cross-posted from: https://thelemmy.club/post/57178743

RyanL Bitwarden Employee

Hello everyone!

Starting in the next release, the Bitwarden apps published to the various stores will be the commercially licensed builds. No action is needed, and the apps will work exactly as they do today.

Bitwarden remains committed to open source security and transparency
The GPLv3 OSS licensed version continues to be updated and published on GitHub
All current features are available in both versions
License details are on GitHub
Bitwarden remains committed to a robust, free forever plan for everyone

If you have any questions, please ask them in this thread. Thanks all!

EDIT:

Bitwarden is not going closed-source
You can still fork Bitwarden
No change to self-hosting, the licensing change affects those who are repackaging and reselling Bitwarden
The free plan is here to stay permanently

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[–] 150 points 3 weeks ago (24 children)

I really don’t want to have to switch password managers again.

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  • [–] 34 points 3 weeks ago (14 children)

    Don't even know where i'd switch.

    Proton -> I already use Proton suite and I like the seperation, the 2 password option doesn't work for me either. I just need a seperate password.

    Keepass -> I use quite a few devices and the sync just seems like a nightmare...

    Any other options? For now i'll stick as BW is still great but will start exploring others.

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  • [–] 20 points 3 weeks ago (10 children)

    Keepass X Syncthing

    syncthing runs on everything and is easy to configure.

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  • [–] 13 points 3 weeks ago (6 children)

    Maybe it's changed in the year since I tried but I absolutely could not get syncthings to work on android

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  • [–] 9 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

    But thousands of people have it working just fine. Not calling you out but it does work very well. Did you follow a step by step guide? I know websearch makes it hard to learn new tech things these days.

    Just keep in mind, set up a default folder and file (filename.kdbx) to share on one device, add Remote Device (QR code helps there), go to Sharing Tab and select Default Folder. If the Default Folder isn't ticked on both devices in the Sharing Tab on each, nothing happens. When you work it out, that folder can be called anything and you can get advanced with how or when it shares or which direction the data goes (think photo backup from mobile to desktop).

    New Android app to use is:

    https://github.com/chenxiaolong/BasicSync

    Use Obtainium- https://github.com/ImranR98/Obtainium - to install it and keep it updated. Obtainium can update itself the same way.

    Convoluted, I know, but so is relying on a company to host for you in the cloud. They just hide all the complexity behind the interface. With Syncthing, once it's set up between all your devices (and there is a way to quickly auto accept setup once further advanced/knowledgeable), it just chugs along in the background. Changes to keepass file appear almost instantly across each device once it's opened.

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    [–] 95 points 3 weeks ago (12 children)

    Pretty much seen it coming when the new CEO came in and removed the words "Transparency" and "Always Free" from the official marketing.

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  • [–] 30 points 3 weeks ago (6 children)

    Whether you believe it or not is another matter, but this very post still includes the words "transparency" and "always free".

    Bitwarden remains committed to open source security and transparency

    Bitwarden remains committed to a robust, free forever plan for everyone

    and a bonus:

    The free plan is here to stay permanently

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    [–] 72 points 3 weeks ago (9 children)

    That's quite the disappointment. Probably need to prepare to switch away from bitwarden or at least research options for open source clients for my vaultwarden backend.

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  • [–] 45 points 3 weeks ago (6 children)

    Someone can correct me, but this change seems to be targeting people who are repackaging bitwarden and selling it. It does feel like we are trending the wrong direction though.

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  • [–] 71 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

    If you read their announcement carefully you'll find things like

    All current features are available in both versions
    

    Which strongly implies that the different versions will start to diverge over time. Then at one point they will just be like maah it's not worth putting more work into the open source thing, we'll focus on building new cool features yada yada yada. And this is how all the open to partly open to closed source rug pulls worked in the last years.

    (If you want to do this the worst way possible like MinIO you also squash / delete the Git history the moment you announce you're only working on closed source)

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    [–] 39 points 3 weeks ago (26 children)

    If you are on Lemmy, theres very high probability that you also have the technical abilities required to self host Vaultwarden and stop relying on a greedy company for your most critical aspect.

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  • [–] 25 points 3 weeks ago (16 children)

    I could but I don't want. Self hosting something this important? I can't login to any website without this software, including my email. It's super critical.

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  • [–] 12 points 3 weeks ago* (13 children)

    The vault gets synced to your devices. So even if your Backend goes down you dont lose access to your passwords in an instant

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  • [–] 11 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

    I have Vaultwarden, it works with the web app and browser extensions. But is there a vaultwarden specific android app? I know technically I can use the Bitwarden app. But sometimes they update the Bitwarden app too fast for all the changes to translate into Vaultwarden and then im kinda forced to use the web app.

    The web app is just a minor inconvenience to me so I continue to use it. Just wondering if there is an easier Vaultwarden specific solution for android.

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    [–] 36 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

    Sigh... I hope this isn't the first move of enshitifying bitwarden. I read the comments/replies and hope this is benign but I'm now nervous

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  • [–] 34 points 3 weeks ago
    [–] 31 points 3 weeks ago

    Goddamnit, enshittification comes for ALL paid services eventually. Looks like I have another service to start self hosting..

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  • [–] 25 points 3 weeks ago*

    That was written in the sky...

    Open-Source is literally used as marketing tool for the under dogs until they reach a critical mass of users.

    People were fighting on social media, defending the product, suggesting it, "it's open source", people were doing the marketing for them.

    No wonder why people feel like they got raped, after all the hard work they have done for them...

    But at least they didn't contribute code, did you? Not me, because I am old enough to never use such products, it's a classic rug pull, bait and switch.

    Open source doesn't mean it's good, it must be hold by a bunch of strangers in T-shirt, not in full suite...

    Corpo in disguise...

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  • [–] 24 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

    It just blows my mind how so many comments use the term 'purchase' as if this new enshitification step still allowed for the dictionary meaning of the word.

    I used to suggest bitwarden to everyone, now it's basically 'start using KeePass, keep a copy of your db in a USB drive in your safe, have fun'.

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  • [–] 20 points 3 weeks ago

    The fact that bitwarden raised 100 millions from venture capitalists for "acceleration" and small changes towards a closed license for premium features is a steady step towards enshittification.

    The writing is on the wall and every announcement like that is a step further into enshittification to provide value for shareholders at the expense of thrle consumer base.

    I still haven't switched yet because life is going fast and I didn't come around to do my backup file server yet, but I would suggest anyone reading this to look for an alternative because it will get worst.

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  • [–] 21 points 3 weeks ago

    Bitwarden's front-end (Apps, Extensions) must be hard forked before it is too late.

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  • [–] 18 points 3 weeks ago (7 children)

    When Bitwarden got a meh "refresh" of the user interface and started vibe coding stuff (I'm not some super hard-line anti-AI person, but dammit, you absolutely should not vibe code security-critical apps), I switched to KeePassX. It was like coming back home! I used to use KeePass and KeePass 2, switched to Bitwarden for a long while, and while it was neat, KeePassX is just neater. (Doesn't have cloud sync, but syncing the vault files with LocalSend is easy enough.)

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  • [–] 22 points 3 weeks ago (6 children)

    I guess you mean KeepassXC, because the last release of KeepassX apparently was in 2016.

    KeepassXC is also using AI, they even made a blog post about it a year ago.

    https://keepassxc.org/blog/2025-11-09-about-keepassxcs-code-quality-control/

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  • [–] 18 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (5 children)

    I think all of us can just move to using Vaultwarden, it seems to fix problems even in the old free version of Bitwarden.

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    [–] 16 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

    Fantastic. I'm tired of having to change password managers. DashLane, Keepass, LastPass, etc., they all end up shooting their own foot somehow.

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    [–] 15 points 3 weeks ago (1 child)

    Does this mean I will, or won't be able to install the FOSS version through GitHub? Trying to stop repackagers from selling your project is one thing, but killing the source available installs would be another.

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    [–] 13 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

    No one's taking away my favourite bash script: https://www.passwordstore.org/

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  • [–] 13 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

    "bitwarden apps will be the commercially licensed builds." I don't understand how this is going to change anything.

    I self-host vaultwarden. I use the official Bitwarden app, it works swimmingly. Going the self-hosted route you get enterprise features (I don't use em).

    Doesn't the licensing stuff connect with the backend not the app?

    https://hub.docker.com/r/vaultwarden/server

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    [–] 11 points 3 weeks ago

    Rest in Peace :(

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  • [–] 9 points 3 weeks ago (12 children)

    App store EULAs and GPLv3 frequently clash. This change only affects the app store binary releases.

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