Bitwarden v. LastPass
This blog post will be split in to two parts. Part one will be a short education on password managers, as well as a few…opinions (you’ve been warned!). The second half will be how to migrate from LastPass to Bitwarden, along with resources on how to migrate to Bitwarden from other password mangers.
Part One
What is a password manager?
You know how difficult it is to remember passwords? On top of that, you have people like me giving advice on passwords, like don’t reuse passwords, make them complex, don’t use your birthday, etc. A password manager simply stores all of your passwords for you so all you have to do is remember a single password to access the manager of your passwords. This immediately reduces the number of passwords you have to remember down to one password.
What’s the hype with LastPass?
LastPass is one of the best options for password managers; that is a fact.
However, they recently shot themselves in the digital foot by completely reducing the usability of their free tier service. This means using LastPass will become extremely inconvenient.
“LastPass offers access across two device types – computers (including all browsers running on desktops and laptops) or mobile devices (including mobile phones, smart watches, and tablets). Starting March 16th, 2021, LastPass Free will only include access on unlimited devices of one type.”
Here is the whole article from LastPass explaining the details.
Let’s say you’re out with your spouse and get an urgent call from your accountant. You need to login to that one website you used one time for taxes; of course you don’t remember the password. Good news! You put that info in LastPass. Unfortunately, due to the new limitations of the free tier, you can’t login to your LastPass account on your smartphone because you logged in to your laptop on March 16, 2021. Really obnoxious, right?
On the flip side, LastPass is trying to run a business. They need us freeloaders to pay for the service in order to pay the people who write the software (and make dumb decisions like this one!). If you are an enterprise, they do have great options for sharing passwords across teams and companies, all with SAML or SSO options.
Part Two
I don’t like change.
This is a common sentiment, especially in the digital world. Fortunately for us consumers, the software wizards at these companies have created ways for us to switch from one service to another. Thanks to my friends at AlternativeTo, I found Bitwarden. So, I changed.
The most difficult part of the switch was just navigating the interfaces. In the defense of Bitwarden and LastPass, migrating your password database isn’t something you do every day. Here are a few things to note for those readers migrating specifically from LastPass to Bitwarden.
Use the LastPass browser extension to export a “LastPass CSV” file. This will be the easiest way to migrate between these two services. Here are a few screenshots to help.
If you can’t find the LastPass browser extension in Chrome, click the puzzle piece icon in the top right of the Chrome window, then click the push-pin icon next to the LastPass extension. From there, export the LastPass CSV file.
If you have folders in LastPass, do not recreate them in Bitwarden! The CSV file will pull all of that over for you. Pretty neat!
Bitwarden is a great password manager, and a great alternative to LastPass. Remember to use 2FA to further secure your password manager account. If your password manager doesn’t offer 2FA, try Bitwarden; we don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
We were not paid nor received any kickback from the companies in this post. All opinions are those of our company founder exclusively.
Resources
Bitwarden
LastPass Alternatives
Importing passwords in to Bitwarden
