Bitwarden or Sealed for your papers and records?

Disclosure. Sealed is made by Loopware LLC. We read Bitwarden’s own help center and store page on 13 November 2026 and made no account. Where it is the better tool, we say so.

A password manager that holds files, and a vault that holds records

Bitwarden starts from logins. Its vault has five item types: login, card, identity, secure note and SSH key (item types). Files ride along as attachments on an item.

Sealed starts from pictures. Photos and scans are the main things in it, and records sit beside them. Records keep logins, 2FA codes, credit cards, bank accounts, IDs and passports, Wi-Fi networks, recovery codes, license keys, contacts and custom fields. Sealed scans with Apple’s own document scanner, which finds the edges of the page, straightens it and captures several pages in a row, and Sealed turns the pages into one PDF in your vault. So the real question is which kind of thing you keep more of: typed values or images of paper.

Side by side

Prices on our side are in US dollars. Prices are shown in US dollars and may vary by country.

Where Bitwarden is ahead

• Autofill everywhere. Logins and cards are made to be filled in on websites (item types), across browsers and computers (listing).
• A low yearly price. Premium costs less per year than most vault plans (pricing).
• Outside audits. Its listing says it runs yearly third-party audits (listing). Sealed has not had an independent security audit.
• Families. One plan covers up to six people (pricing).

Where Sealed fits better

Scans first. A passport page or an insurance card is a picture. The vault turns it into a PDF and keeps it next to the record of its numbers. Sealed scans with Apple’s own document scanner, which finds the edges of the page, straightens it and captures several pages in a row, and Sealed turns the pages into one PDF in your vault. In a record, sensitive fields such as a document number stay masked until you tap Reveal Values and confirm with Face ID or your device passcode, and they mask themselves again after 30 seconds.

No account to lose. There is no master password tied to a server. The recovery key takes that role. During setup Sealed gives you a recovery key: a long code of letters and numbers, in groups, that can bring your vault back. Anyone who has your recovery key and your iPhone or your iCloud backup can open your vault.

Photos and papers in one place. If you also keep private photos, they live in the same vault. Sealed is a private photo vault for the photos, videos and documents you’d rather not keep in your camera roll.

Our guide to scanning ID documents covers the camera side, and where to keep a passport photo covers the choices around it.

If you already pay for Bitwarden Premium

You may not need a second app for a handful of files. Attachments are encrypted on your device before upload (attachments), so a scan of a lease is safe there. Two things push people toward a vault anyway:

• Volume. A phone upload is capped per file, and all attachments share one storage pool per person (attachments). A few scans fit easily; years of photos do not.
• Viewing. An attachment opens from inside an item. If you show your insurance card at a desk every month, a grid of pictures is quicker to reach.

Our page on another password manager reaches a similar answer, and password manager or vault sorts twelve common items between the two kinds of app.

Where Sealed helps, and where it doesn’t

It helps if your documents are mostly pictures and scans you want on one iPhone. Sealed Pro can scan paper with the camera, or import PDFs and other files, into the vault. Your files never leave your iPhone unless you turn on iCloud backup or export them yourself.

It helps if you want logins, cards and IDs beside those scans with no account. Records keep logins, 2FA codes, credit cards, bank accounts, IDs and passports, Wi-Fi networks, recovery codes, license keys, contacts and custom fields. Sealed has no account, so there is nothing to sign up for. See records in Sealed.

It doesn’t fill in passwords on websites or run on a computer. Sealed runs on iPhone and iPad.

It doesn’t keep documents or records on the free plan. On the free plan you can add photos. Videos, documents, notes and records need Sealed Pro.