U2 Secured as a free password manager
U2 Secured's free plan is a complete, zero-knowledge password vault — the same client-side Argon2id-to-AES-256-GCM encryption every paid plan runs, per-surface auto-lock, and a free unlimited Authenticator app for two-factor codes — for one person storing up to 500 items, at no cost, indefinitely. Nothing about the cryptography is held back for a paid tier.
This is not a trial and not a stripped-down demo. What follows is exactly what the plan gives, who it's built for, and when adding a paid block is worth the money.
Numbers last checked
What the free plan actually gives you
Every figure below is a real `plan_limits` value the backend enforces, not a marketing number — the same ones the pricing page reads.
- 1 user on the workspace — free is a single-person plan, not a shared one.
- 500 items, the vault cap for the workspace — more than most people will ever store.
- 7-day audit log — who did what to which item, kept for a week.
- 60 public share links a month, for handing someone a single item without giving them an account.
- No group folders on free (max_groups = 0).
Who the free plan is not for
Stated here so a buyer can decide before building a vault around it, not after.
- Anyone who needs to share a vault with another person. Free is 1 user and no group folders on free (max_groups = 0) — there is nobody to share a folder with on this plan.
- A vault over 500 items — a very large personal collection, or years of accumulated logins, needs a paid block.
- Any team. Group-based folder access needs Basic or Premium; free has none at all.
- Anyone who wants more than 7 days of audit history, breach monitoring, or SSO — those start on Basic or Premium.
Who the free plan is built for
500 items and one user cover a typical personal vault outright — the plan is sized for exactly that reader, not apologised for falling short of a different one.
- Anyone starting a first real password vault, who wants full zero-knowledge encryption from day one rather than a limited trial of it.
- A personal vault under 500 items — most people's actual logins, notes and cards fit comfortably inside that.
- Anyone who wants their two-factor codes free and unlimited, in the separate U2 Secured Authenticator app, without paying anything to get them.
- Anyone who wants to know exactly what a plan costs before committing — free costs nothing, forever, with no card and no expiry date.
What free genuinely includes that other free tiers gate
The cap is on items and users, not on security. Free gets exactly what every paid plan gets on these three points.
- Full client-side zero-knowledge encryption — Argon2id, then AES-256-GCM, entirely in your browser. This is not a paid add-on on any U2 Secured plan; free runs the exact same cryptography Premium does.
- Per-surface timeout on every plan including free; the workspace-wide ceiling is basic/premium.
- Two-factor (TOTP) codes, free and unlimited, in the separate U2 Secured Authenticator app — see below for why that is a separate product, deliberately, not a missing feature.
Two products, not one — and the second one is free
Competitors sell both factors in one vault. U2 Secured sells them as two products, deliberately kept apart, because a password and its second factor in one store are not two factors.
Free and unlimited, in the separate U2 Secured Authenticator app — not stored in the vault.
U2 Secured does not store TOTP seeds in the vault at all. Import detects them, lifts them out before encryption, and hands them back as otpauth:// QR codes for the separate Authenticator app. TOTP storage is a paid feature at Bitwarden and Proton Pass — both keep the password and its TOTP seed in the same vault record.
That split is on every U2 Secured plan including free — it does not require upgrading the vault, and the Authenticator app itself is free to use for the codes themselves.
When upgrading is worth it, and what it costs
Upgrade when you outgrow one of the real free-plan limits above: more than 500 items, more than one person needing access, or wanting group-based folder permissions. Nothing about the cryptography changes — Basic and Premium run the same zero-knowledge encryption free already has.
Basic is $5/mo per block of 5 users ($60/yr for up to 5 users), and Premium is $9/mo per block ($108/yr for up to 5 users). Billed per block of 5 users, floor 1 — one person on a paid plan pays for a full block.
That floor matters most if you are a single person upgrading just for the higher item cap or the longer audit-log window: you pay for a full 5-user block whether or not anyone else ever joins. The full pricing breakdown, including the block ladder at larger workspace sizes, is on the pricing page.
- You've reached 500 items and need more room.
- You want to add a second person, or a group, to your workspace — free is 1 user with no group folders on free (max_groups = 0).
- You want more than 7 days of audit history, breach monitoring, or SSO.
Said out loud, not left for you to discover
- U2 Secured's free tier is capped at 500 items; Bitwarden's and Proton Pass's free tiers do not publish an item cap.
- Billed per block of 5 users, floor 1 — one person on a paid plan pays for a full block.
- No group folders on free (max_groups = 0).
- U2 Secured is a new product with no published third-party security audit yet.
Questions people actually ask
- Is U2 Secured's free plan actually unlimited?
- No — it's capped at 500 items for 1 user, with no group folders on free (max_groups = 0). That covers a typical personal vault; Bitwarden's and Proton Pass's free tiers don't publish an item cap, which matters most for a very large collection.
- Does U2 Secured's free plan include two-factor (TOTP) codes?
- Free and unlimited, in the separate U2 Secured Authenticator app — not stored in the vault. Bitwarden and Proton Pass both gate their integrated authenticator behind a paid plan; U2 Secured's Authenticator app is free on every tier, including free.
- Is the free plan's encryption weaker than the paid plans'?
- No — every U2 Secured plan uses the same client-side Argon2id-to-AES-256-GCM encryption. Free does not get a lesser cipher; it gets fewer items, one user, and a shorter audit log.
- Can I share my free vault with my partner or a group?
- No — free is 1 user and no group folders on free (max_groups = 0), so there is nobody to share a folder with on this plan. Group-based folder sharing needs Basic or Premium.
- What happens if I go over 500 items on free?
- New items are refused until you delete something or upgrade — nothing already in the vault is deleted automatically. Basic raises the cap to 1,000 items and Premium to 10,000 items.
Sources for the competitor figures
Every competitor figure above was read directly from the vendor's own site on the date shown. Free tiers change from time to time; if something has changed, their own pages are the authority and this page is out of date.
- Bitwarden — Password Manager Plans · read 2026-09-25
- Proton Pass — Pricing · read 2026-09-25
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