What is Rowel used for?

Rowel is a free, offline-first desktop password manager for macOS, Windows and Linux that keeps an encrypted vault on your own computer. It is a good fit for personal offline password management and keeping credentials off third-party servers.

Is Rowel open source?

Yes. Rowel is open source under the GPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at fwdai/rowel and is written mainly in Rust.

Yes. Rowel is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

Can I self-host Rowel?

Yes. Rowel can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.

What is Rowel an alternative to?

Rowel is an open-source alternative to Dashlane, Keeper, Enpass and RoboForm. Other open-source alternatives to Dashlane include KeePassXC, AuthPass and KeeWeb.

Is Rowel actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Rowel was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v1.0.0, published on 2 October 2026. The project has 946 stars on GitHub.

Rowel: open-source alternative to Dashlane, Keeper, Enpass

About Rowel

Rowel is a desktop password manager that keeps everything on your own machine. Logins, credit card details and secure notes are stored in a locally held, encrypted vault, and the project states that no data leaves your computer unless you turn on the optional Google Drive sync. It is written in Rust with Tauri and runs on macOS, Windows and Linux.

The vault is an encrypted SQLite database using SQLCipher, and each entry's secrets get an extra application-level encryption layer and stay encrypted in memory until you reveal or copy them. Rowel also includes a one-click strong password generator and time-based one-time password (TOTP) support. Moving to another computer is done with a backup file or the Google Drive sync.

For browser autofill, Rowel speaks the KeePassXC-Browser protocol, so the standard KeePassXC-Browser extension for Chrome, Firefox or Edge can fill logins from the vault, and passkey requests are supported with version 1.9 or newer of the extension. Because both apps use the same browser connection, Rowel and KeePassXC should not be used at once. It is licensed under GPL-3.0.

Key features

Logins, cards and secure notes storage
Encrypted local SQLCipher vault
One-click strong password generator
TOTP code support
Optional Google Drive sync
Browser autofill via KeePassXC-Browser
Passkey support through the extension

Good fit for

→Personal offline password management
→Keeping credentials off third-party servers

Built with: Rust; Tauri
Tags: password-manager; offline-first; encryption; tauri; rust; totp; passkeys; desktop-app

Rowel: questions and answers

What is Rowel used for?: Rowel is a free, offline-first desktop password manager for macOS, Windows and Linux that keeps an encrypted vault on your own computer. It is a good fit for personal offline password management and keeping credentials off third-party servers.
Is Rowel open source?: Yes. Rowel is open source under the GPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at fwdai/rowel and is written mainly in Rust.
Is Rowel free?: Yes. Rowel is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
Can I self-host Rowel?: Yes. Rowel can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.
What is Rowel an alternative to?: Rowel is an open-source alternative to Dashlane, Keeper, Enpass and RoboForm. Other open-source alternatives to Dashlane include KeePassXC, AuthPass and KeeWeb.
Is Rowel actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Rowel was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v1.0.0, published on 2 October 2026. The project has 946 stars on GitHub.