In October, LastPass was bought by LogMeln, which has many LastPass users worried that its new owners might increase subscription prices or withdraw the free version altogether. Andy Shaw weighs up six free alternatives.
PasswordBox
PasswordBox is another startup that got snapped up by a bigger business but, unlike LastPass, it had paid-for elements before it was purchased and the new owner Intel made it completely free.
The service is two-pronged. The main operation runs from your web browser, using an add-on you can install in Chrome, Firefox, IE, Opera and Safari (if you’re on a Mac). All your passwords are securely stored online and it syncs perfectly with its apps, which are available for Android and iOS. Most of the other services we tested work with a single device for free but charge for syncing, which gave PasswordBox an instant advantage.
Using the service is easy. When you first download the browser add-on and set up your account, you’re walked through the process step by step and shown how to set up your first password with one of six popular sites, including Facebook, Twitter and Dropbox. When you sign up to a site, a PasswordBox icon appears in the text boxes to show that the software is going to store its details. To log back into a website, you simply click the toolbar button and select the thumbnail icon of the site you want to open. The add-on will auto-fill the form with your username and password, so all you need to do is click the sign-in button.
There are a number of other interesting extra features, including a secure notepad that lets you store encrypted notes, and the option to share your passwords with a family member, so they can access your accounts in the event of your death.
If you only need to have your passwords available on a single PC using just one browser, you might be better off using our Silver Award winner because it saves your password data offline. Storing data online is reasonably safe but it’s not as secure as keeping it on your own PC.
PasswordBox does for free what other services charge for, namely the ability to sync your passwords across all your devices. Primarily running as a browser add-on, but with mobile apps available, too, this is a great choice if you want access to your passwords on more than one device.
KeePass Password Safe
KeePass has offered an open-source alternative I to LastPass for as long as we can remember. It doesn’t have a flashy interface but it’s a solid, hard-working tool that’s ideal for storing your passwords.
The software is PC-based and essentially consists of a purpose-built database for storing password and login information. It has a more utilitarian feel than the likes of PasswordBox, but everything is encrypted and stored locally, so you don’t need to worry about your passwords sitting on a server, away from your control.
When the software starts, youfre faced with a blank screen, which can be a bit disconcerting, but once you start entering passwords, things soon click into place. It’s a secure place to keep your usernames and passwords for future reference.
KeePass doesn’t give your browser access to your passwords, which seems like a major drawback but, because it’s open source, there are add-ons that let KeePass do almost anything you could dream of, including integrating well with your favourite browser. However, it’s not as slick a service as PasswordBox.
KeePass is an excellent secure database but it doesn’t integrate particularly well with the web on its own. There are add-ons that will do this, but they add an unnecessary layer of complexity to the service.
Clipperz
Clipperz is a web-based (database designed to keep your personal information secure and accessible online. You can use it for your passwords but, like PasswordBox, it can also store any other information you regularly need to access, such as your bank and credit card details.
Because all the information is stored in a website, you don’t need to worry about whether it will sync with one device or another. Instead, you just access it from any device that has a browser connected to the internet. The site is essentially the same wherever you access it from, but it’s been designed to work well on all screen sizes, adapting to mobiles so you don’t have to concern yourself with separate apps. You can add new data with a single click, and the site recognises what sort of information you’re inputting.
Strangely, for a service that operates within a browser, it doesn’t do a particularly good job of auto-filling your details into websites. In previous versions, this was done with a bookmarklet, which you clicked while on the page you want to fill. However, it would seem that more and more websites are blocking this, making logging into many sites more fiddly.
This service is as portable as they come - you just need a browser to provide access to all your saved passwords. Surprisingly, though, it doesn’t handle the auto-login process very well.
Dashlane Free
If you only need to keep your passwords on a single device, Dashlane is a solid option. It has its own software and integrates seamlessly with your browser, capturing passwords and other data as you traverse the web, then filling them in for you. The downside is that it costs $39.99 per year (around £26) if you want to sync with other devices, which PasswordBox does for free.
Sticky Password
Sticky Password has a similar feel to Dashlane but doesn’t look quite as sophisticated. It’s also free on a single device but syncing costs $19.99 per year (around £13) or $99.99 (around £65) for a lifetime license. You can try it free for 30 days but we think PasswordBox is better because it’s completely free.
White Sky FastConnect
Like PasswordBox, this integrates with your browser, just not as tightly or as well as our Gold Award-winner. It doesn’t install a browser toolbar button so you can’t click the software and get an overview of your passwords directly. Instead, you need to open the separate tool. It’s also connected to a web payment system, has its own search bar and displays ads in a panel on the right, which makes it feel like an adware add-on.