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Comment by MavropaliasG | Hacker News Reader

Can someone explain to me what is the advantage of using something like LastPass over simply the in-built password manager that Firefox or other browsers have? I know that LastPass can be used for desktop applications too, but if you are only using a password for the web, is LastPass offering anything more than the in-built browser password manager?

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Safari's built-in pw manager:

- until recently, didn't have 2fa

- doesn't support multiple domains under the same account (e.g., the stackexchange network is considered one site per subdomain)

- doesn't support generating complex passwords (it'll generate passwords but I'd hardly call them complex…)

- doesn't support credentials not associated with websites (e.g., an SSH login, a bank pin…)

Also doesn’t support recovery questions. As someone who generally enjoys safari, the password manager could use some love. Integration across devices is good though.

It does support the per-subdomain option now. You can edit a password to say whether it applies to the whole domain or a specific host.

Who only logs in on websites? So many apps also require logging in.

I'm also not sure if those built-in password managers sync to other devices and if you want to trust them with it.

Downside of Firefox Sync for password management is indeed its lack of iOS app integration. Sadly, I suspect it is Apple making it impossible to compete.

Upside is that it also syncs to my Firefox on Linux, which Apple’s doesn’t.

Syncing to my phone apps is my big reason.

credentials/certificates/keys/data storage, secure sharing etc. Pretty much anything that's more complex than single user username + password doesn't seem to be served by the current built-in managers.

A lot of these require deeper system integration, and this is not, in my experience, cross-platform. I’d rather have to drag my SSH/VPN keys and certs around manually, and have basic password management working across iOS, MacOS and Linux.

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