head to head · open source
Bitwarden vs Passbolt
Bitwarden has 20,554 GitHub stars, 1,826 forks, 230 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Passbolt has 6,204 stars, 406 forks, 28 open issues and last shipped 14 days ago. Bitwarden leads on adoption by 231% (20,554 vs 6,204 stars). Bitwarden is written in C# under a custom or non-standard licence; Passbolt is written in PHP under AGPL-3.0. Bitwarden has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, Passbolt 7%. 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 | Passbolt | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 21K | ★ 6.2K |
| License | Custom / other | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C# | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.8K | ⑂ 406 |
| 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 Passbolt if
- You want the Passbolt feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and Passbolt 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 Passbolt
The open source password manager for teams. Table of Contents Introducing Passbolt Get Started Run it on your own server, natively Available Clients & Apps Browser Extensions Mobile Apps CLI Desktop App Contributing Reporting a security issue License Introducing Passbolt Passbolt is a security first, open source password manager for teams. It helps organizations centralize, organize and share passwords and secrets securely. What makes passbolt different? Security: Passbolt security model features user owned secret keys and end to end encryption. It is audited multiple times annually, and findings are made…
read the full Passbolt overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Bitwarden or Passbolt more popular?
Bitwarden has 20,554 GitHub stars and Passbolt has 6,204. Bitwarden has the larger community by that measure.
Are Bitwarden and Passbolt free?
Both are open source. Bitwarden has no licence declared in this registry, and Passbolt is licensed under AGPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Bitwarden and Passbolt?
Bitwarden is written in C# and Passbolt in PHP. 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 Passbolt?
Choose Bitwarden if you want the larger community (20,554 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Passbolt if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.