Today, Bitwarden announced that it has acquired European-based startup Passwordless.dev, a significant milestone in rounding out the Bitwarden commitment to offering open source, scalable, and secure passwordless solutions to every business and end user. 

Founded in 2020, Passwordless.dev provides a comprehensive API framework that minimizes complexities for developers seeking to build passkeys and FIDO2 WebAuthn features such as Face ID, fingerprint, and Windows Hello. Passwordless.dev trims down the development work around cryptographic operations, technical flows, and more – what used to take weeks can now be accomplished in minutes. 

FIDO2 WebAuthn plays an important role in improving digital security. Swedish-founder Anders Åberg started Passwordless.dev as an open source project with an aim to make passwordless authentication more developer friendly and ultimately, to help eradicate phishing attacks that lead to costly data breaches. Passwordless.dev unlocks the imagination of developers, giving them the right tools needed to accelerate passwordless authentication for global enterprises. 

For enterprises with existing commercial and homegrown applications, integrating modern passwordless authentication flows is resource intensive. Passwordless.dev accelerates enterprise security transformation, providing an API framework to quickly turn existing applications into more secure passwordless experiences for users. 

Together, Bitwarden and Passwordless.dev provide a turnkey solution built on the FIDO2 and Webauthn standards that are defining the future of passwordless. As part of this announcement, Bitwarden is excited to launch the Bitwarden Passwordless.dev beta program, giving enterprises, developers, and security enthusiasts the opportunity to test and provide feedback on the product. For more information on the beta program, please visit passwordless.dev.

Bitwarden started with a vision to help create a world where no one gets hacked. This means providing the best password management solution – across free and paid plans  – for everyone. This also means embracing passwordless authentication as a way to supersede passwords and remove them as a potential threat vector for malicious actors. 

When it comes to passwordless adoption, enterprises look for a combination of security, convenience, and ease of use. These have always been key tenets of the Bitwarden product philosophy, as evidenced by passwordless features already built into Bitwarden:

Why is Bitwarden acquiring Passwordless.dev?

Several factors drove the decision:

• This acquisition enables enterprises to embra