What is a Password Manager?

A password manager is an application that you can use to store and manage all of your passwords. These days, we all have a lot of accounts on various online apps and websites that we use and access, and each of these services require us to secure our access with a password.

Using different passwords for different services might prove to be a great deal when it comes to remembering the exact password used for a particular service.

This is where password managers come in, they help with storing different passwords in an encrypted format and ensure it is secured with the help of a master password which only the user and nobody else knows about.

There a lot of password managers available, and they all have their different mode of encryption of user information, storage of passwords and other additional features.

In this article, we will briefly look at two of most and widely used password managers namely LastPass and BitWarden, but before you can start using any of them let’s see the importance of having a password manager

Benefits of Using a Password Manager?

Doesn’t require special remembrance ability

This is the main benefit of password managers. The ability to have easy recall of all your passwords without having to cram them all in your head. The password manager keeps all your password safe into a single place.

You Can Use Stronger Passwords

Since you won’t need to remember your password, you can confidently use stronger passwords, and you can use different passwords for different services and/or apps. This results in better security for you.

Fast Access

With your password manager, all you need to access all your services is simply the master password. Once your master password is spotted in, the password manager takes care of all your username and password for every of your service giving you instant access to such service as well as putting more time on your plate to do other things.

 More than Passwords

Some password managers offer services beyond password and login management. You can use multi factor authorization, secure access to credit/debit card information and so on according to the features available for your chosen password manager.

Manage Shared Accounts

If you own or manage a business or company, you’ll know that the management of access to accounts can be a hard to crack, even more so if there’s a need for multiple persons to access a particular account. With a password manager, this nut is easily cracked open and you can effectively manage each account as you deem fit.

Some password managers incorporate a feature that allows you total control over your services while giving access to such service to other users without sharing the password.

LastPass vs. BitWarden: Which is good and Why

Now that we are familiar with what a password manager is and its benefits, let’s now briefly do a review and comparison of these two password managers.

LastPass Password Manager

This is one of the foremost ways of getting all your passwords into one single secure place. It ranks high among the best password managers available. The User experience of LastPass is second to none, and its free plan happens to be one of the best free plans available anywhere.

This Password Manager had a security breach in the year 2015 when its data was hacked. The response of the LastPass team to this hack was, however, smooth, swift and commendable, and this helped the password manager retain its position up till date as one of the best password manager app.

LastPass is highly recommendable for its easy-to-use interface. From setup to password management, LastPass allows you to cruise smoothly through with an awesome range of impressive free features.

Pros of LastPass

• The Free plan is excellent and ranks as one of the best free features among Password managers.
• It is very easy to use and has an auto fill feature that works very well at all times.
• The premium access of the LastPass is highly affordable
• The business pricing for this app is also very great
• It also has a LastPass Authenticator

Cons of the LastPass

• It has limited options for support
• It has a ‘no refund’ policy on purchases and subscriptions
• It has a record of a security breach

Features of LastPass

Lastpass has a lot of features and is among the top password managers with the highest number of useful features. With features like auto fill on chrome and desktop, adobe creative cloud, browser extension, LastPass security challenge, LastPass authenticator, and many more, LastPass offers users flexibility and usability.

Pricing:

• Free: There’s a free service on LastPass that offers unlimited storage and multi-device sync
• Premium: The premium subscription costs $3 per month and offers priority support for one-to-many sharing and application auto fill.
• Families: This goes for $4 monthly and offers protection for six users, family dashboard and unlimited shared folders.
• Teams: Offers price per user, admin dashboard, 5-50 users supported and standard reporting.

LastPass is a great password manager despite the data breach of 2015.

Bitwarden Password Manager

This is another great password manager. I moved from LastPass to Bitwarden during the LastPass data breach of 2015, and Bitwarden has proven to be a worthwhile password manager and one of the best there is.

It has a clean interface that allows easy access to the storing of passwords, notes, credit cards information, and identities secretly. It also allows for the easy importation of passwords and works quite satisfactorily.

Pros of the Bitwarden

• It is an Open-source software
• It has an option for Local encryption
• It also offers Zero-knowledge encryption,
• And the user interface is very easy to use and navigate.

Con of BitWarden

The downside of this password manager is that of stores data in 14 Eyes surveillance location. Otherwise, it is a great app with awesome features

Bitwarden Features

Bitwarden is a very good alternative to LastPass. It is constantly in development and changed its user interface from time to time while improving the general service and usage of the app.

It has features like availability of the desktop app, and mobile apps on iOS and Android devices, password importing in the browser extension, reliable password generator, Business use reporting, web app and other cool features.

Due to its regular update, more features should be expected from BitWarden over time.

Pricing

• The Free version of Bitwarden password manager does a great job, but to get more from the service, the available paid plans are
• Premium at $10+ annually
• The family that supports up to 5 users at $1 per month
• And business which offers support for up to 5 users at $5 monthly and $2 monthly for each additional user.

These two password managers offer the best free features in the market and are available on different platforms like Windows, macOS and Linux, they also have browser extensions and support for mobile devices. Whichever you choose, you will definitely enjoy the service!