head to head · open source
lesspass vs passforios
lesspass has 6,063 GitHub stars, 365 forks, 34 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. passforios has 1,645 stars, 114 forks, 176 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. lesspass leads on adoption by 269% (6,063 vs 1,645 stars). lesspass is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0; passforios is written in Swift under MIT. lesspass has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, passforios 7%. lesspass was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (password-manager), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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
| lesspass | passforios | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 6.1K | ★ 1.6K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-09-13 | 2026-08-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 365 | ⑂ 114 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick lesspass if
- You weight community size — 6.1K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick passforios if
- You want the passforios feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You evaluated both and passforios fits your workflow better
About lesspass
LessPass is a stateless, open source password manager written in TypeScript and licensed under GPL 3.0 that generates passwords from a master password instead of storing them in a synchronized vault, built for individuals and self hosters who want the same passwords on every device without syncing an encrypted database.
read the full lesspass overview →
About passforios
Pass for iOS is an open source iOS client for ZX2C4's Pass command line password manager, built for people who already keep credentials in a GPG encrypted, Git versioned password store and want to view, copy, or edit them from an iPhone or iPad.
read the full passforios overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is lesspass or passforios more popular?
lesspass has 6,063 GitHub stars and passforios has 1,645. lesspass has the larger community by that measure.
Are lesspass and passforios free?
Both are open source. lesspass is licensed under GPL-3.0 and passforios under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between lesspass and passforios?
lesspass is written in TypeScript and passforios in Swift. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, lesspass or passforios?
Choose lesspass if you want the larger community (6,063 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose passforios if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.