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Comparison · Collab
Passbolt vs Contractbook
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Passbolt and Contractbook — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Passbolt vs Contractbook: at a glance
| Feature | Passbolt | Contractbook |
|---|---|---|
| Sector | Collab | Collab |
| Velocity score | 2.5 | 5.0 |
| Sparks · 30d | 0 | 0 |
| Top themes | password-manager, self-hosted, open-core, access-control | contract-automation, permissions, two-factor-auth, ai-extraction |
| Last editorial update | 2h ago | 1h ago |
| Website | Visit → | — |
What is Passbolt?
Passbolt collapsed the Community-to-Pro upgrade into a settings toggle, then spent the next release on sharing transparency.
Three releases on a roughly monthly cadence, each named after a song. 5.12 took the Safari extension out of beta so it stands level with Chrome, Firefox and Edge, and added a PIN code resource type. 5.13 built on the 5.12 codebase unification to let administrators switch between Community and Pro editions from organisation settings, with no separate environment or manual migration. 5.14 added explicit confirmation dialogs before creating items in shared folders or editing shared resources, made group members visible in access lists, and fixed an MFA policy enforcement issue.
What is Contractbook?
Contract automation grows up: admin permission maps, 2FA, and forms that do their own arithmetic.
Contractbook released a batch of six changes on a single day covering three areas at once. Administration gets a company-wide Spaces access page answering who can reach which space and with what permission, plus OTP two-factor authentication at login. Contract creation gets calculation fields in forms that compute totals and pro-rated amounts and insert them into the document automatically. The AI side gets a new extraction model and a dedicated place to manage AI upload contract types, with built-in defaults now editable per company.
Passbolt vs Contractbook: editorial side-by-side
Passbolt
2.5COLLAB
Passbolt collapsed the Community-to-Pro upgrade into a settings toggle, then spent the next release on sharing transparency.
◆ Current state
Three releases on a roughly monthly cadence, each named after a song. 5.12 took the Safari extension out of beta so it stands level with Chrome, Firefox and Edge, and added a PIN code resource type. 5.13 built on the 5.12 codebase unification to let administrators switch between Community and Pro editions from organisation settings, with no separate environment or manual migration. 5.14 added explicit confirmation dialogs before creating items in shared folders or editing shared resources, made group members visible in access lists, and fixed an MFA policy enforcement issue.
◆ Where it's heading
Two threads are running at once. Commercially, the friction between the open-source edition and the paid one has been engineered away — evaluation is now a toggle rather than a deployment project. Product-wise, the focus has moved from storing secrets to showing users who can actually reach them, which is where self-hosted password managers usually lose enterprise deals. Both threads point at the same buyer: an admin at an organisation already running Community and considering Pro.
◆ Prediction
The sharing-visibility work looks unfinished — expect access review or permission audit surfaces to follow — and the in-app edition switch is a natural place for licence and trial handling to appear next.
Contractbook
5.0COLLAB
Contract automation grows up: admin permission maps, 2FA, and forms that do their own arithmetic.
◆ Current state
Contractbook released a batch of six changes on a single day covering three areas at once. Administration gets a company-wide Spaces access page answering who can reach which space and with what permission, plus OTP two-factor authentication at login. Contract creation gets calculation fields in forms that compute totals and pro-rated amounts and insert them into the document automatically. The AI side gets a new extraction model and a dedicated place to manage AI upload contract types, with built-in defaults now editable per company.
◆ Where it's heading
The pattern is a product being fitted for larger customers: the access-visibility page is gated to Accelerate and Enterprise plans, group-level company permissions landed earlier in the year, and 2FA closes the obvious procurement objection. Meanwhile the AI features are moving from fixed behaviour toward configurable behaviour — extraction types are now a company's own list rather than the vendor's. Calculations remove the last common reason to edit a generated .docx by hand.
◆ Prediction
The admin thread points toward more permission surface — audit trails or per-space delegation would follow naturally from a page that already explains where each permission comes from. Nothing in these entries indicates how much extraction accuracy actually improved.
Alternatives to Passbolt and Contractbook
Other Collab products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Passbolt or Contractbook.
Tana
The knowledge graph quietly turned itself into a meetings product.
Miniflux
A minimal RSS reader that made passkeys the only way in, then went back to polishing the reading experience.
Shiori
A Go bookmark manager rebuilding itself around an API — and only ever shipping release candidates.
Kavita
A self-hosted reading server that spent two releases becoming infrastructure, then paid for it with a CVE.
FreshRSS
FreshRSS keeps turning a reader into a queryable archive — and hardening the parts that touch the web.
See all Passbolt alternatives → · See all Contractbook alternatives →
Recent activity from Passbolt and Contractbook
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1d agoContractbook🧮 Calculations in forms
- 1d agoContractbook🔑 OTP two-factor authentication
- 1d agoContractbook🖼️ AI upload: contract types
- 1d agoContractbook🗺️ Spaces access
- 1d agoContractbook🔎 Search results revamp
- 1d agoContractbook✨ AI extraction model upgrade
- 7d agoPassbolt5.14.0: confirmation prompts before shared-folder changes
- 1mo agoPassbolt5.13.0: switch between Community and Pro from settings ⚡
- 2mo agoPassbolt5.12.0: Safari extension leaves beta, PIN code resource type
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Passbolt and Contractbook?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Contractbook is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 2.5), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Passbolt better than Contractbook?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Contractbook is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 2.5), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Collab products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Passbolt?
Top Passbolt alternatives in Collab are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Passbolt alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/passbolt for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Contractbook?
Top Contractbook alternatives in Collab are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Contractbook alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/contractbook for the full list with editorial commentary on each.