In Vaultwarden vs Bitwarden, Vaultwarden is the better choice for most people self-hosting a password manager at home, and official Bitwarden is the better choice for businesses that need audits and support. Both use the same official Bitwarden apps and the same client-side encryption. The difference is the server: Vaultwarden is a lightweight, community-built reimplementation that unlocks premium and organization features for free, while Bitwarden's own server is heavier, professionally audited and licenses those features through paid plans. In 2026 the gap narrowed, because the official single-container Bitwarden lite left beta and now runs on small hardware too.
What each one is
Bitwarden is the open-source password manager from Bitwarden, Inc. Its server is licensed under AGPL-3.0, with some enterprise code under the separate Bitwarden License. You can use Bitwarden's cloud or host the server yourself.
Vaultwarden, formerly bitwarden_rs, is an unofficial server written in Rust that implements the Bitwarden client API. It is AGPL-3.0 licensed, not affiliated with Bitwarden, Inc., and works with all official Bitwarden clients. It is one of the most popular self-hosted apps on GitHub, with about 68,600 stars.
Vaultwarden
Lightweight Bitwarden server API implementation written in Rust.
Bitwarden
Password manager with a webapp, browser extension, and mobile app.
Side-by-side comparison
| Vaultwarden | Bitwarden (self-hosted) | |
|---|---|---|
| Maintainer | Community | Bitwarden, Inc. |
| Licence | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 plus Bitwarden License for enterprise code |
| Deployment | One container | Bitwarden lite (one container) or standard (multi-container) |
| Minimum RAM | Tens of MB | 200 MB (lite), 2 GB (standard) |
| Databases | SQLite, MySQL/MariaDB, PostgreSQL | Lite: SQLite, PostgreSQL, MySQL/MariaDB, MSSQL. Standard: MSSQL |
| Premium and organization features | Included | Require a license file from a paid plan |
| Installation key | Not needed | Installation ID and key from bitwarden.com |
| Security audits | No commissioned audit; third-party tests by BSI and ERNW | Annual third-party audits, SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001 |
| Support | Community forum and GitHub | Vendor support on paid plans |
Resources and setup
Vaultwarden's biggest practical advantage is size. It is a single binary that stores everything in SQLite by default, so a Raspberry Pi or a $4 VPS is more than enough for a family. Configuration is a handful of environment variables, and backups are mostly one database file plus an attachments folder. Our Vaultwarden deploy guide covers the full Docker Compose setup with HTTPS.
Official Bitwarden used to be the opposite: about a dozen containers, Microsoft SQL Server and at least 2 GB of RAM. That standard deployment still exists and is the right choice for large organizations. But in December 2025 the single-container Bitwarden Unified image exited beta and was renamed Bitwarden lite. Lite needs at least 200 MB of RAM, supports SQLite, PostgreSQL, MySQL/MariaDB and MSSQL, and runs on ARM boards and NAS devices. You still need a free installation ID and key from Bitwarden to set it up.
Features and licensing
This is where the two diverge most. Self-hosting Bitwarden is free, but features beyond the free plan need a license file tied to a paid subscription. That covers individual premium features such as advanced two-factor options, file attachments and emergency access, and organization features such as shared collections beyond the free limits, groups and policies. Current Bitwarden prices, billed annually, are $19.80 per year for Premium, $47.88 per year for Families (up to six users), $4 per user per month for Teams and $6 per user per month for Enterprise.
Vaultwarden includes the equivalents without any license: organizations with collections, groups and member roles, event logs, policies, emergency access, file attachments, Send, and two-factor authentication through authenticator apps, email, FIDO2 WebAuthn, YubiKey and Duo. It also has an admin panel for managing users. For a household, that is everything Bitwarden Families offers.
The trade-off is that Vaultwarden occasionally lags behind new Bitwarden features, because the maintainers reimplement each API change after Bitwarden ships it. Brand-new client features can take a few releases to arrive.
Security and trust
Your vault is encrypted and decrypted on your device by the official Bitwarden clients in both cases, so the server never sees your master password or your plaintext passwords. That limits what a server bug can expose, but it does not make the server irrelevant: authentication, organization access and admin functions still live there.
Bitwarden publishes annual third-party audits, including multiple Cure53 assessments in 2025, and holds SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 certifications. Vaultwarden has never commissioned its own audit. Its wiki lists a static and dynamic test of version 1.30.3 by Germany's Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), published in 2024, and a 2024 ERNW penetration test that found three vulnerabilities, including an authentication bypass, which were fixed and disclosed. The project is actively maintained; version 1.37.4 shipped on October 5, 2026.
Whichever you choose, the biggest security wins are the same: keep the server updated, do not expose the admin panel publicly, enforce two-factor authentication and back up the database off-site.
Which should you choose?
Choose Vaultwarden if you are self-hosting for yourself, your family or a small group of friends, you want every feature without paying, and you are comfortable reading release notes and updating promptly.
Choose self-hosted Bitwarden if you are a company with compliance requirements, you need vendor support and audit reports for your security review, or you want features the day they ship. Bitwarden lite makes this realistic even on small hardware.
Choose Bitwarden's cloud if you do not want to run a server at all. It is the same software with the operational work done for you.
For teams that need per-user sharing with PGP-based encryption, Passbolt is another self-hosted option worth a look.
The verdict
For a home lab, Vaultwarden is hard to beat: tiny, complete and free. For a business, the official server is the defensible choice. Either way you keep the same excellent Bitwarden apps. Compare every self-hosted password manager, see the full list of open-source alternatives to 1Password and Bitwarden alternatives, go straight to the Vaultwarden guide, or check the live GitHub stats in our Vaultwarden vs Bitwarden data comparison.
