head to head · open source
passforios vs Purse
passforios has 1,646 GitHub stars, 114 forks, 176 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. Purse has 615 stars, 43 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. passforios leads on adoption by 168% (1,646 vs 615 stars). passforios is written in Swift under MIT; Purse is written in Shell under MIT. passforios has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, Purse 7%. passforios 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
| passforios | Purse | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 1.6K | ★ 615 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Swift | Shell |
| Last push | 2026-09-26 | 2026-07-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 114 | ⑂ 43 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick passforios if
- You weight community size — 1.6K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Purse if
- You want the Purse feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You evaluated both and Purse fits your workflow better
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 →
About Purse
Purse is a Bash script that stores passwords and secrets in GnuPG encrypted files, unlocking them with a YubiKey instead of a passphrase, for people who manage their own credentials on the command line.
read the full Purse overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is passforios or Purse more popular?
passforios has 1,646 GitHub stars and Purse has 615. passforios has the larger community by that measure.
Are passforios and Purse free?
Both are open source. passforios is licensed under MIT and Purse under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between passforios and Purse?
passforios is written in Swift and Purse in Shell. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, passforios or Purse?
Choose passforios if you want the larger community (1,646 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Purse if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.