What is Vaultwarden used for?

Vaultwarden is a lightweight, unofficial Bitwarden-compatible server written in Rust for self-hosting, working with the official Bitwarden clients. It is a good fit for self-hosting a family password manager, small team password sharing and running Bitwarden-compatible sync on low-resource hardware.

Is Vaultwarden open source?

Yes. Vaultwarden is open source under the AGPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at dani-garcia/vaultwarden and is written mainly in Rust.

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

Can I self-host Vaultwarden?

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

What is Vaultwarden an alternative to?

Vaultwarden is an open-source alternative to 1Password, LastPass, Dashlane and Keeper. Other open-source alternatives to 1Password include Bitwarden, Padloc and KeePassXC.

Is Vaultwarden actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Vaultwarden was on 25 September 2026, and the latest release is 1.37.3, published on 13 September 2026. The project has 68k stars on GitHub.

Vaultwarden: open-source alternative to 1Password, LastPass

About Vaultwarden

Vaultwarden is a Rust server that reimplements the Bitwarden Client API as an alternative to the official service, and it works with the official Bitwarden clients. It was formerly known as bitwarden_rs and is released under the AGPL-3.0 license. It is aimed at people who self-host and find the official server too heavy to run themselves.

The project implements most of the Bitwarden Client API, including personal vaults, Send, attachments, website icons and personal API keys, as well as organizations, with collections, shared passwords, member roles, groups, event logs and policies. Multi-factor authentication covers authenticator apps, email, FIDO2 WebAuthn, YubiKey and Duo, and emergency access is supported. An admin backend and a modified web vault client are included.

Vaultwarden is distributed as a Docker image and the code is on GitHub. The project is unofficial, and its maintainers ask users to report problems to them rather than to Bitwarden's official support channels. It suits individuals, families and small teams who want to host their own password manager while keeping the familiar Bitwarden apps and browser extensions.

Key features

Bitwarden Client API-compatible server
Works with official Bitwarden clients
Organizations with collections and member roles
Multi-factor authentication including FIDO2 and YubiKey
Emergency access and Send support
Admin backend for server management

Good fit for

→Self-hosting a family password manager
→Small team password sharing
→Running Bitwarden-compatible sync on low-resource hardware

Built with: Rust; Docker
Tags: password-manager; bitwarden; self-hosted; rust; docker; security; vault; 2fa

Vaultwarden: questions and answers

What is Vaultwarden used for?: Vaultwarden is a lightweight, unofficial Bitwarden-compatible server written in Rust for self-hosting, working with the official Bitwarden clients. It is a good fit for self-hosting a family password manager, small team password sharing and running Bitwarden-compatible sync on low-resource hardware.
Is Vaultwarden open source?: Yes. Vaultwarden is open source under the AGPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at dani-garcia/vaultwarden and is written mainly in Rust.
Is Vaultwarden free?: Yes. Vaultwarden is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
Can I self-host Vaultwarden?: Yes. Vaultwarden can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.
What is Vaultwarden an alternative to?: Vaultwarden is an open-source alternative to 1Password, LastPass, Dashlane and Keeper. Other open-source alternatives to 1Password include Bitwarden, Padloc and KeePassXC.
Is Vaultwarden actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Vaultwarden was on 25 September 2026, and the latest release is 1.37.3, published on 13 September 2026. The project has 68k stars on GitHub.