Offline-First, Password-Unlocked Access for Browser Extension
I made the switch from BitWarden to ProtonPass a couple of months ago. The user experience is fantastic, but several facts are absolute dealbreakers, and I must make the switch back to BitWarden:
To use the browser lock feature (absolutely critical, in my opinion), an internet connection is required to validate my 6-digit code. Thus, my locally-stored, encrypted passwords are totally inaccessible to me without an internet connection. Many of my stored passwords are for locally-hosted devices that I need access to when the internet is down (I live in a rural area, and the internet goes down sometimes). This could be easily remedied by allowing the local encrypted vault to unlock with my password, which is what BitWarden does, to prevent the possibility of a brute-force on-machine attack.
I cannot create new passwords without an internet connection. This indicates that ProtonPass is built with a server/DB-first design approach, which requires trust in the company and trust in my ability to connect to the company servers at all times to access my encrypted passwords. Since much of my work is with offline devices, this is simply not the architectural paradigm that I require for my password manager.
Great product, but simply doesn't make the cut. Excellent kudos to the ProtonPass team for a fantastic product that shines in so many ways, but these points are absolute deal-breakers. I hope that ProtonPass shifts the approach to meet the needs of a local-first approach, and perhaps provides the option of a 6-digit server-validated code, with the default being a local machine password-unlock, and the ability to create new passwords offline which eventually reconcile with the server.
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