LastPass Premium price increasing

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Ice-9
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LastPass Premium price increasing

Post by Ice-9 »

LastPass is popular on this forum. Their premium product has been $12/year but is now doubling in price. They're also offering a new family plan with 6 logins for $48 per year.

I'm curious if these prices still compare favorably with competitors or if any Bogleheads are considering switching their password manager based on the new pricing. My initial reaction is I think it's still a good deal at $2/mo.
LastPass email wrote:LastPass Families is coming soon
Later this summer, LastPass Families will be available for $48 per year. This includes licenses for up to 6 users and unlimited sharing with your family.

● The best password manager for individuals
LastPass Premium is now $2 per month or $24 per year. Premium still includes all the features in Free, plus emergency access, the ability to share single passwords and items with multiple people, priority tech support, advanced multi-factor authentication, and 1GB of encrypted file storage. The new $24 price is now in effect for all new subscribers. Pricing for existing Premium subscribers will go into effect on September 1, 2017.
What this means for you

As an existing Premium customer, your day-to-day experience with LastPass will not change as you will maintain all previous functionality, including a shared folder. In addition, you’ll be given the opportunity to try LastPass Families free of charge for 6 months once it's available.
runner3081
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Re: LastPass Premium price increasing

Post by runner3081 »

Well, now that they give you the mobile app in their "free" service, I just don't see a need for premium.
penumbra
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Re: LastPass Premium price increasing

Post by penumbra »

runner3081 wrote:Well, now that they give you the mobile app in their "free" service, I just don't see a need for premium.
+1. The free service works just fine, including 2 factor authentication. Not sure of the value of the paid version.
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JaneyLH
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Re: LastPass Premium price increasing

Post by JaneyLH »

Dashlane costs $39 annually for unlimited number of devices. My husband and I share a Dashlane account with 2 PCs, an iPad, 2 smartphones, and 2 iPod Touches (still have some use for us). We have nearly 500 passwords stored plus all our credit cards and IDs (passports, Social Security, Known Traveler IDs, etc.). I like sharing one account between us because if something happened to one of us there would be no issue accessing any of our accounts. It automatically fills out forms. Works great across all the iOS and Android platforms and populates apps on the smartphones, iPad, and iPods.

And here's a quote from a current review of Lastpass from Engaget: "But LastPass has had some security issues in the past including bugs affecting Firefox and Chrome and one that could allow passwords to be stolen." Hmmm... a password manager that allows passwords to be stolen. :oops:
tibbitts
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Re: LastPass Premium price increasing

Post by tibbitts »

I guess a question to consider is the difficulty involved in migrating data between password managers. Besides the URLs, login names and passwords there are often notations to the sites (like for Treasury Direct), and then the separate files you create to share with other people - you'd have to migrate all of that.

Not saying LastPass might not be an okay value still but there's nothing to prevent it increasing to $3/mo or $5/mo etc. etc. And the free version can be eliminated. I started using free LastPass only this past year, because the person I wanted to share all my information with uses it (she uses the paid version.) It's worked pretty well but not sure how much I'd pay for it.
Jeff Albertson
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Re: LastPass Premium price increasing

Post by Jeff Albertson »

You knew this would happen when Logmein bought Lastpass a couple of years ago for $110 million.
Generator515
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Re: LastPass Premium price increasing

Post by Generator515 »

Jeff Albertson wrote:You knew this would happen when Logmein bought Lastpass a couple of years ago for $110 million.
In fairness since they bought it they made most of the premium features free.
Edgy033
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Re: LastPass Premium price increasing

Post by Edgy033 »

Not only is LastPass Premium increasing in price, their Free level has some notable changes:
While LastPass Free continues to offer access on all browsers and devices and the core LastPass password management functionality, unlimited sharing and emergency access are now Premium features. Free users will be able to share one item with one other individual.
Please note, existing Free users who currently have an emergency contact selected will continue to have access to this feature.
Source: https://blog.lastpass.com/2017/08/updat ... neup.html/

Free users can share ONE item with ONE other individual and can no longer select an emergency contact unless it is already established. Ehh..

Not enough yet for me to get Premium or compare other services, but it's not the best change.
tibbitts
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Re: LastPass Premium price increasing

Post by tibbitts »

Edgy033 wrote:Not only is LastPass Premium increasing in price, their Free level has some notable changes:
While LastPass Free continues to offer access on all browsers and devices and the core LastPass password management functionality, unlimited sharing and emergency access are now Premium features. Free users will be able to share one item with one other individual.
Please note, existing Free users who currently have an emergency contact selected will continue to have access to this feature.
Source: https://blog.lastpass.com/2017/08/updat ... neup.html/

Free users can share ONE item with ONE other individual and can no longer select an emergency contact unless it is already established. Ehh..

Not enough yet for me to get Premium or compare other services, but it's not the best change.
I had never seen where I could add an emergency contact - I would have done that if I'd known. Wow only one item - that's all I've shared but was considering sharing more.
stan1
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Re: LastPass Premium price increasing

Post by stan1 »

Glad I bought 10 years in 2015 when buy-out announcement was made.
Warning: I am about 80% satisficer (accepting of good enough) and 20% maximizer
Gadget
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Re: LastPass Premium price increasing

Post by Gadget »

JaneyLH wrote:Dashlane costs $39 annually for unlimited number of devices. My husband and I share a Dashlane account with 2 PCs, an iPad, 2 smartphones, and 2 iPod Touches (still have some use for us). We have nearly 500 passwords stored plus all our credit cards and IDs (passports, Social Security, Known Traveler IDs, etc.). I like sharing one account between us because if something happened to one of us there would be no issue accessing any of our accounts. It automatically fills out forms. Works great across all the iOS and Android platforms and populates apps on the smartphones, iPad, and iPods.

And here's a quote from a current review of Lastpass from Engaget: "But LastPass has had some security issues in the past including bugs affecting Firefox and Chrome and one that could allow passwords to be stolen." Hmmm... a password manager that allows passwords to be stolen. :oops:
Every piece of software has bugs. I guarantee you that Dashlane has exploitable vulnerabilities. I actually like that Lastpass discloses when they have potential security breaches, and that they've fixed bugs. If a piece of software never admits this, it probably means they're just not telling anyone. Or worse, not even looking for bugs or actively working with white hat hackers.
lazydavid
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Re: LastPass Premium price increasing

Post by lazydavid »

JaneyLH wrote:And here's a quote from a current review of Lastpass from Engaget: "But LastPass has had some security issues in the past including bugs affecting Firefox and Chrome and one that could allow passwords to be stolen." Hmmm... a password manager that allows passwords to be stolen. :oops:
The one about passwords being stolen as I recall involved locally-running malware tricking the plugin into filling a "login box". If you have credential-stealing malware on your system, it's already game over. Doesn't matter how you store your passwords.

And as Gadget said, LastPass has an established history of fixing potential vulnerabilities very quickly and publicly. Contrast that with other companies (not necessarily password manager vendors) that don't even disclose ACTUAL breaches for YEARS, until huge caches of account information is posted publicly.
junior
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Re: LastPass Premium price increasing

Post by junior »

Since they made most premium features free I've kept the Premium version but don't use any of the said "Premium" features. I guess I could downgrade...
Starting From Scratch
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Re: LastPass Premium price increasing

Post by Starting From Scratch »

penumbra wrote:
runner3081 wrote:Well, now that they give you the mobile app in their "free" service, I just don't see a need for premium.
+1. The free service works just fine, including 2 factor authentication. Not sure of the value of the paid version.
Concur. No value in premium.
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JaneyLH
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Re: LastPass Premium price increasing

Post by JaneyLH »

lazydavid wrote:
JaneyLH wrote:And here's a quote from a current review of Lastpass from Engaget: "But LastPass has had some security issues in the past including bugs affecting Firefox and Chrome and one that could allow passwords to be stolen." Hmmm... a password manager that allows passwords to be stolen. :oops:
The one about passwords being stolen as I recall involved locally-running malware tricking the plugin into filling a "login box". If you have credential-stealing malware on your system, it's already game over. Doesn't matter how you store your passwords.
Major breach was to Lastpass systems, not customers'. "LastPass has announced on their company blog that they detected an intrusion to their servers. While encrypted user data (read: your stored passwords for other sites) was not stolen, the intruders did take LastPass account email addresses, password reminders, server per user salts, and authentication hashes. The latter is what’s used to tell LastPass that you have permission to access your account."
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rkuklinski
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Re: LastPass Premium price increasing

Post by rkuklinski »

I purchased 1Password as a one-time software purchase and store my password file on Dropbox. This allows my various computers, phones, tablet, etc to access my saved passwords.

1Password has been pushing their users to a subscription model like LastPass but my current setup meets my needs.
'Who controls the past' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.'"
Starting From Scratch
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Re: LastPass Premium price increasing

Post by Starting From Scratch »

Generator515 wrote:
Jeff Albertson wrote:You knew this would happen when Logmein bought Lastpass a couple of years ago for $110 million.
In fairness since they bought it they made most of the premium features free.
True. Everyone is moving to the subscription based business model and I wonder how long free will last.
lazydavid
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Re: LastPass Premium price increasing

Post by lazydavid »

JaneyLH wrote:Major breach was to Lastpass systems, not customers'. "LastPass has announced on their company blog that they detected an intrusion to their servers. While encrypted user data (read: your stored passwords for other sites) was not stolen, the intruders did take LastPass account email addresses, password reminders, server per user salts, and authentication hashes. The latter is what’s used to tell LastPass that you have permission to access your account."
Even that is nowhere near as serious as it sounds:
Speaking of which, cracking that master code is going to take a long time unless your LastPass password is unbelievably weak, such as 1234LastPass or something similar. To crack your master password, hackers first have to get past your authentication hash—which includes 100,000 rounds of PBKDF2-SHA256 hashing—on the LastPass servers. Hashing uses an algorithm to convert one string of text into a longer string so that is difficult to reverse engineer and discover what the original text was.

One security expert told Ars Technica that he’s so confident in LastPass’ hashing that he doesn’t even feel compelled to change his master password.
My master passphrase is 30+ characters, and I have MFA enabled. I feel no less secure if my hash is out there than if it's secret. I have not and will not change it based on this.
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Fletch
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Re: LastPass Premium price increasing

Post by Fletch »

One Password is great. A balance of security and reliability for a good, fair price. Optimum value is a function of price, quality, service and security ... not just price.

https://1password.com/security/
finjour
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Re: LastPass Premium price increasing

Post by finjour »

I've been a LastPass premium customer for a few years, but I've been considering switching to 1Password since the LogMeIn acquisition. From what I've read about LogMeIn, they don't have the best reputation (https://www.troyhunt.com/logmein-now-ow ... es-how-to/). I think this change is a good excuse to cancel my premium and move to 1Password.
AnStrANG
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Re: LastPass Premium price increasing

Post by AnStrANG »

stan1 wrote:Glad I bought 10 years in 2015 when buy-out announcement was made.
Had I known of a 10 year option, I would have bought it in 2015. Never say anything like that though.
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randomizer
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Re: LastPass Premium price increasing

Post by randomizer »

Jeff Albertson wrote:You knew this would happen when Logmein bought Lastpass a couple of years ago for $110 million.
And that's why I switched away as soon as I found out about the acquisition.
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TravelGeek
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Re: LastPass Premium price increasing

Post by TravelGeek »

finjour wrote:I've been a LastPass premium customer for a few years, but I've been considering switching to 1Password since the LogMeIn acquisition. From what I've read about LogMeIn, they don't have the best reputation (https://www.troyhunt.com/logmein-now-ow ... es-how-to/). I think this change is a good excuse to cancel my premium and move to 1Password.
Be sure to read about their recent switch to a subscription model. I bought the product several years ago, but I have no interest in a password service. So for now I am sticking with it, but sooner or later I suspect I will have to move (perhaps because of some OS upgrade). I should check out Keepass, the open source tool.
JBTX
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Re: LastPass Premium price increasing

Post by JBTX »

I've been toying with the idea of a PW manager but one thing I'm not clear on how it would work with my quicken password manager. I'm assuming it wouldn't.
stan1
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Re: LastPass Premium price increasing

Post by stan1 »

AnStrANG wrote:
stan1 wrote:Glad I bought 10 years in 2015 when buy-out announcement was made.
Had I known of a 10 year option, I would have bought it in 2015. Never say anything like that though.
I bought one 5 year which added onto the term of my existing subscription. So I said to myself "let's try another 5 years" and the subscription then went out another 5 years.
Warning: I am about 80% satisficer (accepting of good enough) and 20% maximizer
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AAA
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Re: LastPass Premium price increasing

Post by AAA »

Can someone explain the advantage to using something like LastPass? I keep an Excel file with my passwords on encrypted USB flash drives. I don't like the idea of trusting anyone else with such things.
2015
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Re: LastPass Premium price increasing

Post by 2015 »

TravelGeek wrote:
finjour wrote:I've been a LastPass premium customer for a few years, but I've been considering switching to 1Password since the LogMeIn acquisition. From what I've read about LogMeIn, they don't have the best reputation (https://www.troyhunt.com/logmein-now-ow ... es-how-to/). I think this change is a good excuse to cancel my premium and move to 1Password.
Be sure to read about their recent switch to a subscription model. I bought the product several years ago, but I have no interest in a password service. So for now I am sticking with it, but sooner or later I suspect I will have to move (perhaps because of some OS upgrade). I should check out Keepass, the open source tool.
Totally satisfied with Keepass after approx. 4 years now. I would never use a online PW manager. I am not at all comfortable storing anything in the cloud, much less something as important as passwords.
stan1
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Re: LastPass Premium price increasing

Post by stan1 »

I log into accounts from my phone and three different laptops. I use random 20+ character passwords including symbols that are impossible to memorize. My eyes are bad so manually typing long character strings especially on my phone is error prone and frustrating and I need to cut/paste. I understand the principles of encryption well enough to have sufficient confidence (for the time being). I am not a high profile individual likely to be targeted by a nation state or organized crime syndicate. Computer system administration is not a hobby of mine (in fact I don't like doing it). For my purposes a password manager gives me the best risk/benefit tradeoff.
Warning: I am about 80% satisficer (accepting of good enough) and 20% maximizer
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Re: LastPass Premium price increasing

Post by junior »

AAA wrote:Can someone explain the advantage to using something like LastPass? I keep an Excel file with my passwords on encrypted USB flash drives. I don't like the idea of trusting anyone else with such things.
The advantage over your system is convenience, mainly. Lastpass integrates with your web browser, so you don't need to leave the web browser to access your password. It also allows you to access your passwords on your phone if you need them on the go, and syncs the phone and desktop.
Edgy033
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Re: LastPass Premium price increasing

Post by Edgy033 »

AAA wrote:Can someone explain the advantage to using something like LastPass? I keep an Excel file with my passwords on encrypted USB flash drives. I don't like the idea of trusting anyone else with such things.
Convenience (browser extension, app, website, etc).
Features (generate secure password, identify low strength passwords, sharing, and more).
Security (research the security on their website).

I used Excel a long time ago for my passwords. It was a hassle to use as well as to keep in sync across multiple drives so I wouldn't have a single point of failure if I lost it. At the time it wasn't very secure, mostly because passwording an Excel spreadsheet was terrible security.

If you lost your flash drive, would you trust your security protections?

Keep in mind that there are alternative password managers that wouldn't be cloud-based.
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TimeRunner
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Re: LastPass Premium price increasing

Post by TimeRunner »

I downgraded from Premium after they expanded the free services. No issues doing that. Don't see any reason to switch to another product at this time.
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BlueEars
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Re: LastPass Premium price increasing

Post by BlueEars »

Edgy033 wrote:
AAA wrote:...
I used Excel a long time ago for my passwords. It was a hassle to use as well as to keep in sync across multiple drives so I wouldn't have a single point of failure if I lost it. At the time it wasn't very secure, mostly because passwording an Excel spreadsheet was terrible security.
...
I used to use Excel too for PW's. Agree it is not as easy to use.

A friend mentioned security issues with password protected Excel files. I looked it up as I do have PW protected financial files. Apparently the security is fine for a full Excel file. As I recall there were security issues with older Excel versions and password protected individual sheets within a file.
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AAA
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Re: LastPass Premium price increasing

Post by AAA »

Edgy033 wrote:
AAA wrote:I used Excel a long time ago for my passwords. It was a hassle to use as well as to keep in sync across multiple drives so I wouldn't have a single point of failure if I lost it. At the time it wasn't very secure, mostly because passwording an Excel spreadsheet was terrible security.
Just to clarify, I am not using a password for the Excel file. The password is for the encrypted USB flash drive that the Excel file is on. And I have two such flash drives that are duplicates.
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