LastPass

LastPass is a fantastic software solution for so many reasons–– My chief use of it is so my team doesn't have to personally know all the various passwords to websites and SAAS solutions our organization uses. Certain users have access to using different sites without knowing what the passwords are. This makes me feel much more secure hiring freelancers. It also really helps to be able to safely give more access to our company resources for colleagues.

With some lower-grade freelancers I hired, they had a harder time figuring out how to use the software to log into websites that I had requested from them. LastPass is not completely foolproof, but it is the best alternative to keeping your login information safe when sharing with workers.

We have a team of 50+ at our agency and LastPass is our go-to password/credential manager. It's super simple to set up, share access and manage passwords across teams and even clients. And LastPass takes security very very seriously with 2FA and authentication a key priority. We have to be ultra-sensitive to security as an agency as we handle so many credentials for client's websites, FTP and marketing tools.

The UI is good but not great. I find myself wanting to create a folder but the iconography is a bit confusing so I'll create a record. Easy to go back and do it right but I find myself making the same mistakes. The folder hierarchy could also be a bit better organized but it's not too bad. They are improving and updating all the time.

A password manager helps you manage all your passwords. Each password is unique and is protected with a master password only you know. That means you can use unique, strong passwords for every account without having to remember them. This is extremely important for accounts with sensitive information like your email or banking account. Lastpass has done a great job up until recently.

I loved using LastPass, and had been using it for over a year. After they changed their pricing model to pay for a subscription I decided to see if there were any other great password managers out there. I'm not against paying for services, but I don't like how they pulled the rug out of everyone who relied on the free version, where they get so used to the software as apart of their daily life, that it forces many to just pay the fee (many of whom would likely have never signed up in the first place if it were not free). So to me, it feels like a bait and switch, where they had this planned all along. So it's the principle for me.

The smarter way (to strengthen, and not harm their brand), would have been to all along offer a freemium version and offer other extra features that a small percentage of all users are willing to pay for. Essentially they trapped people into using the free version, and are forcing people to pay to now use on multiple devices. It feels shady and left a bad taste in my mouth towards their software and brand.

I've decided to look more into Mozillas free password manager. There are also those from the likes of Google's and Apple's built in password managers. After testing other products, I believe google or mozilla are the way to go, since apples is too proprietary (*they are a closed ecosystem - you can't as easily use cross platform and on other browsers)