annual fee.
The impression is that the correct reading requires holding together the three plans: from a financial perspective, Bitwarden is a company backed by PSG, and a management rotation towards a profile specialized in M&A is consistent with a disinvestment or aggregation strategy. On the positioning front, the elimination of 'Always free' and the replacement of 'Inclusion' with 'Innovation' represent a shift in communication and substance compared to the elements that the old Bitwarden indicated as distinctive from LastPass and password managers integrated into the operating systems of Apple, Google, and Microsoft. Finally, in terms of communicative practices, none of these decisions were accompanied by an official note, operating under a modus operandi of a transition managed by subtraction rather than by declaration.
It should be reiterated that each of the signals taken individually allows for alternative readings: a cleanup of redundant copy, a normal turnover in leadership, an evolution of positioning towards enterprise users where the company claims over 50,000 business clients. However, the fact remains that four significant changes, including in leadership, have occurred over three months: for users of the free plan, a further signal to watch will be the upcoming review of the limits of the free tier. For market observers, any movements by PSG could suggest whether a sale is being prepared on the horizon. As of now, there has been no announcement of an acquisition, neither from Bitwarden nor from financial press sources.