Category: Guides

When MSPs search for a Passportal alternative, they get pointed to Keeper, Bitwarden, or 1Password. These are fine standalone password managers. But they miss the point of what Passportal actually does — and why replacing it with a generic credential tool leaves a significant gap in your workflow.

Most MSPs running a mature stack have at least three tools doing the job one should do: a documentation platform for runbooks and network diagrams, a credential vault for client passwords, and something like Snipe-IT for tracking hardware assets. Each tool is fine in isolation. The problem is what happens in the gaps between them.

Most MSPs treat client portals as an afterthought — something bolted onto a ticketing system or hidden behind a SaaS dashboard the client never logs into anyway. That's a missed opportunity. A well-designed client portal reduces support calls, builds trust, and makes your operation look significantly more professional. The question is whether you want to pay a per-seat SaaS vendor to host that access, or whether you'd rather own it.

An expired SSL certificate on a client's site is one of the most embarrassing problems an MSP can have. Not because it's hard to fix — it takes five minutes — but because it's completely preventable, and clients notice immediately. Yet SSL and domain expiry monitoring is still an afterthought for most MSPs. Teams rely on email reminders from their registrar (if they remember to configure them), a separate SaaS tool like TrackSSL or UptimeRobot, or a spreadsheet someone updates once a quarter.

Most MSPs are running two separate tools to do one job. There's the IT documentation platform — IT Glue, Hudu, or something homegrown — and then there's the password manager: Passportal, 1Password Teams, Keeper, or Bitwarden for Business. Two subscriptions. Two per-seat fees. Two places to look when a technician needs the admin credentials for a client's firewall.

When you onboard a new client, one of the first things you're doing is building a mental map of their network. What subnets are they running? What's the gateway? Which IPs are pinned to critical infrastructure? And where does that information actually live?

If you've spent any time on r/homelab or r/selfhosted, you know the stack. Bookstack or Wiki.js for documentation. NetBox for IP address management. Vaultwarden for credentials. Snipe-IT for hardware tracking. Maybe a Nextcloud folder for SSL certs because you keep forgetting when they expire. Five apps. Five Docker containers. Five things to update, back up, and keep from drifting out of sync with each other.