I've spent a long time debating this decision, but it's one that I need to make, since the project has all but stagnated. You've probably noticed or suspected this, if you've come into contact with any of Buttercup's repositories recently. While many of you have helpfully been reporting issues, there have been few responses (especially from myself) and even fewer PRs addressing them.
I wouldn't call this burn-out, first and foremost.. I honestly feel fine and excited by the prospect of developing OSS even. That being said, I do feel substantial relief at the thought of putting Buttercup onto potentially permanent hiatus. The project is enormous in scope - it would be for a small team of developers, let alone a single dev working full time who lacks both the energy and motivation to support the project. I've tried getting more serious help on board too, though since Sallar (the other co-founder) left it's honestly been just myself holding the fort. It's a passion project and all that: it was unlikely I'd have found someone else to help keep it alive, especially because of its scope.
That's most of the reason that I've come to decide to stop this - the continuance of the project - the scope and what that means in terms of maintenance. Buttercup has a lot of surface area, and a fair portion of that comes in contact with operating systems, mobile devices and 3rd party services. Each of those have requirements for software, especially security software, and that requires near constant attention to ensure we don't get penalised or booted off a platform (looking at you, Google). There's enough of a requirement for my time on this that I rarely get time to do anything else that's meaningful on the project. I wanted to add passkey support, but never ventured to dive into that as I knew how much else needed improvement before I should endeavour on a new feature.
A lot of this is also my condition - nothing so serious as something I've been diagnosed with, and I certainly don't want to lean on those that really do suffer with such - but I do feel like my inability to "leave something be" or shift focus to business-friendly items like potentially paid features has been a strong detriment to the health of the project. It's my biggest regret, but not one I'm going to carry for long. I'm immensely proud of Buttercup and where it is now; and I'm proud of myself for persisting. It's not enough, but it's more than enough for me.
So where does this leave Buttercup now? Well, thankfully Buttercup isn't a hosted solution.. You self host it, more or less, by providing some form of storage for it's backend. That can't be taken away from you, and so nothing will happen immediately. There won't be any more releases across any of the repositories, and I'll probably archive them over the coming days. Nothing will be removed from Github in that regard - I'll keep it up for the foreseeable future.
I'll keep the mobile app in the iOS/Android app stores for some time, but it unfortunately will be the first to fall in terms of products. It's a huge pain keeping them in order, and I won't be spending further time in submitting information to Google or preparing a new release. If critical bugs are found, that carry significant vulnerabilities, I'll most likely pull them immediately. The same goes for the browser extension, though I suspect I'll be able to keep that online for far longer. The desktop app doesn't require any hosting so there's not going to be any changes there - you'll be able to download the builds from the repository releases area.
If you use Buttercup, and have your primary collection of passwords stored within its vault format - I suggest you plan a migration to another product. I'm with you here - I've "dog-fooded" myself and have over 600 entries in my vault that I'll also need to move to another platform. Trust me when I say that it's a truly depressing thought, considering that I need to move my vault to a competitor's software. That being said, password managers have come a long way (both before Buttercup and since) and it's a great time to start using one if you haven't. In terms of recommendations I can't say I'd point to just one - but I'd urge you to find one you can self-host. Keep your secrets close and all that. I'm sorry for the inconvenience this causes, and I thank you for trusting us this far.
Buttercup, as of right now, has somewhere between 15-25k semi-active users. So far as I can tell, given that there isn't any telemetry, beyond what the platforms that host Buttercup provide (Google Drive, Dropbox, Apple Appstore, Google Play store, etc.). That's a pretty amazing number, in my opinion. It's a fine note to leave on, too.
If I might offer any advice, to those of you writing OSS or simply staring down a new project, or even those of you pushing on with an existing one - Buttercup, for me, was a fantastic experience that taught me so much and opened so many doors. There will be times where any project you undertake will feel like a chore, and it'll have you second guessing your committment to it - but push on - give it a proper go and no matter what state it ends up in, you'll be grateful you tried. I don't regret, at all, the many years I've spent building Buttercup.. So many hours after work, on the weekend, by myself just pushing out feature after feature - It's amazing what you can build when you have a little motivation. Make sure to take a step back every now and then to appreciate what you're doing, and be kind to yourself - this shit's hard!
I'll stop waffling on. If you want to get in contact with me, you can reach me best on Mastodon. You obviously already have my Github - I'll be doing work on a good number of smaller FOSS projects here so be sure to check my page out if you're interested. And once again, thank you for everything.
ahh man! all my shits going away, these days! between bcup and onmail, fack! So couple questions, whats your thoughts on forking the project(s) and someone else or elses cont' the project if they so feel inclined? Soo buttercup was certainly a unique product when I was passwd manager shopping many moons ago, which I've been using primarily with only a short hiatus when I ran with MyKi for 6-8 mo. or so. So given its unique 'self-hosted' nature or feature set, which I specifically was looking for, with webdav, any suggestions on where you'll be going? I haven't window shopped for awhile, but bcup was definitely unique when it comes to this vertical! what pass manager will you be using or moving to?
but I am never one to discourage someone changing or wanting change, so although its super shitty to see this announcement, I thank you and wish you all the best! you definitely helped in my security, sanity, and wallet so very much! you rock!