Dropbox Passwords, free for everyone (but there is a limit)
Dropbox Passwords
Dropbox has announced its own password manager and has thrown it on the market with the promise of free: it is called Dropbox Passwords and in fact it is not exactly new. The service, in fact, was already included in the "paid" programs called Plus, Professional and Family, but starting from April it will become a standalone reality that can be accessed for free.Dropbox Passwords
Even free, however, has a limit: Dropbox Passwords will allow free use only up to a maximum of 50 passwords, with the possibility of using up to 3 different devices at the same time (example: PC, tablet, smartphone). To overcome these limits it will be necessary to draw on existing paid programs, namely those Plus, Professional and Family that also provide additional services such as storage space, collaboration tools and more.As for every password manager, Dropbox Passwords will also allow you to import the passwords in use from Chrome, Firefox, Edge or perhaps from a CSV used for the purpose: the system will manage the passwords in place of the user, thus allowing you to have more secure accounts and no problem of storage, entrusting Dropbox the keys of your online accounts.
An important aspect for security purposes is that all passwords will be stored by means of prior encryption, so that no leak may possibly put the entire corpus of your passwords. What remains to be understood is how good the offer is: 50 free passwords are a good start, but a normal online activity requires storing many accounts for access to a multitude of services.
Dropbox's hope is that, once the maximum limit is reached, they will choose to slide towards the subscription formula instead of looking for alternative solutions to stay within the free range. What is certain is that the issue of online security is increasingly urgent, the uses of the "123456" are no longer tolerable and the marginal utility of password managers is constantly growing. Dropbox wants to bite into this market, thus adding an additional utility available to those who still do not know the group's offer but may be attracted to it with the shiny completely free offer.
To access the service, a "Waiting list" to be registered through this page. Dropbox Passwords will be up and running within a few weeks.
Dropbox will have a free password manager in April — if you’ve got 50 or fewer passwords
Dropbox is adding a new feature on top of its usual offerings of storage and file sharing for free Basic accounts. Dropbox Passwords, the password management feature the company introduced for paying customers in 2020, will be free for Dropbox Basic accounts in April — with a new, arbitrary limit of 50 passwords that makes it seem suspiciously like a way to upsell you on a paid Dropbox account.
Now that LastPass is putting a device limit on its free plans, many are looking for a free alternative, and Dropbox Passwords will indeed allow you to sync your passwords across three devices for free. Like other password managers, it exists as a web browser extension, a mobile app on iOS and Android, and desktop applications on MacOS, Windows, and Linux. But other free password managers, like Bitwarden, offer unlimited passwords for free.
The 50-password limit might only make sense if you don’t have a lot of online accounts (grandparents come to mind). I think it would be very hard to find someone who both uses Dropbox and doesn’t have a stack of passwords numbering in the hundreds, and it’s not like it costs Dropbox more money to store double, triple or quadruple the number of passwords. We’re talking about text, not multi-gigabyte videos. If you’re already using a free Dropbox account for other files, you’re probably storing things that are already far larger than all the passwords you’ll ever use in your lifetime.
Still, it might be a worthy introduction to better password security for existing Dropbox users, and if you’re already paying Dropbox $11.99 per month for a Plus account or $19.99 per month for a Professional account, though, here’s a good reminder that Dropbox Passwords exists and you can easily give it a try. Dropbox plans to allow users to securely share passwords to other accounts at some point in the future, too.
When asked about the choice of 50 passwords, Dropbox said “We’re confident that 50 passwords will suit most users on our Dropbox Basic plan. For those who need more, we have a number of other plan options to suit various needs and individual, family or professional situations.”
Dropbox Passwords is available on free Basic accounts in April, but you should read The Verge’s list for some equally free, more fully-featured alternatives.
