# Vaultwarden 112 Hacker News commenters recommended Vaultwarden and 13 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 11 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 3 years (9 owners). It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** A lightweight, easy-to-deploy self-hosted server for Bitwarden clients that lets you own your vault data, though it depends on Bitwarden's clients and self-hosting something this critical carries risk. ## Why people recommend it - Quick and easy to set up (5 comments): "It is surprisingly very durable and maintenance-free even for a script kiddie like me to maintain." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48189074)) "it took 2 minutes to create a quadlet to run vaultwarden and a few more to configure it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48187165)) "ridiculously easy to deploy and also very lightweight while being immensely popular" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47990099)) - Keep vault off public internet (6 comments): "It's a pretty painless way to keep things in sync without ever allowing Bitwarden to be accessible outside my home network." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47877908)) "By not exposing it to the wider internet. When I use a client (iPhone, browser, etc.) while on the home network, it syncs." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48185039)) "If desired, you can self-host something like Vaultwarden so that you can both keep the keys independent of third parties" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49756093)) - Works with Bitwarden clients (5 comments): "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)) "It is pretty feature-parity with normal Bitwarden, up to and including the emergency access stuff" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48192343)) "there are clients for Linux or Windows? …and that is where Bit/Vaultwarden comes into play." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48185259)) - Lightweight, runs for years trouble-free (6 comments): "I have it running as a secondary thing on a 512 MB machine and don't notice it's there." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50035865)) "ridiculously easy to deploy and also very lightweight while being immensely popular" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47990099)) "I've been self hosting Vaultwarden for me and my wife for years without issue." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50045493)) ## What people warn about - Self-hosting critical data is risky (7 comments): "now I have to run and maintain and backup a Vaultwarden server just to log into my HSA, which is absurd" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49759435)) "less like a guide on hardening Vaultwarden than a guide on why I should be skeptical about it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48186725)) "isn't something you can casually run by yourself without some careful thinking" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48182589)) - Relies on Bitwarden's goodwill (4 comments): "Take that away and Vaultwarden is nothing more than some random back end software that can not really be trusted" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48149580)) "Vaultwarden relies on the goodwill of Bitwarden to allow it to use its clients for compatibility." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48148611)) "the person behind that project now works for Bitwarden so there's some risk of a rugpull" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48183023)) - Client app limitations (3 comments): "Vaultwarden's great, but the inferior browser clients just don't make up for it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47991547)) "The lack of an iOS client is the only thing making me explore alternative solutions altogether." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48190617)) "simply didn't allow to search for the fields you didn't scroll yet to" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48014917)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Bitwarden](https://hackerapproved.com/p/bitwarden.md): 278 recommend - [1Password](https://hackerapproved.com/p/1password.md): 238 recommend - [KeePassXC](https://hackerapproved.com/p/keepassxc.md): 131 recommend - [KeePass](https://hackerapproved.com/p/keepass.md): 100 recommend - [Apple Passwords](https://hackerapproved.com/p/apple-passwords.md): 79 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Vaultwarden", https://hackerapproved.com/p/vaultwarden/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).