head to head · open source
Bitwarden vs Padloc
Bitwarden has 20,554 GitHub stars, 1,826 forks, 230 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Padloc has 2,942 stars, 271 forks, 105 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Bitwarden leads on adoption by 599% (20,554 vs 2,942 stars). Bitwarden is written in C# under a custom or non-standard licence; Padloc is written in JavaScript under AGPL-3.0. Bitwarden has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, Padloc 9%. Bitwarden was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Bitwarden | Padloc | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 21K | ★ 2.9K |
| License | Custom / other | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C# | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.8K | ⑂ 271 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Bitwarden if
- You weight community size — 21K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Padloc if
- You want the Padloc feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and Padloc fits your workflow better
About Bitwarden
The Bitwarden Server project contains the APIs, database, and other core infrastructure items needed for the "backend" of all bitwarden client applications. The server project is written in C using .NET Core with ASP.NET Core. The database is written in T SQL/SQL Server. The codebase can be developed, built, run, and deployed cross platform on Windows, macOS, and Linux distributions. Developer Documentation Please refer to the Server Setup Guide in the Contributing Documentation for build instructions, recommended tooling, code style tips, and lots of other great information to get you started. Deploy You can…
read the full Bitwarden overview →
About Padloc
Padloc Simple, secure password and data management for individuals and teams. About This repo is split into multiple packages: How to use As you can see in the About section, there are lots of different components to play with! But at a minimum, in order to set up and use your own instance of Padloc you'll need to install and configure the Server and Web Client. In practice, there a few different ways to do this, but if you just want to install and test Padloc locally, doing so is really quite easy: The web client is now available at In depth guides on how to host your own "productive" version of Padloc and how…
read the full Padloc overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Bitwarden or Padloc more popular?
Bitwarden has 20,554 GitHub stars and Padloc has 2,942. Bitwarden has the larger community by that measure.
Are Bitwarden and Padloc free?
Both are open source. Bitwarden has no licence declared in this registry, and Padloc is licensed under AGPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Bitwarden and Padloc?
Bitwarden is written in C# and Padloc in JavaScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Bitwarden or Padloc?
Choose Bitwarden if you want the larger community (20,554 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Padloc if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.