In the latest episode of “they will always sell you out” - they sold you out! Who would’ve thought.
Hoping for a good alternative client to appear, the writing is on the wall. Vaultwarden can’t exist without “leeching” off of Bitwarden.
Ah shit. Here we go again!
Can anyone say “Enshittification”!
Enshitification coming right up!
Move to KeePassXC or its recent LLM-free fork while you still can, because at some point Bitwarden is going to try to go closed-source again.
Vaultwarden here I come
No, KeePass. Fully open source, no cloud involved in any way, unless you want something to sync your data (the server only ever sees your encrypted database - all encryption and decryption is done locally). You can also host your own sync server using any of a variety of different protocols.
@palmtrees2309@lemmy.world
Yep. Seconding this!
KeePass + Syncthing is the best.
Back up the database(s) regularly. (Syncthing can also retain
xnumber of versions and things like that, but also do your own 3-2-1 backups.)You can use something as simple as a Pi, or an old laptop, or even an old phone if you get creative, as an always-on syncthing server to keep them synchronized. KeePassXC even has a fancy integration with Firefox, so all you gotta do is unlock your database and click autofill on websites.
Ok thanks for the heads up
Fuck
Once again, enshittification by the fucking suits.
Early on I decided to use only KeePass for full personal control instead of an online service. Didn’t regret making that decision.
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
Fewer Letters More Letters IoT Internet of Things for device controllers SSH Secure Shell for remote terminal access VPN Virtual Private Network
3 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 20 acronyms.
[Thread #295 for this comm, first seen 16th May 2026, 03:30] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]
Glad I started using Vaultwarden a while back. Just need to find better apps for android and Firefox I guess because I’m guessing they’re going to try to break compatibility.
Has Vaultwarden said anything yet? I imagine that, if necessary, given that bitwarden’s client is still open, at the point they choose to try and close it, we, the users, can fork it and establish it for vaultwarden, correct? Or, maybe even the vaultwarden team will think about forking it themselves and making a light client as well to pair with the current server.
But Vaultwarden can exist without “leeching” they just haven’t needed to yet. That’s more symbiotic than parasitic. The parasite class just took over Bitwarden after all.
Not to my knowledge. As far as forks go, that’s true. However, Vaultwarden would need to become an independent team, and even if they don’t take over maintaining the client, someone else would need to become independent. While it can work, it can also lead to very nasty, longstanding bugs or security issues due to scale, budget, and effort. I see this a lot with Apple apps for example - smaller developers understandably don’t want to deal with Apple’s crap and costs, and everyone suffers in the end.
If you look at the current state of the cybersecurity world, it’s not kind to open-source developers. AI-generated BS is dredging up vulnerabilities on all sides. So security is also a big concern. Someone like Bitwarden has a lot of budget to swing.
Vaultwarden itself is incredibly good, but not perfect:
You’re right. And that’s why more of us need to contribute and spread the word of projects to support them.
Honestly, FOSS is our last bastion against this consumerist hellscape. I’m working on learning to build my own discord-like front end on matrix specifically for gaming. But I’m just one guy. We’ve all gotta pick where we place our effort and support those around us similarly.
Vaultwarden taking over bitwarden, should they shut doen as open source, I think would be entirely worthy. But it might need more people to either help vaultwarden or maintain it on their own, you’re right.
To me, seeing and learning about all of these projects gives me hope. All of these people and communities working to build things out of passion and dedication, because they care and want to provide value to others. No profit motive necessary. We just need to be there to support them as we’ve tied capital to our survival currently.
What is your matrix front end called?
It doesn’t exist yet 😅 as I said, still learning and trying to avoid using AI as a lot of vibe coded discord clones popped up. I did compile a list (which probably needs updating)
https://github.com/DukePantarei/discord-alternatives-wishlist
True dat. The more people know every corporation, even the most “wholesome chungus Reddit karma 100” ones ONLY care about squeezing profits out of you, the better off we’re going to be in the future.
Check out and contribute to gomuks. It’s the go-to power user Matrix client as I’ve learned. I recently developed a theme for it to make it look more like Cinny, which itself is a bit of a Discord UI Clone. I don’t actually use gomuks, but it really needed a nice theme.
Anyone that doesn’t understand that companies exist to make profit needs to be studied at this point. You have to wonder how they even function in the world.
People don’t go work 9-5 for the fun of it and for free, do they? No, a company and/or customers pay them. Without that payment step there’s no job and there’s no product/service.
If you don’t think the company deserves your money, find another free service and use that until they start charging. Rinse and repeat - or just be an adult and pay for services and work that you like and use.
Hoping for another Moonlight/Sunshine moment! Already running Vaultwarden, rbw, and Keyguard. Just need a simple FOSS browser extension for autofill and editing entries.
For context, Moonlight was created first as a FOSS Nvidea gamestream client. Then Sunshine was created as a FOSS server implementation. Later, Nvidia dropped “official” support, now the two projects are a FOSS stack built atop a formerly proprietary protocol.
They responded on reddit and walked some of it back as an “oversight”: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitwarden/comments/1tdvnh7/comment/olznwcv/. Allegedly, I’m too lazy to verify.
A change that would require intent to make is not a mistake or oversight.
This sucks. I committed to Bitwarden years ago and now am going to have to switch before they lock me in the garden.
They also haven’t addressed the removal of inclusion and transparency from their goals.
EDIT: They did. They said it’s “less of a priority”. The article I shared has been updated. I smell corporate bullshit though. “Oversight” this, “priority shift” that, they’d have to work hard to gain any trust back.
Jesus, I’m tired of switching password managers.
KeePassXC + KeePassDX is probably the best option, with the downside of no way to sync easily (syncthing is probably the best option there)
I might switch back at some point, been getting frustrated with the bitwarden extension performance always being so poor.
My first password manager was KeePassXC.
Hooked it up with Syncthing, and I’ve never had issues aside from the occasion database duplicate.
I use KeePass with KeeAnywhere. KeePass can natively sync over network share, FTP, or WebDav. With plugins, it can sync over SSH, FTPS, Amazon S3 compatible buckets (including open source compatible versions you host yourself), Azure, Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, and more.
Yeah the performance is what made me install the desktop app, but then it’s 1gb in size
Sync however you want. Syncthing, Nextcloud, Dropbox, Gdrive etc.
Syncthing is the way to leave Google Drive, etc.
I use Nextcloud myself, but if people don’t want to host a server or fuck with syncthing, they can sync it however they want as long as they use a strong enough master password/phrase (which they should be anyway.).
Rclone with any cloud provider is another great option that’s seldom mentioned. I posted my setup as a comment on another post. You may find it here - https://programming.dev/comment/23849767
Merge conflicts are a concern for KeePass, especially for those that don’t want to resolve them. Sync is difficult. AFAIK this is a very common issue with Syncthing setups.
Also, the portability from Bitwarden to KP leaves a bit to be desired, though that’s probably 90% on BW.
I’m using Keepass2Android (and KeepassXC). It can copy the database from/to an sftp server, so it can easily merge the entries. I don’t have the sftp server exposed to the Internet, because when I’m not home, nobody will change the database at home.
Maybe pay for one then?
I pay for bitwarden for the yubi key support and I’m also tired of switching.
KeePass isn’t going anywhere. They’re also dragging their feet on passkey support, so you might go with KeepassXC.
Their AI policy looks very reasonable, and they certainly aren’t vibe coding. Everything is rigorously reviewed and tested by a handful of experienced, competent humans.
Yeah, there was. It was forked because of that, actually: https://codeberg.org/ChiPass.
Link gives 404
404
They also don’t effectively allow collaboration though, which is my cheif reason for using a cloud hosted password manager.
What is “collaboration” in this context?
Parallel creating, reading, updating, deleting password entries by multiple users.
Whoa, thanks. I had no idea this was a thing…
Sharing passwords between groups of people so everyone always has the up to date version. Not breaking the world if two people try to modify the same entry as some file syncing solutions do.
Hmm, interesting, though isn’t that a fault of the organization not having an account-linking system so that each person could have their own credentials but can still access the unified content? This workaround seems… flimsy, unless I’m not picturing a legit scenario in which no other method is as good, or something.
You know why most cloud based services charge money? For stuff like this, because it’s not free to implement and maintain.
Easy and fault-proof password sharing and syncing needs software and hardware to do. You either set it up and maintain it yourself, or pay for a product that does it - like Bitwarden.
Sure they do. Multiple people can have a file open at the same time. I use it for exactly this every day at work.
With KeePassXC, that is. I don’t know if other flavors have different support. I use XC primarily for the browser extension.
And you can both modify the same things without causing horrible conflict issues? And you can share only parts of your vault with someone rather than having entirely different vaults you have to switch between? I’m assuming you mean putting the file somewhere like Google Drive, and you can access it offline even if you can’t edit it offline? For feature parity with Bitwarden, obviously ideally one could edit any time and it would resolve problems when it came back online if there were any but Bitwarden doesn’t allow this.
Yes, no conflicts. I don’t know if you can only share part of vault; I just created a separate one for a separate team.
I wouldn’t put it in Google Drive or anything like that. The separate sync logic will definitely cause conflicts.
I’m not worried about having access if I’m offline, because if I’m offline I’m not going to be able to log into anything anyway.
I guess a laptop, server, IoT device, or WiFi connection when your main device doesn’t have internet is out of scope for you?
Like fixing my laptop and not wanting to type the new password into my phone instead of copy/paste, sync when online?
And how are you sharing a file, to multiple people anywhere in the world realtime ish, without a cloud service you or someone else hosts? Doesn’t that necessitate some syncronization logic?It’s hosted on a local network share, so we don’t need Internet access.
If can’t copy paste, I just type it out.
We use a VPN to the office.
Two articles behind a paywall, one that won’t load, and another article that says the big problem with passkeys is…people are unfamiliar with them.
If anyone tells you that Passkeys are bad, they’re a liar. Way more safe than passwords, full stop.
Just don’t let Microsoft or Apple tie them to your device. You don’t have to do that.
Are you calling me a liar? That’s pretty weird; it’s not like I’m telling you to stick to passwords while I move to passkeys. With that said, though, get Bypass Paywalls Clean (Mozilla-only, as far as I know) and you’ll never see another paywall again. I forgot about having that.
Just don’t let Microsoft or Apple tie them to your device. You don’t have to do that.
The problem is that this is where it’s eventually going to lead to.
Not really, Vaultwarden/bitwa4den offer passkey support. When I log into a service a popup shows on my extension, I click it and I’m in. It’s not gonna lead to device locking if you don’t want to…
I just got Bit warden this year! Gah. Where are we jumping?
Full circle to sticky notes on monitor.
Vaultwarden
Took me like 5 minutes to move back to KeepassXC.
Vaultwarden can’t exist without “leeching” off of Bitwarden.
Why not? No reason mobile apps and browser extensions can’t be forked.
That’s troubling, I don’t like what this portends.
The new CEOs background especially suggests they’re spiffing up the company for a later sellout, why else would they pick a merger specialist for the role?
Every company is basically evil at this point.
Since Dodge v. Ford Motor Co (1919), if not earlier.
See also: https://reclaimdemocracy.org/corporate-accountability-history-corporations-us/
There is no ethical consumption under capitalism.
I think the rope they’re selling us might, one day soon, have a net positive impact.
This is why corporate promises can never be trusted, because a new CEO can change those promises on a whim.
It’s part of why despite being interested in Beeper, I never signed up for it because I had questions about if those privacy promises they made would be kept if they sold to a bigger company… which they eventually did.
On the plus side Bitwarden already made an official open source self-hosted version, which can be forked and/or return to the community developed Vaultwarden roots.
Meanwhile KeepassXC keeps on chugging along.
FYI beeper is really just matrix with bridges. Once I realized that I set up my own and now I have the same functionalities as beeper, self hosted, with a choice of clients.
Oh I was well aware at the time, but I had a lot of friends who still struggled with trying to use Matrix/Element so at the time I was seeking a simpler solution for them.
How fucking stupid do you need to be to struggle with element do they struggle to use cups are they trying to do weird advanced features on an architecture I’ve never heard of with a compiler built themselves wtf
Wow, usually people lose their shit and complain that Element is too complex and that me and the devs are being assholes asking them to use it… You know kind of like all the people here on the Fediverse who think we need to make it bigger and bring in everyone from everywhere and that the devs and users who defend them are awful for not focusing on user interface first and making it less confusing to choose a server…
Anyway, thanks for being on team reasonable, because I’m with you on this 100%, but I can’t change how little people want to learn anything sadly so I make compromises with people who cant or wont learn how to do things. It sucks, people really don’t seem to understand that security and convenience are a balance, and every time people argue for shit to be easier they’re actually arguing for everything to be less secure. You sacrifice security for convenience, every time, and the opposite happens because you can sacrifice convenience for increased security measures. Security has to be complex by nature to be effective, and the core of Matrix is being a secure, encrypted protocol, which they have already actually put a ton of work into making easier for fucking normies. Yet, it’s never enough for people. Always screams of “It’s too complex! I hate thinking!”
The buttons are in a different place oh god so much blood yes I resized the window what’s your point
lmao God I can feel the frustration rising in me just thinking about it. I know these are digital rather than physical objects… but do these people fail to have object permanence?




















