News: 0183227073

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Bitwarden Scrubs 'Always Free' and 'Inclusion' Values From Its Website (fastcompany.com)

(Friday May 15, 2026 @05:00PM (BeauHD) from the value-reset dept.)


Bitwarden appears to be [1]undergoing a quiet shift in leadership and messaging . Its longtime CEO and CFO have stepped down, while the company has removed "Always free" from a prominent password-manager page and replaced "Inclusion" and "Transparency" in its GRIT values with "Innovation" and "Trust." Fast Company reports:

> In February, longtime CEO Michael Crandell moved to an advisory role, [2]according to LinkedIn , with no announcement from the company. His replacement, Michael Sullivan, former CEO of both Acquia and Insightsoftware, touts his experience with "all facets of mergers and acquisitions" on his own [3]LinkedIn page , including experience working with leading private equity firms. CFO Stephen Morrison also left Bitwarden in April, replaced by former InVision CEO Michael Shenkman. Both Crandell and Morrison joined the company in 2019. Kyle Spearrin, who started Bitwarden as a fun hobby project in 2015, remains the company's CTO.

>

> Meanwhile, Bitwarden has made some subtle tweaks to its website. The page for its [4]personal password manager no longer includes the phrase "Always free." Previously this appeared under the "Pick a plan" section partway down the page, but that section no longer mentions the free plan, though it remains available elsewhere on the page. Bitwarden made this change in mid-April, according to the [5]Internet Archive . Bitwarden has also stopped listing "Inclusion" and "Transparency" as tentpole values on its [6]careers page . The company has long defined its values with the acronym "GRIT," which used to stand for "Gratitude, Responsibility, Inclusion, and Transparency." [7]After May 4 , it changed the acronym to stand for "Gratitude, Responsibility, Innovation, and Trust." The phrase "inclusive environment" still appears under a description of Gratitude, while "transparency" is mentioned under the Trust heading. They're just no longer the focus.



[1] https://www.fastcompany.com/91542655/bitwarden-scrubs-always-free-and-inclusion-values-from-its-website-as-longtime-execs-step-down

[2] https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelcrandell/

[3] https://www.linkedin.com/in/mpsully/

[4] https://bitwarden.com/products/personal/

[5] http://web.archive.org/web/20260414143347/https://bitwarden.com/products/personal/

[6] https://bitwarden.com/careers/

[7] http://web.archive.org/web/20260504165256/https://bitwarden.com/careers/



Re: "Inclusion" (Score:3, Insightful)

by Luthair ( 847766 )

So you're more of an exclude through racism and bigotry type of guy.

Re: (Score:1)

by drnb ( 2434720 )

> So you're more of an exclude through racism and bigotry type of guy.

That's very binary thinking for someone who claims to champion inclusion. :-)

Re: "Inclusion" (Score:2)

by beelsebob ( 529313 )

No itâ(TM)s not - inclusion literally means to include everyone except for those who exclusionary.

EnGRITification (Score:2)

by pfignaux ( 39568 )

What product is left when trust evaporates in an instant?

the unstoppable march of enshittification (Score:2)

by thegreatemu ( 1457577 )

Why can't we be allowed to keep nice things? I've been using bitwarden for years now, and I will never use anything else (other than a similar 3rd party password manager) again. Yes, there are plenty of competitors with similar features, but bitwarden is consistently top-ranked by actual security experts, and the interface is great, especially now that it can do passkeys. But that ranking comes 100% from *transparency*. The instant that goes away, nobody sane is going to keep them around.

"Always free" i

Still there, actually... (Score:2)

by nasalicio ( 122665 )

What a load of crap. Directly from the linked page - 'Some Bitwarden users stay on Free forever; it's that good.', as well as in the comparison chart, for price it says: "Always free -- Get started". Now, I admit, I have no idea what the page looked like before whatever change occurred, but that specific phrase is very much there.

Politics (Score:2)

by Local ID10T ( 790134 )

Such terms are in disfavor with the current administration. Businesses are like weather vanes: they know which way the wind is blowing. When a new government is in power they will swing around. They care when it is fashionable to do so, but not when it could hurt the bottom line.

Soon- (Score:2)

by locater16 ( 2326718 )

-"do evil" and "blood for the blood god!" added to company values list. Stock jumps by 6%. A headline brought to you by the near future

Free is still prominently displayed (Score:3)

by battingly ( 5065477 )

TFS is misleading. The word "free" appears on that web page 23 times. It's literally the first word after the header.

Bitwarden centralizes machine credentials :o (Score:2)

by Mirnotoriety ( 10462951 )

ClippyAI: The company introduced Bitwarden Secrets Manager, a tool specifically designed for developers and DevOps teams to centralize and protect machine credentials, API keys, and tokens.

new guy cross-connected phone lines with ac power bus.