A year ago, I decided to build a dead-simple password manager. I wanted it to be so simple, that non-techies would use it. Yet, it would still be open-source, decentralized, end-to-end-encrypted and other fancy things that only nerds care about, but which are important for everyone.

What is Skipper?

Skipper is a free, secure web service that will remember your passwords for you. You can access Skipper from any browser. No need for any apps or browser extensions.

In the future, you will even be able to text or email Skipper to ask for your passwords, and it will send you a link so you can copy them to your clipboard as needed. Here's a little slideshow that illustrates what I mean.

What does it look like?

We built it! Kind of. It's not designed yet, so it's not pretty, but the tech part works as a proof-of-concept.

It looks something like this. You log in with just a master password....

And then Skipper tells you your passwords. You can add or delete more. That's it!

Why is this special?

Skipper is no ordinary web service. It's highly secure because it is end-to-end-encrypted. This means your passwords are never stored or sent over the internet. No one can hack a cloud database and get your passwords.

But other companies already do this, what's the big deal?

Yes, there are lots of other password keepers that do this already. But are they free, open-source, decentralized, and so easy that my luddite friend Bob would use it? I don't think so.

Bob doesn't want to install a password app let alone pay for it. I can't convince Bob to use some complicated thing he doesn't even want in the first place. But I can convince Bob to use a website that's as simple as keeping his passwords in a word document or physical notepad.

Can I contribute to Skipper's open-source code?

Yes please! The project lives here on Github:

https://github.com/syllable-hq/skipper

How do I try out Skipper?

We have a test server. You can find it through the github project above.