I’m a huge fan of Codebook. Push it to clients and friends and family all the time. What bothers me a bit is, what is the long term viability of Codebook? It’s a fantastic App but I NEVER see it listed in the AppStore, it’s NEVER reviewed or mentioned. All everyone knows is 1Pass, 1Pass or 1Pass. Is the marketshare good enough that you’re viable or is this something to be a little concerned about if one goes all in and down the road need to migrate to another app because Codebook goes kaput?
Hi @TheMadCow, thanks very much for recommending Codebook to your family, friends, and clients, it means the world to us! And sorry to take so long to reply here, we have our hands full wrapping up a year-long project for Codebook and wanted to be thoughtful in our response.
With regards to viability, I’d like to point out that Codebook is one of the longest surviving password manager apps available. Very few can compare, many have come and gone since we launched the modern iteration in 2008. Over the last 11 years our customers have come to know us for continuous development, frequent updates, quick bug fixes, and excellent customer support. We also do a lot of careful planning to make sure we can adopt modern technologies and new features without creating problems for our customers (e.g. our plan for adopting Dark Mode on iOS). None of our competitors offer the kind of stability you get with Codebook.
We’ve been a small team from the beginning, and we like it that way. The people writing the software, the documentation, and doing the testing are the very same people handling support. We don’t have a publicist on staff, and we don’t spend piles of money on digital marketing campaigns and PR—which is unfortunately how one typically gets in the tech press for better or for worse. We also don’t buy search ads, or squat on the names of our competitors in the App Store (search for Codebook, and you’ll see an advertisement for LastPass; search for LastPass, and you’ll get an ad for Dashlane!) As is probably becoming clear, we have an antipathy towards this sort of thing.
We believe firmly in organic, word-of-mouth growth, in doing an excellent job, and letting our work speak for itself. The loyalty of our customers to the software and our approach is astounding, and I think you’d be surprised how many of them are as enthusiastic as yourself in spreading the word in their own personal and professional networks. A minor aside: the History page that second post links to got a solid refresh on Monday this week, including some of our plans for the near and farther future.
In keeping with our approach, we’ve been particularly focused on improving the setup process for new users, improving our documentation, improving the materials available on our website, improving our interface design, and improving accessibility in the apps. These things are critical to ensuring that when you tell someone about your favorite password manager, that it’s easy for them to make use of it right away.
We’re not going anywhere, we have big plans for Codebook, and we hope you find that reassuring! If you (or anyone else reading this) would like to see Codebook get better coverage in the press, here’s how you can help:
- Write the authors of articles you like, asking them to check us out! (Politely, please!)
- When you see an article about password managers that doesn’t mention Codebook, write the author or leave a reply asking why not.
- Comment, comment, comment (politely!) on social media and forum threads about password managers to spread the good word.
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I concur. Been with this same password solution for years (starting with STRIP). Zetetic has been superior over other “app store” password managers that I’ve tried over the years.
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Don’t get me wrong. One selling point is that, unlike the competition, Codebook hasn’t been breached. It’s a great product. I appreciate your sharing that reply. Keep up the great work.
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I agree wgray. I have been using it since it was STRIP on PalmPilot. It was great then and it is way better now. They have always been open to suggestions for changes and have always pushed it forward. I like the fact that it is encrypted which makes it much easier to place it out in the cloud so all my devices are informed.
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