Password and passkey management vendor Bitdefender has reacted to the high growth of their MSP business by expanding their partner program.
IPassword and passkey management vendor Bitdefender has reacted to the high growth of their MSP business by expanding their partner program. “I was hired in June 2021 to onboard MSPs within the program,” said Jon Mauer, Channel Sales Director at Bitwarden. “Recent growth rates have us at approximately 62,%” compared to an industry average of 12-14%. So we are definitely outpacing the industry average.” Before that, Mauer indicated that before their recent growth spurt, they had been a relatively small company.
Mauer explained in some detail why Bitwarden has been outpacing the industry.
“In the almost four years I have been here, I have seen a consistent commitment on the MSP side to providing the best service,” he said. “That includes flexible integrations with our technology stack, as well as a range of self-hosted options and cloud solutions.”
Bitwarden’s business model is based upon open source transparency, which is built on a zero-knowledge encryption model.
This model ensures that only users can access stored credentials, reinforcing privacy and security across MSP-managed environments.
‘With zero knowledge, all of that is encrypted before being in our vault,” Mauer said. “This is definitely an industry best practice. You can validate the code yourself and make sure we follow though. That’s different from our major competitors, in that we enable MSPs to independently verify security resilience, integrate seamlessly with existing workflows, and meet compliance mandates with confidence. Bitwarden ensures that only users can access stored credentials, reinforcing privacy and security across MSP-managed environments. Our mission is one where no one gets hacked. It enables us to lead the pack because of our transparency practices.”
Mauer said that Bitwarden’s business strategy covered the breadth of the market.
“We run the gamut from the one person shop to the longest tail of the market across all spectrums, he indicated.
“We have had more of a licensing model,” in which we “follow standard SaaS practices,” he noted. “We sell to MSPs who sell to their customers. A company like Red Hat has been a good one for us to follow. We launched our MSP program in August 2021. “Before that, our MSP program was basically a reseller program. Our MSP channel now makes up 4-5% of our business. It now has robust feature sets tits reseller and VAR based program.” The Bitwarden MSP partners have increased their total managed seats by 97% YoY and onboarded 62% more organizations, in a large and an increasingly growing part of Bitwarden.”
Bitwarden continues to introduce MSP-focused product updates and tools that improve security management, streamline operations, and enhance customer experiences. Bitwarden integrates with leading security, identity, and compliance platforms to enable MSPs to streamline authentication, monitor risks, and enforce security policies. These include identity providers (IdPs): Microsoft Entra ID, Okta, Ping, OneLogin, and JumpCloud, They also include SIEM [Security Information and Event Management] platforms Microsoft Sentinel and Splunk Cloud for real-time security monitoring, automated threat detection, and actionable risk insights. enabling MSPs to proactively enforce security policies across client organizations. For compliance automation, they work with Vanta, Rippling, and Rapid7 for policy enforcement and regulatory compliance, and streamlined security audits.
“These expanded MSP integrations are another tool in our toolbox,” Mauer stated.
MSPs can now provision, monitor, and manage multiple client organizations from a single dashboard with granular role-based controls and oversight, ensuring seamless client onboarding and security administration.
“This is an industry standard which goes beyond the dashboard,” he said. “We also provide flexible billing so we can meet them where they live. We give them access to the Bitwarden team and access to our MDF.
Mauer also highlighted Bitwarden’s Partner of the Quarter program, which recognizes MSPs that drive business growth through client onboarding, training, and secure password management, reinforcing best practices and partner success within the MSP community.
“This way that we celebrate partners is a big deal,” Mauer commented. “This is because of the way we provide recognition. We provide simplified subscription and seat management, including strengthened security controls for end users, allowing MSPs to participate – or not – in credential management. We offer them the ability to do set up and licensing, with the customer deciding on the choice in a fully managed consultant view.”
Mauer indicated that Bitwarden is the only player to SCIM player to offer SCIM provisioning,” Mauer said. “Not every customer needs top tier. We also provide free NFR licenses after meeting customer seat thresholds.
“Before there was a 50 seat limit,” but it has been removed,” Mauer stated
Bitwarden has also strengthened its MSP team with a dedicated presence in Europe, ensuring localized expertise and support for partners across the region. This strategic growth allows Bitwarden to provide tailored guidance and deeper engagements to help partners succeed in their markets.
