The best password is one you probably can’t easily remember—that’s why a password manager is so crucial to your online security. This guide will help you find the best tool for generating and storing strong passwords to shore up your online defenses.
We are terrible at passwords. We suck at creating them (the top two most popular remain “123456” and “password”) , we share them way too freely, and we forget them all the time. Indeed, the very thing that can ensure our online security has become out biggest obstacle to it. This is what makes a good password manager essential.
A password manager relieves the burden of thinking up and memorizing unique, complex logins—the hallmark of a secure password. It allows you to safely share those logins with others when necessary. And because these tools encrypt your login info in a virtual vault—either locally or in the cloud—and lock it with a single master password, they protect the passwords themselves.
But password managers vary widely in their capabilities and cost, so we compared six of the most popular. All support Windows Mac OS, Android, and iOS, as well as the major browsers. And all will let you sync your data across multiple devices, though you may have pay extra for the privilege.
Here are our top two picks, followed by tips on what to look for when shopping for a password manager and full reviews of all six products.
LastPass offers all the features you need in a password manager at an affordable price. Read PCWorld’s full review
LastPass ticks all the boxes on our password manager want list. It makes it a breeze to create unique, complex passwords; capture and manage login credentials; sync them across multiple devices; and share them with others you trust. Its password auditing and updating features let you identify and eliminate weak or duplicate passwords with just a mouse click or two. It also stores credit card numbers and other personal data to autofill web forms when you’ re making a purchase, signing up for a service, or paying a bill.
LastPass also supports a range of multi-factor authentication options for protecting your vault, including app-based authenticators like Symantec VIP and Google Authenticator, hardware tokens like YubiKey, and fingerprint readers. And its $12-a-year subscription is a steal when other password manager services charge as much as $35 for a single user.
With its strong password analysis and polished interface, Dashlane is one of the best password managers available. Read PCWorld’s full review
Dashlane is the strongest contender for LastPass’s crown. It has a beautiful interface, is easy to use, and is stocked with features to help you strengthen your online security. Chief among these is a stellar security dashboard that grades your passwords and suggests actions for boosting your score and your protection. Only its $40 price tag—the highest in our roundup—dampened our enthusiasm for this fantastic password manager.
At their most basic, password managers capture your username and password—usually via a browser plugin—when you log in to a website, and then automatically fill in your credentials when you return to that site. They store all your passwords in an encrypted database, often referred to as a “vault, ” which you protect with a single master password.
Of course, most password managers do much more than this and many extend protection beyond your login credentials to other types of personal data. We narrowed it down to a few essential features that we looked for and you should too:
No online security measure is 100 percent foolproof, though, as we were reminded when LastPass, one of the most reputable password managers, recently scrambled to fix a pair of vulnerabilities that could have compromised users’ passwords and their computers. And just last month, OneLogin was victim of a breach that compromised customer data, including the ability to decrypt data.
Still, most security experts agree that password managers are still the safest way for people to manage their myriad logins, and we agree that the benefits far outweigh the risks. Just choose your password manager carefully after researching all the options starting with the guide.
If you’ re curious to see what other options exist outside our top picks, we’ ve listed them all below. We’ ve started with six password managers to kick off our guide, but we’ ll continue to evaluate more as time goes on—as well as re-evaluate services we’ ve already reviewed.
