The quiet renovation at Bitwarden • Hacker News Board

Re: The quiet renovation at Bitwarden

#11

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

Lately I've been scrutinizing Bitwarden after discovering a long history of memory leak problems in the GitHub issue tracker. It's an extention I use with all of my browsers. It seems to use an unusually high amount of RAM on Safari and I suspect it's why RAM just never stops growing in MS Edge.

Overall it's not a problem for me if Bitwarden wants more money, but I have to draw the line at replacing top leadership with randoms from private equity and secret price hikes. I'm glad this is being highlighted and it's motivating me even more to find suitable FOSS-friendly alternative.

Re: The quiet renovation at Bitwarden

#12

Post by xweb » Mon, May 18, 2026, 3:21 PM UTC

Thank you for this post/link. I have been side eyeing Bitwarden since they started ensh*ttifying the desktop UX last year to make it more like everything else and take up too much space. It had been working perfectly well for browser autofill - super fast and staying out of the way. Now it is bloated white space, slow, standardized UX elements like any SaaS built by AI. Will check out Vaultwarden, Proton Pass, Keepass, I guess. But sadly - yet another tool that worked perfectly well that was ruined in contempt of its own users (LastPass, Authy, Google Reader, etc - the list goes on)

Re: The quiet renovation at Bitwarden

#13

Post by dpark » Mon, May 18, 2026, 3:22 PM UTC

hirvi74 wrote: post #9

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.

Apple apparently has an iCloud app for Windows that syncs passwords and provides extensions for major browsers. I had no idea.

Re: The quiet renovation at Bitwarden

#14

Post by kwar13 » Mon, May 18, 2026, 3:22 PM UTC

curious whether "always free" is only marketing or actually has some legal implications

Re: The quiet renovation at Bitwarden

#15

Post by gerty » Mon, May 18, 2026, 3:23 PM UTC

Not disputing the overall feeling about the changes at Bitwarden but "Always free" phrase is still actually there if you're creating a personal Free account.

Re: The quiet renovation at Bitwarden

#16

Post by dabber21 » Mon, May 18, 2026, 3:24 PM UTC

megamike wrote: post #2

what are some bitwarden alternatives?

I went with the classic: KeepassXC + Syncthing

All locally synced

There are sharing options but they are not really convenient, not a problem for me since I mostly don't share passwords

Re: The quiet renovation at Bitwarden

#17

Post by nodeflare » Mon, May 18, 2026, 3:25 PM UTC

This feels more like an expectation management problem than a product problem.

Re: The quiet renovation at Bitwarden

#18

Post by [deleted] » Mon, May 18, 2026, 3:27 PM UTC

gerty wrote: post #15

Not disputing the overall feeling about the changes at Bitwarden but "Always free" phrase is still actually there if you're creating a personal Free account.

[deleted]

Re: The quiet renovation at Bitwarden

#19

Post by waysa » Mon, May 18, 2026, 3:29 PM UTC

It still says "Always free" on the website for me. It's both on the billing page on the page linked in the article.

I do share the concerns though. The change in leadership, the poor transparency, 100% price increase and the quiet change in core values.

I was happy paying $10 yearly for Bitwarden. I'm still okay with $20 but there's a seed of doubt.

Re: The quiet renovation at Bitwarden

#20

Post by craigmart » Mon, May 18, 2026, 3:30 PM UTC

mschuster91 wrote: post #10

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)

they haven't backed down, you find the "Always free" claim in the very same webpage OP linked https://bitwarden.com/products/personal/#whats-the-differenc...