Changes on March 16th, 2021 to Lastpass free tier will prevent you from using Lastpass on more than one type of device

[kelvinhall05]

Summary

On March 16th, 2021, Lastpass will remove the ability for free users to use Lastpass on more than one type of device. This means you'll have to decide whether you want to use it exclusively on mobile, or exclusively on PC.

 

If you want to use your Lastpass account on your phone and computer, you will have to upgrade to Premium.

 

I had trouble understanding exactly what this meant, but thankfully they gave some examples:

Quote

• Sarah is a Free user with Computers as her active device type. She can use LastPass on her laptop, desktop and her dad’s laptop (anyone’s computer!), but she can’t use LastPass on her phone, tablet, or smart watch unless she upgrades to LastPass Premium, which has unlimited device type access. 
• Steve is a Free user with Mobile Devices as his active device type. He can use LastPass on his iPhone, Android work phone, tablet, and smart watch, but he can’t use LastPass on his desktop or laptop unless he upgrades to LastPass Premium, which has unlimited device type access. 

 

My thoughts

This is bullshit and not even 15 minutes after I saw this, I had exported my data, imported into Bitwarden, and deleted my Lastpass account. I strongly suggest everyone currently using Lastpass to switch to either Bitwarden or maybe Keepass.

 

Sources

https://blog.lastpass.com/2021/02/changes-to-lastpass-free/

[ki8aras]

welp that sucks

[Drama Lama]

looks like the product was a bit too popular

[Slottr]

 

Oh ok 

 

 

 

 

 

[Spotty]

The biggest problem I see with this is if someone's phone is stolen and they are unable to access their accounts/passwords from a desktop because of this (or vice versa). Very, very stupid.

I bet once this change goes through if you try logging in on the unselected device type it will just prompt you to sign up to premium. If someone is stuck in a situation where they need to get access to LastPass and don't have access to whichever device type they set it to they'll be stuck paying the $35 premium subscription fee or be locked out.

 

 

Quote

In addition to this change, as of May 17th, 2021, email support will only be available for Premium and Families customers. LastPass Free users will always have access to our Support Center which has a robust library of self-help resources available 24/7 plus access to our LastPass Community,

The update will also mean that free users can't contact Lastpass support, they'll be stuck using the FAQ on the website. Not that the email support would be much help anyway...

Lastpass: "Oh, you can't access from your device because you have the free version? Aww, that's too bad"

 

 

I can understand companies that offer free packages wanting to give incentive for people to use the premium versions, but they should do that by offering additional features that make it worthwhile subscribing to the premium version - not intentionally ruining the free service and locking people out of devices unless they pay.

[COTG]

obviously an unpopular opinion, but its a free product. Its intended to bring users onboard their platform, not just provide a free service indefinitely. I personally don't any problem with the company doing this as its most definitely in their rights to do so, and users can still export their data and move to a different product if they wish. If they also restricted the export of data this would obviously be a different case, but so far I dont see any issue. 

[elfensky]

Bitwarden if you don't wanna pay, 1Password if you do

[kelvinhall05]

10 minutes ago, elfensky said:

1Password if you do

and also have a mac*

[Codingale]

Man this change sucks the big one. I feel like I basically just switched to LastPass because Keypass wasn't easily synced on mobile. Is there a good easily transferable alternative? I need support for both iOS and Windows (Chrome) with the option to disable autofill. LastPass is pretty bad about just filling anything it wants.

[VeryColdAir]

I've been using LastPass for about 6 years now, and it has been really convenient, but I'm not sure I want to pay $36 a year for their premium plan. I'm really disappointed they made this change. It still says on their plan page that the free plan gives "convenient, reliable password management with access on all your devices for free."

 

I'll look more after work, but Bitwarden free plan (or even their $10 annual premium plan) looks like it's what I'll be switching to.

[elfensky]

48 minutes ago, kelvinhall05 said:

and also have a mac*

Have 1password and a mac, can confirm

[elfensky]

11 minutes ago, VeryColdAir said:

I've been using LastPass for about 6 years now, and it has been really convenient, but I'm not sure I want to pay $36 a year for their premium plan. I'm really disappointed they made this change. It still says on their plan page that the free plan gives "convenient, reliable password management with access on all your devices for free."

 

I'll look more after work, but Bitwarden free plan (or even their $10 annual premium plan) looks like it's what I'll be switching to.

Only issue with Bitwarden is that only the paid tiers have TOTP for 2factor. At the same time, it's 10 a year, so like, ehhh

[Spotty]

1 hour ago, COTG said:

obviously an unpopular opinion, but its a free product. Its intended to bring users onboard their platform, not just provide a free service indefinitely. I personally don't any problem with the company doing this as its most definitely in their rights to do so, and users can still export their data and move to a different product if they wish. If they also restricted the export of data this would obviously be a different case, but so far I dont see any issue. 

This is true, but it still sucks. I do appreciate you saying it though even if it might not be a popular opinion.

On the flip side everyone is free to stop using LastPass and go somewhere else, though somehow I don't think lastpass will care if they lose a bunch of free users from this and there's probably going to be enough people that sign up to premium because of this that it would be worthwhile for them.

 

I'm not surprised they're removing customer support for free users. The staffing costs of having customer support tied up dealing with non-paying users is a real cost they have. I can understand why they would only want to offer support to paying customers.

I wonder whether free or paying users are more likely to contact support? I vaguely remember reading something about that from another company where it was heavily skewed one way but I can't remember where it was or which it favoured. If anyone knows please share.

 

Locking users to only being able to access their account from one type of device is just an artificial lock. Since free users choose which type of device they're locked in to lastpass would still need to develop for mobile and desktop anyway it's not like the development cost of the apps would be lower by making this change. Unless I'm missing something it wouldn't cost LastPass any more to offer both mobile and desktop logins to free users. 

 

If you like LastPass, you've been using it for a while and there's some features of premium that you want them by all means you should consider subscribing to premium if you can afford it. But being scared you won't be able to access your account and passwords from a different device if you don't pay is not a good reason to get premium.

 

I really do hope LastPass backflips on that decision but I won't hold my breath.

 

1 hour ago, COTG said:

users can still export their data

Couldn't you keep one free account for desktop then just create a second free lastpass account for mobile and use the export function to keep the two accounts synced up. Shitty solution to a problem that shouldn't exist but if someone is determined to use lastpass across different devices without paying for it...

[Rohith_Kumar_Sp]

how to import lasspass passwords to bitwarden 

https://bitwarden.com/help/article/import-from-lastpass/

[Lurick]

What's really sad is they have an option to leave a comment on the update article but they seem to be removing all of them. I left one just asking what about when people lose their phone or are in a situation where one option isn't available to them, it's been removed.

[Semper]

2 hours ago, kelvinhall05 said:

and also have a mac*

Entirely capable of operating on non Mac platforms as well, including Windows. Been using it on Windows, Mac and iOS based platforms since ~2012.
 

Spoiler

https://support.1password.com/
 

directly lists Mac, iOS, Windows, Android, Linux, and ChromeOS

[kelvinhall05]

22 minutes ago, Semper said:

Entirely capable of operating on non Mac platforms as well, including Windows. Been using it on Windows, Mac and iOS based platforms since ~2012.

I was joking because 1Password is ass on any platform other than MacOS.

 

 

Source: Parents have been using it for years. Dad runs Macs, mom runs Windows. She has exponentially more problems with the same vault, same passwords, etc. Reading reviews of 1Password, basically everyone agrees that "it's the best choice if you have a Mac."

[kelvinhall05]

17 minutes ago, valdyrgramr said:

Eh, I kinda like them.   So, I'm fine with paying them 36 a year.   It's pocket change to me.

Fair enough. The only thing keeping me on their platform was "I am already using it and have no reason to switch." There weren't any features (afaik) that they offered and competitors didn't, so I didn't switch, but now...yeah.

[RejZoR]

3 hours ago, elfensky said:

Bitwarden if you don't wanna pay, 1Password if you do

Hell, Bitwarden is like 10€ a year. And it's great. I don't know what the hell LastPass is thinking, but this will be their funeral for the free version. Whole point of having password managers is cross platform use. If I can't use same passwords on desktop and phone, what's the point? And at that "premium" price, there are other better and more affordable options. Namely Bitwarden which is brillaint, dev working on it is pretty cool and community on Reddit very helpful. Couldn't ask for anything more.

[LAwLz]

I recommend bitwarden if you want a cloud hosted solution, or KeePass if you are okay with keeping track of the database yourself (or just put it on Dropbox). 

[Sauron]

Use keepass, it's free, it's open source, it works great on all platforms.

[Arika]

Bye lastpass

[Murasaki]

Guess they're completely fine parting with a large part of their userbase in exchange for extra moneyz.

[Arika]

i spent more time on this than i care to admit

 

[shermantanker]

I just switched to Bitwarden after seeing it mentioned in the comments on the Verge’s article and I like it so far. The Lastpass desktop UI has rather buggy and inconsistent as of late and I like Bitwarden’s layout. The cost isn’t really an issue with me.