Like many former customers of LastPass, I used to be miffed when the corporate delivered an ultimatum to non-paying customers last year. I’ve since switched to Bitwarden, and haven’t seemed again.
Without a $36 per yr subscription, LastPass now limits customers to at least one machine sort—cellular or laptop—per account. That means free customers should select between accessing their passwords on both a laptop computer and a telephone, which isn’t a lot of a selection for lots of people.
While I’m not basically against paying for helpful providers, I don’t like being pressured to pay for one thing when an organization can’t make its freemium enterprise mannequin work. With password managers particularly, there are many different choices, each free and paid, that work simply in addition to LastPass did.
And so, I took my years of LastPass passwords and moved them over to Bitwarden, one other password supervisor that’s free for fundamental private use. The transition was largely painless, although I bumped into a couple of snags alongside the best way.
While my colleagues Michael Ansaldo and Alaina Yee have written a full Bitwarden review, I assumed I’d relate a bit extra about my private expertise with the software program, plus some methods to make it work even higher.
Password managers: A recap
As a refresher, password managers are a good way to interrupt the unhealthy behavior of utilizing the identical or comparable passwords throughout a number of apps or web sites, and even having to recollect numerous passwords within the first place. Here’s the way it works, utilizing Bitwarden for instance:
- Install the Bitwarden extension in your internet browser and the Bitwarden app on iOS or Android.
- Create a Bitwarden account and arrange a grasp password—ideally one which’s each robust and memorable. You’ll want this in the event you haven’t logged into Bitwarden shortly or in the event you’re organising a brand new machine, so think about writing it down and locking it away in a protected place.
- Whenever you log right into a web site along with your internet browser, Bitwarden will present a message providing to avoid wasting your login credentials. Do this each time.
- While signing up for brand new providers, use Bitwarden’s extension or app to generate robust passwords (like “7S$b@!QBA12”).
- When signing into an account, use Bitwarden to fill in these login particulars.
This admittedly seems like a problem, which is why I believe lots of of us don’t hassle. But when you develop the muscle reminiscence of utilizing a password supervisor, it’s exhausting going again to not having one.
Why use Bitwarden as your password supervisor?
I’ll be trustworthy: I picked Bitwarden primarily as a result of it’s free, but additionally as a result of it’s open-source, comes really useful by writers I belief, and works throughout a broad vary of gadgets.
These days, you’ll discover that the massive tech firms have been beefing up their very own password administration options. On iOS and Mac, for example, Apple can generate safe passwords on web sites and in apps, and it now affords a Chrome extension for Windows. But wanting up your passwords could be a ache in the event you want to take action manually, and there’s no help for Android gadgets, Chromebooks, or the Firefox browser. The password administration options of Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome have their very own limitations that may hinder you from utilizing sure browsers, and apart from, I like the thought of not tying all my on-line credentials to a tech behemoth.
In the long term, I feel these built-in options will find yourself changing password managers for lots of people anyway, however I don’t suppose they’re fairly prepared but. Bitwarden, in the meantime, is just about a drop-in substitute for LastPass, minus the subscription charges. Plus, Bitwarden’s migration guide made switching from LastPass tremendous simple.
Making Bitwarden higher
That’s to not say Bitwarden was good out of the field. To protect a few of LastPass’ creature comforts, I needed to make a handful of tweaks.
On the net, for example, I recommend heading to Settings > Options and checking “Enable Auto-fill On Page Load,” which fills your data on most login types with none interplay in your half. Also underneath Settings, think about altering the Vault timeout motion to “Lock,” then enabling “Unlock with PIN” or “Unlock with biometrics,” so you’ll be able to keep away from having to re-enter your grasp password everytime you open your browser.
Jared Newman / Foundry
You’ll additionally wish to hook Bitwarden into your telephone’s auto-fill settings. That approach, once you save a login by way of Bitwarden’s extension, you’ll be able to shortly entry it by way of apps and web sites in your telephone.
- On iOS, head to iOS Settings > Passwords > AutoFill Passwords, then test off Bitwarden.
- On Android, head to Bitwarden Settings > Auto-fill Services, then test off “Auto-fill Service.” This brings up one other menu the place you’ll be able to choose Bitwarden as your password supply. (I’d recommend enabling the “Accessibility” and “Draw-Over” choices as nicely.)
Jared Newman / Foundry
Finally, make sure that to arrange biometric unlocking in BItwarden’s cellular apps, so that you don’t need to re-enter your grasp password for each login. You’ll discover the “Unlock with Biometrics” or “Unlock with FaceID” choice within the Bitwarden settings menu.
Free vs. Paid
Of course, Bitwarden isn’t only a free service. A $10 per yr improve helps you to generate authentication codes for providers that provide two-step logins, plus it offers encrypted file storage and “health reports” that warn you of any compromised passwords. Many of those perks, nevertheless, may be labored round with different free providers.
For occasion, I’m utilizing Authy for two-factor authentication codes. And in the event you use Chrome or Edge, you’ll be able to concurrently save your logins in both browser to benefit from their respective leak alerts. For encrypted storage of delicate paperwork, I exploit OneDrive’s Personal Vault feature.
Hopefully, BitWarden can do a greater job upselling individuals to its paid service than LastPass did. But if not, this complete train has left me prepared to change once more.
This story first appeared in my Advisorator publication. Sign up to get tech suggestions in your inbox each week.