Best Password Manager in 2023 – CNET [CNET]

Updated on Aug. 19, 2023

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audited annually by third-party cybersecurity firms. This level of transparency sets Bitwarden apart from its peers in an industry that depends so profoundly on trust. 

Another thing that sets Bitwarden apart from the rest is its unbeatable free plan. While other password managers impose limitations on the number or types of devices you can use, or the number of vault items you can store, Bitwarden’s free plan lets you store an unlimited number of passwords and use it across an unlimited number of devices. Though it doesn’t offer all the features its premium plans do, Bitwarden’s free plan still offers many premium-tier features like secure sharing with another user, access to Bitwarden Send (which you can use to securely share passwords with anyone), two-factor authentication, encrypted vault export and a username and password generator.

In addition to the base features on the free plan, Bitwarden’s premium plans offer full vault health reports, 1GB file storage, emergency access (where you can designate a trusted contact to access your vault in case of an emergency), Bitwarden authenticator and advanced multifactor authentication with YubiKey, FIDO2 and Duo. Premium plans are budget-friendly at $10 per year for individuals and $40 per year for families, which allows for up to six users. 

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Bitwarden is our top choice for a free password manager. 

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Bitwarden is our top choice for a free password manager. 

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Bitwarden is our top choice for a free password manager. 

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CNET’s top VPN picks). Nord’s password manager is relatively new, but has upgraded its offering in the past year with a slew of features that has brought it up to speed with its peers and has helped it earn a spot among our top password manager picks. If you’re already a NordVPN user, or otherwise already in the Nord Security ecosystem and you’re looking for a top-notch password manager, then NordPass is a no-brainer.

While not as robust as Bitwarden’s free tier, NordPass’s free plan is more than serviceable. With NordPass’s free plan, you can store an unlimited number of vault items across all of your devices and you get access to additional basic features like a password generator, advanced multifactor authentication and automatic sync. The one caveat is that users on the free plan can only be logged into one device at a time. With the premium plans, you also get password health reports, data breach scanner and monitoring, secure sharing, password history, emergency access, passkey integration and the ability to attach up to 50 files to each vault item, totaling up to 3GB.      

The NordPass interface is well designed and easy to navigate. It works seamlessly across all platforms including Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS, along with browser extensions on Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Brave, Safari and Opera. Its free plan is great if you want something that can get the job done for free, but its premium tiers are reasonably priced at $29 per year for individuals or $44 per year for a family account that covers six users. If you sign up for a free plan, you also get a generous 30-day free trial of Premium. Premium subscriptions also carry a 30-day money-back guarantee.    

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Hotspot Shield, a middling VPN solution that falls short of cracking CNET’s best VPN list. The VPN service is available only to the admin of the family plan, and there’s no option to purchase a family plan for less money without the VPN or by reducing the number of licenses in the plan. For most people, 10 users is probably overkill and not worth the extra cost compared with other password managers. 

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Enpass

Enpass is unique in that it allows you to store your vault in a location of your choosing. It doesn’t have centralized servers that store your data. You can either store your vault on your devices themselves or in your own personal cloud storage like Dropbox or iCloud. Unless you’re storing it on your own device, you’ll need to trust the third-party cloud service you’re using just like you’d need to trust any other password manager with your vault. But with your vault stored locally on your device, you can access your vault items while offline or in areas of limited internet access.

Enpass is a great option for anyone who wants complete control over the storage of their password manager vaults and anyone who may be jaded by the way LastPass has failed to secure user vaults. If that’s you, and you don’t mind using an app that’s a bit outdated and clunky but still fully functional, then give Enpass a look. There are many options for customization as well, so it’s a solid choice for the more techy crowd or anyone who likes to tinker around. Enpass costs $24 per year for individuals or $36 for the first year (then $48 per year) for a family plan that includes six licenses. You can also purchase a lifetime individual plan for $100.  

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KeePass

KeePass is completely open source and completely free. It’s a powerful password manager but geared primarily toward the techie crowd. The interface is outdated and cumbersome to navigate compared with what other password managers offer. KeePass is optimized for use on Windows machines, but unofficial ports for other platforms including MacOS, Linux, Android and iOS are available for download on the site. But if you have a great deal of technical know-how and want a free password manager that’s open source and highly customizable, then KeePass may be an option for you.  

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Apple iCloud Keychain

Apple’s built-in password manager for Macs and iOS devices is probably already familiar to most Apple users. It’s a secure and convenient password manager solution that’s included with your Apple ID at no additional cost. It includes basic features like storing and autofilling your passwords and other items like credit card numbers and passkeys. And with the release of iOS 17 this fall, Apple will allow you to share passwords and passkeys with trusted contacts. You’ll be able to create sharing groups and choose a set of accounts to share with others, with the option to remove anyone in the group at any time. Still, Apple’s iCloud Keychain lacks the full breadth of options offered by other premium password manager solutions. You can set up iCloud Keychain on a Windows machine as well, but you’ll need to initiate the process from your Apple device. So it’s really only a viable (albeit very basic) password manager solution if you already own an Apple device.

See iCloud Keychain details at Apple.

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ExpressVPN Keys

ExpressVPN, CNET’s Editors’ Choice best overall VPN, is getting into the game with a new password management solution called Keys. The password manager is currently in beta and only available to a select number of ExpressVPN users, but will soon be rolled out more broadly and included with all ExpressVPN accounts. Though it’s still in beta, Keys is already a feature-rich password manager that’s intuitive and user-friendly. Keys offers many of the features that other top password managers offer, including a customizable password generator, password health reports, 2FA, auto-sync and autofill. Express also just added an authenticator feature to Keys, which can generate six-digit time-based one-time passwords (TOTP) that rotate every 30 seconds. The TOTP feature is only available to select Android users at this time, but will be rolled out universally in the near future, Express said. 

Once Keys is rolled out to all users, it will be an ideal password manager choice for ExpressVPN users. I’m impressed with the service so far, and it’s evident the Express team is working continuously to improve the offering and add new features. But at this point, it doesn’t belong among the top picks because it’s still in beta and not available to all ExpressVPN users yet, let alone to folks who don’t use ExpressVPN. Once it is rolled out broadly to all ExpressVPN users, it would be nice to see Keys also made available to non-users as well, à la NordPass.   

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LastPass is one of the most well-known and popular password managers on the market, with more than 33 million personal users and 100,000 business users, according to the company. However, in light of its lengthy history of security incidents — including the data breach at the end of 2022 in which an “unauthorized party” stole customer account information and sensitive vault data — CNET cannot in good conscience recommend LastPass to our readers.

Even considering that LastPass has completed its investigation into the incident and has prioritized “investments in security, privacy and operational best practices” in the wake of the breach, the password manager remains off CNET’s list at this time. The alarming nature of that latest data breach has severely undermined trust in the company’s security tool for individual consumers and businesses. 

That said, CNET will be conducting a thorough re-review of the service in the future, after which we will reevaluate whether LastPass has earned an opportunity to appear on our list of best password managers again. In the meantime, you can turn to any of the password managers featured above.   

We give each password manager we test a thorough hands-on evaluation, focusing on several factors. The most important consideration for any password manager is the security of the product, so we look at what encryption standards it uses, whether it’s a zero-knowledge service and whether it has been independently audited. 

We carefully examine each provider’s privacy policy to get a sense of what personal data is collected from users and how that data is secured. Company background is also a big part of a service’s overall security posture, so we look into corporate ownership structures and company history to evaluate how the company behind the service approaches privacy and security and how it has historically addressed past security incidents, if applicable. 

We examine the provider’s pricing and check whether a free version is available — and if so, what features the free version includes and how many devices it covers. We test how the password manager performs across platforms, devices and operating systems, how seamlessly it syncs across devices and auto-fills credentials. We test the services’ multi-factor authentication, password generator and secure sharing features, and evaluate the overall look and feel of the UI, including monitoring and password health reporting, if applicable. We also check to see if the provider offers secure file storage and whether a free trial or money-back guarantee is offered.

With the numerous password manager options available, it can be overwhelming to choose the right one. CNET has thoroughly tested dozens of password managers over the years and we’ve developed a pretty good idea of the types of things to look for in a quality service. Here are the most important things to consider when choosing a password manager:

Security

You’re putting a ton of trust in your password manager to keep your logins safe, so the security of the service should be your top concern. Look for a password manager that operates on a zero-knowledge basis and secures user vaults with industry-standard AES 256-bit encryption. Independent security audits can also help bolster trust in a password manager. And while you’re researching password managers, it’s important to consider the company behind the service. Has the company been involved in any security incidents that have potentially compromised user data? If so, it’s best to look elsewhere.  

Price

Pricing for password managers can vary from provider to provider, so you’ll want to pick a service that will fit your needs and budget. Most password managers have pricing plans for individuals, families and businesses. Pricing for family and business plans are more expensive than individual plans, but family and business plans cover multiple users, while individual plans are limited to a single user. Many password managers also offer free tiers, but they almost always come with limitations on features or device allowance. However, some services, like Bitwarden, allow for unlimited vault entries on unlimited devices on their free plan. Most password managers also offer either a free trial or a money-back guarantee, so you can try them risk-free.   

Cross-platform compatibility

One of the most important aspects of using a password manager is having it available on all of the devices you use. Before you purchase a subscription to a password manager, make sure it’s compatible with all of the devices, operating systems and browsers you regularly use. The password manager should also automatically sync your passwords and other vault items across all of your devices. This helps ensure that you can access your passwords at any time from any of your devices. 

Features

Make sure your password manager has standard features like multifactor authentication, a password generator, secure sharing and automatic sync. Other useful features to look out for include secure file storage, login autofill, vault health reporting and data breach and dark web monitoring. Many password managers also allow you to store things like credit card numbers, bank account numbers, health data, PIN codes and secure notes in addition to storing your online login credentials.  

Secure sharing capabilities

It’s never a good idea to share passwords or other highly sensitive information via email or SMS, but most password managers include secure sharing features that allow you to safely share vault items with others. Some password managers allow secure sharing only with other users of the same service, while others allow secure sharing with anyone, regardless of whether they use a password manager. Secure sharing features are also typically customizable and allow you to set restrictions on how many times a shared vault item can be accessed or for how long. If you’re planning on sharing certain passwords with family members, friends or colleagues, it’s a good idea to check on the password manager’s secure sharing capabilities to ensure they’re useful for your needs.    

Secure file storage

Some password managers offer secure file storage options that allow you to safely store documents like health records, bank statements, insurance paperwork and title documents. Some allow for 1GB of secure storage space, while others may offer up to 10GB. Depending on whether you need to store files and how much space you would need, it’s a good idea to look into the secure file storage capabilities and allowances of the password manager you’re considering.

Family plan allowance

If you want to share a password manager subscription with family or friends, it’s a good move to opt for a password manager family plan. With a family plan, one subscription fee covers anywhere from five to 10 individual accounts, depending on the provider. A family plan is a convenient and cost-effective option for anyone who wants to easily and securely share vault items with trusted contacts.

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