Logo Vaultwarden

Cybersecurity & Bastion

Vaultwarden

Self-hosted Bitwarden in one Rust container — unlimited passwords, zero subscription, your data stays on your VPS.

About Vaultwarden

Vaultwarden is an unofficial, open-source server implementation of the Bitwarden protocol written in Rust. Every official Bitwarden client works with it unchanged: browser extensions (Chrome, Firefox, Safari), iOS and Android apps, and the desktop client. Your team gets encrypted password sharing, TOTP authenticator, secure notes, emergency access, and an admin panel — all on a server that idles under 50 MB RAM.

Deployed on a ServOrbit VPS, Vaultwarden stores your vault in an SQLite database inside a single Docker volume. No external database server, no third-party telemetry, no per-user billing. One container, one volume to back up, and all your passwords are yours for life at a fixed monthly cost.

What gets installed

Ready when the VPS starts

Compatible OS
Ubuntu 24.04
Application
Vaultwarden
Tech stack
DockerRustSQLite
Minimum RAM
512 MB (1 GB recommended)
Minimum CPU
1 vCPU
Default port
8000
Access
root over SSH

Key features

  • 100% compatible with all official Bitwarden clients: browser extensions, iOS, Android, desktop, and CLI
  • End-to-end encrypted vault: passwords, secure notes, credit cards, identities, and file attachments
  • Built-in TOTP authenticator — replace Google Authenticator or Authy with a self-hosted alternative
  • Organization vaults and encrypted sharing for teams, families, or agencies
  • Emergency access: grant a trusted contact read access after a configurable waiting period
  • Admin panel to manage users, reset accounts, and configure sign-up policies without CLI
  • Uses under 50 MB RAM at idle — runs comfortably alongside other services on the smallest VPS

When to use this solution?

Team password management

Share credentials across your dev team or agency in encrypted organization vaults. Every member uses the Bitwarden app they already know — you just own the server.

Freelancer & solo dev

Stop paying Bitwarden's or 1Password's per-user fee. Self-host for yourself and your clients on a VPS that costs less per year than a single premium subscription.

Agency client onboarding

Spin up a Vaultwarden instance for each client. Give them a branded URL (e.g. passwords.client.ma), their own vault, and emergency-access policies — without mixing their credentials with yours.

Guide

Deploy Vaultwarden on your VPS

  1. Order the VPS

    Order a ServOrbit VPS with at least 1 vCPU and 512 MB of RAM, running Ubuntu 24.04. Plan for a domain name to point at that VPS as well: Bitwarden clients refuse to talk to a vault that is not served over HTTPS.

  2. Deploy Vaultwarden

    In your ServOrbit client area: Marketplace → Security → Vaultwarden → Deploy. Provisioning starts the vaultwarden/server:latest image with the vaultwarden volume mounted on /data, the port published on the local loopback at 127.0.0.1:8000, and WEBSOCKET_ENABLED=true so that clients sync live. The container is ready within seconds; there is not a single command for you to type.

  3. Sign in for the first time

    The first time you open the address, Vaultwarden shows the Bitwarden web vault: click “Create account” and set your own e-mail address and master password (nobody can recover it, not even us). Do it IMMEDIATELY: sign-ups are open, and the instance starts with no admin token (ADMIN_TOKEN).

  4. Attach your domain

    Create an A record such as passwords.example.com pointing at the VPS IP, then attach that domain to the application from your client area: ServOrbit installs the nginx vhost and issues the TLS certificate, with nothing for you to install and nothing to configure. Your vault then answers on https://<your-domain>, with no port number. As long as no domain is attached, the instance is only reachable through an SSH tunnel — ssh -L 8000:127.0.0.1:8000 root@<vps-ip> then http://localhost:8000 — enough to look at the web vault from a computer, but neither the browser extension nor the phone app will be able to connect. Port 8000 is the catalogue port; if it has been reassigned, use the one shown on your app's card in the client area.

  5. Connect your clients

    Open https://<your-domain> in your browser, sign in with the account you created above, then enter that same address in the “self-hosted server” field of the browser extension and of the mobile app before signing in there. Choose a strong master password: it is what encrypts the whole vault, and nobody can regenerate it.

  6. Close public sign-ups

    Once every account has been created, turn off open registration: connect to the VPS over SSH and restart the Vaultwarden container with SIGNUPS_ALLOWED=false in place of its initial value. The vaultwarden volume is left untouched: no vault is lost. Your instance then only accepts accounts created by invitation.

Frequently asked questions

Questions about Vaultwarden

← Back to Cybersecurity & BastionAll applications
Vaultwarden is an open-source, unofficial implementation of the Bitwarden server API written in Rust. It is fully compatible with all official Bitwarden clients (browser extensions, iOS, Android, desktop, CLI) while using a fraction of the resources of the official server.

Embed the deploy button

Maintaining a project that uses Vaultwarden? This button lets your readers deploy it on a VPS in one click, without reading Docker documentation.

Deploy Vaultwarden on ServOrbit
Markdown
[![Deploy Vaultwarden on ServOrbit](https://servorbit.com/brand/deploy/button.svg)](https://servorbit.com/vps-cloud?template=vaultwarden&utm_source=deploy-badge&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=vaultwarden)
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<a href="https://servorbit.com/vps-cloud?template=vaultwarden&utm_source=deploy-badge&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=vaultwarden"><img src="https://servorbit.com/brand/deploy/button.svg" alt="Deploy Vaultwarden on ServOrbit" height="40"></a>

The button points to a VPS order with the template preselected. The image is served from servorbit.com — nothing to host on your side.

Need help?

Browse our help center and FAQ, or reach our team — callback, WhatsApp or email.

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