Both designs can be secure, because good ones encrypt your vault before it leaves your device. The differences are about who stores the encrypted copy, and what that means day to day.
| Cloud password manager | Local-first (Zen Passwords) | |
|---|---|---|
| Where the vault lives | The company's servers, encrypted | Your devices, encrypted |
| Sync | Through the company | Through your own private iCloud, when your devices use it |
| Account with the company | Required | None |
| Works offline | Usually, with a cached copy | Yes, fully |
| Windows, Android, Linux | Usually yes | Not yet. Logging in to your vault from a browser is coming |
| Sharing with family | Often built in | Not built in |
Choose cloud if
You use Windows or Android as well as Apple devices, or you want to share vaults with family or a team today. Those are real strengths, and Zen Passwords does not offer them.
Choose local-first if
You live on iPhone, iPad and Mac, and you would rather no company held a copy of your vault, even an encrypted one. There is no account with us to breach and no server of ours to go down, and without iCloud the vault never leaves the device.