I still pay for a password manager

I have to admit something: I pay for a password manager.

IMG_20190730_225803

And I know that with so many options out there (many of them free) I should probably try to justify why I pay for one, explain my workflow, and mention some alternatives I’ve tried or heard of.

First, I want to say that passwords are a topic I feel very strongly about. What really surprises me is how casually people treat them. Your passwords are the keys to your bank, your email, your school… For me, leaving one of my passwords exposed feels like leaving my house keys outside the door and hoping no one picks them up.

Anyway, let’s get to it. I use 1Password, the Family Plan, and I pay for the annual subscription. There are five of us, so each person pays roughly one dollar a month (which I think is a very affordable price considering the benefits of having a proper password vault).

I have it set up everywhere: on my phone, my personal laptop, and my work laptop. I use several vaults:

A shared one, for the whole family
A personal one, for my private stuff
A work vault, for all my job related logins

I also use two Chrome profiles: one for personal use and another for work. Since each profile has its own extension settings, the 1Password extension in my work profile only has access to the work vault. That way, I never mix accounts or logins. In my work Chrome, I can only access work stuff and I find that amazing. If I need to check something personal, I have to switch Chrome profiles manually. For me, that’s simple. That’s exactly the kind of separation I look for in other tools, but I haven’t found anything that matches it yet.

I also use it as an SSH key manager, but that’s another story. If you know what I mean, take a look, it’s worth it.

Do I know the alternatives? Sure.

Google Password: Doesn’t fit my multi-vault workflow.
Apple Password: Doesn’t work on Windows, and my work PC runs Windows.
Bitwarden: It’s paid too, so same deal. Though it does have a self-hosted version… and that brings me to my next point.

Self-hosted solutions scare me because, well, you have to host them yourself 🥁

Self-hosted solutions scare me because, well, you have to put them somewhere safe, make sure the server doesn’t go down, that it has a stable connection, make backups, and prevent anyone from stealing your data.

I’ve thought about setting one up on a VPS, but then again, that means paying to manage my own passwords (which feels redundant). Paying one dollar a month to not have to deal with all that sounds like a bargain to me.