Vaultwarden instead of 1Password: self-host your password manager

The answer to the most common question right away: yes, a self-hosted password manager is a fully fledged and usually cheaper alternative to 1Password or LastPass for teams. Vaultwarden implements the Bitwarden API in Rust, runs extremely efficiently and works with all official Bitwarden apps – browser extensions, desktop clients, iOS and Android.

What is Vaultwarden – and how does it relate to Bitwarden?

Vaultwarden is an open-source, unofficial server implementation of the Bitwarden API. The clients remain the official Bitwarden apps; only the server is replaced. That means:

• Full client compatibility: browser autofill, passkey support, TOTP codes, secure notes and cards – everything as with Bitwarden.
• Team features included: organisations, collections and shared credentials, without paying per feature.
• Minimal requirements: Vaultwarden is written in Rust and gets by with a fraction of the resources of the official server.

Is a self-hosted password manager secure?

The security architecture is the same as with the big cloud services – with one important difference in where the data lives:

1. Zero-knowledge encryption: all entries are encrypted and decrypted on the device. The server – ours included – only ever sees encrypted blobs; the master password never leaves the device.
2. Swiss data location: the encrypted vault is stored in Swiss data centres, not with a US provider. Why that matters is covered in our article on the US CLOUD Act.
3. Managed operations: security updates, daily backups and monitoring are on us – which removes the most common real-world weakness of self-hosting: forgotten updates.

For everyone listening to the audio version: Vaultwarden encrypts all passwords on the device itself, the Swiss server stores only encrypted data, and managed operations take care of updates and backups.

What does Vaultwarden cost compared to 1Password?

Solution	Price (as of August 2026)	Data location
1Password Business	approx. USD 8 per user/month	US cloud
Bitwarden Enterprise	approx. USD 6 per user/month	US/EU cloud
Vaultwarden at OpenHosting	from CHF 9 per month for the whole team	Switzerland

The structural difference: cloud services charge per user, while your own Vaultwarden instance has a flat price. From about three people, self-hosting is cheaper; with twenty employees a company saves several hundred francs a year – the detailed maths is on our Vaultwarden hosting page.

How does the migration from 1Password or LastPass work?

1. Export: 1Password, LastPass and friends export vaults as CSV or their own formats.
2. Import: the Bitwarden web vault imports these formats directly – including folder structure.
3. Connect the clients: enter your own server URL in the Bitwarden apps, done.
4. Cancel the old subscriptions – after a transition period of two weeks.

For a small team, the whole process takes half a day. If you like, we will set up the instance and assist with the import – just get in touch. For law firms and medical practices that want to modernise file storage and document management alongside passwords, our industry bundles are worth a look.