Products · Product
pass password manager
Raised as a usability problem by 26 people on Hacker News over 15 years (2012–2026), in 19 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads in the last 5 years.
Every issue, all time, most people first
gpg-agent takes ages to prompt for decryption passwordUnreviewed
20122026- Command failed with obscure gpg-agent connection error, forcing user to debug GPG manually2022-06-17
- Gpg-agent takes ages to prompt for the decryption password2021-04-14
- Getting pass to work with gpg was a hassle2020-03-29
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 30 complaints
- Setting it up is complicated, not something non-technical users could do2026-07-22
- Hard to get pass working on every device with matching features, and mobile setup with smartcards is janky2026-05-21
- Generate overwrites all data in an entry, wiping other stored secrets like security answers2025-09-14
- Sharing the repository with another computer is not obvious, requires copying extra files2025-09-14
- Requires managing gnupg, a minefield of poor defaults; stores data in user profile2025-09-14
- Must retype long GPG password each time or cache it insecurely; YubiKey unlock is clunky2025-09-14
- Generate overwrites all existing entry data, wiping secret answers2025-09-14
- Android app and required gpg app are clunky and unfriendly to work with2023-01-25
- Manual copy-paste of passwords from free-form files gets annoying in the browser2022-12-29
- Command failed with obscure gpg-agent connection error, forcing user to debug GPG manually2022-06-17
- Android setup with OpenKeychain is fragile, annoying, and less convenient on Windows2022-06-17
- Not user friendly for non-technical users, with git-based setup2021-12-29
- Syncing and setup via git and gpg is very painful on Android2021-12-28
- Installing it needs more Linux skill than basic users have; tutorials skip steps2021-04-15
- Hard to use on every OS except Linux, adds gpg and git complexity2021-04-14
- Gpg-agent takes ages to prompt for the decryption password2021-04-14
- Getting pass to work with gpg was a hassle2020-03-29
- Can't get pass to prompt for the password in the terminal2020-03-29
- Users must learn PGP keys and syncing setup, which frustrates anyone not already familiar with them2020-03-10
- Setting up and maintaining GPG keys across devices is fiddly, especially on iOS2020-01-20
- Got stuck figuring out the gpg part, a high barrier to entry2020-01-20
- Footguns in the model: easy to expose private keys and leak data2020-01-05
- Easy to expose private keys or lose data if the model isn't fully understood2019-12-17
- Sharing passwords with a team needs technical skill, so non-technical members struggle2018-07-11
- Browser autofill requires manually searching the password database for each site2017-06-19
- Can't figure out a decent way to get it on iPhone2017-03-23
- Managing PGP keys is tedious for the commenter, who dislikes it2017-02-02
- Dark-blue directory colours are unreadable for a visually impaired user, forcing manual file edits2017-02-02
- Directory names are forced into colour, with no built-in option to turn it off2017-01-24
- Retrieving a password requires many manual steps: opening terminal, typing names, re-entering master password, copying and pasting2012-09-08