The Best Way to Store Your Login Details

It’s amazing how many website login accounts you accumulate over time. I currently stand on 454, but I’m sure the true count is over 500. Inevitably there were sites I signed up to a decade ago when I wasn’t so disciplined with storing my login details!

Usually, our preference is to use the same credentials when creating new accounts. However, many sites place restrictions on what your username and passwords can be, such as the length and forbiddance of certain characters. Some also force you to change your password every so often.

What this means is there is far more variation than you imagined and remembering them all is tricky. The only thing that might remain consistent is your email address.

Up until 2014, I used a Microsoft Access database to house my details for every new site I registered with. I didn’t bother making it relational or anything — it was just a flat file that provided a simple way of accessing them when needed.

That wasn’t a great method, but it wasn’t the worst either.

Even recently, I’ve seen some pretty horrendous practices, from people building up heaps of sticky notes to using Microsoft Word as a makeshift database.

There are numerous apps out there, but I can’t recommend 1Password (1password.com) highly enough. Not only can you store your logins, but your plastic cards, documents and medical records as well — amongst others.

Moreover, it is available on all your devices and the browser add-in makes logging in a doddle. It can even detect when you change a password, so everything is kept in sync.

At only £26/$36 per year, it’s not going to break the bank either.

How do you store your website logins?