Hello people, hope everyone is doing great!
Being an active part of the dev community on Twitter, I came across a post of someone asking which "Password Manager" is the best one to use once while scrolling randomly.
This was the first time I heard of Password Managers. I was intrigued and curious to know more. So, I started exploring them. I asked people in discord servers about which one they use, watched many videos on YouTube, and read many articles.
In this blog, I'll be talking about it, which password manager I use, the benefits and how it helps me, and one of the most common questions, are they safe.
Welcome to my new blog. I was away for a while. Sorry for that; I started my first job and was having a difficult time managing time. Getting better now at finding some time for my personal activities.
So to start with, let us first understand what Password Managers are?
It is clear what a manager means. To be precise, a password manager is a computer program that allows users to store, generate, and manage their passwords for local applications and online services. They assist in developing and retrieving complex passwords, storing such passwords in an encrypted database usually hosted on the cloud or private servers in some cases.
This was a brief intro to what password managers are. In simple terms, think of it as storage with all the passwords you use, and you don't need to worry about remembering those. You just remember one master password to unlock and see/use all your passwords.
Top Password Managers ( Not in any particular rankings or order):
Bitwarden
Dashlane
1Password
Lastpass
Keeper
There are many more, but the above ones are more prominent and have a good user base.
Further in the blog, I will talk about everything about Bitwarden because that is the one I use for my use. But don't worry, all others offer similar options with a few differing features.
You must be thinking about why I chose Bitwarden. To answer that,
Its free plan offers everything I needed now, and its premium plan is also very affordable by chance. I need it anytime in the future.
I just felt after watching and researching a bit that it was easier to setup. ( This may vary from person to person)
You notice I didn't mention anything about my password's security as a reason. Well, let's answer that next.
First and foremost, I would like to say that even the security experts in the company I work for recommend every employee to use a password manager. So you can assume they are trustable.
Next, in Bitwarden, if you forget your master password, that's it, you cannot reset it, and your account is gone. Thus proving there is no way to hack into your master account.
The encryption algorithms used by these password managers are the industry best. Even before sending your passwords to their cloud, they encrypt them using their algorithms.
Coming to passwords, you can select what length of password you want, the characters in it.
For example, a typical 20 character password generated on Bitwarden looks like this:
9vm3^CN@d%hWrRySPeb*
See the above password. Even if you show it to your friend and asks him to log in, he wouldn't be able to do it. Passwords with all the above characters mean lower case, upper case letters, symbols, numbers and are incredibly tough to hack.
So, your data is entirely safe.
How these Password Managers actually help us?
Enough talking about the security. Let's dwell on how these password managers make our lives simpler.
To start with,
The self-explanatory one, you don't have to remember 'n' number of passwords. Remember one and let the manager worry about the rest.
No more keeping one silly password across all platforms. ( Statistics suggest close to 60 percent of people do that)
Apart from passwords, you can store credit/debit card info, essential documents, and more cool features if you are willing to pay for a premium.
Each of them has mobile apps on Android and iOS and browser extensions for a seamless login process.
Before using password manager, I reset most of my account passwords every time I need to log in because I forgot them. How painful.
Let me explain to you the benefit of having a password manager with a simple real-life example. Suppose you are at a friend's house and forgot your phone, suddenly a need arises to log in to one of your social accounts, bank account but wait! You don't remember the password. The whole party mood at the house is spoiled!
A thought pops, no problem, let's reset it using Gmail, but wait, you forgot your phone at home, so you can't see the code to reset the password.
Now, add a password manager to the scene,
You open your password manager's site, log in using your master password and hurray you can log in to any account you need. Then you can continue enjoying the party.
Have I convinced you enough to start using a password manager service yet? If not, you have to try out for a week and then re-assess. You'll undoubtedly love using them.
And if I have convinced you then probably you must be confused about which one to choose. As I said, I use Bitwarden as my manager so you can choose. If you want another service, I will add some links below. You can refer to see what others offer and choose accordingly.
Lastly, Your support keeps me going, and I give my 100 percent to these blogs! If you've found value, consider fueling the blog with a coffee ☕️ donation at the below link.
Thank you! 🙏
Top comments (0)