Published version update in app stores
community.bitwarden.com
Hello everyone! Starting in the next release, the Bitwarden apps published to the various stores will be the commercially licensed builds. No action is needed, and the apps will work exactly as they do today. Bitwarden remains committed to open source security and transparency The GPLv3 OSS licensed version continues to be updated and published on GitHub All current features are available in both versions License details are on GitHub Bitwarden remains committed to a robust, free forever plan...

cross-posted from: https://thelemmy.club/post/57178743

RyanL Bitwarden Employee

Hello everyone!

Starting in the next release, the Bitwarden apps published to the various stores will be the commercially licensed builds. No action is needed, and the apps will work exactly as they do today.

Bitwarden remains committed to open source security and transparency
The GPLv3 OSS licensed version continues to be updated and published on GitHub
All current features are available in both versions
License details are on GitHub
Bitwarden remains committed to a robust, free forever plan for everyone

If you have any questions, please ask them in this thread. Thanks all!

EDIT:

Bitwarden is not going closed-source
You can still fork Bitwarden
No change to self-hosting, the licensing change affects those who are repackaging and reselling Bitwarden
The free plan is here to stay permanently
  • Guanlin@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    651·
    28 days ago

    Pretty much seen it coming when the new CEO came in and removed the words “Transparency” and “Always Free” from the official marketing.

      • PushButton@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        27 days ago

        I never understood the 9000iq move to give all your credentials to someone else…

        That’s why I use “pass” as password-store.

  • ture@lemmy.mlEnglish
    512·
    29 days ago

    That’s quite the disappointment. Probably need to prepare to switch away from bitwarden or at least research options for open source clients for my vaultwarden backend.

    • superglue@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      35·
      29 days ago

      Someone can correct me, but this change seems to be targeting people who are repackaging bitwarden and selling it. It does feel like we are trending the wrong direction though.

      • ture@lemmy.mlEnglish
        531·
        28 days ago

        If you read their announcement carefully you’ll find things like

        All current features are available in both versions

        Which strongly implies that the different versions will start to diverge over time. Then at one point they will just be like maah it’s not worth putting more work into the open source thing, we’ll focus on building new cool features yada yada yada. And this is how all the open to partly open to closed source rug pulls worked in the last years.

        (If you want to do this the worst way possible like MinIO you also squash / delete the Git history the moment you announce you’re only working on closed source)

          • ture@lemmy.mlEnglish
            4·
            28 days ago

            Yeah well, didn’t know this. I’m still running some old minio instances on my home server. Need to check if the docker images are still around otherwise I urgently need a backup plan…

            Fucking hell, why didn’t they at least leave the old code available 😭

      • ture@lemmy.mlEnglish
        41·
        28 days ago

        Before Bitwarden / Vaultwarden I went with Keepass (it was some fork don’t remember the exact name KeepassXC probably) synced via Nextcloud. It’s not as convenient as Bitwarden plus at least back then it didn’t support passkeys. So yeah, I don’t know what is actually out there. Honestly I don’t think it’s super urgent to start hunting for alternatives but probably we should have at least some ideas in case the Bitwarden team does some weird moves.

  • NGC2346@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    271·
    28 days ago

    If you are on Lemmy, theres very high probability that you also have the technical abilities required to self host Vaultwarden and stop relying on a greedy company for your most critical aspect.

    • ImpulseDrive42@lemmy.worldEnglish
      9·
      28 days ago

      I have Vaultwarden, it works with the web app and browser extensions. But is there a vaultwarden specific android app? I know technically I can use the Bitwarden app. But sometimes they update the Bitwarden app too fast for all the changes to translate into Vaultwarden and then im kinda forced to use the web app.

      The web app is just a minor inconvenience to me so I continue to use it. Just wondering if there is an easier Vaultwarden specific solution for android.

    • Nullpwn@lemmy.worldEnglish
      43·
      28 days ago

      Yes because using a different then normies app also means technical skills. In fact, haven’t your PhD diploma came along when you signed up for your Lemmy account?

  • dmtalon@lemmy.worldEnglish
    251·
    29 days ago

    Sigh… I hope this isn’t the first move of enshitifying bitwarden. I read the comments/replies and hope this is benign but I’m now nervous

  • PushButton@lemmy.worldEnglish
    181·
    27 days ago

    That was written in the sky…

    Open-Source is literally used as marketing tool for the under dogs until they reach a critical mass of users.

    People were fighting on social media, defending the product, suggesting it, “it’s open source”, people were doing the marketing for them.

    No wonder why people feel like they got raped, after all the hard work they have done for them…

    But at least they didn’t contribute code, did you? Not me, because I am old enough to never use such products, it’s a classic rug pull, bait and switch.

    Open source doesn’t mean it’s good, it must be hold by a bunch of strangers in T-shirt, not in full suite…

    Corpo in disguise…

  • miadidi@lemmy.worldEnglish
    16·
    28 days ago

    Bitwarden’s front-end (Apps, Extensions) must be hard forked before it is too late.

  • Fmstrat@lemmy.worldEnglish
    14·
    28 days ago

    Does this mean I will, or won’t be able to install the FOSS version through GitHub? Trying to stop repackagers from selling your project is one thing, but killing the source available installs would be another.

  • AppleMango@lemmy.worldEnglish
    151·
    28 days ago

    I think all of us can just move to using Vaultwarden, it seems to fix problems even in the old free version of Bitwarden.

    • damo_omad@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      28 days ago

      Yeah I’m thinking I’ll finally spin up Vaultwarden and move away from Bitwarden. I’m just hoping they develop their own apps for it

  • Rose@slrpnk.netEnglish
    163·
    28 days ago

    When Bitwarden got a meh “refresh” of the user interface and started vibe coding stuff (I’m not some super hard-line anti-AI person, but dammit, you absolutely should not vibe code security-critical apps), I switched to KeePassX. It was like coming back home! I used to use KeePass and KeePass 2, switched to Bitwarden for a long while, and while it was neat, KeePassX is just neater. (Doesn’t have cloud sync, but syncing the vault files with LocalSend is easy enough.)

      • Rose@slrpnk.netEnglish
        71·
        28 days ago

        Yup, I was supposed to say KeepassXC. (…I mean I probably considered using KeepassX at some point, it’s XC’s predecessor after all. But as I recall Keepass 2 worked well enough on Mono, so I didn’t need to switch.)

        Also, whoopsies on XC’s AI use. At least they don’t seem to embrace it as much as Bitwarden, but still makes me go hmm.

      • GreatWhiteBuffalo41@slrpnk.netEnglish
        6·
        28 days ago

        Honestly their description of use and why that use it is not concerning. I’m more concerned with their choice being copilot lol.

  • Jubei Kibagami@lemmy.worldEnglish
    112·
    28 days ago

    Fantastic. I’m tired of having to change password managers. DashLane, Keepass, LastPass, etc., they all end up shooting their own foot somehow.

  • woelkchen@lemmy.worldEnglish
    102·
    29 days ago

    App store EULAs and GPLv3 frequently clash. This change only affects the app store binary releases.

  • NekoBeko@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    28 days ago

    So, will you still be able to use the builds with the free license? Does that mean that the App Store builds will be locked down?