LastPass, the popular password manager application has made a big announcement which could affect free users of the service. The news is that the company is ousting its freemium trials for users which mean that users who aren’t premium subscribers will not be able to view or manage passwords on two devices at once any longer such as their computer or smartphone as well as losing email support. In fact, this new development will go into effect by March 16th
LastPass made the announcement about this new development via a blog post on Feb 16th making it known that free-tier users will not be able to view or manage passwords between two devices. This mean that a free user will now have to decide on which device more relevant to them (computer or smartphone).
Mobile users will be limited to iOS and Android phones, iPads, Android tablets, and smartwatches. While Computer users will be able to access passwords from Windows, macOS, and Linux desktops and laptops, the LastPass browser extension, and Windows tablets. A quote from the company’s website has the following information about the new development
We’re making changes to how Free users access LastPass across device types. LastPass offers access across two device types – computers (including all browsers running on desktops and laptops) or mobile devices (including mobile phones, smart watches, and tablets). Starting March 16th, 2021, LastPass Free will only include access on unlimited devices of one type.
With the above information, free-tier user will have three chances to make their choices of which device they have to stick with after the March 16th deadline. The statement goes on:
As a Free user, your first login on or after March 16th will set your active device type. You’ll have three opportunities to switch your active device type to explore what’s right for you. Please note, that all of your devices sync automatically, so you’ll never lose access to anything stored in your vault or be locked out of your account, regardless of whether you use computer or mobile devices to access LastPass.
In addition to the changes outlined above, free users will no longer have email support. “LastPass Free users will always have access to our Support Center which has a robust library of self-help resources available 24/7 plus access to our LastPass Community, which is actively monitored by LastPass specialists.”
Premium users will be the only ones that will have access to all these advantages such as multi-device syncing as well as email support and much more. The company will also be offering a 1 GB of encrypted file storage, dark web monitoring, unlimited device type access, dedicated persona; support, multi-factor authentication and other interesting values to its premium subscribers which will have to pay about US$3/month (billed annually).
For this impromptu development and in an attempt to bring users onboard the premium usage, LastPass is now discounting the premium subscription to just US$2.25/month (billed annually) which will be about US$27/year and then the following year, new users will have to pay the normal US$36/year.
For more details on this change check out the LastPass blog post.
