Password Managers with Cross Platform Support: Where Are They?

It not new news that computer users have too many passwords, key codes, and bits and pieces of important information.  To complicate matters, we often have more than one computer.  Any many of us have computers running Windows, OS X, and increasingly Linux.   My current count includes 266 logins, 104 notes, 3 credit cards, and 2 different profiles.  I could never keep this information organized and safe without a software utility that manages this stuff.  This category of software utility is often called a password manager.  But that's actually a misnomer.  This type of software does much more than just manage passwords.  It manages and auto fills usernames and passwords; fills in web page forms; keeps bits and pieces of useful information; generates secure passwords; and maintains electric wallets.  The good news is that there is a small number of reasonably priced products available that do this well.  Many are now expanding their offerings to include web interfaces and one way support for mobile platforms like Windows Mobile, Palm and iPhone.

My two favorite products are 1Password for OS X and Roboform for Windows.  I use both daily and don't know what I would do without them.  The are well designed, reliable and mature, and do the job well.  But there is one thing that they don't do at all that is starting to make me crazy - neither product offers any type of reasonable cross platform support and synchronization.  1Password does offer very broad support to import password data from a large number of competing products.  Roboform does this too, but is more limited.

This is very useful when you are evaluating their software.  You can get up to speed quickly as you don't have too much information to re-key.  Also, both products offer good ways to synchronize data between multiple computers of the same platform.  And both products offer one way synchronization to popular mobile platforms.  But neither product offers synchronization between Windows and OS X.  This is what I need desperately.  I've been combing the Internet looking for a good solution and I can't find one.  So, I'm asking - Does anyone know of a good password/form filler/data scrap manager that is as good as 1Password or Roboform that is cross platform?  If so, please tell me.  I know there are many of us out there looking for a solution.

Please post a comment if this has been helpful to you.

Contact Info: info@consideritfixed.com

Comments

[AJ]

LastPass.com is what you are looking for. It works in IE and Firefox and both platforms. It isn't as robust as RoboForm and 1Password but they are actively developing it. I am a die-hard RoboForm fan and really love 1Password on the Mac as well. I've had to move to LastPass for the cross-browser cross-platform support. I wish RoboForm would make a Mac version or 1Password a Windows version.

[Steve Weisman]

I have been using Splash ID for years, first on my Palm-based PDA's and now on my iPhone. For other iPhone users, you may recall, that in the first generation security and a passward manager were a major deficiency. With iPhone 2.0 and later software, SplashID has come back on the scene. It is not as sophisticated as Roboform in integrating into your browser, but it does the trick. I use both the iPhone and destktop apps. Synchronizing is seamless.