Who this is for
You’re already on Bitwarden clients—or willing to switch—and want to decide whether the vault lives on Bitwarden’s servers or a box you control with Vaultwarden.
At a glance
| Vaultwarden (self-hosted) | Bitwarden cloud | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Households who want data at home/VPS | People who want zero server work |
| Price shape | Server cost only (~$5/mo VPS or free homelab) | Free tier; Premium per user for advanced features |
| Killer feature | You own the SQLite/Postgres file | Official support, org features, no Docker |
| Dealbreaker | You are the on-call admin | Vault lives on someone else’s infra |
Option A — Vaultwarden
Lightweight Bitwarden-compatible API server. Official Bitwarden apps point at your URL. Great when you’ve already read our Vaultwarden VPS guide and accept backup duty.
Wins on: privacy posture, cost at scale, pairing with Tailscale for private access.
Loses on: org admin tools, official support, “it just works” mobile setup for non-nerds.
Option B — Bitwarden cloud
The real thing—hosted, maintained, audited. Free tier covers most personal use; Premium unlocks 2FA reports, emergency access, and other extras (check bitwarden.com for current tiers).
Bitwarden — sign up for the hosted vault.
Wins on: reliability, family/org features, no Sunday patch panic.
Loses on: subscription line item, trust in a third party, regional/account policy edge cases.
Verdict by scenario
- Choose Vaultwarden if you’ll actually patch and back up the server—and want the vault off public SaaS
- Choose Bitwarden cloud if one password app should work for your whole family without a homelab lecture
- Choose neither if you need enterprise SSO and compliance paperwork out of the box—look at 1Password Teams or dedicated enterprise vaults
Bottom line
Same clients, different ops burden. Vaultwarden is a weekend project with ongoing backup homework; Bitwarden cloud is the sane default if server work sounds like a hobby you don’t want.
