PassPack – Another online password manager?

Not so long after I wrote my post about Clipperz, I got a comment from Tara about PassPack. She has written a very well put together article about the similarities between Clipperz and PassPack. As I have so many many passwords to keep track of using an online password manager would be the ideal situation for me. So I’ve decided to give them both a try.

After reviewing Tara’s article, I’ve already begun to notice some differences. Since I don’t believe in posting duplicate information, you can see a very well put together comparison chart in Tara’s article. One of the major differences I found is that Clipperz has a bookmarklet which helps out a bunch when I want to add a website to my password list. While it does require a touch of copy/paste to use, having the webpage automatically detect my password forms is a huge help.

Another thing that really helps out is that PassPack supports IE AND FireFox. The computers at work require us to use IE as FireFox (Although superior in EVERY way) is not “approved.” Anyways, I have been adding sites that I regular to PassPack and Clipperz. So far PassPack is winning this virtual battle, as soon as they have the bookmarklet to automate the adding of websites I think that will be the final blow to Clipperz.

Here are some cons that I’ve seen come up.

1. You *must* return to the manager to have access to your websites. Because if you have only one password for all your sites, what’s the point in having a manager?

2. In order to get to your websites, you often have to do more work to log in and access your manager than it would to simply log in to the site you planned on going to anyway.

3. Some managers dont take into account that special graphic that you gotta figure out what it says before you can log in. Often times the manager will just enter the info for you and hit “login” which can cause a log in error, and you have to type in your username/password anyway.

Here is one suggestion I have for these managers out there… Find a way to securely act as a plug-in to the browser which will allow the user to simply click a ‘bookmark’ to access their websites. Rather than log into your manager, then choose the website.

Overall, I feel this sort of technology is relatively new so there is a lot of room for improvement. I am already impressed with both websites for their ease of use and helpfulness.

So, what are your thoughts? Would you ever trust a 3rd party website with you super-sensitive logins?

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