Seems like Bitwarden is going through some changes.
Starting in the next release, the Bitwarden apps published to the various stores will be the commercially licensed builds. No action is needed, and the apps will work exactly as they do today.
Bitwarden remains committed to open source security and transparency
The GPLv3 OSS licensed version continues to be updated and published on GitHub
All current features are available in both versions
License details are on GitHub
Bitwarden remains committed to a robust, free forever plan for everyone
If you have any questions, please ask them in this thread. Thanks all!
EDIT:
Bitwarden is not going closed-source
You can still fork Bitwarden
No change to self-hosting, the licensing change affects those who are repackaging and reselling Bitwarden
The free plan is here to stay permanently
Some future components will be published under the commercial license and will exist only in that build. Newly developed features will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis for which license applies to them
Someone correct me if I’m misunderstanding this, but I wouldn’t necessarily call this a red flag just yet. It’s definitely a yellow one? More importantly, it feels like they’re laying the groundwork for enshittification.
Certainly not a green flag. Seems like they are testing the waters a little bit. That would be a real shame if they enshittified to the point of having to switch. I absolutely love Bitwarden.
Hey @Menkork let me know if you have any questions, this is more about giving Bitwarden protection for certain features for those who are repackaging and reselling Bitwarden, and doesn’t prevent any community projects from existing.
Is Bitwarden in financial trouble, or something? If so, this kind of restriction can make sense until that turmoil passes.
However, if not, it continues to paint a picture of Bitwarden becoming a profit-motivated company, rather than a values-motivated company. It is difficult to tell the difference between the two, when just about every company in the United States talks about being values-motivated, while most of them act in the interest of profit maximization.
Additionally, the promise of always maintaining the “free forever” plan is not (and is likely to never be) binding in any meaningful way. A company is free to claim at-will that they will always provide X/Y/Z service—right up until it doesn’t make sense to the CEO anymore, and it is cut to make way for more revenue. It is just talk, even if the employees are committed to that value, because the employees are… employees.
Trust is hard won, and quick lost. I appreciate Bitwarden’s great product, and will continue to use it.
I hope I’ve made factual errors about how Bitwarden’s power distribution is structured internally, and how its commitments are codified.
On one hand we have passkeys, which kind of solve the password problem. Next, with modern systems, passwords in a PM are no better protected than a passwords.txt file. So the main difference becomes system integration and the default OS PM will always win there. As a result, most people don’t really need an external PM.
So both Bitwarden and 1Password shifting focus to B2B where demand still exists. It is not a reason to shame them, they try to keep apps alive.
That said, local-only and mobile-only managers like KeePassXC and 2FAS Pass still have some natural advantages over system PMs.
Regarding B2B vs B2C, the team is also working hard to push out some of the top community requested changes such as tags, desktop autototype, desktop native passkeys (planned for releasing before end of year), shared unlock, additional item types, etc..