head to head · open source
pwd.sh vs Monica
pwd.sh has 1,563 GitHub stars, 136 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. Monica has 1,028 stars, 62 forks, 7 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. pwd.sh leads on adoption by 52% (1,563 vs 1,028 stars). pwd.sh is written in Shell under MIT; Monica is written in Kotlin under GPL-3.0. pwd.sh has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, Monica 6%. Monica 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
| pwd.sh | Monica | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 1.6K | ★ 1.0K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Shell | Kotlin |
| Last push | 2026-08-24 | 2026-09-21 |
| Forks | ⑂ 136 | ⑂ 62 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick pwd.sh if
- You weight community size — 1.6K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Monica if
- You want the Monica feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Kotlin
- You evaluated both and Monica fits your workflow better
About pwd.sh
pwd.sh is a Bash script that manages text secrets such as passwords by storing each one in a GnuPG symmetric encrypted file, and it is for people who work in a terminal and prefer to keep their own encrypted store rather than hand it to a hosted password service.
read the full pwd.sh overview →
About Monica
Monica is a local first password manager and 2FA generator for Android, written in Kotlin and released under GPL 3.0, that aggregates Bitwarden and KeePass vaults into a single encrypted store for people who want their credentials to stay on their own devices rather than in a third party cloud.
read the full Monica overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is pwd.sh or Monica more popular?
pwd.sh has 1,563 GitHub stars and Monica has 1,028. pwd.sh has the larger community by that measure.
Are pwd.sh and Monica free?
Both are open source. pwd.sh is licensed under MIT and Monica under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between pwd.sh and Monica?
pwd.sh is written in Shell and Monica in Kotlin. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, pwd.sh or Monica?
Choose pwd.sh if you want the larger community (1,563 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Monica if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.