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Pros
- Free tier available
- Makes it super easy to securely log into your accounts from a web browser
- Detects when you’re using the same password on multiple sites.
- Available on all major browsers, iOS and Android
Cons
- No automated password-changing feature
- The desktop app seems superfluous
- Password changing feature is very manual
- Has been breached in the last year
- Established: 2008
- Dedicated app
- PC/Mac compatible
- Individual and family plans
- Emergency Access feature
- Free version available
LastPass is one of the best password managers you can choose – it’s easy to set up, flexible, and even has a respectable free plan available. This popular password manager can create passwords for you and store them securely, auto-filling them when needed.
If the free plan isn’t enough for you, LastPass offers some more robust paid plans for businesses and individuals alike. LastPass Premium costs $3 per month ($36 annually), while their Family plan costs only marginally more at $4 per month ($48 annually). Ideal for smaller companies, LastPass Teams costs $4/user/month, whereas the LastPass Business plan, which costs $6/user/month, is better for larger businesses.
LastPass has, however, had two security incidents in the last twelve months that have called the provider’s credentials as a secure password manager into question. This shouldn’t necessarily consign the provider to the software blacklist – no actual user passwords were stolen – but it’s good to keep in mind when reading this review.
If you do think it’s the right provider for you, go for it – but we’d advise checking the best password managers on the market before you make your decision. 1Password, for example, has a much cleaner security record and has never been breached.
| Plan | Price | Users | Passwords | Storage | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Free | Premium | Families | Teams | Business | Identity |
| Free | $3 per month | $4 per month | $6 per user per month | $8 per user per month | |
| 1 | 1 | 6 | 50 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| | 1 GB | 1 GB | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
What Is LastPass?
Left to their own devices, most users are terrible at creating passwords. After all, it’s a pain to remember five different passwords, let alone 10 or 20. All too often, users pick one password, then re-use it over and over. That’s highly risky – if the login data for even one of your accounts is ever stolen, then hackers have they key to all the others that share that password.
On top of this, too many users rely on classic, but easily guessable, passwords such as ‘123456’, ‘password’, ‘qwerty’, and variations of pets’ names or the names of family members.
LastPass can alleviate all this risk, and make it easier to manage all your various online accounts. It can auto-generate secure passwords – a unique, unguessable one for each of your online accounts – then autofill these securely as you log in. All you need to remember is one master password for your LastPass account – just make sure it’s both secure and memorable.
LastPass can auto-generate secure passwords – a unique, unguessable one for each of your online accounts – then autofill these securely as you log in
| Local Storage Option | Two-Factor Authentication | Failsafe Function | Password Generator Function A password manager can create secure, complex passwords for you. You won't need to remember them yourself. | Help Instructions | Email Support | Live Chat Support | Phone Support | Price Overall cost per year for a single user. | Business Plan? | Business Price Cheapest available business plan | Click to Try | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tech.co's Top Pick  |  | |  |  | |||||||||
| NordPass | 1Password | LastPass | Dashlane | Sticky Password | |||||||||
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| $36 | $36 | $60 | $30 | |||||||||
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| $19.95/10 users | $3/user/month | $60/user | $29.99/user | ||||||||||
| Try NordPass | Try 1Password | Try LastPass | Try Dashlane | Sticky Password |
LastPass Security Incidents Explained
LastPass had its first major security event in 2015, but recently, the provider reported two high-profile security incidents occurring in August 2022 and November 2022, both linked to the same threat actor. A class action lawsuit has now been filed against the company.
In the first instance, LastPass’s source code was stolen, as well as some information pertaining to individual customers. In the second, unusual activity was noticed within a third-party cloud storage service.
On the one hand, no customer passwords were compromised in either incident, thanks to LastPass’s zero-knowledge architecture.
However, other information was accessible, and this could be used by threat actors to pursue their own, insidious ends – and competitors like NordPass and 1Password have not had issues like these.
In this review, we’ve provided all the information you need on LastPass’s pricing and security architecture to make an informed decision on your purchase – but as we said in the introduction, the provider has done itself no favors in the past few months.
LastPass for Business
While password managers are highly recommended for individuals as well, the real power of these platforms lies within their ability to secure a business from potential security breaches.
With 81% of security breaches being caused by poor password security and breaches costing unsecured companies twice as much as secured companies, the importance of a good password manager cannot be understated.
Fortunately, LastPass offers two different options when it comes to business plans: LastPass Teams and LastPass Business. Here’s how they differ:
LastPass Teams – $4 per user per month
LastPass Teams is the starter pack for smaller businesses that want to start prioritizing security. It allows for a maximum of 50 users, and still offers many of the features you need to stay secure, like password generators, two-factor authentication, and a password vault for every employee.
You’ll also get specific business-facing features to more effective manage your security, including an admin control panel, shared folders, and customizable security policies.
In so many words, this is a great plan for getting started, but if you plan on growing and need to really make an impact on your security, the LastPass Business plan might be a better fit.
LastPass Business – $6 per user per month
LastPass Business is the robust, scalable solution for your password security needs. It allows for unlimited users, so there’s no concern about adding employees down the road, and it adds a wide range of advanced features on top of everything else provided by the LastPass Teams plan.
For one, you get advanced reporting, which will allow you to more effectively monitor the security of your team’s passwords as well as any problematic activity that could put the company at risk. You’ll also unlock more admin control to customize you and your team’s experience, as well as priority support for any beginners.
Additionally, LastPass Business allows for more advanced add-ons, included single sign-on (SSO) and multifactor authentication (MFA). They do cost extra though, with SSO costing an additional $2 per user per month, MFA costing an additional $3 per user per month, or you can bundle the two of them for only $4 per user per month.
LastPass Pricing
Can you get all the benefits of a password manager without paying a dime, though? Almost, but not quite.
LastPass Free is an outstanding service, without doubt. You get most of the plus-points of using a password manager – automatically-generated secure passwords, instant login, and use across several devices – without any cost.
What you won’t get, however, is the added backup of the Premium ($3/month) or Family ($4/month) plans or the business-facing features of the Teams ($4/user/month) or Business ($6/user/month) plans. This includes options to share passwords with nominated emergency contacts; improved customer support in case of problems; and additional secure storage for important documents, passport details and more.
In our opinion, if you need a password manager for your business, the Teams plan is the way to go. But if you’re after a password manager for yourself, you’re best off paying for a Premium service. The cost runs to just a few dollars per month. Even after LastPass’s price rise, it’s still a small price for peace of mind.
| Plan | Price | Users | Devices | Passwords | Storage | Password generator | Two-factor authentication | Admin controls | Security dashboard | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | | | | | ||||||
| Free | Premium | Families | Teams | Business | ||||||
| Free | $3 per month | $4 per month | $6 per user per month | |||||||
| 1 | 1 | 6 | 50 | Unlimited | ||||||
| Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | ||||||
| Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | ||||||
| | 1 GB | 1 GB | Unlimited | Unlimited | ||||||
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LastPass Free
If you only want to use LastPass on a single device, such as your PC or smartphone, then you can use LastPass for free.
However, there’s a limitation with this approach – very few of us use just one device these days. If you want to log into services via LastPass on both your laptop and your phone, then LastPass Free isn’t the way to go. Instead, you should be thinking LastPass Premium.
If – in a more likely scenario – you want access to the same password vault across all your devices, then you need LastPass Premium, which costs $36 per year.
If you would like to see what LastPass Premium offers before parting with your dollars, you can take advantage of the free LastPass trial.
LastPass Historic Price Increase
In 2019, LastPass raised prices on its premium plan, taking it from $24 per year to $36 per year for new users. The new price point put LastPass more closely in line with rival services – including like 1Password and Dashlane.
LastPass went in pretty bold in its official statement about the price rises, using the old “you can’t put a price on online security” angle (you can, incidentally, and it just went up).
“In today’s age of ever-changing security threats, the value of a best-in-class password manager cannot be overstated.”
So, is this good value? Yes. Though the price rise, which takes effect immediately, may feel unwelcome, $36 per year is arguably still a very fair price for the peace of mind that comes from using a password manager. In an age of online scams and huge data hacks that have revealed billions of compromised passwords, using a password manager is one of the smartest moves you can make.
In a push for online security awareness, Google stated that re-using the same password on multiple accounts is one of the most common mistakes that far too many of us are guilty of.
A password manager such as LastPass can end that bad habit. Password managers can generate secure, impossible-to-guess passwords, and remember them for you – entering them automatically when you log into a service.
LastPass: The Good
LastPass is affordable, easy-to-use, and secure, making it a great choice for most users who struggle to remember dozens of different logins. The service has some great features to help along the way:
The LastPass Vault
The core of LastPass is the vault. This is where your passwords are stored. Without your master password, your vault is encrypted – it’s just a bunch of garbled data that won’t make sense to anyone, even if hacked. Unlock the vault with that password, however, and your data is readable.
Without your master password, your vault is encrypted – it’s just a bunch of garbled data that won’t make sense to anyone, even if hacked.
Passwords and account usernames are stored in the vault along with the web address (URL) used for logging in to each account. If you land on a site with one of your stored logins, LastPass will either automatically fill in your login credentials or make them available upon request.
You can organize your login credentials into different folders such as work, home, and so on. LastPass also lets you add any notes if you need to.
Under Advanced Settings, you can adjust features, such as automatically filling out login forms, or requiring you to re-enter your master password for access to particularly sensitive logins.
The password prompt is particularly useful if you share a PC with others. That way, no one can log in to key accounts such as your bank or email without knowing the master password – even if you’re already logged into LastPass on the shared computer. See what else LastPass has to offer with a free trial.
Extra Storage Options
The vault doesn’t only hold passwords. It can also hold notes with information you may want to keep private. You can use this to store product licences for paid software, for example, or backup codes for two-factor authentication logins.
LastPass Browser Extension
In everyday use, LastPass’ browser extension does several things:
- Logins available to you when you need them
- Saves new logins as you create them
- Generates new passwords when necessary
- Tells you when you’re using the same password with multiple accounts and offers to change them.
Another way to use LastPass is to remember your payment details so that it can fill out a credit card form automatically.
LastPass Password Generator
There’s also an automated password-changing tool. This can easily change the passwords you use on major websites.
To use it, simply look in your vault and open a specific login – such as for Google or Facebook. Then, under the saved password box, you’ll see a link titled Auto-Change Password. Click this, and LastPass will help you create and register a new password for that site with minimal fuss.
Emergency Access
Of course, putting all your password eggs in one basket – no matter how secure – can feel daunting. To keep your mind at ease, LastPass has a helpful feature called Emergency Access. This allows nominated trusted people get access to your account, if needed.
This is a great feature if you should become incapacitated, or if you’ve forgotten your Master Password. To set-up Emergency Access, go to your vault and select Emergency Access from the left-hand column.
To give someone access to your vault, enter their email address and specify a wait time after they’ve requested access to your vault. LastPass offers a number of wait times, from immediately, to 30 days. The idea with the wait time is it gives you time to reject their access request if you need to. The default is 48 hours.
LastPass: The Not-So-Good
Overall, LastPass’ approach is great, but there are a few drawbacks. Re-entering your master password for added security won’t feel ideal for everyone. It can be tedious if you have to do it each time you land on a site, compared autofilled logins.
To alleviate this pain-point, only use this advanced security measure for key accounts where you feel the added hassle is worth it.
Lost connection drawback
Once you’ve created a new login, you can ask LastPass to generate a new password for you, and then automatically add it to the sign-up form. That’s a fantastic lifesaver, but it also has one big downside – if your connection to LastPass’ servers aren’t working, then LastPass may not remember that it created a new password for the site.
That is really, really bad. Sure, you have a new, secure password, but you have no idea what it is. Yikes. In practice, this is unlikely to happen often. But, when it does, it’s little short of infuriating.
Slow-going changing tool
Finally, the automated password changing tool is not as robust as with other services. It can only change site passwords one-by-one. Other tools, such as Dashlane can change multiple passwords at once.
In practice, this isn’t a drawback that you’re likely to encounter throughout the lifespan of your LastPass usage – it’s more of a pain point when first setting up, putting more onus on you to do a bit of manual setup.
LastPass Alternatives
When it comes to password managers, $36 is money well spent. But, is LastPass the brand worth spending on?
We’ve put some of the best password managers through extensive independent tests, including LastPass and rivals such as 1Password or Dashlane. Though any of them are preferable to trying to remember your own passwords, we found that LastPass is edged out by the other services when it comes to features.
The price rise makes things interesting. Where before, LastPass premium was a cheaper option than our top-rated 1Password, things are now neck-and-neck on annual costs.
If you’d like to judge for yourself, then don’t forget that LastPass offers a free trial.
Check out our more detailed head-to-head guides, below:
LastPass vs Dashlane
Although they both offer a similar service, there are some key differences between LastPass and Dashlane.
For a start, LastPass is the cheaper of the two, so if budget is your main concern, then this could sway you. However, we did find that Dashlane has a dedicated chat function, which you could be appealing if you come unstuck and need help.
Compare both the services in our LastPass Vs Dashlane guide.
| Local Storage Option | Two-Factor Authentication | Failsafe Function | Password Generator Function A password manager can create secure, complex passwords for you. You won't need to remember them yourself. | Help Instructions | Email Support | Live Chat Support | Phone Support | Price Overall cost per year for a single user. | Click to Try | ||
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| Dashlane | LastPass | ||||||||||
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| $60 | $36 | ||||||||||
| Try Dashlane | Try LastPass |
LastPass vs 1Password
Another highly rated password manager is 1Password, a complete package that offers a lot of features designed to make password management an easy task.
1Password has some neat tricks up its sleeve, such as the ability to create multiple vaults, so that there’s no crossover between your work activity and personal online life.
1Password is more expensive than LastPass (99 whole cents a month, to be precise), but we think it’s worth it.
Compare both the services in our LastPass Vs 1Password guide.
| Local Storage Option | Two-Factor Authentication | Failsafe Function | Password Generator Function A password manager can create secure, complex passwords for you. You won't need to remember them yourself. | Help Instructions | Email Support | Live Chat Support | Phone Support | Customizable security policies | Price Overall cost per year for a single user. | Business Price Cheapest available business plan | Click to Try | ||
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| 1Password | LastPass | ||||||||||||
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| $19.95/10 users | $3/user/month | ||||||||||||
| Try 1Password | Try LastPass |
Getting Started with LastPass
Using LastPass via a web browser is easy. First, you install the browser add-on from LastPass.com. The site will detect which browser you’re using and install the add-on directly. In the case of Microsoft Edge, it sends you to the browser’s add-on catalog.
LastPass works with all the major browsers, including Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Opera and Safari
Once you’ve installed LastPass, you’ll be directed to create a new account or sign-in to your existing one. If you’re creating a new account, LastPass will give you some guidance on creating a new master password.
Master password setup
This step is important, since all your other passwords will be locked behind this master password. It has to be hard-to-guess for the bad guys, but easy for you to remember.
If you forget this password, you’ll lose access to your entire password database and all your logins. This is why LastPass advises you to create a password that ‘tells a story unique to you’. You can merge together four or five separate words that mean something to you alone – for instance, ‘fifiatemywoolsox’, or a favourite song lyric. This should make it easier to remember, and replaces the previously popular method of creating an alpha-numeric password with six to ten random characters, symbols and numbers.
Once you have your master password, it’s time to start saving all your other passwords. If you’ve been using another password manager or the built-in one with your browser, you should be able to import your database by clicking on the LastPass icon in your browser and going to More options > Advanced > Import.
The Verdict
Overall, LastPass is a great password manager for most businesses. It’s well-priced, it works with nearly every device you’ll need it for. Plus, it offers great business-facing features that can help you avoid security breaches.
The service’s automated password changer could be a little more convenient, but the pros certainly outweigh the cons and we’d readily recommend using LastPass rather than trying to remember all your passwords yourself.
LastPass has suffered two security incidents in the last 12 months though, calling some of the provider’s claims about security into question. However, you can check out the best password managers for businesses currently on the market to see how it compares to other providers, like 1Password and NordPass.
LastPass Premium members also get self-guided and email support too.
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