Self-host Vaultwarden on a no-KYC VPS
Skip the Bitwarden Premium subscription and own your password vault. Anonymous signup, no email required, no KYC. Pay with crypto or card, full root, no logs.
Quick start: Vaultwarden on Servury via Docker
Tested on Ubuntu 24. Pick a 1 GB+ plan, deploy, SSH in.# 1. Install Docker
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh
# 2. Run Vaultwarden with persistent storage
docker volume create vw_data
docker run -d --name vaultwarden --restart unless-stopped \
-p 80:80 \
-v vw_data:/data \
-e DOMAIN=https://vault.yourdomain.com \
-e SIGNUPS_ALLOWED=true \
vaultwarden/server:latest
# 3. Point vault.yourdomain.com at this server
# 4. Put Caddy in front for automatic HTTPS:
# vault.yourdomain.com {
# reverse_proxy localhost:80
# }
# 5. Open https://vault.yourdomain.com, create account, install Bitwarden appsWhy people self-host Vaultwarden
Fair questions
Is Vaultwarden the same as Bitwarden?
Vaultwarden is an unofficial, lighter Rust implementation of the Bitwarden server API. Official Bitwarden client apps work with it without modification. The vault format and encryption are identical, so you can migrate freely between the two.
Is it safe to self-host my password manager?
Yes, when done right. Vaults are encrypted client-side with your master password before they ever reach the server, so even if someone breached the VPS they would only see encrypted blobs. The two things to get right are HTTPS in front (Caddy makes this trivial) and regular backups of /vw_data.
How much VPS do I need?
A 1 GB plan is plenty for a household or small team. Vaultwarden itself uses ~50 MB RAM. The bottleneck is almost never compute, it is making sure backups exist.
How do I back up my vault?
Snapshot the docker volume (vw_data) on a schedule. We recommend a nightly cron that rsyncs the data dir to a remote location, plus keeping the last 30 days. The whole vault is usually under 100 MB even for power users.
Can I disable signups so only I can register?
Yes. Set SIGNUPS_ALLOWED=false after creating your account. You can still invite users into orgs from the admin panel.
Does Vaultwarden support sending files (Bitwarden Send)?
Yes, full Send support including expiring links and download limits.
Do I need a domain name?
For the mobile/desktop apps to work properly with HTTPS, yes, you need a domain pointing at your VPS. Any registrar works. Free options like DuckDNS also work.
Does Servury log my traffic?
No. Servury runs no application-level logging on customer servers. Anonymous signup, crypto/card payment, no logs.
