2024: A Year in Review

As we close out 2024, it's time to look back on a year of growth, collaboration and highlights of 2024 for passbolt. 

From refreshing our website and API documentation to introducing exciting product updates, attending major events, and co-hosting the first-ever Open Source Founders Summit, this year has been filled with meaningful milestones. We’ve also been hard at work preparing for the game-changing release of Passbolt V5. Truly, 2024 has been a remarkable journey! 

2024 in numbers

🎂 7 years of passbolt

🎉 Crossed 400,000 Daily Active Users

🌐 40,000+ organisations worldwide are now using passbolt on a daily basis to protect their passwords and collaborate

🤝 30+ new product releases 

👀 47,347 average monthly community pageviews and 432 new contributors

✅ Tracking at 99.99% uptime (including scheduled maintenance)

Q1 2014

We kicked off 2024 with two blog posts that aimed to empower users and enhance their experience with Passbolt:

• Discovering Passbolt API using Postman: This technical guide provided developers with step-by-step instructions for using Passbolt’s API with Postman, simplifying API interactions into manageable tasks. It enabled users to seamlessly integrate Passbolt into their development workflows..
• Passbolt Helm Chart now supports PostgreSQL: Enhancing Kubernetes support, this blog introduced the addition of PostgreSQL compatibility within the Passbolt Helm chart. This update ensures more robust and scalable deployments for teams running Passbolt in containerized environments, catering to enterprise-level database management needs.

February was off to a good start with the release of v4.5.0 ‘Summer is Ending’, featuring the much-anticipated Password Expiry Policy. This functionality allows administrators to set automatic expiry policies for shared credentials, ensuring that passwords are regularly rotated and reducing the risk of outdated or compromised credentials.

We also introduced the Russian translation with this release and expanded our SMTP settings to include Microsoft 365 and Outlook providers.

We also made our mark at FOSDEM 2024, where Passbolt co-founder Rémy Bertot spoke on the project’s open source philosophy and about passkeys.

Lastly, we answered one of the community’s most frequent questions: “How does Passbolt compare to Bitwarden?” with a dedicated comparison page.

In March, passbolt released the v4.6 which introduces the Health Check feature within the Admin workspace, providing administrators with tools to monitor and maintain their Passbolt environments. This update also includes the implementation of SSO AD FS (Active Directory Federation Services), enabling single sign-on capabilities for improved user access management. 

Additionally, we transitioned our documentation to a refreshed /docs site, making it easier for users to find the guidance they need.

There was also the publishing of Passbolt's case study with the Municipality of Macerata, a public institution serving the city of Macerate. 

Q2 2024

The month of April saw the stable release of Passbolt Windows Desktop Application, enhancing management and collaboration to Windows users. It successfully passed a security audit by Cure53.  

Passbolt also renewed its SOC2 Type II audited report, with no exception noted by the auditors, for the third time in a row.

April also saw two other case studies, one with the Copan Group, a pioneer in the healthcare and biotechnology industry and with the Center for University IT Rhineland-Palatinate (ZIT RLP), regional center for university IT in Germany.

In the month of May, passbolt, alongside Emily Omier, organised its first-ever Open Source Founders Summit 2024 in Paris. The summit created a dedicated space for open source founders to come and support each other and have honest conversations about the opportunities and challenges of running an open source business. Rémy Bertot explains why this summit was organised.

In May, we also migrated our browser extension to MV3, which introduces service workers and stricter permissions for improved security with the v4.8 release ‘Angel’.

This release also introduced a new feature which allows administrators to purge audit logs from the command line, ensuring reclaim database space for logs that are no longer relevant and improving the performance of long-running instances while keeping necessary logs for forensic and audit activities. 

In May, we also published the case study with Numadic, a leading automotive Fintech SaaS which specializes in turning vehicles into contactless wallets for digital payment in India. 

In early June, Passbolt partnered with SUSE to enhance open source security solutions together. Passbolt has supported openSUSE as a distribution for its software. Passbolt now extends this support to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 15, making it more accessible for teams worldwide.

June also saw the release of Passbolt Windows Desktop app v1.1, which allows users to use the drag and drop feature to move their folders and resources. This release also ensures full integration of the Windows app with the passbolt v4.7 features set. 

In June, we also published two case studies with the central IT department of TU Graz University in Austria and with Dr. Metschkoll GmbH, a leading law firm specializing in legal and tax consulting in Germany.

Q3 2014 

In the month of July, we released v4.9 which introduced the ability to view the location of resources directly within the grid, giving users a clearer overview of their password structure at a glance. Additionally, the new search-by-folder-name feature allowed users to locate resources quickly by their parent folders, streamlining the process of finding and organising credentials.

Performance of passbolt also greatly improved with July’s release, seeing a 50% faster navigation through the credentials.

July wasn’t just about software updates—it was also a time to connect. Passbolt proudly participated in CakeFest 2024, held in Luxembourg, as a diamond sponsor. It was an amazing time engaging with the incredible PHP community and showcase our shared commitment to open source standards. 💎 

Building on the momentum from July, August brought exciting updates for our Windows users with the release of v1.3 of the Passbolt Windows Desktop App. This update integrated the latest enhancements from the v4.9 browser extension, including the ability to view resource locations directly in the grid and search passwords by parent folder names. 

Additionally, the app benefited from performance improvements, ensuring faster navigation and a smoother user experience. The update also addressed critical bug fixes, enhancing the app’s reliability and stability for everyday use. 

In addition, August gave the community a sneak peek at the much-anticipated Icons feature, part of the upcoming v5 release.

Q4 2014

In October, the developer documentation for the Passbolt API was updated, which made it better, faster and stronger. Passbolt OpenAPI specifications integrated with Redoc to create a more interactive and accessible experience for developers.

Later that month, some team members of passbolt attended the IT-SA 2024 at Nuremberg. It was a good experience connecting with other people at the event. 

We also published a case study with CTIE, the public administration responsible for providing IT services to the Luxembourg government. 

November focused on preparing for the release of Passbolt V5, as we rolled out the v4.10. This update introduced beta support for resource type formats, enabling integration maintainers and technical teams to start adapting their workflows for the forthcoming changes in V5. This beta feature allows for early testing and planning, ensuring a smoother transition to the new capabilities that V5 will bring.

Another key addition in v4.10 was the introduction of resource grouping improvements, designed to make managing and categorising credentials even more intuitive. 

A new case study with LuxDev, the Luxembourg Development Cooperation Agency, demonstrated Passbolt’s global impact in development and collaboration.

December started on a good note with Passbolt winning the prize Acteurs du Libre 2024, APELL Européen! 🏆This award, presented at the Open Source Experience in Paris, recognises Passbolt’s commitment to European sovereignty, open source transparency, security standards, and collaboration.

Looking Ahead

2024 was a year of progress and shared achievements with the community. 

We're starting off 2025 on a strong note with the upcoming Passbolt v5 just around the corner. The team is working hard to finalise some details, but you can expect it soon! 

V5 will introduce features like encrypted metadata, new content types, and a refined UI, taking security and usability to the next level. Curious about what’s coming? Check out our roadmap (which also got a sleek makeover) or dive into the details about encrypted metadata and other core security enhancements.

Here are some of the sneak peek at what's coming: 

• Encrypted Metadata
• New UX/UI
• Resource icons
• New content types: Secure Notes
• Multiple URIs
• New content type: Key/ Value
• New content type: Credit card
• New content type: SSH key
• New content type: Certificates
• And more…

Want to request a feature? Make a suggestion here.

We can't wait to see what 2025 has in store for us and excited to bring to you the Passbolt v5.

Stay up to date with passbolt. Subscribe to our newsletter, join our community forum, or find us on LinkedIn, Mastodon, GitHub, Reddit, Bluesky and YouTube.