
Meanwhile, macOS offers Safari, a very solid browser by most standards, especially if you live in Apple's ecosystem and perhaps the reason a sizable share of Mac users (~40%) don't look beyond it.Īnd yet the default choice for most remains Google Chrome, if only for its integration with other Google services.

Windows offers Edge out of the box, a browser that's built upon the Chromium project and actually includes several features that Chrome doesn't, especially for Windows users, such as adding sites to the Start menu. Privacy Seekers: Download Firefox or Ungoogled Chromium.Most People: Download Chrome, or give Edge or Safari a chance.Depending on the browser or the network you use, relying on web services can also cause privacy concerns.įrom security utilities to productivity tools, and many suggestions for the areas in between, here are top app recommendations with a special emphasis in great free software you can download right away. Even if you just want to write emails when an internet connection isn't available, you may want to be able to read the messages that you are writing replies to.

Many of these apps are also available as web services, but app versions have the advantage of offline access.ĭownloading movies or music to local storage can be useful when you are expecting hours with no connection. We've compiled a list of essential programs to get you started. Color me surprised.You just bought a new laptop, built a new desktop PC, or are simply clean installing on a new solid state drive, good for you! Gotta love the taste of a fresh new machine, but now you have to get back to productivity Zen by recovering your files and installing programs. So a locally-hosted KeePass vault would end up costing me more overall than just sticking with BitWarden, which anyway is much more convenience and compatible (considering all vaults are accessible and editable in-browser). 2FA token use is free in the KeePass vaults, but features like iOS auto-fill are paid features in these apps.


They both have free versions, to be fair, but for basic equivalence with a paid BitWarden plan, you'd need the upgrades which come in at around $20-$30/year. The use of browser extensions is less smooth since quick updates to entries requires launching the app, but I figured that was a minor inconvenience for the ability to save the $10/year I spend on BitWarden.īut when it came to iOS, I found that the best apps that support a KDBX file in cloud-sync (KeePassium and Strongbox) both require their paid versions to support the same feature set that BitWarden has. Running KeePassXC on macOS at home and Windows at work was easy enough to set up (and of course, free). I had been thinking of moving away from BitWarden back to a simple KeePass based setup.
