Bitwarden Scrubs 'Always Free' and 'Inclusion' Values From Its Website (fastcompany.com) 62
Bitwarden appears to be undergoing a quiet shift in leadership and messaging. Its longtime CEO and CFO have stepped down, while the company has removed "Always free" from a prominent password-manager page and replaced "Inclusion" and "Transparency" in its GRIT values with "Innovation" and "Trust." Fast Company reports: In February, longtime CEO Michael Crandell moved to an advisory role, according to LinkedIn, with no announcement from the company. His replacement, Michael Sullivan, former CEO of both Acquia and Insightsoftware, touts his experience with "all facets of mergers and acquisitions" on his own LinkedIn page, including experience working with leading private equity firms. CFO Stephen Morrison also left Bitwarden in April, replaced by former InVision CEO Michael Shenkman. Both Crandell and Morrison joined the company in 2019. Kyle Spearrin, who started Bitwarden as a fun hobby project in 2015, remains the company's CTO.
Meanwhile, Bitwarden has made some subtle tweaks to its website. The page for its personal password manager no longer includes the phrase "Always free." Previously this appeared under the "Pick a plan" section partway down the page, but that section no longer mentions the free plan, though it remains available elsewhere on the page. Bitwarden made this change in mid-April, according to the Internet Archive. Bitwarden has also stopped listing "Inclusion" and "Transparency" as tentpole values on its careers page. The company has long defined its values with the acronym "GRIT," which used to stand for "Gratitude, Responsibility, Inclusion, and Transparency." After May 4, it changed the acronym to stand for "Gratitude, Responsibility, Innovation, and Trust." The phrase "inclusive environment" still appears under a description of Gratitude, while "transparency" is mentioned under the Trust heading. They're just no longer the focus.
Meanwhile, Bitwarden has made some subtle tweaks to its website. The page for its personal password manager no longer includes the phrase "Always free." Previously this appeared under the "Pick a plan" section partway down the page, but that section no longer mentions the free plan, though it remains available elsewhere on the page. Bitwarden made this change in mid-April, according to the Internet Archive. Bitwarden has also stopped listing "Inclusion" and "Transparency" as tentpole values on its careers page. The company has long defined its values with the acronym "GRIT," which used to stand for "Gratitude, Responsibility, Inclusion, and Transparency." After May 4, it changed the acronym to stand for "Gratitude, Responsibility, Innovation, and Trust." The phrase "inclusive environment" still appears under a description of Gratitude, while "transparency" is mentioned under the Trust heading. They're just no longer the focus.
Re: "Inclusion" (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:1, Troll)
So you're more of an exclude through racism and bigotry type of guy.
That's very binary thinking for someone who claims to champion inclusion. :-)
Re: "Inclusion" (Score:2, Troll)
No itâ(TM)s not - inclusion literally means to include everyone except for those who exclusionary.
Re: (Score:1, Troll)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
That might not last.
Look, Hamas are bad no question and no, Palestinians are not Hamas, the problem is that Israel is bad too.
Israel are the one in control, they could change things, they have the money, they have the weapons, but they keep colonizing, they keep killing innocents, they keep making things worse and turning into a fascist dictatorship.
Israel actions have made everyone around them hate their guts.
You can't win if you're creating more enemies than you kill. Israel will never be safe this way.
Re: (Score:1)
There are Muslims being systematically raped and tortured in Israeli prisons.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/0... [nytimes.com]
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
There are multiple links to sources in the article.
And it's not new (as I'm sure you know). Israel has been holding prisoners without trial and torturing them for decades.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:1)
No itâ(TM)s not - inclusion literally means to include everyone except for those who exclusionary.
Wrong. The definition of "inclusion" in the current context is something like:
"the act or practice of including and accommodating people who have historically been excluded (as because of their race, gender, sexuality, or ability)"
https://www.merriam-webster.co... [merriam-webster.com]
Note the lack of exceptions, or any rationalization to exclude.
Re: (Score:2)
No itâ(TM)s not - inclusion literally means to include everyone except for those who exclusionary.
Thank you for summizing exactly why you do not infect business with personal ideologies to a detrimental level. The kind of HFT-speed capitalistic greed that the 21st Century demands, ain't got time for that shit.
Black, brown, purple, or green. Can you work hard and follow instruction without a need to prioritize your race, gender, or victimhood persona on every task? If so, great! Welcome to the team.
If not, don't let the door hit you on the way out. I didn't hire you because I needed to feel more "i
Re: "Inclusion" (Score:3)
Re: (Score:1)
Excluding exclusion is by definition inclusive. To be inclusive, you have to exclude exclusion.
You are mistaken. The truly tolerant do not prevent speech. They actually defend speech they hate. The truly tolerant only act when there is an imminent threat of actual violence. Which is why many of the "faux tolerant" have had to define speech as violence, to rationalize their actions, their intolerance, their suppression of speech, of opposing voices. The truly tolerant invite opposing voices so they can publicly debunk the opposing ideology, to persuade others that the opposing voices are incorrect.
Re: "Inclusion" (Score:1)
This guy gets it
Re: (Score:1)
Excluding exclusion is by definition inclusive. To be inclusive, you have to exclude exclusion.
Nope. The definition of "inclusion" in the current context is something like:
"the act or practice of including and accommodating people who have historically been excluded (as because of their race, gender, sexuality, or ability)"
https://www.merriam-webster.co... [merriam-webster.com]
Note the lack of exceptions, or any rationalization to exclude.
Re: (Score:3)
You know what they meant. You know that Trump/MAGA hate others and are on a crusade against three words which mean DEI. Don't be that moron.
Re: (Score:2)
You know what they meant. You know that Trump/MAGA hate others and are on a crusade against three words which mean DEI. Don't be that moron.
The ironic part is that they claim to be against DEI because one should select the most qualified candidate... and they end up with least qualified(*) cabinet ever. You can't go lower than e.g. Hegseth and Kennedy - the worm must have eaten most of his brain. And others - who probably know better - pretend not to. E.g Bessent pretending not to know who pays tariffs.
(*)Except for boot licking, of course. That's on North Korean levels in the US now.
Re: (Score:2)
EnGRITification (Score:2)
the unstoppable march of enshittification (Score:5, Insightful)
"Always free" is nice, but not a deal-breaker. I only have free now because I don't really need anything at the premium level. I refuse to pay subscriptions for things that I should be able to buy once, but they do provide an actual service (keyring syncing), so I will grumble, but it's a valid reason.
Everyone will now chime in with how awesome their setup is with custom rsync scripts running on their home server, and that's fine. I have plenty of stuff like that. But I don't want to *have* to just to replace an already-working solution because some dipshit CEO thinks he can squeeze an extra profit this quarter. And when they hemorrhage customers instead, dipshit will still get an awesome golden parachute.
Re: (Score:2)
I've been moving off Bitwarden for a while. The best option seems to be to just use Firefox's built in password manager, with Keepass as a backup. I have an extension that syncs to Keepass, and if Firefox ever enshittifies there are also extensions to use Keepass as the source.
Re: (Score:2)
Why can't we be allowed to keep nice things? I've been using bitwarden for years now, and I will never use anything else (other than a similar 3rd party password manager) again. Yes, there are plenty of competitors with similar features, but bitwarden is consistently top-ranked by actual security experts, and the interface is great, especially now that it can do passkeys. But that ranking comes 100% from *transparency*. The instant that goes away, nobody sane is going to keep them around. "Always free" is nice, but not a deal-breaker. I only have free now because I don't really need anything at the premium level. I refuse to pay subscriptions for things that I should be able to buy once, but they do provide an actual service (keyring syncing), so I will grumble, but it's a valid reason. .
I don't need any of the "premium features" either but I pay for premium. More folks should do this when someone is asking a very reasonable price for a wel run and made service. Please support the developer and pay the measly $19.80 a year for premium. Perhaps, this will prevent "enshitification"
Still there, actually... (Score:2)
What a load of crap. Directly from the linked page - 'Some Bitwarden users stay on Free forever; it's that good.', as well as in the comparison chart, for price it says: "Always free -- Get started". Now, I admit, I have no idea what the page looked like before whatever change occurred, but that specific phrase is very much there.
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The real news is that they changed "inclusion" to "innovation," which is a grave sin.
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The real news is that they changed "inclusion" to "innovation," which is a grave sin.
Meh. If that is about their hiring practices, on principle I'd rather they be inclusive, but it isn't likely to destroy the quality of the product if they aren't. If it is a more general statement however — "We make our product available to everyone" — then that is a much bigger concern, because it could be an indication that the software might become a lot less available.
Personally, if I used their software, I'd be more worried about the transparency -> trust change. A company like that m
Politics (Score:4, Insightful)
Such terms are in disfavor with the current administration. Businesses are like weather vanes: they know which way the wind is blowing. When a new government is in power they will swing around. They care when it is fashionable to do so, but not when it could hurt the bottom line.
Re: (Score:3)
Which is why it was there in the first place, obviously.
Soon- (Score:2)
Free is still prominently displayed (Score:5, Interesting)
TFS is misleading. The word "free" appears on that web page 23 times. It's literally the first word after the header.
When I see switches like this... (Score:2)
When I see switches like this, I think ..
'Indefinitely Free'. Charge may come anytime. Stay alert.
Like with Tesla: 'Mostly Autopilot'. Crash may come anytime. Stay alert.
I'd rather use the default OS app password manager or setup rsync. Just so I don't have to stay alert about yet one more thing.
Bitwarden centralizes machine credentials :o (Score:2)
Self-Hosting (Vaultwarden) (Score:2)
I love that I can self-host Bitwarden, and I do it with Vaultwarden, which is open source, so I have no fear of it going away. But if the company got really obnoxious and blocked self-hosted servers from the browser plugins, then I would be in big trouble. I don't think the changes listed suggest that they're going to do that anytime soon, but it's something I want to keep an eye out for.
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I love that I can self-host Bitwarden, and I do it with Vaultwarden, which is open source, so I have no fear of it going away.
Same.
But if the company got really obnoxious and blocked self-hosted servers from the browser plugins, then I would be in big trouble.
Also same...but something tells me that if Bitwarden were to do that, there would be a Vaultwarden fork the next day.
Even if there wasn't, browser-only access is annoying but serviceable, and it exports well enough to move to something else.
Re: (Score:2)
Bitwarden Staff on Reddit (Score:5, Informative)
List of options is sadly getting ever smaller (Score:1)
I used to really like 1Password, then they forced everyone into a subscription and to store on their servers.
I fled to Minimalist and tried Bitwarden on Android. Now Minimalist is toast, and looks like Bitwarden is falling as well.
The list of great options is growing ever slimmer, especially with some convenience, nice design and well integrated - without subscriptions and allowing storage of choice.
Not going to stop (Score:1)
They would be insane to give up their position and reputation. That sort of regard should be hallowed. I hope they know what they are doing.,
I use Keepass as my core, because I started with it a decade before Bitwarden was invented.
If you have a server you can FTP to, Keepass is the absolute bees knees. Perfect sync, and item-level granularity. That is, two devices can update different entries, then both sync, and the sync always works.
Add a toolbar button to do the sync, which is only really feasible for t
Re: (Score:2)
ENSHITIFICATION has commenced. (Score:2)
Beep boop.