# Bitwarden 278 Hacker News commenters recommended Bitwarden and 213 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 6.5 years (23 owners). **Verdict:** An open-source, cross-platform password manager with a capable free tier, self-hosting and passkey sync; recent price hikes and an ownership change worry longtime users. ## Why people recommend it - Works across every OS and browser (6 comments): "I originally started using Bitwarden to achieve sync across Mac, Windows, and Linux machines, along with all major browser platforms. It's been great!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45841817)) "A cross-platform password manager like Bitwarden handles passkeys (and passwords) across multiple operating systems, browsers, etc." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49015827)) "Bitwarden[0] can store and supply passkeys (and passwords of course) across macOS, iOS, Windows and linux seamlessly." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50089956)) - Syncs passkeys across devices (4 comments): "Passkeys work great with Bitwarden too. With it being set up on all of my devices I actually often prefer the passkey experience." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49754531)) "As a Bitwarden (and Vaultwarden) user on Mac/iOS/Safari, Linux/Firefox and Android I have had zero issues with passkeys" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50090278)) "Bitwarden[0] can store and supply passkeys (and passwords of course) across macOS, iOS, Windows and linux seamlessly." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50089956)) - Open source and self-hostable (4 comments): "Bitwarden's format is at least implicitly documented via their open-source clients, and their data export includes all private/secret key material." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47216498)) "Bitwarden has an open source self hosted option(you can also use their service), that can be set as provider in Android and Windows 11." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49026988)) "self-hosted Bitwarden has seen like the best potential setup, yet still not perfect enough to warrant a move" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49567895)) - Free or cheap for features (4 comments): "The key selling point of Bitwarden was that it is free-ish and it is easy enough to work with for somebody that is not too technical." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48182327)) "Bitwarden also increased their prices earlier this year, although it's still less than half the price of 1Password." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47581306)) "It's a paltry price for an outstanding product with great features that improves my life/security greatly" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50034430)) ## What people warn about - Steep, quietly rolled-out price increases (4 comments): "I don't mind the increase, especially after 10 years, but I really don't like the fact that it seems they actively hid it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47557174)) "The change in leadership, the poor transparency, 100% price increase and the quiet change in core values." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48181183)) "The subscription price is now a negative proposition, alongside the silent rollout and the other red flags raised in the post." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48184981)) - Private equity enshittification fears (4 comments): "Enshitification after an acquisition by private equity is a real threat to Bitwarden's perennity as a secure and free password manager." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48154557)) "PE's entire modus operandi is enshittification. If there's no enshittification to be done there would be no point in purchasing the company" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48188361)) "replacing the principled leader who promised things with the vulture leader whose job and job history is primarily to enshittify things" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48226042)) - Free features and self-hosting at risk (2 comments): "If Bitwarden was sold they could remove all of this free functionality and interoperability with 3rd party clients immediately." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48149099)) "With the recent change in Bitwarden's license, not sure for how long they will continue to be self hosting friendly." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50111074)) - Unreliable autofill and clunky extension (4 comments): "I've experienced Bitwarden failing to auto-fill due to quirks on websites, but I've never seen it fail to identify the domain correctly." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46551976)) "I can't think of any good reason that 'fill' is not the default action on an app/extension whose core purpose is to fill things." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47990391)) "Later I did try Bitwarden but was unhappy with the ability to correctly identify username and password fields on websites." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45844349)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [1Password](https://hackerapproved.com/p/1password.md): 238 recommend - [KeePassXC](https://hackerapproved.com/p/keepassxc.md): 131 recommend - [Vaultwarden](https://hackerapproved.com/p/vaultwarden.md): 112 recommend - [KeePass](https://hackerapproved.com/p/keepass.md): 100 recommend - [Apple Passwords](https://hackerapproved.com/p/apple-passwords.md): 79 recommend ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://bitwarden.com/) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Bitwarden", https://hackerapproved.com/p/bitwarden/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).