LastPass Review – Is LastPass Premium Worth It?

LastPass is one of most well-known password managers on the market. It’s easy to set up, flexible, and has a respectable free plan. Overall, it’s a great option for businesses looking for a password manager.

LastPass offers several paid plans for businesses and individuals alike. LastPass Premium costs $2.40 per month, billed annually, Families costs $3.20 per month, billed annually, Teams costs $3.20 per user, per month, billed annually, and Business costs $6 per user, per month, billed annually.

The platform was subject to two high-profile data breaches in 2022, which has, understandably, led to widespread concern among consumers. However, the company deserves credit for its response, as it has taken numerous steps to ensure it never happens again.

To help you decide whether or not the platform is right for you, we’ve broken down pricing, features, pros and cons, and how it works, below.

In this guide:

• LastPass At a Glance
• LastPass Pricing
• LastPass Features
• LastPass for Business
• LastPass Drawbacks
• LastPass Security Incidents
• LastPass Alternatives
• Verdict

LastPass At a Glance

LastPass is a leading password manager that makes it easier to manage all your various online accounts. It can auto-generate secure passwords – a unique, unguessable one for each of your online accounts – then autofill these securely as you log in. All you need to remember is one master password for your LastPass account – just make sure it’s both secure and memorable.

Check out the scorecard below for a quick summary of LastPass.

LastPass Pricing

LastPass offers a free plan, although it is quite limited in scope. Users will get the basics – password storage, secure notes, and password generation – but not much else.

You’ll be limited to one type of device (computer or mobile), 50MB of secure note storage, and have no emergency access – features that are all available on the Premium plan ($2.40/month) and Families plan ($3.20/month). Meanwhile, the Teams ($3.20/user/month) and Business ($6/user/month) plans unlock more functionality geared towards businesses, including access to an admin console to centralize your company’s security, data breaches, accounts, and policies.

In general, it’s a pretty affordable solution. LastPass is cheaper than 1Password, Dashlane, and Sticky Password, but doesn’t eclipse the supreme value offered by NordPass.

In our opinion, if you need a password manager for your business, the Teams plan is the way to go. But if you’re after a password manager for yourself, you’re best off paying for the Premium service. Check out a full breakdown of LastPass plans in the table below.

LastPass Features

LastPass is affordable and easy-to-use, making it a good choice for users who struggle to remember dozens of different logins. The service has some great features to help along the way:

LastPass vault

The core of LastPass is the vault. This is where your passwords are stored. Without your master password, your vault is encrypted – it’s just a bunch of garbled data that won’t make sense to anyone, even if hacked. Unlock the vault with that password, however, and your data is readable.

Passwords and account usernames are stored in the vault along with the web address (URL) used for logging in to each account. If you land on a site with one of your stored logins, LastPass will either automatically fill in your login credentials or make them available upon request.

You can organize your login credentials into different folders such as work, home, and so on. LastPass also lets you add any notes if you need to, such as product licenses for paid software. Additionally, you can adjust features, such as automatically filling out login forms, or requiring you to re-enter your master password for access to particularly sensitive logins.

LastPass browser extension

In everyday use, LastPass’s browser extension does several things:

• Makes logins available to you when you need them
• Saves new logins as you create them
• Generates new passwords when necessary
• Tells you when you’re using the same password with multiple accounts and offers to change them

LastPass can be particularly useful when you need to make an online transaction, as it can be used to custody your payment credentials.

LastPass password generator

There’s also an automated password-changing tool. This can easily change the passwords you use on major websites.

To use it, simply look in your vault and open a specific login – such as for Google or Facebook. Then, under the saved password box, you’ll see a link titled Auto-Change Password. Click this, and LastPass will help you create and register a new password for that site with minimal fuss.

Emergency access

Of course, putting all your password eggs in one basket – no matter how secure – can feel daunting. To keep your mind at ease, LastPass has a helpful feature called Emergency Access. This allows nominated trusted people get access to your account, if needed.

This is a great feature if you should become incapacitated, or if you’ve forgotten your master password. To set-up Emergency Access, go to your vault and select Emergency Access from the left-hand column.

To give someone access to your vault, enter their email address and specify a wait time after they’ve requested access to your vault. LastPass offers a number of wait times, from immediately, to 30 days. The idea with the wait time is it gives you time to reject their access request if you need to. The default is 48 hours.

LastPass for Business

While password managers are highly recommended for individuals as well, the real power of these platforms lies within their ability to secure a business from potential security breaches.

Fortunately, LastPass offers two different options when it comes to business plans: LastPass Teams and LastPass Business. Here’s how they differ:

LastPass Teams

Teams is the starter pack for smaller businesses that want to start prioritizing security. It allows for a maximum of 50 users, and still offers many of the features you need to stay secure, like password generators, two-factor authentication, and a password vault for every employee.

You’ll also get specific business-facing features to more effectively manage your security, including an admin control panel, shared folders, and up to 25 customizable security policies.

In so many words, this is a great plan for getting started, but if you plan on growing and need to really make an impact on your security, the LastPass Business plan might be a better fit.

LastPass Business

LastPass Business is the robust, scalable solution for your password security needs. It allows for unlimited users, so there’s no concern about adding employees down the road, and it adds a wide range of advanced features on top of everything else provided by the LastPass Teams plan.

For one, you get advanced reporting, which will allow you to more effectively monitor the security of your team’s passwords as well as any problematic activity that could put the company at risk. You’ll also unlock more admin control to customize you and your team’s experience.

Additionally, LastPass Business allows for more advanced add-ons, included single sign-on (SSO) and multifactor authentication (MFA). They do cost extra though, with SSO costing an additional $2 per user, per month, MFA costing an additional $3 per user, per month.

LastPass Drawbacks

Overall, LastPass’ approach is great, but there are a few drawbacks. We’ve outlined some of them below.

Tarnished history

Despite its commendable response to the setback, it’s hard to get away from the breaches that have blotted LastPass’s copybook. For this reason, it’s no wonder that many customers have had their trust irrevocably broken.

Limited free plan

While LastPass is generally considered an inexpensive solution, it’s free plan leaves a lot to be desired. It lacks advanced security features, an essential component of any password manager, and the ability to share many items.

Slow tools

LastPass’s automated password changing tool is not as robust as comparable features on the market. For instance, it can only change site passwords one-by-one, whereas other tools, such as Dashlane, can change multiple passwords at once.

LastPass Security Incidents Explained

LastPass suffered two high-profile security breaches in 2022. One of them took place in August, and the other took place in November. They were both linked to the same threat actor.

In the first instance, LastPass’s source code was stolen, as well as some information pertaining to individual customers. In the second, unusual activity was noticed within a third-party cloud storage service.

On the one hand, no customer passwords were compromised in either incident, thanks to LastPass’s zero-knowledge architecture. However, it emerged in September 2023 that these hacks led to the seizure of more than $35 million in crypto assets from 150 victims.

LastPass Alternatives

LastPass is by no means the only password manager on the market. In fact, we’ve put several alternatives through extensive independent tests, including rivals such as 1Password or Dashlane. Though any of them are preferable to trying to remember your own passwords, we found that LastPass is edged out by the other services when it comes to features. Check out our more detailed head-to-head guides, below: