head to head · open source
vaultwarden vs HashiCorp Vault
vaultwarden has 67,872 GitHub stars, 3,232 forks, 83 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. HashiCorp Vault has 36,267 stars, 4,763 forks, 1,435 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. vaultwarden leads on adoption by 87% (67,872 vs 36,267 stars). vaultwarden is written in Rust under AGPL-3.0; HashiCorp Vault is written in Go under a custom or non-standard licence. vaultwarden has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, HashiCorp Vault 13%. HashiCorp Vault 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
| vaultwarden | HashiCorp Vault | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 68K | ★ 36K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Rust | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 4.8K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick vaultwarden if
- You weight community size — 68K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick HashiCorp Vault if
- You want the HashiCorp Vault feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and HashiCorp Vault fits your workflow better
About vaultwarden
Vaultwarden is an unofficial, Bitwarden compatible server implementation of the Bitwarden Client API written in Rust, aimed at self hosters who want to run their own vault backend for the official Bitwarden clients without the resource demands of the official service.
read the full vaultwarden overview →
About HashiCorp Vault
Vault is a secrets management tool built in Go, designed to securely store, control access to, and manage sensitive data such as API keys, passwords, certificates, and encryption keys. It operates as a centralized service that abstracts secret access across diverse systems, providing unified APIs and enforcing strict access policies. Vault lives in the HashiCorp ecosystem and integrates with infrastructure tools like Consul for storage backends and Terraform for provisioning workflows.
read the full HashiCorp Vault overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is vaultwarden or HashiCorp Vault more popular?
vaultwarden has 67,872 GitHub stars and HashiCorp Vault has 36,267. vaultwarden has the larger community by that measure.
Are vaultwarden and HashiCorp Vault free?
Both are open source. vaultwarden is licensed under AGPL-3.0, and HashiCorp Vault has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between vaultwarden and HashiCorp Vault?
vaultwarden is written in Rust and HashiCorp Vault in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, vaultwarden or HashiCorp Vault?
Choose vaultwarden if you want the larger community (67,872 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose HashiCorp Vault if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.