u/AntelopeChemical946

I think it's important to understand that the latest issue around commercial licensing put users on edge again due to the streak of things that​ happened recently:

Bitwarden seems to be steering it's position to a very different direction that made us use it in the first place. It's a shame. Let's recap some of the things that happened recently that in my view justifies the dissatisfaction within the community:

October 2024: A proprietary SDK dependency raised concerns that Bitwarden’s desktop app was losing its open-source status. Bitwarden reorganised the SDK and restored builds using only open-source licences.

January 2026: Premium pricing increased from $10 to $19.80 annually. Users criticized the increase and its communication. The increase remained, with a one-time 25% renewal discount for existing subscribers.

February 2026: Researchers demonstrated 12 attacks under a malicious-server scenario, challenging Bitwarden’s zero-knowledge assurances. Bitwarden published remediation details, but users questioned what “all issues addressed” meant.

April 2026: A malicious Bitwarden CLI package was briefly distributed through npm, prompting questions about release security. The package was withdrawn and a clean version issued. Bitwarden reported no evidence of vault data compromise.

May 2026: Removing “Always free” wording and changing company values amid leadership changes fuelled concerns about Bitwarden’s direction. The wording was restored on the pricing page, and the CEO reaffirmed a permanent free plan.

October 2026: Bitwarden announced commercially licensed builds as the default app downloads, with some future features exclusive to those builds. This moves the default downloads to source-available licensing, while the GPL/FOSS edition continues but will lack those exclusive features. Community backlash followed. As of 10 October, no reversal had been announced; Bitwarden promised continued maintenance of GPL builds and unchanged self-hosting.

...and allow notifications on degoogled devices?

Premium Bitwarden user for a few years.

After​ the recent big UI changes in the desktop app (heavy desktop app user here), I couldn't use Bitwarden anymore and tried another password manager (Proton Pass).

I decided to do an experiment for a month or so and test out the new password manager. Soon enough I realized I wouldn't be going back to Bitwarden anytime soon unless it's able to not only improve the usability of the desktop app but also be on par with the password manager I am using.

Some example features missing from Bitwarden:

- Client parity: search is limited and I need the ability to search text within secure notes. The mobile phone doesn't allow this, only the desktop app and web app.

- Search: The term searched is not highlighted. Proton Pass does this, making it easier to find what you're searching.

- Limited History: History only applies to the password field. This sucks. On Proton Pass, I can see all changes, different versions of modified fields and other items such as Notes. Something that Bitwarden doesn't offer.

- Clunky sharing: In Bitwarden, sharing is clunky and only works by setting an organization. There's no granularity like in Proton Pass where I can share individual items or entire vaults (Folders). I can create a public link to an item in my vault or give individual access to another person by email.

- Sorting: the community has request vault sorting features many years ago. Only now very basic alphabetical sorting is possible (again, only via certain clients). In Proton Pass, I can sort by recently used, modified, alphabetically.

- Old architecture: In Proton Pass I can use the service as a Web App via the browser. Bitwarden doesn't allow this.

- Recovery: In Bitwarden I need to always have a backup of my password and username. Proton Pass makes the recovery flow simpler. All you need is a recovery phrase.

Please note, Bitwarden is an awesome product, with many unique and strong features that I love and miss:

- Flatpak: As a Linux user, this is a fantastic move. Having Flatpak apps is the best thing for distrohoppers.

- Modern WebAuthn: I love passwordless sign in into my vault. This is the feature I love the most.

- Security settings: I love that it comes with strong encryption defaults, but despite this I can tweak the security settings of my vault and use Argon2. This is fantastic.

- Email Login alerts: I love that anytime a new device logs into my vault, I get an alert email. This gives me comfort.

- Documentation/transparency Bitwarden has put some serious effort on the transparency side of things and has the best documentation. Everything is neatly and perfectly documented.

- Community focus: I love that I can (and have) submit issues to GitHub to help fix things.

- Self-hosting: This is also an amazing thing that Bitwarden does to give something back to the community. It's really an advantage.

I miss Bitwarden. I hope to come back one day when the desktop app is more usable. Yes, I submitted user feedback across all official channels possible.

I have come across a useful FOSS tool called ProtoBit. It helps prevent data loss when importing your Proton Pass vault into Bitwarden.

Depending on how your Proton Pass vault is set up, you may lose data if you import your data.json file directly into Bitwarden (eg., custom fields in Notes). Enter ProtoBit.

Feel free to test the tool and report any issues to the developer. Use at your risk.

Check ProtoBit out here: https://github.com/devotedprecision/protobit

It appears that Proton Pass export .json / .zip file uses an export​ standard that is different to other password managers. In practice, if your export has Notes (and other item types) with any custom fields (eg., plain text, hidden, totp, date), it means that other password managers will not recognize the custom fields, leading to data loss during the export/import process.

Why does Proton Pass do this? For users who like to regularly backup their Proton Pass in another password manager, this is a real pain and feels like low-key vendor lock-in.

TLDR: Be careful when importing your Proton Pass vault to other password managers as this will likely lead to data loss.​​​

If your Proton Pass items include custom fields on different items such as Notes for example, be careful as Bitwarden does not import those fields.

Bitwarden also leaves ​Vaults in Proton Pass containing aliases. It should import the email alias at least.

I am considering adding an extra security layer to my Pass account but have a few questions.

1. Does it ​work well when using Proton Pass from different devices, connected to a VPN? Will this cause issues for me or is it smart enough to known it's actually me using my account?

2. Does detailed event logging get enabled automatically when Proton Sentinel is being used? Can this be opted out when using Sentinel? (I presume the answer here is no)​

Per title..

All keyboard shortcuts have been removed from the desktop app... will we ever get them back?

I am enjoying Proton Pass as a new user who's used several password managers.

A few things can be improved in Proton Pass, namely:

- Let users quickly see items with attachments

- Allow desktop users to copy all fields, including URLs to open in different browsers

- Let users (at least paid users) to export their vault while offline

- Improve Password Generator: Let users copy the password generated and allow more characters (e.g., 100)

- Username Generator: Allow users to generate usernames, beyond emails/aliases. E.g., two random words with or without a number such as CoolFlower87

- Let users re-arrange custom fields

- Let users search words in custom fields across all vault item types (e.g., cards, notes, etc)

- Improve Organize Vaults > Hidden Vaults to allow users to hide vaults with a PIN

- Improve the display of long item names in the app (show the entire name for vault items)

- Let users duplicate a vault with all its contents

- Add more icons for vault customization

- Add more colors for vault customization

- Allow keyboard shortcuts on desktop apps (e.g., CTRL + L to lock the vault; CTRL + U to copy username, etc)

- Let users select the same themes offered in Proton Mail

- Allow advanced vault search like Bitwarden does (e.g., >attachments:*)

- Allow resizing the layout of the desktop app

- Make the sign process into Proton Pass fully passwordless (PRF/WebAuthn)

- Let users purge their whole vault if they wish

- Expand sign in with QR code so that desktop / browser sessions can let other devices sign in

That's all for now, thanks!