Request for Broader Platform Compatibility for Bitwarden SDK

Feature Requests Secrets Manager
1

Hello Bitwarden team,

I’m currently integrating Bitwarden into an application ecosystem that includes .NET Framework 4.8.2 workloads. The existing Bitwarden SDK targets .NET Core / .NET 6+, which results in a hard technical limitation:

.NET Framework applications cannot reference SDKs built solely for .NET Core, due to runtime incompatibility.

In practice, this forces developers into architectural workarounds such as:

  • Isolating SDK usage into separate .NET Core services

  • Using IPC or HTTP bridges between processes

  • Maintaining duplicated abstractions and deployment complexity

These approaches work, but they introduce avoidable operational overhead for what could otherwise be a straightforward library reference.

:sparkles: Proposal

Provide one of the following:

  1. A package that targets .NET Standard 2.0 (ideal for maximum compatibility)

  2. A multi-targeted SDK (e.g., netstandard2.0 + net8.0)

    • Many major SDKs adopt this pattern for hybrid environments

.NET Standard support would allow seamless use of Bitwarden across:

  • .NET Framework 4.7.2+ / 4.8.x systems

  • Existing enterprise and on-prem installations

  • Legacy services that cannot yet migrate to .NET 6+

:white_check_mark: Benefits

  • Broader adoption in enterprise environments

  • Zero additional runtime infrastructure required

  • Better alignment with mixed-platform deployment realities

  • Simpler migration pathways to future .NET versions

Closing

We understand that .NET Framework is not the future direction of the .NET ecosystem, but many organizations still operate in hybrid environments. Multi-targeting the SDK or supporting .NET Standard 2.0 would significantly improve developer experience and adoption without sacrificing forward compatibility.

Thank you for considering this request, and for the continued development of a great product.