Bitwarden Dual License Model
Points and comments are a snapshot, not live.
Bitwarden is shifting its app store builds to a commercial license, but maintains open source base.
Starting with the next release, Bitwarden apps on app stores will use a commercial license. The company states current features remain unchanged and the GPLv3 licensed version will still be on GitHub. Future features may be commercial-only. Self-hosting, forking, and the free plan are unchanged. The commercial builds derive from public GitHub code.
What commenters are saying
Commenters are divided. Many view this as an inevitable step after funding, comparing it to Elasticsearch and Redis license changes-a slow erosion of open source. Some defend the move as necessary to prevent large-scale commercial leeching. Others worry about future feature bifurcation and loss of trust. Several note that new features may be closed-source, contradicting reassurances. A former Redis engineer shares his failed attempt to steer that company away from similar license changes.