The best password managers in 2026
These seven password vaults take the work out of staying secure.
If you buy something through a link in this article, we may earn commission.
A password manager takes all the most difficult steps of proper cybersecurity
and makes them easy. These apps invent strong passwords for you, save them in an encrypted vault and deploy them whenever you need them. It's like having a special notebook, written in your own personal secret code, that can't get lost or stolen.
I ran down the best password managers by looking at a few core features that compare across the board. For each manager on the market, I examined the security measures it uses to keep your data safe, the features it offers, its ease for new users and the value you get for the price. Seven clear leaders emerged in the end.
In this story
Best password managers: Specs comparison
| Best price |
Simultaneous devices |
Free plan |
Passkey support |
2FA support |
Emergency access |
Encrypted storage |
Email aliases |
Credit card safety |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NordPass |
$1.49 per month for 24 months |
Unlimited |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Bitwarden |
$1.65 per month for 12 months |
Unlimited |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| 1Password |
$2.99 per month for 12 months |
Unlimited |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| Dashlane |
$5.42 per month for 12 months |
Unlimited |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
| Keeper |
$3.58 per month for 12 months |
Unlimited |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
| Roboform |
$2.49 per month for 12 months |
Unlimited |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
| Proton Pass |
$2.99 per month for 12 months |
Unlimited |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Best password managers for 2026
Free plan:Biometrics, multi-factor authentication, password import, passkeys, unlimited storage
Price per month:No monthly plan
Best price:$1.49 per month for 24 months
When shopping for a password manager, you want to find one that's easy to use on any operating system, syncs your passwords across all your browsers and devices, has a clean security record and gives you all the extra features you need for quality of life — all without costing a mint. That's NordPass. It's not just the best password manager, it's also somehow the cheapest (without going into free plans).
NordPass succeeds through a mix of approachability and leeway for the user. All you have to do to sign up is create a master password, but no-password login is available for those who want it. You also get 3GB of encrypted cloud storage for storing and passing sensitive information other than passwords, and highly actionable password health reports on your entire vault. As far as usability, NordPass has cracked the interface design code, with every feature and control exactly where you'd intuit it to be.
Although this isn't the primary reason it's at the top of the list, NordPass benefits a lot from its connection to NordVPN and the Nord Security product line. If you can spare the cash, the best way to get NordPass is by bundling it with a NordVPN Plus plan. This subscribes you to both NordPass and NordVPN, while also throwing in a breach monitor, phone and email scam detector, ad blocker and several other features.
Frankly, the only drawback of NordPass is that the free plan is a bit lacking. Though you can install a free account on any number of devices, you can only log in on one at a time. Free users also lose the data breach scanner, email masking, sharing tools, storage and emergency access. But a limited free service isn't nearly as big a problem when the paid plan is so cheap.
Compatibility: Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge, Opera
- Free document storage on browsers and mobile
- Biometrics on free plan
- Integration with Nord Security family
- Shared design language across all platforms
- Free plan limited to one device at a time
Free plan:Unlimited passwords, unlimited devices, passkeys, email aliases, secure file sharing
Price per month:No monthly plan
Best price:$1.65 per month for 12 months
Bitwarden is both the best free password manager and the overall second-cheapest, only beaten by NordPass. It offers a wealth of free features that you'd have to pay for on any other password manager. The free plan puts no limits on how many credentials you can store or how many devices you can use it on at once. Not only that, free users can sync vaults between every device Bitwarden is installed on.
It goes even further. On the free plan, you can securely share credentials with one other person with a Bitwarden account, like a family member or close colleague. You can also freely use Bitwarden Send, a side app for sharing files and information through an encrypted channel. It's a crude solution, but you could even use it for additional password sharing in a pinch.
If you upgrade to a paid plan, where a whole year costs less than a dinner for one, the sharing limit is removed. You also get 10 security keys that can replace passwords on trusted hardware, 5GB of encrypted storage for attachments and the ability to generate reports on the health of passwords in your vault.
Bitwarden is completely open source, so you can inspect its code if you're not sure what it's doing with your data. (If you're not a coder, don't worry — the experts say it's solid). This approach of privileging user experience over trade secrets also makes Bitwarden compatible with a wider range of browsers than most competitors, including oddballs like Vivaldi and Tor.
Compatibility: Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge, Opera, DuckDuckGo, Vivaldi, Brave, Tor
- Free plan includes sharing with one person
- No device or storage limit on free plan
- Huge selection of browser extensions
- No emergency access on free plan
Free plan:None
Price per month:$4.99
Best price:$2.99 per month for 12 months
1Password gets my vote for the easiest password manager to use and one of the best overall. It's extremely flexible, with accurate autofills on complex online forms and an app that syncs without issues across multiple different platforms. Whether you're on a laptop or phone, and no matter which web browser you're using, you can use 1Password to see the same sets of credentials. It handles well on every device, with no lags and intuitive vault customization.
One of the nicest features lets you make secure notes, in case you need to write down any sensitive information that isn't formatted like a password. Other useful features include Travel Mode, which conceals all vaults unless you've designated them as travel safe, and Watchtower, a one-stop dashboard for alerts about all possible security risks you encounter on the web. You might hear from Watchtower about accounts where you've used a weak password or websites where there's recently been a breach.
As a final note of recommendation, it's worth mentioning that Troy Hunt — who also operates the extremely useful data breach scanner HaveIBeenPwned — is a strategic adviser to 1Password. If you've found HIBP helpful in the past, 1Password's compromised credential scanner is essentially the same thing.
Compatibility: Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge, Brave
- Easy to use on any device
- Includes 1GB of encrypted storage
- Watchtower alerts you to security risks
- No free plan
- Emergency kit is just a PDF
Free plan:None
Price per month:No monthly plan
Best price:$5.42 per month for 12 months
Dashlane is by far the most expensive option on this list, but I wouldn't have mentioned it if I didn't think it earns the right to cost that much. Just note, though, that Dashlane discontinued its limited free plan in 2025, so paying is now the only way to use it.
A few things make Dashlane more than worth the money. First, it includes full access to a VPN. Unfortunately, the VPN is Hotspot Shield. This service doesn't rank among the best VPNs due to logging more information than it needs, but it's still a lot better than no VPN at all, keeping you safe from third-party interlopers.
Passwordless login is another key perk. Dashlane lets you seal your account with a combination of biometric factors and a unique key, which doesn't need to be as long or complex as a traditional master password. You need a separate one for every device, but it's still easier to remember than a random four-word phrase with special characters.
Dashlane also does sharing better than almost anyone else. It manages all permissions from a recently revamped sharing center, where you can group lists of people who will have the same access level, adjust access for people and accounts, and handle all incoming sharing requests.
One final note: As I was writing this, Dashlane announced that about 20 user vaults were partially compromised by hackers in a brute-force attack — literally guessing passcodes until one turned out to be right. The repeated login attempts auto-locked the accounts, and — while "the attackers were able to download a copy of the encrypted vaults of fewer than 20 personal plan users" — those downloaded files are effectively big blobs of unreadable data. Given all that plus the fact that Dashlane reported the incident itself, it appears that its infrastructure remains secure, so my recommendation doesn't change.
Compatibility: Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge
- Bundled VPN
- No-password login
- User-friendly sharing center
- No free plan
- Expensive overall
- Only 1GB of note storage
Free plan:Unlimited passwords, password leak monitor, two-factor authentication, passkeys
Price per month:No monthly plan
Best price:$2.49 per month for 12 months
RoboForm is an old-school password manager. It launched in 2000, so long ago that auto-fill features didn't come standard on web browsers (hence the name). It now has a strong claim to being the original password manager, though one that's managed to evolve with the times, going through eight versions so far.
From RoboForm's updated interface, you'd never know it's a veteran. It's easy to use and customize, with options for icon size and organization that Windows and Mac users will both find comfortably familiar. Large buttons and frequent on-screen tips make it hard to get lost, plus dark mode looks great. When you encounter a form online, RoboForm works quickly and intelligently, filling massive forms without errors.
RoboForm isn't just easy to use — it also manages to pack a lot of features into its apps without things getting muddled. Every RoboForm subscription, free or paid, comes with unlimited record storage, easy import and export, a password generator, offline functionality and support for passkeys. Going pro gets you one of the best secure credential sharing options on the market, with a robust set of access controls for files and folders.
Compatibility: Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Chrome, Firefox, Edge
- Fills out long forms accurately
- Easy to customize and use
- Well-implemented features
- No Safari extension
Free plan:No limit on passwords or devices, cross-platform apps, generator, email masking, weak password alert, passkeys, easy import
Price per month:$4.99
Best price:$2.99 per month for 12 months
The best thing about Proton Pass is that it's part of the Proton ecosystem. I don't mean to say it isn't a great password manager in its own right, but it's elevated by the ability to bundle it with so many other stellar privacy apps. With a Proton Unlimited plan, which only costs $9.99 per month on an annual subscription, you'll get full access to Proton Pass, Proton VPN , Proton Mail, Proton Drive and Proton Calendar, all of which are easy to use and end-to-end encrypted.
Like almost all the Proton apps, Proton Pass has a full-featured free plan, with no limits on the number of stored passwords or the amount of devices logging in. The free version even includes features that often come paywalled, like passkeys, masked email address and a password health checker. If you use it for free, the only thing you'll really miss is the ability to share secure links.
Upgrading gets you all the sharing features, removes the cap of 10 email aliases and adds a few other important touches like emergency access and secure file attachment. It's compatible with a broad range of platforms, and takes cues from Proton VPN in keeping the user interface relatively consistent across all of them. This does mean that it keeps things a bit stripped-down — you may not find quite as many vault organization features as on other apps.
Compatibility: Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge, Brave
- Bundled with other Proton apps
- Lots of features on free plan
- Widely compatible with similar interfaces on all OSes
- Free version lacks cross-account sharing
- Not many vault design options
How to choose a password manager
More than anything else, don't sweat the choice too much. Using any password manager will make you much safer than not using one at all. Although there are reasons not to use built-in browser features (see the FAQs below), and certain options like LastPass didn't make our list due to dropping the ball on security, those are still miles safer than continuing to use the same weak passwords.
If you do still feel paralyzed, though, I understand. There are a lot of password vaults out there, and they're mostly quite similar. Here are some points to keep in mind while you shop. Most password managers come with free plans or free trials you can use to get an impression.
-
Platform compatibility:Your password manager needs to work on every device where you log into things. This includes the browsers on those devices, since password managers frequently put a lot of their functionality in browser extensions — if you use an off-beat choice like Tor, Vivaldi or DuckDuckGo, make sure your manager is compatible. It should also be able to access the same vault on any device.
-
Features:The most important feature, of course, is storing passwords, but there's a lot of side options that make this flow a lot better. Look for easy ways to export and import passwords, secure features for sharing individual passwords with trusted collaborators and emergency access backups in case you lose your master password.
-
Ease of use:To ensure you'll turn to it regularly, look for a password manager with an interface you enjoy using. It should automatically fill in credentials whenever you need them, while generating and storing passwords for new accounts without making you open the app. When you do go into the app, it should be quick and easy to find the record you need.
-
Security:Look into what the password manager does to secure the sensitive data you store in its vault. The gold standard is zero-knowledge encryption with separate verifications for each record. Research how long each manager has been operating, whether it's had any serious breaches during that time and how it responded.
-
Cost:Finally, be sure the password manager you want to use fits into your budget. If you don't need much, you may be able to get by permanently on a free plan. Should you decide to pay after all, check that the features you'll need most are available without any extra charge.
Password manager FAQs
How do password managers work?
Have you ever used a digital document or a physical notebook to write down all the usernames and passwords to your online accounts? A password manager works on the same principle, but it's a lot more secure. Whenever you create a new password, you can save it in the program. The password manager will retrieve it whenever you need it. Until then, it stores them in an encrypted vault that only you can access.
Previously, you would still have to remember the one master password that unlocked the vault itself, but the newest generation of password managers comes with more options. You can open the vault with a facial or fingerprint scan, or use a passwordless entry using a verification key saved on your device.
What is 2FA?
2FA stands for two-factor authentication. A "factor" is a possession, piece of information or inherent quality needed to unlock an account. When access is sealed with 2FA, you need at least two factors from different categories to get it open. Examples include knowing passwords, certain biometric signatures or having a device connected to the account. That latter one is the most common: Generally, your phone is the "second factor" on the account.
The point of 2FA is to add backups in case your security fails. If someone steals your password, they won't be able to unlock your account unless they've also stolen and unlocked your phone.
Why can't I use my browser's password manager?
In-browser password managers will make you marginally safer, since they can at least help you tie strong, unique passwords to every account. However, they don't work as hard as standalone password managers to keep potential interlopers out of your secure password vault.
Although Chrome, Safari and Firefox all have the option to protect your vault with a master password, only Safari makes it a requirement — and even there, it's still easy to pick passwords out of the web inspector. Long story short, using your primary browser as your password manager puts too many eggs in one basket, while using a separate app is a much-needed failsafe.
Why isn't LastPass on the list?
LastPass is a user-friendly password manager with a good free plan, but I have to prioritize security when making recommendations — and it's inescapable that LastPass has suffered one of the few data breaches to have its own Wikipedia page .
The LastPass breach occurred in 2022. By compromising the laptops of two LastPass developers, hackers managed to download a database where users' password vaults were backed up. This purportedly gave them access to encrypted vaults of about 30 million LastPass users . Since the breach, attackers have been testing all those vaults to find the ones with weak master passwords, which has allegedly let them steal somewhere between $35 million and $150 million in cryptocurrency so far.
That would be concerning enough on its own, but it's not the first time LastPass has suffered a security breach . At least one security analyst has accused the company of bad practices , like gathering more information than it needs and storing sensitive data without encryption.
If you're feeling charitable, you could put the blame for the 2022 calamity on LastPass's then-parent company, GoTo Technologies (aka LogMeIn), the folks behind GoTo Meeting. That said, the now-standalone password manager — LastPass was spun off to be a standalone entity as of May 2024 — has had some other security concerns in the past two years, albeit nothing approaching the 2022 failure. LastPass will need to prove that it's completely rebuilt its infrastructure and approach to security before I'm prepared to recommend it.
Is Apple Passwords a good alternative?
Apple's built-in passwords app on iOS is encrypted and free to use, but it's in the same category as browser-based password managers — better than nothing, but not as safe as a third-party option. The big problem is that Apple Passwords uses your Apple account password as the master password to unlock the vault, so anybody with the ability to unlock your Apple device would also be able to access all your saved passwords. A master password should be completely unique, and ideally backed up by multi-factor authentication.
