Password managers
What it costs to self-host Vaultwarden
Unofficial Bitwarden compatible server written in Rust, formerly known as bitwarden_rs Below is the server it needs at each team size, what that costs, and how long the 1 commercial product it replaces would take to cost more.
| Team size | Memory | Disk | Cheapest plan that fits | Server | With backups and your time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| solo | 0.3 GB | 2 GB | Basic 512 MiB · DigitalOcean | $4.00 | $42.30 |
| 5 people | 0.3 GB | 2.1 GB | Basic 512 MiB · DigitalOcean | $4.00 | $42.30 |
| 10 people | 0.3 GB | 2.2 GB | Basic 512 MiB · DigitalOcean | $4.00 | $42.30 |
| 25 people | 0.3 GB | 2.5 GB | Basic 512 MiB · DigitalOcean | $4.00 | $42.30 |
| 50 people | 0.4 GB | 3 GB | Basic 512 MiB · DigitalOcean | $4.00 | $42.30 |
| 100 people | 0.4 GB | 4 GB | Basic 512 MiB · DigitalOcean | $4.00 | $42.30 |
| 250 people | 0.6 GB | 7 GB | Basic 1 GiB · DigitalOcean | $6.00 | $44.70 |
The sizing model for Vaultwarden
A Rust reimplementation of the Bitwarden server. It runs comfortably in a fraction of a gigabyte because vault data is small and encrypted client-side.
- 0.2 GB of memory for the whole stack at rest, every container the project ships included.
- 1 MB more per active user, then 25% on top so the box is not running at its ceiling.
- 2 GB of disk to begin with, growing 0.02 GB per user.
- 1 vCPU. Carried through from the project's baseline and not scaled with team size, because for this workload memory is what runs out first.
These base figures come from the project's own documented requirements. The per-user increments are ours in every case. They are deliberately generous rather than optimistic: a comparison that undersizes the server flatters self-hosting.
Time, not just money
Vaultwarden is rated easy to operate, which in this model means about 2 hours to get it running properly the first time and 0.5 hours a month after that. At $75 an hour that is $150 once and $37.50 a month, which is usually the largest line in the whole calculation. This one is about as light as self-hosting gets: a single container and little to do beyond keeping the image current.
What it replaces
| Commercial product | Its cost at 10 people | Vaultwarden at 10 people | Break-even | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1Password Business | $89.90 | $42.30 | 3 months | full breakdown |
Where to put Vaultwarden
0.3 GB of memory and 2.2 GB of disk is what this needs at 10 people. The cheapest plan that fits, among the providers whose prices we have read ourselves, is the Basic 512 MiB at DigitalOcean for $4.00 a month.
Go to DigitalOcean Compare hosts
We are not claiming this is the cheapest server on the internet. It is the cheapest one we can honestly quote. Hetzner Cloud, Vultr and PikaPods publish prices we could not read programmatically, and Hetzner in particular is usually cheaper per gigabyte of memory than anything quoted above. Price them yourself before you commit.
The DigitalOcean link above is a referral link: if you sign up through it and pay your first $25, we receive $25 of DigitalOcean account credit. That never changes the computed costs, which server is chosen, or the conclusion of this page. The sizing model and every price source are published in full.
Project facts
| Licence | GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 |
|---|---|
| Written in | Rust |
| GitHub stars | 67,195 |
| Open issues | 77 |
| Latest release | 1.37.2 |
| Last commit | 2026-09-09 |
| Repository checked | 2026-09-12 |
| Project | github.com/dani-garcia/vaultwarden · dani-garcia/vaultwarden |
| Clients | Official Bitwarden mobile, desktop and browser clients point at it unchanged. |