LastPass Free vs. Premium: Compare Password Managers

LastPass is one of the better options, ranking highly among the best cheap password managers as well as the best free password managers. But is it worth paying for LastPass’s Premium plan if its free version is so great?

While LastPass Free has much to offer, you’ll only get certain features and benefits with a paid premium plan. Some are game-changing (multi-device access and syncing), while others are just nice (1 GB of encrypted storage). Whether or not these benefits are worth it is entirely up to you.

Which LastPass plan is better for your situation? Let this guide help you compare the two.

Unfortunately, the free tier isn’t the deal it used to be, as the plan is limited to syncing data only among computers or mobile devices. This is a severe limitation, as you’ll have to choose between using it on desktop or mobile, but not both. Add some quality-of-life improvements (including encrypted file storage, emergency access, and better customer support), and the Premium version looks much more attractive.

Still, I find the value of LastPass’s free tier better if you are looking for password management basics at no cost. It includes unlimited password storage, one-to-one sharing, a password generator, automatic password saves and form filling, secure note storage, multi-factor authentication (MFA), and the LastPass Authenticator mobile app.

LastPass recommends running Windows 8.1 and above, Catalina 10.15 (for macOS), Chrome OS, or one of the most common distributions of Linux. Supported browsers include Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari, and Opera.

There are two types of LastPass browser extensions; you can find the first in your browser’s extensions library. Brave and Vivaldi can use this Chrome extension, and SeaMonkey the Firefox one. On mobile, LastPass is available for iOS 13 and up.

Full support with automatic form-filling requires Android 8.0 Oreo or later. Still, the app will run on Android 5.0 Lollipop and later.

The LastPass extension has five main sections in the left toolbar to help manage your saved information: Passwords, Notes, Addresses, Payment Cards, and Bank Accounts.

• “Passwords” manages your saved accounts
• “Addresses” populates data sets for automatic form filling
• “Payment Cards” saves your credit and debit card information
• “Bank Accounts” adds direct banking information such as account and routing numbers
• “Notes” is like a catch-all for keeping information secure that doesn’t fit into these pre-established categories

Adding and editing information was easy across the board. What I found most interesting about the UX was the reward mechanism implemented for exploring the user interface (UI). You get a 10% discount for completing “achievements,” mostly geared toward teaching how to use the features of this service. I love this concept and hope to see it crop up more often for services like this.

The LastPass desktop app has six primary and five secondary sections, making it a bit more like the web experience. While the macOS version is fairly robust, the Windows desktop app is no longer being developed and has some significant limitations. However, in my experience, the pairing of the LastPass browser extension with the web app is almost all you’ll ever need.

While this feature works fine, it isn’t apparent how to distinguish between data sets until you’ve set up a few, particularly if you have multiple addresses under the same name. The system seems to assume each address will be for a different person. But if you’re adding many addresses, this could make the form-filling drop-down menu significantly more difficult to use.

As to how LastPass safeguards your data, it uses AES-256 bit encryption with PBKDF2 SHA-256 and salted hashes to ensure complete security in the cloud. You’ll create a password manager account with an email address and a strong master password to locally generate a unique encryption key.

Your master password and the keys used to encrypt and decrypt data are never sent to LastPass’s servers and are never accessible by LastPass.

LastPass Premium adds a few more options to the list for MFA support, which is highly appreciated, including biometric login and USB security key support. The only other added security is an emergency access feature that allows you to securely share your information with a trusted third party in an emergency.

It is worth noting that LastPass experienced a security breach on November 30, 2022. While the company assures users’ passwords were not leaked, it admits the attacker gained access to certain elements of customers’ information, though the specifics are unclear.

Winner: LastPass Premium wins by adding welcome MFA options.

This adds a welcome layer of safety and control over that security method. Yet it’s a little disappointing this feature is only available to unlock your LastPass account itself, without an option to add MFA to specific website logins, you might want to keep more secure.

But even the free version offers more MFA options than most competitors. You’ll be spoiled for choice with LastPass.

It may come as no surprise that we recommend LastPass Premium over the free version — the same baseline product is the same, but Premium has more features. However, this was a much closer call than you might expect.

The Premium plan does offer some features that sweeten the deal, but most aren’t things that I would consider to be necessary. Sure, it’s nice to have extra MFA options and encrypted file storage, but they’re not must-haves by any means.

What gets the Premium plan the win is the unlocking of the service for use on multiple devices. Most people use at least two devices regularly — their desktop device and mobile device. Having access to the service through only one is a huge handicap.

That said, if you only plan to use a password manager on one device, I’d recommend the free version every time. For more recommendations, check out our list of the best password managers of 2023.

On the surface, all password managers essentially generate and store passwords. As I evaluated providers, I dug deeper, comparing software on what matters most, including price, platform compatibility, security, and other factors.

I signed up for a plan with each provider to test:

• Plan value: Most password managers offer various subscription plans from free to around $20 per month. While free plans may be sufficient for some, those that need more functionality may prefer paid plans. We included a wide array of free and paid password managers to find the one that works best for you.
• Platform compatibility: You likely access your online accounts from multiple devices, including desktops, laptops, tablets, phones, as well as through different web browsers. Your password manager should be compatible with various devices, operating systems and browsers, and sync seamlessly between them all.
• UX: This is how you interface with all the features and functions of your new password manager — if it’s bad, you’ll be less likely to use the service. While this is a highly subjective category and some will disagree, it’s important to provide an overview based on my experience.
• Form filling: A password manager doesn’t have to include form-filling, but it’s somewhat standard and the ease with which it performs that function can be the deciding factor in which password manager you ultimately choose.
• Security: Since a password manager is first and foremost a security tool, it should come with all of the most up-to-date standard security features. This includes the highest level of available encryption (256-bit AES with PBKDF2-HMAC-SHA512); 2FA, such as biometric logins or MFA, and a password generator.
• Two-factor authentication (2FA): Used all over the internet to protect your accounts, this is quickly becoming a standard security practice. 2FA is a great way to secure more sensitive accounts to ensure they’re not breached.

Learn more about our review methodology.