The quiet renovation at Bitwarden

I don't think these companies are obligated to run a free tier. Someone has to pay the infra. It's a little shady that they didn't announce any of this though. But bitwarden is open source and you can host it all yourself

Re: The quiet renovation at Bitwarden

#5

Post by arbitrarian » Mon, May 18, 2026, 3:08 PM UTC

megamike wrote: post #2

what are some bitwarden alternatives?

Keepass or one of its variants are great. Pair it with a shared folder via SyncThing/GDrive/Dropbox/whatever and you'll be set.

Re: The quiet renovation at Bitwarden

#6

Post by flossly » Mon, May 18, 2026, 3:11 PM UTC

I use BitWarden because I'd never trust a password manager with close source clients. Before BitWarden I used a local manager: BitWarden made my life easier.

The web interface I'd never use: I have no guarantee that my passphrase does not leave my computer. Same for the import feature: this also requires the passphrase to be sent to their servers.

Needless to say I move to the next ethical e2ee password manager if BitWarden turns it's back on open source.

Re: The quiet renovation at Bitwarden

#7

Post by gonzalohm » Mon, May 18, 2026, 3:11 PM UTC

megamike wrote: post #2

what are some bitwarden alternatives?

Depends on what you are looking for. I use keepass to store my password + syncthing to sync across devices

Re: The quiet renovation at Bitwarden

#8

Post by deanc » Mon, May 18, 2026, 3:15 PM UTC

I don't see the problem here. It's a great product and if they want to make money then I don't mind. If it's too expensive, and they hike the price to something ridiculous then I'll vote with my wallet.

Re: The quiet renovation at Bitwarden

#9

Post by hirvi74 » Mon, May 18, 2026, 3:18 PM UTC

megamike wrote: post #2

what are some bitwarden alternatives?

I left for Apples Passwords.app and never looked back. Of course, that has its own limitations if you are not bought into Apple's ecosystem.

Re: The quiet renovation at Bitwarden

#10

Post by mschuster91 » Mon, May 18, 2026, 3:20 PM UTC

deanc wrote: post #8

I don't see the problem here. It's a great product and if they want to make money then I don't mind. If it's too expensive, and they hike the price to something ridiculous then I'll vote with my wallet.

The problem is the rug-pull. You can't go and proudly state "free forever", and then silently back down on that commitment. That is a textbook example for the enshittification cycle... lure users in with grand promises, sell out once you got enough of a following.

(Well, technically, you can, but then don't complain about getting called out)