LastPass free tier users will have to decide between mobile or computer starting next...

[Shawn Knight]

Bottom line: LastPass will become far less versatile to free tier users come next month as they'll have to pick from one of two device types moving forward. Users will have three opportunities to change device type in order to determine which suits them best. Optionally, users can start paying for the service to keep using it on computers and mobile devices, or explore other options on the market.

The password manager on Tuesday revealed that starting March 16, 2021, LastPass Free users will only be able to use the service on one category of device: computers or mobile devices. Computers include all types of Internet browsers running on desktops, laptops and tablets (Windows, macOS and Linux) while mobile devices are defined as smartphones, smartwatch and tablets running Android or iOS.

Users will be asked to select their active device type and will have three opportunities to switch between the two.

"Please note, that all of your devices sync automatically, so you’ll never lose access to anything stored in your vault or be locked out of your account, regardless of whether you use computer or mobile devices to access LastPass."

What’s more, starting May 17, 2021, e-mail support will only be available to users on Premium and Family plans. Pricing for LastPass Premium starts at $2.25 per month when billed annually. The Families plan covers up to six account users.

LastPass further revealed that it now has more than 20 million users around the world, but didn’t specify the ratio of free to paid users. Nevertheless, LastPass said it needs to “adapt our offerings to keep up with the constantly evolving digital world.”

LastPass, which was acquired by LogMeIn back in 2015, is one of a handful of respectable password managers on the market. As you'll likely find, however, it's get increasingly more uncommon to find ones that offer all the bells and whistles for free.

Images courtesy II.studio, Graphic farm

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https://www.techspot.com/news/88647-lastpass-free-tier-users-have-decide-between-mobile.html

 

[trparky]

I switched from Lastpass to BitWarden several years ago, I've never looked back. The BitWarden free tier is amazing but I still pay for Premium to support the open source side of the house. Oh, did I mention that it's open source? Yes! It's open source!

 

[JKnight]

I switched from Lastpass to BitWarden several years ago, I've never looked back. The BitWarden free tier is amazing but I still pay for Premium to support the open source side of the house. Oh, did I mention that it's open source? Yes! It's open source!

I have been using Bitwarden for three years now and it has been a great experience.

 

[Uncle Al]

Yep, once they suck you in they put the screws to you ......

 

[LinxESP]

Lastpass account deleted already, and let's see how bitwarden does

 

[punctualturn]

I moved to BitWarden a couple of years ago, after LastPass was purchased by LogMeIn.

And I think someone else bought them already.

I dont need the features of the paid version of BitWarden, but they are a great group of developers, so they deserve to get paid.

 

[Edster]

Welp, I was going to switch it ages ago but I was too lazy. Now I have no choice. So helpful that the comments pointed me to an alternative already, saves me doing any research.

 

[MarkHughes]

For a while Firefox has been offering to save passwords so I can now uninstall lastpass with no real disruption. Going to look into Bitwarden though as it never hurts to have alternatives.

 

[yukka]

I like LastPass. I used to pay for premium when it was required for use on mobile devices. Then that requirement was removed so I went to the free tier for the last few years. I’ll check bit warden but I’ve been very happy with LastPass so far.

 

[Jackwoz]

I like lastpass as well, but they will need to entice me with a discount to move to premium, otherwise bitwarden here I come!

 

[Chad Pattan]

I moved to BitWarden a couple of years ago, after LastPass was purchased by LogMeIn.

And I think someone else bought them already.

I dont need the features of the paid version of BitWarden, but they are a great group of developers, so they deserve to get paid.

Cisco bought LogMeIn. (Reference: I've been a LastPass user since well before they were first bought out, in their infancy stages.)

This change of LastPass...it's basically reverting back to what the product used to be. Used to be that in order to use mobile you had to do Premium. Then they changed it to where anyone could do either or both. This seems like a step in a different direction and I guess I don't get the logic - to me, what they should charge for is what the 20% of users might need. Things like family/shared access, or non-cloud/self-hosted options. Charge when they want to use that. But if they're just storing passwords, why? It costs you fractions of pennies to store the information in (likely) a flat file database.

In my case I use it heavily on both computer and mobile - and unfortunately, I've yet to find a tool that works as well as LastPass does. And I've evaluated them all at one point or another.

As a technologist, my view of BitWarden is the same as my view of KeePass - it asks too much of your common user to ever take over from LastPass. If you can't seamlessly integrate with what the user is authenticating with, you're dead in the water...and it is this that BitWarden fails miserably at.

 

[Chad Pattan]

For a while Firefox has been offering to save passwords so I can now uninstall lastpass with no real disruption. Going to look into Bitwarden though as it never hurts to have alternatives.

Storing passwords at the browser level is the WORST thing you could be doing.

 

[Adhmuz]

Storing passwords at the browser level is the WORST thing you could be doing.

Is it when Firefox is doing essentially the same thing LastPass is? It uses a master pass and my account required 2FA to log in to it, also I only use it on my personal home PC and no where else. If you're referring to Firefox without an account or master pass setup and it just required your Windows logon password to view a stored password... Then Yes! Terrible idea, however this makes it easy to backup passwords when migrating a user to a new PC, Chrome has this same limitation if no Google account is used to sign in to it.

As for LastPass, I use it exclusively on my phone, I'll use it to generate a password for use in my browser and let Firefox save it to my account. So come March 16th I'll just continue to use it the way I have been.

 

[ShadowDeath]

I switched from Lastpass to BitWarden several years ago, I've never looked back. The BitWarden free tier is amazing but I still pay for Premium to support the open source side of the house. Oh, did I mention that it's open source? Yes! It's open source!

I switched to Bitwarden when I discovered that Lastpass' browser extension was the reason why Firefox took forever to boot up and why it's page loads took so long.

 

[deathspeed]

I installed LastPass only to keep passwords in sync between PC and mobile, so I won't be staying with it. Looks like I may need to check out Bitwarden.

 

[p51d007]

I have my phone with me pretty much all the time, but, it looks like I'll be moving to Bitwarden.

 

[Chad Pattan]

Is it when Firefox is doing essentially the same thing LastPass is? It uses a master pass and my account required 2FA to log in to it, also I only use it on my personal home PC and no where else. If you're referring to Firefox without an account or master pass setup and it just required your Windows logon password to view a stored password... Then Yes! Terrible idea, however this makes it easy to backup passwords when migrating a user to a new PC, Chrome has this same limitation if no Google account is used to sign in to it.

The problem is (And same with Chrome/Safari/Opera), passwords are not encrypted when the browser does it.

 

[MarkHughes]

The problem is (And same with Chrome/Safari/Opera), passwords are not encrypted when the browser does it.

Is that so ? I might need a rethink on this then. Thanks for the info. I will look into it. Does BitWarden use encryption I wonder, I will have to check.

 

[dragosmp]

Funny thing, I still thought you need to pay for the mobile version, as it was years ago...

 

[yukka]

Funny thing, I still thought you need to pay for the mobile version, as it was years ago...

Yeah had to have it pointed out to me bu someone I’d previously recommended it to.

 

[ShadowDeath]

For anyone converting from lastpass to bitwarden there are easy steps to import all your information. I don't think I have to say this but just in case, only do this on a computer you trust. IE: Not a public computer.

First setup a bitwarden account.

Go to https://Lastpass.com and login
In the gray bar on the left select "Advanced Options" near the bottom.
In the white menu that springs out from that under "Manage Your Vault" select "Export" and Login again with the prompt that comes up.
You will be displayed a wall of unencrypted login info. It'll be a wall of text. Copy EVERYTHING!

Next come here https://vault.bitwarden.com/#/ and login with your newly created account.
In the blue banner up top click on "Tools"
After the new page loads click on "Import Data" on the left under the "Tools" section.
In the drop down box select LastPass (CSV)
In the bottom box paste all of the stuff you copied from Lastpass and click the "Import Data" button.

Note: (Alternatively you can paste all the login info from lastpass into a text document but make sure to change the extension from .txt to .csv and import it into bitwarden in the final step as a file.) Personally I've found that just copy and pasting into the bitwarden field to be faster.

With this all of your login information should have been ported from Lastpass to bitwarden and ready to go.

Personally I recommend one thing. Since bitwarden is free across multiple devices I recommend letting bitwarden generate passwords for your various accounts and saving them in bitwarden. If you ever need to log into a site on your phone bitwarden will still have access to those passwords there.

 

[mbrowne5061]

Cisco bought LogMeIn. (Reference: I've been a LastPass user since well before they were first bought out, in their infancy stages.)

This change of LastPass...it's basically reverting back to what the product used to be. Used to be that in order to use mobile you had to do Premium. Then they changed it to where anyone could do either or both. This seems like a step in a different direction and I guess I don't get the logic - to me, what they should charge for is what the 20% of users might need. Things like family/shared access, or non-cloud/self-hosted options. Charge when they want to use that. But if they're just storing passwords, why? It costs you fractions of pennies to store the information in (likely) a flat file database.

In my case I use it heavily on both computer and mobile - and unfortunately, I've yet to find a tool that works as well as LastPass does. And I've evaluated them all at one point or another.

As a technologist, my view of BitWarden is the same as my view of KeePass - it asks too much of your common user to ever take over from LastPass. If you can't seamlessly integrate with what the user is authenticating with, you're dead in the water...and it is this that BitWarden fails miserably at.

I dunno. I found that Keepass is pretty user friendly (though its UI is absolutely archaic). Once you install the browser extensions, password handling is pretty automatic.

 

[Adhmuz]

The problem is (And same with Chrome/Safari/Opera), passwords are not encrypted when the browser does it.

How Firefox securely saves passwords | Mozilla Support

Learn how Firefox securely saves your passwords.

support.mozilla.org

 

[MarkHughes]

How Firefox securely saves passwords | Mozilla Support

Learn how Firefox securely saves your passwords.

support.mozilla.org

So Firefox does encrypt and that setup is ok ? That is what I am reading anyway...

 

[Chad Pattan]

How Firefox securely saves passwords | Mozilla Support

Learn how Firefox securely saves your passwords.

support.mozilla.org

Read that carefully.

Firefox Password Manager is not the same as Firefox Sync.

Password Manager (in the browser) is NOT encrypted, because it's impossible for the browser to do it without a password or hash. That's what I'm talking about.

Sync is a different product. They're not storing IN the browser.

It's vital that people don't get confused.