Vaultwarden
The Bitwarden-compatible server in Rust - official clients work unchanged, every premium feature included, 256 MiB of RAM.
One-click deploy, from $5/mo on a Miget plan.
#what is Vaultwarden?
Vaultwarden reimplements the Bitwarden server API in Rust - so the polished official clients (browser extensions, iOS/Android apps, desktop, CLI) connect to your server unchanged, while the server itself shrinks from Bitwarden’s multi-container official stack to one binary idling at a few dozen megabytes.
Features that are paid tiers on bitwarden.com - TOTP authenticator, file attachments, emergency access, organizations with collections - are simply included. SQLite, attachments, and keys live on one small volume; websocket notifications ride the main port.
Passwords are the one workload where self-hosting is also a sovereignty statement: the encrypted vaults sit on your volume, end-to-end encrypted by the clients, and the hardening path (close signups, hash the admin token, back up the volume) is three steps in the README.
Upstream project: Vaultwarden
#what you get
- Full Bitwarden client compatibility: extensions, mobile, desktop, CLI
- Premium features included: TOTP, attachments, emergency access, orgs
- Rust + SQLite: idles around 50 MiB - the lightest stack on this site
- Websocket sync notifications on the main port
- Optional /admin page gated by an argon2-hashed token
- End-to-end encrypted by design - the server never sees plaintext
#topology
| Service | Role | Public |
|---|---|---|
| vaultwarden | Bitwarden-compatible API + web vault (:5000) | yes (HTTPS via platform ingress) |
#miget sizing
// this stack needs
256 MiB RAM · 2 GB disk · 1 service
256 MiB is generous - Vaultwarden routinely serves whole teams from less. The volume holds the encrypted vaults: back it up.
Hobby - recommended fit
$5/mo
1 vCPU · 512 MiB · 10 GiB disk
Headroom for your own apps: 1 GiB at $7/mo
Professional - production
$22/mo
1 vCPU · 2 GiB · 10 GiB disk
Dedicated resources, production SLOs - plan details
One Miget plan is a fixed pool of compute - the whole stack (managed databases included) deploys inside it, and anything left over runs your other apps. No per-service or per-seat math.
#vs. the managed service
What the hosted equivalents charge, against the flat Miget plan this stack fits on. Prices as of June 2026, sources linked.
| Service | Plan | Monthly | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vaultwarden on Miget ★ | 512 MiB plan | $5 | this whole stack, flat - no usage meters, and room left for your own apps |
| Bitwarden | Teams | ~$40 | $4/user/mo at 10 users; Enterprise (SSO, policies) $6/user |
| 1Password | Business | ~$80 | $7.99/user/mo at 10 users; Teams Starter Pack $19.95 flat for up to 10 |
Vaultwarden speaks the Bitwarden API - the official browser extensions and mobile apps work unchanged, with unlimited users and every paid-tier feature (TOTP, attachments, organizations) included.
#vs. other PaaS
Estimated monthly cost of running this exact stack (256 MiB RAM, 2 GB disk, 1 container) elsewhere, from published June 2026 rates.
| Platform | Est. monthly | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Miget ★ | $5 flat | compose stacks first-class: one deploy, dedicated vCPU, managed Postgres/Valkey, volumes and TLS all included in the plan |
| Heroku | ~$13 | no volumes; nothing between 1 GB ($50) and 2.5 GB ($250) dynos - 2 GB containers cost far more than shown |
| DO App Platform | ~$10 | no persistent volumes - stateful containers need managed DBs/Spaces (base $5 Spaces included here) |
| Render | ~$8 | per-service instances (0.5 GB $7, 2 GB $25) - every container is its own paid service |
| Railway | ~$3 | usage-based ($10/GB RAM-mo); vCPU billed separately at $20/vCPU-mo on top |
| Fly.io | ~$2 | cheapest sticker price - but burstable shared CPUs (1/16 core; dedicated vCPUs cost ~2-3×), no compose deploys (one app per container, manual wiring), managed DBs billed extra |
Full breakdown of what Vaultwarden costs managed versus self-hosted, with production sizing: Vaultwarden pricing.
Estimates assume RAM fully allocated at published on-demand rates - and sticker price isn't the whole comparison: the cheaper rows buy burstable shared CPUs, per-service wiring instead of a compose deploy, and managed databases billed separately. Heroku and DO App Platform have no persistent volumes at all - stateful stacks like this one need workarounds there.
#deploy it
On Miget
- Create a Compose Stack in app.miget.com pointing at the templates repository
- Set the stack path to
vaultwarden -
Set the required variables:
DOMAIN, set to the app’s https URL after first deploy - WebAuthn and email links embed itSIGNUPS_ALLOWED, set false after creating your accounts (org invitations keep working)
- Deploy. Miget layers
compose.miget.yaml(RAM, privacy, volumes, managed services) automatically
Locally first?
Every template is portable, vanilla Docker Compose - the Miget overrides are ignored locally:
git clone https://github.com/deployable-sh/stacks
cd miget-compose-templates/vaultwarden
docker compose up -dSame files, same behavior. The template README covers connection strings and scaling notes.
#faq
Do the official Bitwarden apps really work with it?
Yes - set your server URL to your Vaultwarden domain in any official Bitwarden client and log in. The API compatibility is the whole project; millions of users run exactly this setup.
How does the cost compare to Bitwarden or 1Password for a team?
Bitwarden Teams is $4/user/month ($40 for ten people), 1Password Business about $80 for ten. Vaultwarden is $5/month flat regardless of team size, with the premium features included. The trade: you operate and back it up.
Is self-hosting passwords safe?
The encryption model helps you: vaults are end-to-end encrypted by the clients, so the server only ever stores ciphertext. Your responsibilities are availability and backups - keep HTTPS on (the platform ingress does), close signups after onboarding, hash the admin token, and back up the volume.
What happens if my server is down - am I locked out?
No. Bitwarden clients cache the encrypted vault locally, so reading credentials keeps working offline; you only need the server up to sync changes and onboard new devices.
#more security
Ship Vaultwarden today
One compose stack, 256 MiB of RAM, from $5/month flat, and it runs on your laptop with the same files.