Bitwarden has had VC investors for years, long before the mentioned 2022 funding. I think our track record to date shows how we operate in this relationship. We specifically choose partners that align with our vision, not just anyone that comes off the street wanting to throw money at us (though there are many). Our health as a company afford us this luxury.
Bitwarden is and has been monetized since the beginning. There are no plans to change how we monetize our products. It's working well for us.
No company will eever say that thereyare plans for aggresive monetezation. They will always say everything stays the same - open-source mindset etc.
Until 2 years later there is a license and pricing change. One that will make it 10 times more expensive - or the free/open-source version will be crippled.
The clients are fully FOSS, and there is a FOSS server reference application, too. What could go wrong? (Famous last words Inc.)
FWIW: I've been using this application for the past years. I pay 12 USD or so a year, though I self-host. I just pay as a thank you since I still use the FOSS client, and the price is very reasonable.
1Password is hardly even a competitor as it is a completely different price range, and different product. It isn't FOSS at all, there's a vendor lock-in (in contrast to Bitwarden), and it is 3x as expensive at the very least. They're miles apart.
And 1Password does not propose self-hosting anymore, which is why I am stuck to version 7 for my personal vault. At work, we use Bitwarden self-hosted solution. I could even use an encrypted text file to store my passwords if there were no self-hosting solution anywhere. It gives you an idea at how much I do not want my infos to be on the Internet somewhere.
I'm just a normal tech-lover guy who works in the marketing field. I have made my family & 2 agencies switch to Bitwarden and they all love it.
I have stored more than 400 passwords and more than 30 debit + credit cards in it. Though I don't need a paid plan but I'm paying $10 per year just to support the developers.
Just want to echo other comments, thanks so much for bitwarden I've been using it for years and it has changed my family's life. Even managed to get my aging parents to use it instead of their paper notebook
As a long time user, I'm a bit concerned as well.