Bitwarden Unified is a new solution for the Bitwarden password manager to host, manage and control the password management infrastructure. It is currently in Beta and developed by Bitwarden itself. The service is available for all Bitwarden customers.
Bitwarden is a cloud-based open source password manager that is available as a free version and commercial versions. The free version does not restrict device access or limits the number of passwords that users may store, but it limits access to features such as emergency access, Bitwarden Authenticator, or hardware-based two-step verification. The price for individuals is just $10 per year on the other hand.
Bitwarden customers can use solutions such as the open source Vaultwarden, to run a Bitwarden server on their infrastructure. While that requires technical knowhow and a server, it improves control and manageability immensely. Bitwarden supported self-hosting for some time, but the process was highly technical.
The recent LastPass incident has shown that cloud-based password managers are lucrative targets. Depending on how data is stored by the company, it may lead to major issues for millions of users.
Tip: the migration from LastPass to Bitwarden is explained here.
A self-hosted instance is a much smaller target and therefore less attractive to threat actors.
Bitwarden unified will run on machines using a Docker container. It is an alternative to the standard deployment option, which uses multiple Docker containers and uses a Microsoft SQL Server database.
The new unified self-host deployment option is available for all Bitwarden plans and requires at least 200 megabytes of RAM, 1 gigabyte of storage space and Docker Engine 19 or newer.
One of the main advantages of Bitwarden unified is that it supports additional database types and CPU architectures. Basically, it enables support for ARM processors and databases besides Microsoft SQL Server. Support for ARM adds support for running Bitwarden's self-hosted instance on Raspberry PI devices, NAS servers, and any other hardware that uses ARM.
A support document is available that highlights how Bitwarden unified is installed on different operating systems. Configuration options are also explained.
Self-hosting a password manager is just one option that Internet users and organizations have when it comes to universal access. Some use local solutions, such as KeePass on their devices and store the password database on their own servers or at a file hosting service.
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