The twin dilemma: how to create strong, secure passwords without forgetting them? The solution is obvious: make use of a password manager. They’re common as muck these days, but our favourite by far is the brilliant Bitwarden.

A quick precis of why we love Bitwarden: it has all the features you’d expect in a good password manager – easy and convenient to use, while locking your sensitive data away in a watertight vault using end-to-end 256-bit AES encryption that ensures it remains private. There’s 2FA support for extra security, and it works across all your devices: desktop, mobile and browser.

Bitwarden is an open-source password manager. Using Bitwardenrs, it is possible to create a self-hosted server, using little resources, enabling you to use all its features. Bitwarden makes it possible to share and sync usernames and passwords across all devices and webbrowsers.

It’s also open source, so completely transparent (and if you don’t want to trust your passwords to its ultra-secure servers, you can even set it up as a self-hosted server as we’ve done). It’s also completely free to use – no key features are locked away behind a paywall, although affordable premium tiers exist – just $10/year – if you want to take advantage of extras like a password vault health check or TOTP generator and storage, or just want to support it financially.

Set up your Bitwarden account
Visit https://bitwarden.com/ and click ‘Create Your Free Account’ to get started. You’ll be prompted to provide an email address and a strong master password – this is the only one you’ll need to remember going forward, so make it lengthy (no fewer than 12 characters, and avoid easily guessable phrases or words – mixed case letters and numbers are good).

I have bitwardenrs self-hosted, however I forgot my master password for the only user I have. I'm still logged in on all my devices, still have the 2nd FA. But now cannot add a new device anymore or do an export of the data.
Bitwarden is an open-source password manager that stores all your credentials in our encrypted vault, protected by a master password. It offers easy to use apps for desktop and mobile, including web and command-line interfaces.
Generate secure, strong, and random passwords to maintain security and privacy online with Bitwarden password generator.
If you have forgotten your Bitwarden Master Password but still want to make sure it gets deleted completely, then follow the steps given below: Visit Bitwarden recover-delete. Enter the email address associated with your Bitwarden account and click on Submit. Now check your email inbox and click on the Delete Your Account link sent to you.

Once set up, you can download the Bitwarden apps for your computers (Windows, Mac and Linux), mobiles (iOS and Android) and even web browser (all major platforms, plus a few niche options like Tor and Brave, are supported via add-ons). Log into your account through these and you’re up and running, with access to your passwords just a few clicks or taps away.

The most useful clients are the browser add-ons, as these link into the websites you visit. When Bitwarden detects you logging into a website it’ll offer to save the password in its vault for you – click Yes, and your details are stored. Now is the perfect time to go into your account details on that site to change the password to something stronger using Bitwarden’s random password generator (again, aim for 12 characters plus and make a note of any special requirements, such as special characters, to make it even harder to hack). Copy and paste this into the new password field(s) and if you’re not prompted to update your password by Bitwarden, edit the site details manually to do so (note, your old passwords are stored under ‘Password History’ for future reference if needed).

You'll notice that Bitwarden can also securely store other information: secure notes containing non-website information, plus forms and credit-card details for quickly filling into websites too.

Security and convenience
Having to enter your master password each time you open Bitwarden can be annoying, so click Settings to find simpler ways to unlock the app – as of Bitwarden 1.20, both Windows Hello and macOS Touch ID support have been added; Touch ID is also available on your iPad and iPhone. If you’re happy to lessen security on a trusted desktop or laptop, choose to unlock Bitwarden with a PIN instead of your master password.

We also strongly recommend you add a secondary layer of protection to your Bitwarden account in the form of two-factor authentication (2FA). This would ensure that even in the event your master password was somehow compromised, hackers still wouldn’t be able to gain entry to your account without direct access to your phone.

Download Bitwarden 1.20 now for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Also available are Bitwarden 2.3.1 for iPhone, iPad, and Android.

So, here is our compassion between Bitwarden vs LastPass, which of these is the best open source password manager 2021. The winner takes it all (and hides it) in the battle of the password managers.

Password Managers are, we think, generally a good thing. Remembering adsofpjdp is one thing, but also committing 4256p4m2glm! and paLsdKfnk26& to memory is quite another. Keeping your passwords strong and changing them regularly is important these days, when you can check on a website whether or not you’ve been “pwned,” and Chrome harasses you with your unfeasible large number of compromised passwords.

Web browsers, the front line in the war between password and jailbird, have been able to remember your passwords for a while now, and can generate strong passwords that you’ll never be expected to remember. This is fine until you try to log in on a different system, or using your cell phone, and have to dig in the browser settings to view the password that it recorded for you.

Benefits of Password Managers

There’s another benefit of password managers: they tend to come backed with some sort of internet security suite or browser plugin. They also make it easy to manage your passwords, syncing across devices, generating new ones, and hiding everything behind a master password—which is the only one you need to remember. You can also use them to hide encrypted notes, too.

Disadvantages of Password Managers

Of course, the downside of this is that they’re massive targets for password thieves. Once they’ve compromised your master password, your entire digital life is laid open. It’s worth, therefore, making that master password as complex as you can possibly cope with, changing it regularly, and never reusing passwords. There are also services, such as some banks, that don’t support their use, and if you’re caught with your banking details in one you may not get a refund if you’re a victim of cyber crime.

Two of the market leaders in password-management software are LastPass and Bitwarden. Both are available for free, though they maintain premium subscription tiers if you need the additional features they can bring. The free apps, however, contain all the functionality you’ll need as a one-person user, and only become limiting if you want to roll them out across entire organizations.

You can store an unlimited number of passwords in both, and sync them across devices. They both generate random passwords when you sign up for a new service or want to change an existing password, and you can use them to encrypt information, such as bank details or credit card numbers.

Bitwarden VS LastPass

Bitwarden is open source, which means it has faced external scrutiny from security experts, while LastPass is not. This doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with LastPass’s security, of course—it takes part in security audits—and neither app has reported a full data breach, though LastPass has been the target of some minor ones. LastPass offers a hint for your master password, which can save you if you’ve forgotten it. Bitwarden does not.

Both apps offer plugins for major browsers—Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera, and Safari. Bitwarden goes one further and plugs into the, ahem, “privacy-focused” browser Tor, while LastPass works nicely with Internet Explorer. These plugins can be used to auto-fill identity fields within webpages, as well as manage your password database via the web interface.

Both services also come with desktop apps, although it’s notable that Bitwarden’s doesn’t support two-factor authentication, and doesn’t have the random-password generator or password-sharing abilities of the LastPass app. Both services use separate authenticator apps, however.

Benefits of Password Managers

Disadvantages of Password Managers

Bitwarden VS LastPass

Bitwarden Remember Me Mf

Bitwarden Forgot Master Password