head to head · open source
passforios vs Strongbox
passforios has 1,645 GitHub stars, 114 forks, 176 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. Strongbox has 1,465 stars, 126 forks, 230 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. passforios leads on adoption by 12% (1,645 vs 1,465 stars). passforios is written in Swift under MIT; Strongbox is written in Objective-C under AGPL-3.0. passforios has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, Strongbox 9%. passforios was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (password-manager, password-store), 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 | Strongbox | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 1.6K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Swift | Objective-C |
| Last push | 2026-08-19 | 2026-07-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 114 | ⑂ 126 |
| 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 Strongbox if
- You want the Strongbox feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Objective-C
- You evaluated both and Strongbox 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 Strongbox
Strongbox is an AGPL 3.0 licensed, Objective C password manager built natively for iOS and macOS that opens and writes the portable KeePass and Password Safe file formats, and it is aimed at Apple users who already keep their secrets in an open vault file as well as at developers and security reviewers who want to read the cryptography behind the app.
read the full Strongbox overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is passforios or Strongbox more popular?
passforios has 1,645 GitHub stars and Strongbox has 1,465. passforios has the larger community by that measure.
Are passforios and Strongbox free?
Both are open source. passforios is licensed under MIT and Strongbox under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between passforios and Strongbox?
passforios is written in Swift and Strongbox in Objective-C. 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 Strongbox?
Choose passforios if you want the larger community (1,645 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Strongbox if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.