Remembering the quite a few passwords we use each day could be a actual ache. Whether or not it’s logging into Amazon to order a brand new guide, checking your on-line banking or settling down to look at one thing on Netflix, seeing the log-in field seem could make your coronary heart sink.
Then there’s the truth that every website appears to require a special size or mixture of sure characters, that means you want totally different ones for almost each website or service (which, sadly, can be a good suggestion). How are our restricted human brains imagined to retailer all these bizarre strings of letters, numbers and particular characters? All I wish to do is stream Star Trek: The Subsequent Era for the fiftieth time, not show my mental prowess!
Password managers may help you handle all of your passwords and login data throughout your Mac, iPhone, iPad and different Apple units. Apple gives iCloud Keychain, however is that the perfect password supervisor for Mac and iPhone, or is there one other password supervisor for Apple units that may do a greater job.
These carry the burden of remembering the whole lot for you, as you simply must create one grasp password, after which the app takes care of logging into all different accounts. They even make suggestions for actually safe passwords, so that you don’t depend on the combination of your birthday and the identify of your first pet.
Having solely a single login to recollect? That sounds good to us.
Want some assist arising with a secure and safe password? Learn our tricks to make your passwords even stronger.
Up to date July 2024 so as to add Roboform evaluation.
How password managers work
The concept of password managers is to simplify the way in which you entry your numerous accounts. As a substitute of getting to memorize a number of complicated passwords for every of the providers you utilize you want solely recall one password – or present a fingerprint or Face ID – and the password supervisor will routinely fill within the required particulars for you. Simply bear in mind that is solely as secure because the password you utilize to unlock entry to all of your passwords – so don’t lock all of them behind an easy-to-guess password, like your pet’s identify.
The password managers additionally provide numerous different options. For instance, they’ll generate random, extremely safe passwords in your accounts, they’ll warn you in case your password has been compromised, and a few can advise you about present insecure passwords and assist your efforts to replace them.
Clearly, safety is a excessive precedence—because the supervisor apps have the digital keys to your kingdom—which is why all the choices listed under use high-grade encryption to guard your particulars.
Many additionally characteristic digital wallets so your financial institution particulars might be safely saved and used to make purchases on-line with out having to root round in your pocket or bag for the cardboard quantity and expiry date.
These providers don’t often come free of charge, however many provide trials so you’ll be able to see if it’s the answer for you. After that you just’ll have to pay a small month-to-month payment, however we expect that’s a value value paying for under having to maintain one password in your mind.
Do you want a password supervisor? Is iCloud Keychain sufficient?
However do you might want to purchase a password supervisor when there may be one in macOS, iOS and iPadOS? Apple gives iCloud Keychain, which can generate safe passwords and enter them for you routinely, all whereas storing them securely.
iCloud Keychain is extremely helpful, but it surely’s a bit fundamental and lacks among the options provided by different password managers.
So, if you wish to keep secure with out having to recall tons of of passwords, however need extra management and options than you get from Apple’s free providing, right here’s among the greatest options out there for Mac, iPhone and iPad customers.
For extra methods to maintain your knowledge secure be sure you additionally learn our Greatest Mac safety suggestions article.
Greatest Password Managers for Mac and iPhone
iCloud Keychain – Greatest For Fundamentals
Worth When Reviewed:
A part of iCloud: Free on 5GB plan
iCloud Keychain is Apple’s free password administration system and is constructed into macOS, iOS and all different Apple platforms. With the arrival of macOS Sequoia and iOS 18 in late 2024 the iCloud Keychain can be remodeled right into a separate app, which ought to make managing passwords even simpler, or at any charge ought to lead extra individuals to find its capabilities.
Proper now, iCloud Keychain lets you create safe passwords, warns you in the event you reuse one or if a password isn’t safe, then auto-fills your passwords when wanted. Plus the whole lot is encrypted, so it’s secure and safe.
It’s not only for passwords although, as it will possibly additionally retailer your bank card numbers and deal with particulars. This implies you’ll be able to go to websites, select the merchandise you wish to purchase, then full the transaction in seconds and without having to dredge your reminiscence or fill in a great deal of textual content containers first.
There’s no devoted iCloud Keychain app, so you might want to go and discover it within the Settings of your iPhone or Mac. Due to this, the expertise isn’t fairly as polished as with among the different choices on this listing. It’s additionally just about just for Apple units. True there’s the iCloud Passwords app and extensions for Home windows and Android, but it surely’s not fairly as seamless as in your iPhone, iPad and Mac.
Learn our full
iCloud Keychain evaluation
1Password – Greatest Password Supervisor
Worth When Reviewed:
14 day trial. From $2.99 monthly, $36 a 12 months
One among our long-standing favorites is 1Password which has a pleasant, clear structure and is easy to make use of. In addition to storing and autofilling your passwords and Passkeys it will possibly additionally maintain different necessary data, reminiscent of your fee particulars, deal with, driver’s licence and passport. All of which might be immediately known as as much as fill out on-line types or checkout from web sites and apps.
Safety is entrance and middle, with 1Password boasting AES end-to-end encryption so solely you’ll maintain the important thing to your account. It additionally makes use of the Safe Distant Password (SRP) protocol, which lets you authenticate your particulars to a website with out the knowledge being despatched to a server which might compromise safety.
A characteristic known as Watchtower analyzes the general energy of your on-line safety and warns you if passwords are repeated or susceptible. There’s additionally a password generator if you wish to change your drained outdated makes an attempt with one thing a bit safer.
A free 14-day trial is offered, however after that, you’ll want to maneuver on to a paid subscription that begins at $36 (approx £29) per 12 months. For this, you’ll be capable to use the software program on as many units as you want, together with macOS, Home windows, ChromeOS, and Linux, plus the accompanying iPhone and Android apps.
1Password has received quite a few awards and is a straightforward service to advocate.
Learn our full
1Password evaluation
Dashlane – Greatest For Options
Worth When Reviewed:
$4.99 monthly, $59.99 a 12 months
Dashlane is one other massively in style password supervisor, with a complete suite of instruments to make your life quite a bit simpler.
The app analyses your present passwords to see how safe they’re and offers you an general ranking based mostly on how typically you reuse login particulars for a number of websites. Password monitoring will verify if any of your particulars have been uncovered in knowledge breaches or have been reused too many instances. There’s additionally a characteristic to auto-replace passwords immediately with ones generated by Dashlane.
It’s not solely your account particulars which you can retailer in Dashlane, you’ll be able to retailer financial institution particulars, your deal with and necessary paperwork like your passport and driving licence. There’s additionally a piece for any safe notes you want to maintain secure. The app additionally helps Passkeys, that are the most recent innovation which appear set to exchange passwords in the long term.
All of your transactions between the app and websites are end-to-end encrypted utilizing 256-bit AES expertise. There’s additionally 2-factor authentication out there, with the Dashlane app appearing as an authenticator, and also you get a VPN service as a part of the paid tiers.
Dashlane is offered on a variety of platforms, with devoted apps for iOS/iPadOS and Android, plus extensions for Chrome, Safari, Edge and Firefox.
Dashlane prices $59.99 (approx £48) per 12 months for the person account. There’s a free tier out there, which acts as a taster for the total bundle, and you need to use it indefinitely, however with a restrict of solely 25 passwords.
Learn our full
Dashlane evaluation
Bitwarden – Greatest Free Password Supervisor
Worth When Reviewed:
Free tier; From $1 monthly (approx 80p), $10 a 12 months (approx £8)
On the subject of expertise, we regularly say that you just get what you pay for, however within the case of Bitwarden, this isn’t fairly true. The service gives a extremely spectacular vary of capabilities on its free tier, so with this app, you get what you don’t pay for!
With out signing up for a premium account you get limitless storage for passwords, bank cards, notes, and on-line account IDs, safe textual content messaging with people, a safe password generator, two-factor authentication, plus the power to both have your knowledge saved on the Bitwarden servers or one you host your self. Oh, and you may sync all of your units, fairly than the one one provided by most different free tiers.
Do you have to wish to broaden the options, then the Premium tier prices $10 (approx £8) per 12 months and provides safe file sharing, 1GB of encrypted file attachments, extra two-factor authentication choices, password security evaluation, and entry to your account by household in the event you die or turn into sick.
Encryption is high-grade stuff, with Bitwarden deploying end-to-end AES-256 bit encryption, salted hashing, and PBKDF2 SHA-256, all of that are down regionally in your machine.
Apps can be found on a variety of platforms, together with macOS, Home windows, Linux, just about each browser you’ll be able to consider, Android, and iOS, and there’s even a safe net model if you end up with out your gadget.
When you’re in search of worth in the case of password managers, it’s very laborious to look previous Bitwarden.
NordPass – Simple To Use Password Supervisor
Worth When Reviewed:
Free 30-day trial; $2.99 monthly (at present $1.49), $35.88 a 12 months (at present $35.76 for 2 years)
One of many latest additions to the password supervisor area is NordPass, which is made by the identical superb fellows at NordVPN. The latter is one among our favourite VPNs, as you’ll see from our Greatest VPN for Mac roundup.
NordPass gives full desktop apps for macOS, Home windows, and Linux, plus the usual iOS and Android choices. You may also use NordPass by means of browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Courageous, Edge, and Safari.
NordPass has all of the options you’d anticipate from a contemporary password supervisor, with fast importing of present passwords from different providers, zero-knowledge structure, native encryption, 2-factor authentication, password technology, and safe storage for credit score particulars and notes. There’s in fact autofill for logging into accounts, folders to retailer passwords for work, dwelling or different classifications, safety monitoring for password hacks, assist for biometrics, plus a neat interface to handle your entire numerous knowledge.
NordPass gives a good free tier, which helps limitless passwords, shops bank card particulars, and safe notes, plus has the power to sync throughout all of your units. The primary disadvantage is which you can solely be logged into one gadget at a time. However in the event you can work with that it’s a service you must undoubtedly examine. The paid tiers begin at $35.88/£28.68 p/a for a single Premium account, however there are frequent offers (at present $35.76/£28.56 for 2 years).
Learn our full
NordPass evaluation
Roboform – A strong password supervisor
Worth When Reviewed:
$29.97
RoboForm works throughout iPhone, iPad and Macs, plus you need to use it on Home windows and Linux in addition to Android.
Arrange is easy. Obtain the related app or extension, then join an account. There’s a free trial that provides you entry to the Premium tier options for 14-days, then you’ll be able to both proceed to make use of it free of charge on the restricted tier or signal as much as a fully-functional paid selection.
In addition to passwords you’ll be able to retailer private particulars (e.g. deal with and cellphone quantity), your passport, driving license and different delicate knowledge. You possibly can import your present login particulars from different providers or your browser.
The Mac interface is a bit of fundamental–the desktop consumer appears like a Finder window. On iPhone, the primary web page has buttons alongside the underside that will let you navigate between Id (passport, and so on.), the built-in Browser, Authenticator, Instruments part, safe share, and Emergency Entry characteristic (for household, ought to one thing occur to you).
The browser model options Roboform’s one-click login the place you choose the positioning out of your logins or historical past that you just wish to entry and Roboform opens the web page and routinely log into your account. Most individuals will in all probability stick to their regular browser, during which case Roboform acts like some other password supervisor, prompting you with saved account particulars if you try and login.
The password generator does a great job of serving to you select new passwords. You possibly can choose the variety of characters, numbers, symbols, higher or decrease case, and create passphrases.
There’s a built-in authenticator and Roboform can deal with two-factor authentication. You may also use passkeys as an alternative of passwords.
There’s a Safety Centre that analyses your password integrity. This consists of what number of instances you’ve used the identical ones, how complicated they’re, and in the event that they’ve been concerned in hacks. All the pieces you do is end-to-end encrypted by way of AES 256-bit encryption, with PBKDF2 SHA256.
Roboform gives a restricted free tier (one gadget with limitless passwords). The Premium tier (which was known as Roboform All over the place), provides the safety middle, entry on all of your units, buyer assist, and net entry to your account. It’s out there for $29.98/£29.99 p/a however on the time we reviewed it there was a deal for $11.90 a 12 months.
Learn our full
Roboform Premium evaluation
Keeper – Greatest Of The Relaxation
Worth When Reviewed:
Free tier; From $2.29 monthly, $34.99 a 12 months
Keeper can retailer limitless passwords, auto-generate sturdy new ones, and sync passwords throughout a number of units, all whereas holding bank card particulars and different necessary fee particulars in its safe vault. There’s additionally assist for Passkeys, which is sweet.
AES 256-bit encryption is all carried out regionally, so Keeper can by no means know your particulars, however there may be the choice to securely share folders and passwords with family and friends if they should entry any of your accounts. The included safe messaging service can be helpful for speaking these requests
There’s additionally assist for Contact ID on the Mac and iPhone, with the latter additionally working with Face ID, plus Apple Watch compatibility and the choice of utilizing two-step authentication.
Keeper Limitless Password Supervisor is offered from $34.99/£24.99 per 12 months, however there’s a free tier that’s restricted to at least one gadget and ten passwords.
LastPass
Worth When Reviewed:
Free tier (one gadget); $3 monthly, $36 per 12 months
LastPass might be one of many best-known password supervisor, because of it being one of many authentic pioneers within the discipline, nevertheless, lately it’s misplaced its crown after being hit with a number of hacks, together with no less than one which stole encrypted buyer knowledge. This latest historical past makes it more durable to advocate.
Not that safety measures aren’t there, the corporate explains that it makes use of “AES 256-bit encryption with PBKDF2 SHA-256 and salted hashes to make sure full safety within the cloud.” The app does all of its encryption regionally, so LastPass by no means is aware of your grasp password, and the Premium tier additionally helps a type of two-factor authentication for an additional layer of safety.
You possibly can both use LastPass regionally in your gadget by way of devoted apps (macOS, iOS and iPadOS), or by way of the net with plugins and extensions out there for Safari, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and Microsoft Edge all of which let you routinely entry login particulars for websites and accounts or have LastPass autofill the login fields in your behalf.
Identical to with different managers you will have entry to a vault the place your entire passwords are saved, and these might be modified to extra complicated options on the contact of a button. LastPass may also advise you on how safe your passwords are in your present accounts. Getting arrange is straightforward too, as you’ll be able to import present passwords from net browsers, electronic mail, and different password managers. One disadvantage is that, on the time of writing, LastPass doesn’t but assist Passkeys, though the corporate says that the options is on its manner.
The app gives a digital pockets to retailer your card particulars, plus one other space for official ID reminiscent of passports and driving licenses. The Be aware part is a spot the place you’ll be able to maintain Wi-Fi passwords, insurance coverage particulars and some other necessary paperwork that you might want to entry. It’s additionally attainable to securely share account particulars and logins with family and friends, even when they don’t have LastPass.
There’s a free tier, though that is restricted to at least one gadget, so if you wish to sync throughout your Mac and iPhone you’ll want to maneuver as much as the Premium tier. On the time of writing, this may price $36/£31.99 per 12 months. These wanting extra scope can go for the household plan which incorporates six person accounts and solely prices $48/£40.80 per 12 months.
One of many benefits of a paid plan is an Emergency backup which signifies that, do you have to undergo an accident and even move away, your loved ones can be given entry to your account.
Learn our full
LastPass evaluation
Enpass
Worth When Reviewed:
Free tier; From $1.99 monthly, $23.99 a 12 months
These in search of a easy, safe answer that doesn’t break the financial institution would do properly to think about Enpass.
The macOS consumer is totally free, however if you wish to add the identical options to your iPhone or Android gadget you then’ll want to maneuver to the Enpass Premium tier that prices $23.99/£19.49 per 12 months. When you desire to purchase a lifetime license, you’ll be able to choose one up for $99.99/£82.99.
Enpass doesn’t retailer any of your data on its servers. As a substitute, the whole lot is encrypted and saved in your private gadget so that you by no means lose management of your knowledge. Particulars might be synced securely by way of iCloud, Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, Field, or ownCloud/WebDAV, to maintain your entire units in step.
You continue to have the basic options of different password managers, reminiscent of auto-fill types, safety evaluation of your passwords and producing complicated replacements simply, safe storage for delicate data, passkey assist, and AES 256-bit encryption, plus assist for iOS, Android, and Apple Watch units.
There are many fine-tuning choices for many who are a bit of bit extra hands-on, however we just like the no-nonsense method and the truth that your knowledge by no means leaves your gadget.