LastPass Review: Easy to Use, But Should You? (2023)

Heimdien 29/11/2021 15h22

With over 30 million users, LastPass is the most popular password manager on the market, but that doesn't mean it's the best password manager for you.

It has one of the cheapest family plans, alongside subscriptions for individuals and companies. Paid users get the best features at a reasonable price while retaining the LastPass app and browser extensions on many laptops, phones, and tablets. However, the company has cut off customer service for free users and limited how they use the service.

We will walk you through the pros and cons of this password manager and also list some alternatives.

LastPass serves more than 30 million users and 85,000 businesses. It was founded in 2008 and later acquired by Boston-basedLogMeIn, the owner ofGoToMeetingefor the webinar.

Like other password managers, LastPass encrypts and stores your passwords, credit cards and other valuable information in a secure vault protected by a single master password. It rose to prominence thanks to a robust free plan, but the company has stopped offering some of the best features in the free plan.

A security breach in 2015 damaged the company's reputation, as did a more recent admission that the companyincorporates trackersin your apps. Trackers are designed to improve performance and do not collect or record any username or password information. A spokesperson said customers canoptical outputof analytics data in your account settings.

At Home Media, we tested the LastPass Business plan on the iOS app, the Safari extension on macOS and Firefox, and the Chrome extensions on Windows. We rated the password manager for its ease of use, accessibility, security, and ease of getting help when needed. While all apps work fine on all platforms, we noticed a small bug when using the web vault in Safari and had to restart the browser.

LastPass has fallen behind in terms of plans, customer support, and reputation. In August 2021, LastPass discontinued customer support for free subscribers after being limited to one device type.business usersare the only LastPass customers who receive email and phone support - paid personal plans only receive email support. Many free and paid subscribers complain about poor customer service on consumer review sites like Trustpilot.

LastPass Reputation

LastPass Reviewstrust pilotshow how the public reacted to the company's mistakes. With an average of 1.6 stars out of 5 out of nearly 300 reviews, LastPass's reputation is dismal. It does better on the App Store (4.5 stars) with an average of 2.9 stars on Google Play. A spokesperson for LogMeIn said LastPass strives to provide the best password management tool possible.

The changes LastPass made to its free plan led to many of the negative reactions. Free plan users must choose whether they want to use LastPass on a mobile device or on their computer(s). While other password managers enforce device restrictions on free plans, we haven't seen other companies restrict users from using only one type of device. It's a strange limitation that hasn't been well received.

Free plan users should also troubleshoot software issues on their own using support articles and videos or theLastPass Community. Community forums are monitored by the LastPass team.

Despite LastPass negative reviews or changes to the free plan, LastPass password manager remains a reliable way to keep your many passwords online handy so you don't have to remember them or, worse yet, reuse the same password from website to site. Try it out for yourself by signing up for afree premium trialorfree family test. After creating an account, complete the following steps:

Step 1: Import passwords

import your passwordsfrom a different keyring or database, or enter the passwords manually. LastPass browser extensions may also collect your account login information after you enter your login information for the first time.

If you choose to create a new password for an account, LastPass uses apassword generatorto keep your passwords strong and random. One of the best things you can do for yourselfFamily online safetyis to make each of your passwords unique. That way, if a password is compromised, you only have to change that password. LastPass makes choosing unique passwords easy.

Step 2: Sync passwords across devices

Once your passwords are saved in the vault, add the LastPass app or browser extension to each device. If you make changes to passwords or documents on one device, those changes will automatically be reflected on other devices.

Step 3: Enable Autofill

Depending on your device type, you may need to disable native password stuffing and replace it with LastPass. After enabling autofill, you'll see the LastPass icon in a website's username and password fields. Click it to autofill passwords, credit card numbers, and other information you've uploaded to the vault.

Despite previous security incidents, LastPass is a trusted company that uses industry-standard security protocols, including 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard or (AES)-256, the same level of encryption used by government agencies and the military to your safety.

LastPass also offers:

• PBKDF2- a fancy way of saying that LastPass turns your master password into an encryption key. It stands for Password-Based Key Derivation Function 2 with 256-bit Secure Hash Algorithm (PBKDF2-SHA256).
• „Zero-Knowledge“-Sicherheitsmodell- means that LastPass never has access to your master password or encryption key. They are only stored locally on your device and are never uploaded to LastPass's cloud servers.

This last point is important because after data breaches like LastPass in 2015, no one who gets their information encrypted can use it as they don't have the keys stored on their device. It also means that LastPass can never access your account without your authorization.

LastPass placedBug-Bounty-Programmintroduced after the 2015 breach to detect and fix security vulnerabilities. Unlike some competitors such asNordPass, does not publish independent security audits for public verification.

free plan

LastPass used to offer a great free plan, but the current offering has done away with unlimited device access and customer support. This means you must decide whether you want to use your mobile device or your computer with LastPass.

The free plan even includes the powerful LastPass password generator andmultifactor authentication(MFA) and unlimited password storage, but you are only allowed to share passwords and items with one other account (known as one-to-one sharing). Another downside is that MFA is limited - if you want to use your fingerprint or Face ID to authenticate your LastPass account, you'll need a premium plan.

Plano Premium (US$ 36/ano)

last passbonusremoves restrictions on devices or password sharing, and you can use Face ID to unlock your passwords. Also includes:

• 1 gigabyte (GB) of encrypted file storage— Think financial documents, licenses, passports and more
• emergency access— Designate an emergency user who can access your passwords and documents if something happens to you.
• security panel— monitors the strength of your passwords and thedark webfor data leakage of your personal information
• Customer support by email

Family plan ($48/year)

For just $12 more per year than the premium plan, six people get their own encrypted password vault and file storage. Plus, you can easily group and share passwords from a familiar management panel.

The familyit's a better deal than most password managers offer, including close competitors1 Password. Plus, it's easy to set up family members via email.

Teams ($48/year per user)

timesis for organizations with 50 users or less. Each user has their own password vault, along with shared folders, two-factor authentication, a security dashboard, and dark web monitoring for email. An administrator has visibility and control over the organization's privacy and security policies. The choice of 10 security policies allows the administrator to customize employee access.

While not as generous as the 30-day free trial for personal plans, a14 day free trialit's a great way to experience LastPass Teams.

legal recourse: We like how LastPass allows offline access for Teams users. This feature is useful when you are traveling or working somewhere without an internet connection.

Business ($72/year per user)

last passcompanyit's more expensive than Teams, but overall a better value due to the wealth of additional features included. User restriction is removed and you can access over 100 security policies to better match your company's security standards. Advanced user activity reporting is also available. LastPass newAdoption Panelprovides a visual representation of whether employees are logging in.

legal recourse: Business users get a free family plan for personal use. LastPass separates the plans so that families don't see work account information and employers don't have access to personal accounts.

The Business plan features federated login, API (Application Programming Interface) access, and directory integrations that verify employee identities and interact with your organization's systems. The Business plan offers unlimited single sign-on (SSO) for apps, resulting in a friendlier experience and fewer headaches for your business.

Last but not least, Business plans come with a Customer Success Manager to help you configure and customize LastPass to best suit your business needs.

Business and Teams users get the best customer support with email and phone service. You can also use a chat function onLastPass.comfor sales questions.

Personal Premium users receive email support, but free users rely primarily on LastPass.web fontsand community forum. You may be able to have a support agent call you by clicking the Contact Support button at the bottom of most help pages. Finally you can uselast pass'Chatbot on website for general questions.

Despite a downgraded free plan and past security issues, LastPass is still a solid password manager for many home and business users. We like the affordable family plan and the fact that business users get a password manager for work and home for one price.

Customers looking for a free plan should look elsewhere - we recommendBitwardenif you are tech savvy andNorton Password Managerr for a safe, no-frills option. People willing to pay a little more for a password manager will find a modern mobile app included.Dashlane Premiummore thanvirtual private network.