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Bitwarden: Free, open-source password manager

bitwarden.com

21–30 of 242 posts

Re: Bitwarden: Free, open-source password manager

#21
post #11
post #5

For self-host - is it better than KeePass?

Absolutely. Keepass gives you only a file that you have to sync by yourself and when you have multiple device editing the same file... Well... On the other hand, Bitwarden lets you self-host a complete server that handles everything. If you want something less resources intensive you can take a look at Vaultwarden which is a re-implementation of the server in Rust instead of C#. The main advantage is that it uses MyS…

It is funny, because to me "only a file you have to sync (and backup)" sounds more like an advantage than setting up an entire server environment just so you can access your passwords.

Re: Bitwarden: Free, open-source password manager

#22
post #4
post #2

Love Bitwarden, I personally onboarded dozen … but they must heavily invest in UI/UX and fix their apps (+ extensions) It’s not easy and intuitive for non-techies.

I just switched to it from LastPass which, well, has even worse UX in my opinion. It's an extremely low bar to clear and I agree Bitwarden is quirky too, but for me it's still firmly been an upgrade. The only thing I miss is an "add to bitwarden?" dialog when I sign up somewhere. Their docs say it exists but I've never managed to get it to appear :-)

Detecting a new login is not one of BW's strengths. It's never detected one for me. But you can train yourself to "create new login" via the browser extension, _instead of_ expecting the extension to pick it up. This does work better for single-page creation flows. (Instead of using the web page to create a user/pass, enter it into the extension.)

It's pretty business unfriendly IMO, as most users simply cannot pick up a new, rarely used flow.

I switched away from 1P after they dropped the perpetual license option. They failed me by taking VC money and then chasing growth at users' expense. Not that the other PWM vendors aren't worse -- some of them much worse.

Re: Bitwarden: Free, open-source password manager

#23
post #11
post #5

For self-host - is it better than KeePass?

Absolutely. Keepass gives you only a file that you have to sync by yourself and when you have multiple device editing the same file... Well... On the other hand, Bitwarden lets you self-host a complete server that handles everything. If you want something less resources intensive you can take a look at Vaultwarden which is a re-implementation of the server in Rust instead of C#. The main advantage is that it uses MyS…

You can use sqlite with valutwarden which ia more suitable for personal/few users usage.

Re: Bitwarden: Free, open-source password manager

#25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally a happy user of 1Password. Reasons being: - "It just works" for me and my non-tech-family - It's only $50/year Maybe BitWarden is just as good or better. But why take the gamble and migrate everything and everyone, when I have multiple happy 1P users for a low yearly cost?

I wouldn't consider 4 $ per month a low cost for a password manager

Really? Its less than the cost of a pint. Not exactly expensive considering the benefits. Sure it could be free, but its not expensive.

Re: Bitwarden: Free, open-source password manager

#26
post #3

probably my favorite open source project in years, together with Lichess. No idea why people still throw money at proprietary password managers.

Personally a happy user of 1Password. Reasons being: - "It just works" for me and my non-tech-family - It's only $50/year Maybe BitWarden is just as good or better. But why take the gamble and migrate everything and everyone, when I have multiple happy 1P users for a low yearly cost?

[deleted]

Re: Bitwarden: Free, open-source password manager

#27
post #3

probably my favorite open source project in years, together with Lichess. No idea why people still throw money at proprietary password managers.

Personally a happy user of 1Password. Reasons being: - "It just works" for me and my non-tech-family - It's only $50/year Maybe BitWarden is just as good or better. But why take the gamble and migrate everything and everyone, when I have multiple happy 1P users for a low yearly cost?

in india for example, the monthly cost of netflix starts from $2 per month and amazon prime hiked their price to like $ 18 per year so yeah

Re: Bitwarden: Free, open-source password manager

#28
post #2

Love Bitwarden, I personally onboarded dozen … but they must heavily invest in UI/UX and fix their apps (+ extensions) It’s not easy and intuitive for non-techies.

I switched to 1Password simply because I liked the browser extension, and the Mobile app better. I had issues with autocomplete with bitwarden on phone

Re: Bitwarden: Free, open-source password manager

#29
post #4
post #2

Love Bitwarden, I personally onboarded dozen … but they must heavily invest in UI/UX and fix their apps (+ extensions) It’s not easy and intuitive for non-techies.

I just switched to it from LastPass which, well, has even worse UX in my opinion. It's an extremely low bar to clear and I agree Bitwarden is quirky too, but for me it's still firmly been an upgrade. The only thing I miss is an "add to bitwarden?" dialog when I sign up somewhere. Their docs say it exists but I've never managed to get it to appear :-)

It has asked me lots of times, but just yesterday it didn't for a new account in none less than google.com. Its code to detect when to ask must be... weak, to say the least.

So I went on to add a new entry manually. Oh my, the UX to do so is quite bad. There is such low hanging fruit here for improvement, like copying the "UI on a new tab" style that LastPass does... meanwhile Bitwarden insists on doing everything on a stateless pop-up window [0]. LastPass UI might be worse for some (that's debatable), but the UX of opening it on a new tab is simply superior, just for the fact of it being stateful. I don't get why Bitwarden doesn't adopt it.

I'm happily paying for Bitwarden to support its development, but would never consider suggesting it to my grandpa or to serious business. The flow and experience is just far away from what is expected; a very good software, but with still too many rough edges.

[0]: https://community.bitwarden.com/t/persist-bitwarden-ui-and-m...

Re: Bitwarden: Free, open-source password manager

#30
post #5

For self-host - is it better than KeePass?

It depends how you use it, if you dont need to synchronise the database between machines (much) then KeePass is likely the easiest solution and works very well, beyond that Vaultwarden makes it easy to maintain a single centralised database accessed from multiple systems
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