Why It’s Time To Ditch LastPass and What Is the Best Free LastPass Alternative

If you’re like everyone else, you probably have tons of logins. Many websites require that you register and create an account to access them. 

If you’re smart you probably using different passwords for each website. Unfortunately creating a complicated password for every website becomes a huge hassle. That is why password management service like LastPass has become so popular.

You simply create a single account with LastPass and install a browser extension and phone app, and now you only need to remember a single login. Then every time you come to a website, the password manager app automatically fills the fields. Simple and easy.

For the past 2-3 years I’ve been using LastPass. It’s been a wonderful app. It’s one of the most popular password managers on the web. It syncs your passwords on all your devices, it has a password generator feature and it’s secure. You can even use fingerprint technology on your phone so you don’t have to enter the password every time.

However, recently the app was purchased by private equity firms (Source: Financial Times). Rather than focusing on technology development and value, their main goal is to monetize the assets they buy. As soon as they acquired the company, they implemented new guidelines that limit the use of the LastPass. As of March 16, you can only use it on desktop or mobile devices if you have a free account. If you want to access it on all your devices you have to upgrade. Since most users access websites from all their devices, the app will be almost useless. And unless you’re willing to pay $36 a year, you’re out of luck. Seamless multiplatform integration is one of the basic features of password managers and if this is taken away, it’s unlikely many users will continue to stick around or at least continue to use a free version.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a good deal, and you should consider upgrading, especially since you’ll probably be using LastPass every day. However, with so many sites and services forcing free users to upgrade and pay, paying for another service that was free to use is not something to get excited about. (If you’re looking for a comprehensive list of free marketing tools, take a look here).

To help you decide if it’s worth the upgrade, here is a nice article covering features and the pros and cons of using LastPass on the Android Authority website. (Last Pass Features)

Best LastPass Alternative.

Luckily there are several LastPass alternatives. One of my favorites password managers I recently switched to is BitWarden. It’s similar to LastPass in many ways. It saves your passwords and lets you use the Chrome extension or phone app to populate the login information you saved when you created the account.

If you think switching from LastPass to BitWarden is a pain. It’s easy to do. 

There is a great tutorial on CNET (Tutorial Link) on how to export your data from password vault and import it into BitWarden. I was able to export all my info in a matter of minutes.

There are more options to chose from if you’re looking for a reliable password management service. There is a free app, KeePassXC that’s free but asks for donations. Most services are premium. Here is a list from CNET of the best password managers to use for 2021.

If you’ve been using LastPass and looking to switch or upgrade, I’d love to know. Please share in the comments below. And if you use another free password manage service, please let others know. Thank you.