bcrypt vs Argon2: Which Password Hash Should You Use?
bcrypt vs Argon2 comparison: security, performance, memory usage, and when to use each for password hashing in 2026.
Quick Recommendation
Use Argon2id for new projects. Use bcrypt if your framework does not support Argon2. Never use MD5 or SHA-256 for passwords (they are too fast).
Comparison
- bcrypt: Time-tested (1999), 72-byte input limit, CPU-hard only. Cost factor 12+ recommended.
- Argon2id: Winner of 2015 Password Hashing Competition. CPU + memory hard. Configurable memory, time, and parallelism. Recommended: 64MB memory, 3 iterations.
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