Hello everyone!
I am Krisztian, a recently employed Junior JavaScript Developer at Evozon and I wanted to share some of my thoughts and experience with Password Managers. This is my first ever article and I am open to criticism, but please guys, just go easy on me!
Started Using Password Managers
2 months ago I thought about getting more secure with my passwords. And, I also wanted to have something that memorizes my passwords in a safe way so I don’t have to remember them all. Plus, Password Managers generate your secure passwords whenever you need so you don’t have to do that by yourself. Also great for us, right?
I started to document myself a little bit about which one I should choose, and which one is better. And, after comparing multiple options, I decided to start with one of the most popular ones, LastPass.
At first glance? I loved it. It makes managing passwords so easy and frictionless. It had that feature where the Input Fields on the websites that I visited had these little symbols at the end of them to signal that LastPass is ready to autofill them for me. That was the first thing that I liked about LastPass.
This is what I mean by “the little symbols” at the end of the Input Fields:
There are more great features that LastPass has which I won’t mention here. You can visit https://www.lastpass.com/ and check out all of them.
Why did I switch to the Bitwarden Password Manager?
After a quick Google search with “LastPass vs Bitwarden” you get: LastPass and Bitwarden both have excellent security. However, Bitwarden has a slight advantage because it’s open-source, offers local data storage, and has never been hacked.
So, is that why I switched to Bitwarden? Well… No.
It is true that Bitwarden is open-source, which is awesome, and it does offer some safe local data storage, but that is not my point.
But, I switched to Bitwarden because of this recent update from LastPass which says:
Starting March 16, 2021, LastPass Free will only include access to LastPass on one type of device. LastPass Free users can continue using one device type, or upgrade to LastPass Premium or Families for unlimited device type access.
What does that mean for us? Now, you can only use LastPass’s Free Version on either just Phones or just Desktop PCs, etc. What a shame. I just started to get used to this Password Manager.
After a couple of comparisons and articles, I chose Bitwarden as my next, so to say, “safe haven” for passwords. It has everything that LastPass offers and even more! It is an open-source project which means that anyone can contribute to support Bitwarden’s development process. It supports biometrics authentication (for instance, if you have a fingerprint reader on your laptop, you can use that to unlock your vault without the need for your master password).
Yes Krisztian, all fun and clear but what about my passwords from LastPass?
Don’t worry, Bitwarden has got you covered. You can export all of your passwords from LastPass and import them to Bitwarden in less than a minute. Export, Import, and Voilà! Your passwords are transferred to Bitwarden. ( https://bitwarden.com/help/article/import-from-lastpass/ )
Final Thoughts
Although I switched from LastPass to Bitwarden, that doesn’t mean that LastPass is not a good password management app. But, after my experience with Password Managers, I would suggest anyone starting out with them to go on and try Bitwarden first and see what it offers. You can even go premium with it if you are not satisfied with what its free version offers you. And, let me know about your experience with Password Managers at Twitter @p19ky.
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