NordPass vs Proton Pass
NordPass and Proton Pass are the two consumer password managers in this category with free tiers and low prices. NordPass, from Vilnius, is the more polished and the cheaper, closed source but independently audited. Proton Pass, from Geneva, is open source and adds email aliases to the vault. EU establishment points to NordPass; verifiable code and aliases to Proton Pass.
Choose NordPass if
you want the lowest paid price, refined apps for a household, a data breach scanner, and an EU-established provider so that processing stays inside the EEA without a transfer analysis.
Read the NordPass reviewChoose Proton Pass if
you want open-source clients anyone can inspect, disposable email aliases generated with each password, built-in 2FA codes, or you already use Proton Mail, Drive or VPN.
Read the Proton Pass reviewNordPass and Proton Pass side by side
| NordPass | Proton Pass | |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Nord Security | Proton AG |
| Headquarters | Vilnius, Lithuania | Geneva, Switzerland |
| Founded | 2019 | 2023 |
| Jurisdiction | EU (Lithuania) | Switzerland (adequacy decision, outside the EEA) |
| Where the data sits | Europe | Switzerland, Germany |
| Pricing | Free tier / from about €1.49/month (Premium) | Free tier / from about €1.99/month (Pass Plus) |
| Free tier or trial | Free tier | Free tier |
| Certifications and checks | Independently audited, zero-knowledge | Open source, independently audited |
| Source code | Closed source | Open source |
| Usually replaces | LastPass, 1Password, Dashlane | LastPass, 1Password, Dashlane |
| Position in our Password Managers guide | #2 of 9 | #1 of 9 |
Both are listed in our European Password Managers guide. The table is built from the same directory data as those entries; how we check it is described in the editorial process.
Where NordPass and Proton Pass differ
Across the four points below, NordPass has the edge on 2 points and Proton Pass on 2 points. A count like that is a summary, not a verdict: the point that matters to you may be the one the other product wins.
Open source and audits
Proton Pass publishes its source and has been independently audited. NordPass is closed source with independent audits, which our guide calls a real but weaker assurance: an audit examines a snapshot, while published code can be examined by anyone at any time. In a zero-knowledge design the client handles the keys, so this matters more than usual.
Edge: Proton Pass
Jurisdiction and data location
NordPass is built by Nord Security in Lithuania with European data storage, so processing is intra-EEA with no transfer analysis. Proton Pass is Swiss, with data centres in Switzerland and Germany: outside the EEA and covered by an adequacy decision. For a private user both are sound; for a business checking GDPR boxes, EU establishment is the simpler position.
Edge: NordPass
Price and free tier
NordPass Premium costs about €1.49 a month, the cheapest paid tier in the category, against about €1.99 for Proton Pass Plus. The free plans differ in kind: NordPass limits free use to a single device, while Proton Pass's free tier includes 10 email aliases. On the paid tier NordPass is cheaper by about fifty cents a month.
Edge: NordPass
Features beyond the vault
Proton Pass generates unique email aliases in the same step as the password, unlimited on Pass Plus, and includes 2FA codes and integration with Proton Mail, Calendar, Drive and VPN. NordPass counters with a data breach scanner and XChaCha20 encryption, faster on phones without hardware AES acceleration. Proton Pass still lacks emergency access and travel mode. Aliases are the larger difference.
Edge: Proton Pass
When neither NordPass nor Proton Pass fits
Both are personal managers first, with limited business controls. A company that needs shared credentials with SSO and storage in Danish data centres should look at Uniqkey, and an IT team that wants self-hosted, GPG-based sharing should look at Passbolt.
NordPass vs Proton Pass: questions
NordPass, slightly. NordPass Premium is about €1.49 per month and Proton Pass Plus about €1.99. Both have free tiers: NordPass's is limited to a single device, and Proton Pass's includes 10 email aliases. Proton Pass also sits inside one account with Proton Mail, Calendar, Drive and VPN.
For a business, the EU-established one is simpler. NordPass is Lithuanian, so processing is intra-EEA with no transfer analysis. Proton Pass is Swiss, outside the EU, with an adequacy decision covering transfers. Both use zero-knowledge designs in which encryption happens on the device and only ciphertext reaches the server.
Our data only details NordPass's cipher: XChaCha20 rather than the more common AES-256, chosen because it is faster on devices without hardware AES acceleration. For Proton Pass the data describes end-to-end encrypted credentials in an open-source, independently audited client, without naming the cipher, so the two cannot be compared on algorithm.