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The best password manager we’ve tested is NordPass, thanks to its excellent security assurances, its seamless browser plug-in, and its comprehensive business features. Plus, it offers a great free plan, which is always a boon for those looking for a deal.
NordPass’s Premium plan is currently available for $2.39 a month, whilst a Family plan for up to 6 users is only $5.99 per month – which makes it the best value-for-money option at the moment.
Data hacks and breaches are all too common for businesses in this day and age. Subsequently, relying on your employees to memorize a list of passwords is risky and outdated. The good news is, the best password managers will safely store your passwords, then automatically fill them in for you whenever you log into a site or service. Not all password managers are created equal, however – so which do we recommend for keeping you safe online?
Password Managers Compared
Using any password manager is a far smarter choice than trying to remember all your own passwords (or worse still, remembering just one and re-using it over and over).
However, there are some differences between the main password manager apps. In our testing, we take into account features, ease of use and effectiveness. Of the brands we tested, NordPass came out on top, closely followed by LastPass and Dashlane. Check out the rest of our password managers below:
- NordPass – A super secure choice with attractive pricing and an easy-to-understand design. It lacks some features but will certainly protect you online better than free options.
- 1Password – 1Password is a fantastic choice for anyone wanting to make easy work of juggling passwords. Easy to use and gives you plenty of control.
- LastPass – LastPass is a powerful app and has a great browser plugin, too. It’s also one of the cheapest available, which makes it a compelling choice for those after a good deal.
- Dashlane – A great interface and handy extra features, such as automatically saving receipts. Once set up, you’ll find that you’ll be logged seamlessly into websites automatically. You can even share your login details with nominated friends.
- Sticky Password – Nice automatic log-in feature and offers great value compared to rivals. The design isn’t going to win any awards, but overall it’s a good password app that works as intended.
Local Storage Option | Two-Factor Authentication | Failsafe Function | Password Generator Function A password manager can create secure, complex passwords for you. You won't need to remember them yourself. | Help Instructions | Email Support | Live Chat Support | Phone Support | Price Overall cost per year for a single user. | Business Plan? | Business Price Cheapest available business plan | Click to Try | ||
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Try NordPass | Try 1Password | Try LastPass | Try Dashlane | Sticky Password |
NordPass
A strong, easy to use password manager
NordPass (from the same people that brought you Nord VPN) is designed to make password management super easy.
It might not have all the high-end features present on some rivals, such as a killswitch, but does it have a very straightforward setup process and easy to use apps and browser extensions.
Plus, NordPass is a fair bit cheaper than much of the competition and offers an entirely free pricing tier. The free version of NordPass allows you to store the credentials for all your password-protected accounts, as well as store notes and credit card details. However, you can only be signed in on one device at a time, making the process a bit of a pain.
For single users, the Premium plan is your best bet at $2.39 per month on 1-year plans and $1.79 per month on 2-year plans. The family plan, which has room for up to 6 users, is $5.99 per month. They both have offers on 2-year plans until August 31, bringing their prices down to $1.79 and $2.79 respectively.
Want to know more? Check out our full NordPass review
Pros
- Offers a completely free version
- Easy to understand UI
- Neat extra features such as a data breach scanner
- Slick setup
Cons
- Can't change passwords for accounts in the NordPass app
- Lacks some features such as a failsafe switch
Is NordPass good for business use?
NordPass is a solid option for businesses, especially if they’re already set up with other security options from the company, like NordVPN. It is one of the more secure options on this list, boasting some additional encryption that can definitely add some peace of mind to your daily operations.
Still, it is missing a few features that could be a turn off for your business. For one, they only have one paid business plan, in addition to an enterprise-level plan with no publicly available pricing. Plus, you only get to use that paid account for up to 250 users, which could put a damper on the lower cost available.
NordPass Pricing
NordPass has fewer pricing plans than the password managers above, but still offers some seriously competitive pricing. For businesses, NordPass has the Business plan, which costs $3.59 per user per month, offering everything from 24/7 support to multi-factor authentication. They also offer an Enterprise plan with no publicly available pricing, which adds a dedicated manager to your plan.
For personal plans, there are a lot more options. NordPass has two pricing plans, including a free plan, which is good enough to get the job done. The Premium plan costs $2.39 per month on 1-year plans and $1.79 per month on 2-year plans and allows for one user to secure unlimited passwords. The Family plan, however, will cost $5.99 per month and allows for five users.
Plan | Price | Users | Devices | Passwords | Storage | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Free | Premium | Family | Business | |||
Free |
| $3.59 per user per month | ||||
1 | 1 | 6 | 250 | |||
1 | 6 | 30 | Unlimited | |||
Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | |||
3 GB | 3 GB | 3 GB | 10 GB |
1Password
A simple and inexpensive password manager
1Password is very easy to use and is available for most mainstream devices. It has a very useful password generator, plus its auto-login feature gives you a degree of control over the settings. It also has a large variety of specialized templates for saving information such as driver’s license details, passports, and software licenses, as well as document storage.
The price is great, at about $36 per year for an individual. 1Password is also a solid choice for businesses, too, thanks to its robust features and dedicated customer support.
Read Our Full 1Password Review
Pros
- 30 day Free Trial
- Even better than LastPass in our tests
- Local storage makes saving changed passwords more reliable
- Large number of secure note templates for storing sensitive information
- Very well-designed app
Cons
- No automated password changing feature
- Desktop app seems superfluous
- No camera integration on mobile
Is 1Password good for business use?
1Password is another password manager that definitely translates into business use. It offers two different pricing plans that are competitively priced, along with a wide range of business-minded features like unlimited vault storage, admin controls, and user permissions.
One of the more unique and beneficial offerings of 1Password’s business plans is that it also provides security for employees and their families. With the most expensive plan, every user gets a free Family account, which they can use to protect themselves and up to five family members with an account.
1Password Pricing
1Password is similar to LastPass in that it offers two personal use plans and two business plans. The business plans include Teams Starter Pack, which costs $19.95 per month for 10 users. This is a unique flat-rate deal that can save you big for a team of about 10 users. The Business plan is more tradition, coming in at $7.99 per user per month, which can certainly get a bit more expensive for larger teams.
For personal plans, 1Password is pretty cut and dry. There’s the standard 1Password plan, which costs $2.99 per month, and offers your basic setup for one user.
This isn’t as cheap as NordPass, which currently has a plan for a single user available for just $1.99 per month. The 1Password Families plan, on the other hand, will cost you $4.99 per month, and allows for up to six total users – NordPass also offers a family plan for 6 users, but it’s a lot cheaper at $2.79 per month.
1Password does not have a free plan.
LastPass
One of the most widely-used password managers available
LastPass is another great choice for your password manager, and it’s one of the best-known names in the industry. LastPass has a lot of robust features, including support for file attachments to password entries, autofill and auto-login, password generation, and secure notes.
Unfortunately, LastPass recently suffered a “security incident” which has damaged the provider’s reputation. The company claims that a threat actor broke into their systems and subsequently accessed data relating to websites that LastPass users had previously visited. This information was unencrypted and accessible, and could be used to orchestrate phishing attacks, among other malicious behavior.
Although sensitive data – including passwords users had stored in LastPass – remained hidden, and master passwords were not accessed either, security experts have warned all LastPass users to consider their stored passwords compromised.
Whether this affects the provider’s popularity remains to be seen – LastPass is likely to remain a go-to choice for password manager novices. The price is right at $36 per year for individuals and as low as $48 per year for businesses, and the fact that it’s browser-only (there’s no need to install a client/program on your desktop) means it’s one of the easiest tools to manage and maintain. There’s a separate, and easy-to-use, app that you can use for smartphones and tablets.
Read our in-depth LastPass Review
Pros
- Free tier available
- Makes it super easy to securely log into your accounts from a web browser
- Detects when you’re using the same password on multiple sites.
- Available on all major browsers, iOS and Android
Cons
- Connection issues, though rare, can make password changes maddening.
- Password changing feature is very manual the first time round.
Is LastPass good for business use?
Before the aforementioned security incident that took place just before the new year, we had recommended LastPass as the best option for business use as well. For one, it offers specific business plans that provide features like security dashboards, identity management, shared folders, and a wide range of others aimed at teams.
We’d advise waiting to see what steps LastPass take to fix the issues that allowed the threat actor to access user information they shouldn’t have been able to before you sign up for their service and entrust them with your private information.
LastPass Pricing
LastPass offers a whole bunch of pricing plans. For business, it offers two plans: Teams and Business. The Teams plan costs $4 per user per month and is best used for businesses with less than 50 employees. The Business plan, on the other hand, is $6 per user per month, and allows for unlimited users, making it perfect for enterprise-level operations.
If you’re looking for a password management for personal use, LastPass is also a great option. It offers a free plan, which everyone loves, as well as two other pricing plans: Premium and Families. The Premium plan costs $3 per month and allows for one user, whereas the Families plan costs $4 per month and allows for up to six users.
Plan | Price | Users | Passwords | Storage | |
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Free | Premium | Families | Teams | Business | Identity |
Free | $3 per month | $4 per month | $6 per user per month | $8 per user per month | |
1 | 1 | 6 | 50 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| 1 GB | 1 GB | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Dashlane
A brilliant password manager to choose
Dashlane is a well-designed tool that’s all about simple automation. Once you’re set-up, you’ll find Dashlane makes it effortless to log into your websites and online services.
It requires almost no interaction on your part once the passwords are saved in your Dashlane vault. Dashlane will also automatically save information from online receipts and has a sharing feature to let you share specific logins with other people.
Dashlane’s hybrid mix of browser extension and desktop program means the former isn’t as robust as it could be. Still, it’s a great program and ideal for anyone wanting a highly automated service.
Read our Full Dashlane Review
Pros
- Dashlane can automatically change multiple passwords at once
- Easy-to-understand security assessment of your password quality
- Auto-saves online receipts
- Virtual Private Network (VPN) included
Cons
- The free tier doesn’t backup your database to the cloud
- Very expensive compared to competitors such as 1Password and LastPass
Is Dashlane good for business use?
Just like LastPass and 1Password, Dashlane represents a decidedly impressive option when it comes to businesses. The password manager actually provides Spaces on its platform, allowing you to keep your business accounts and your personal accounts separate, so there is no confusing the two, leading to unfortunate miscommunications.
As you’d expect from a business password manager, Dashlane also provides all those business features you need to really get the most out of it. From admin controls and security dashboards to directory integration and account recovery, you’ll have full control over your security needs.
Dashlane Pricing
We’re three for three on password managers with a whole bunch of pricing plans! Dashlane offers some same pricing situation as our previous provides, offering three personal plans and two business plans. The business plans include a Team plan and a Business plan. The Team plan costs $5 per user per month, and the Business plan costs $8 per month, adding a Families account to each user, much like 1Password.
As for the personal plans, Dashlane actually offers three different options: Essentials, Premium, and Family. The Essentials plan is $3.99 per month and only allows for two devices. The Premium plan is $6.49 per month and allows for unlimited devices but only one user. The Family plan on the other hand costs $8.99 per month and allows for unlimited devices for up to six users.
Sticky Password
A genuine competitor to NordPass
Sticky Password is another good choice for a password manager. It makes it easy to store your passwords and log in automatically to sites and services. It also has a helpful security dashboard that analyzes your database for weak and reused passwords.
Its design leaves a bit to be desired, especially compared to the likes of Dashlane. The text for password entries is small, and it has a rather pointlessly designed feature for saving web bookmarks.
Nevertheless, Sticky Password is good value at $30 per year for an individual user, and has all the basic features you need including multi-device sync and an outstanding automatic login feature
Read our Full Sticky Password Review
Pros:
- Very well priced
- The automatic login features are fantastic
- Wide browser support
Cons
- Illogical saved bookmarks feature
- Desktop app design is outdated and can be sluggish
Is Sticky Password good for business use?
This is one password manager that we can’t really get behind for business use. Sticky Password just doesn’t offer the robust, enterprise-level features you need to really scale with the business, and that’s enough to turn us off.
Tools like single sign-on and admin controls aren’t available, so we’d recommend trying out a different option, particularly if you’re working with a bigger team.
Sticky Password Pricing
Sticky Password only offers one paid personal plan and one paid business plan, as well as a free plan. The paid business plan is called the Teams plan and costs $2.49 per month, while the paid personal plan is called the Premium plan is $2.49 per user per month, so you can get your team all squared away.
What Do Password Manager Apps Do?
Let’s be honest: passwords are the bane of online life. Sure, they’re necessary, but passwords are still an exhausting, inefficient security mechanism. They require you to be creative when coming up with them, and to always think securely (no, using “psswd1” isn’t good enough).
Security experts tell us we need a unique password for every account, and that they should be sufficiently hard to guess. If you have dozens or hundreds of online accounts, it’s impossible to remember all those secret codes.
The longer and more complex your passwords, the more tedious it becomes to have to type them in, especially when using the smaller keypad on a phone’s touchscreen. This leads to bad habits, like re-using short, unsafe passwords over and over again.
With a password manager, the hard work is done for you – these tools generate complex passwords that you’ll never have to remember yourself. The password manager automatically enters them whenever you need to log into a site. It’s all perfectly secure.
How Password Storage Works
You won’t need to come up with complex, unique passwords for every site – password managers do it for you. You won’t need to type in your login manually – password managers will autofill them in an instant.
All of your passwords are stored in a secure digital vault by the password manager. This is only accessible by a single ‘master password’. This becomes the one and only password that you need to remember.
With a premium password manager (for a very low monthly fee or annual license cost), you can access this vault from across multiple devices. So, you can use a password manager on your phone, on your laptop or on your iPad. In each case, a single click or tap of the screen, and you’re logged in safely.
One day, perhaps it will be common to sign-in with your fingerprint or eye scan. Until then, don’t leave your online security to chance. Setting up an account with a password manager may be the smartest decision you’ll make.
Best Free Password Managers vs Paid-For
You’ll have to decide whether you want to go with a free password manager, or pay a monthly or annual fee for a premium version. Free usually restricts you to a single device and only local storage, as opposed to having your passwords backed up in the cloud and synced across multiple devices. Depending on the service, there could be other restrictions for free users, such as no option for sharing passwords with trusted, nominated people.
Devices It’ll Work On
Make sure your password manager is available on the devices you use. Windows, macOS, Android and iOS are usually all supported by the major paid-for password manager brands. If you run Linux or use a Chromebook, you may find there isn’t a desktop client available – however, you should still be able to use a password manager browser extension.
Cloud Sync
Cloud sync is crucially important if you want to use your password manager across multiple devices. Put simply, it means all of your password details will be kept immediately up-to-date – controlled by the password manager – whether you’re logging in on your desktop or using your phone while out and about.
Cloud sync is a paid service in nearly every password manager you’ll come across. While you can use free password managers, they’ll rarely offer multi-device syncing for all your logins. Pay an annual or monthly fee, and you can enjoy this core feature.
Secure Encryption
Check that the password manager encrypts your passwords on your device before storing them in the cloud. This is standard practice for all mainstream password managers – free or paid-for – but it’s still worth double checking.
Password Generator
For day-to-day uses, you’ll want a password generator in order to replace all those weak passwords you’ve been using. This feature is usually found on either free or paid-for services. It lets you generate passwords from around 8 characters up to 60 or more, and it should be able to use all variety of letters and special characters.
Autofill
Free or premium, all password managers will autofill your logins as you arrive on a webpage, provided you’ve stored those details with the software. However, you may want to be able to turn this feature off, if you need to – say, for extra security on a shared computer. Some premium password managers give you this flexibility.
Local Storage
One other feature you’ll want is local storage, and it’s worth paying to ensure you can use it. This means your bank of passwords – including complex ones made up by a password generator – will be stored on your device, as well as synced to the cloud. This means you can still access your passwords and save new ones, should your password manager go offline. Without this function, you could run into login problems every now and then.
Verdict: What is the best password manager?
Our research shows that NordPass is the best password manager available, thanks to its great security assurances and its comprehensive and affordable business features. Still, options like 1Password and Dashlane are solid options.
Whether you’re a business looking to secure your sensitive data or just an individual that wants to stop remembering passwords, trust us, these platforms are the affordable, intuitive tools you’ve been looking for.
Frequently Asked Questions
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