Bitwarden vs Vaultwarden: Which Is Better?
2026-10-24 · 2 min read · password-manager, self-hosting, bitwarden
Both let you keep your vault under your own control, but they are different products. Bitwarden is a company that runs a cloud service and offers an official self-hosting option. Vaultwarden is a community project: an unofficial server written in Rust that implements the Bitwarden client API.
The facts
| Bitwarden | Vaultwarden | |
|---|---|---|
| Maintained by | Bitwarden, the company | A community project |
| Self-hosting | Official option, listed on the Enterprise plan | Self-hosted only |
| Clients | Official Bitwarden clients | Official Bitwarden clients |
| Cost | Free basic plan. Premium at $19.80 per year, billed annually | The software is free. You pay for hosting and your time |
| Support | Vendor support, depending on plan | Community. The project asks for bug reports on its own channels, not Bitwarden's |
| Licence | Not compared here | AGPL-3.0 |
The Bitwarden figures come from its pricing page. The Vaultwarden figures come from its repository. The Vaultwarden project describes its server as a nearly complete implementation of the client API, not a full copy of the official service.
Which one to choose
Choose Bitwarden if you want vendor support and do not want to run a server. The cloud service is the simplest option. Premium adds features for $19.80 per year.
Choose Vaultwarden if you want to self-host without buying the Enterprise plan, and you accept running the server yourself: updates, backups and TLS. The project requires HTTPS for its web vault, so plan a reverse proxy before you start.
Choose neither if you do not want to operate any server. A hosted zero-knowledge manager removes the operations, and the trust question then moves to the provider. VaultKeepR is hosted and not self-hosted. Check how its recovery works before you decide, as explained in what a zero-knowledge password manager is.
What to test before you move
Whichever you pick, test the account on a dummy vault first. Create an entry, sync it to a second device, export, import, and confirm that the entries match. Delete any unencrypted export as soon as the import is done.