Bitwarden
Passwords & secretsHost your own Bitwarden password vault and use the official apps.
Bitwarden is a password manager whose server is open source, so you can run it yourself. Your encrypted vault then lives on hardware you control, while you keep using the same Bitwarden apps on every device. This suits people who want their password data on their own servers rather than in someone else's cloud.
- Official browser, desktop, mobile and CLI apps can connect to your own server.
- Free accounts store unlimited logins, notes, cards and identities.
- Standard Docker install with a setup script, or a single-container lite option.
What people use it for
Run your own password vault server
Point a domain at a Linux or Windows server, open ports 80 and 443 and install Docker, then get a free installation ID and key from bitwarden.com/host. Run ./bitwarden.sh install as a dedicated bitwarden user and answer the prompts for your domain and a Let's Encrypt certificate. Add SMTP settings to ./bwdata/env/global.override.env so the server can send verification emails, then run ./bitwarden.sh start.
Use the official apps with your own server
On the login screen of the browser extension, mobile app or desktop app, choose Self-hosted from the server menu and enter your server's https address. The command-line tool connects with bw config server followed by the same address. Each person then creates an account on your server and their vault syncs across their devices.
Run a light install on a home server
Bitwarden lite runs the server from the single ghcr.io/bitwarden/lite image, needs at least 200 MB of memory and works on ARM devices such as a Raspberry Pi or a NAS. Set BW_DOMAIN, your database settings and your installation ID and key in settings.env, using SQLite, PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB or MSSQL. Start it with docker run or Docker Compose, keeping in mind that Bitwarden intends lite for personal use and home labs.