Which Password Manager, and Android app

[Deleted User]

ChilliBob said:

[Deleted User] said:

The Bitwarden is fine on iPhone, never had any trouble with it.

If you are willing to stretch your tech knowledge then you can host your own backend with VaultWarden and basically get all the Bitwarden features for free and peace of mind that you can keep it secure yourself and not risk BitWarden getting hacked.

Interesting, I could probably stretch to that - been out of that arena for a long time but used to be a sys admin, sql dev and other bits, a long time ago!

I suppose you would host it in something like One Drive or Google Drive to avoid having to consider backup? Or host locally and schedule a copy to there or something.

What benefit does that give you though vs standard (ie hosted by them).. And could you point the mobile app at that instance?

I'd be tempted, but if I don't feel there are extra features then perhaps it's not worth it. 

Interesting though for sure. Cheers for the heads up.


I actually did read up on KeePass last night out of interest, I was surprised to see its still a contender and still has new releases. I remember being a bit stubborn moving from thay to Lastpass lol, dinosaur 

I host VaultWarden locally at home in a Docker container on a Linux VM. It doesn't need many resources, Raspberry PI will do it although I have a bigger environment now so I've outgrown that and have a Proxmox VE server and a Proxmox Backup server, also local. I scale out to Amazon Glacier for my offsite backup.

The benefits for me are:

• Everything the top tier pack includes for free including advanced 2FA, unlimited accounts for family, emergency access, security reports etc https://bitwarden.com/pricing/
• You can use all the Bitwarden applications with it - phone/desktop apps etc and host a web app.
• Choose higher levels of encryption than the commercial product
• Lower attack value - commercial product is a high-value target for hackers, my self-hosted instance will not be worth the effort and is almost invisible to the outside world.
• FOSS - Free Open Source Software

Some cons though:

• If you want to access outside the home you need to think through how to do that securely - VPN server, proper firewall and reverse proxy for example
• Need to brush up on your cyber security skills
• You may end up down the rabbit hole of self-hosting and end up running 40 applications or more as I do.
• You are solely responsible for support, backup, patching etc
• Downtime - you depend on power/internet at home (however the apps all cache the password vault so you are not immediately in the dark)

Personally, I feel much safer doing it this way but it wasn't done on a whim - 2 years of self-hosting applications and websites before I felt confident enough security-wise to allow external access.

ChilliBob

I can see exactly what you mean, right now I'd not have the time to commit to a project like this, and yes, I can imagine it would turn into a bit of a hobby (cupboard in my office turns into a rack lol).

I can see the benefits, but for me at the moment I'd not be able to find the time to do it properly I think. 

One for the long list of 'when we're not treading water/almost drowning!' lol.

I still have some of my tech gear boxed up from our house move about 18 months ago for starters, eek

outtatune

So why did you rule out Keepass? For me it's the perfect solution. Does everything you suggested.

ChilliBob

outtatune said:

So why did you rule out Keepass? For me it's the perfect solution. Does everything you suggested.

Because the only way I can get a mobile app is with some fiddling around, plus, I probably don't want to be reminded the of the  time I was using it before! (not my favourite job!) 

HowardM993

+1 For Bitwarden, never had any issues with the app or on PC/MacOS. Recently moved to the £9/year tier but the free version did me well for years 

ChilliBob

Well you guys have convinced me, I'm signing up for Bitwarden to see what I make of it!

Now if I could have something with multiple vaults for the same email, and choose which one(s) to have on the mobile app.

I'm sure I'll reply to this thread when I start using it he he 

outtatune

ChilliBob said:

outtatune said:

So why did you rule out Keepass? For me it's the perfect solution. Does everything you suggested.

Because the only way I can get a mobile app is with some fiddling around, plus, I probably don't want to be reminded the of the  time I was using it before! (not my favourite job!) 

? If you want the mobile app, install the mobile app. What 'fiddling around'?

ChilliBob

I guess as there wasn't an officially developed one but a contributed type one I didn't feel as confident!