The Best Password Managers for 2021 to Secure Your Accounts

Using unique passwords and changing them often is a sound strategy for protecting your data online. Reusing passwords isn’t a safe practice, and it’s best to change your passwords regularly to protect your different accounts. But remembering them all isn’t always easy. Password managers make the process much more user-friendly, so you can secure your personal information and do so with ease.

These are the best password managers you can use, no matter your platform of choice.

Dashlane (Windows, Mac, iOS, iPadOS, Android, web app)

Dashlane app (sponsored) screenshot showing a list of various online accounts with saved passwords.

Dashlane is intuitive and straightforward, bolstered by the ability to generate, store, and auto-fill passwords and the ability to change many passwords spanning multiple sites with just a few clicks. That Dashlane’s memory footprint gets smaller with every update is only a plus, as is its ability to store notes securely. It even shares encrypted passwords with your choice of limited or full rights.

Dashlane allows you to store passwords, payments, and other personal information locally within an encrypted vault or automatically sync them across your devices. Where the product especially stands out is its auto-fill, which is impressively fast and accurate and appears to be a big investment by the company.

Have an account on a hacked site and service? Dashlane’s Dark Web Monitoring feature can flag the compromised accounts and help you secure your accounts stress-free.

Dashlane offers a ton of plan flexibility, from a free plan to an account for your entire family, with both monthly and annual pricing options. There’s a plan for everyone.

LastPass (Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android)

LastPass app screenshot showing various password-secured online accounts. Accounts appear to be organized by categories like "Favorites" and "Banking and Finance."

LastPass is a fantastic password manager offering free and premium (paid) features. Once you create a master password, import all saved login credentials — usernames and passwords — from Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Opera, and Safari. LastPass then helps you delete information from your computer to keep it secure, prompting you to do little more than remember your super-secure master password. Unfortunately, LastPass announced that as of March 16, free users will have to choose to view their passwords on either mobile or PC and will only be able to change their category three times before having to upgrade to Premium to get the ability to use both device types.

Other free LastPass features include multi-factor authentication, unlimited passwords, and even an auto-fill option for entering passwords. LastPass also stores your encrypted information on its cloud servers, meaning you can use LastPass on computers other than your PC and easily share passwords with family members. It even comes outfitted with a password generator to create unique passwords.

The premium suite includes stellar tech support, 1GB of file storage, and the ability to access your data on both your desktop and mobile devices. The company’s due diligence sees continued updates to keep your info protected. Premium accounts cost $3 per user per month when billed annually, and Families accounts cost $4 per user per month when billed annually.

1Password (Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and Chrome OS)

1Password MacOS app screenshot showing examples of stored Facebook and Gmail passwords.

Features packed into this excellent password management tool include unlimited passwords, 1GB of document storage, and two-factor authentication. It even has a built-in watchtower service designed to notify you of ongoing website breaches.

The software’s digital wallet securely saves everything from logins and credit card information to online banking information. For a more in-depth review, we’ve broken down the difference between 1Password and LastPass.

1Password’s biggest drawback is the lack of a free version, as the service starts at $3 a month when billed annually, though you can try both the regular and family versions free for 14 days. The availability of a family plan covering up to five family members for $5 a month billed annually is a nice touch, though.

Keeper Security Password Manager (Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, iPadOS, Android)

Keeper Security Password Manager app screenshot showing how to add a new password to the app.

Keeper Security offers a range of password solutions for enterprise, business, family, personal, and even student use. It’s one of the most scalable password managers currently available.

This password manager uses two-factor authentication and secure file storage to keep your information protected. It also provides many practical features that personal users will appreciate. These include version history, which can restore previous versions of your records as needed if something goes wrong. It also provides emergency password access for five different contacts.

Keeper offers more flexibility than many password managers regarding what data you can store. Custom fields allow you to keep passport info, driver’s license numbers, and other vital records in the app.

Bitwarden (Windows, MacOS, Linux, iOS, Android, browsers)

Various Bitwarden app images as it is being used/displayed on various devices, mobile and desktop.

Bitwarden is a free, open-source password manager launched in 2016. The “open-source” label means the code is available on GitHub and open for anyone to try. According to the company, the manager features auditing by independent security researchers and third-party security firms.

Getting started with Bitwarden is easy. Begin by creating a free account. Enter your email address and a master password, then verify your email. After that, you can manually create records of login credentials, a credit card, an identity (license, social security number, etc.), or a secure note. A handy password generator also streamlines your logins when it’s time to come up with a new, creative passcode.

Bitwarden offers a premium subscription for just $10 per year and a six-user family plan for $40 per year with a seven-day free trial. With an annual plan, you receive 1GB of encrypted storage for file attachments, two-step login options, a TOTP verification code (2Fa) generator, and more.

You can download Bitwarden straight to your PC or use an extension for browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Microsoft Edge, Safari, and others. It can also be used on iOS, iPadOS, and Android devices.

Use whichever browser is your favorite to access your Bitwarden vault. That’s where you’ll be able to access all the encrypted data stored on the cloud.

It’s crucial to have instant access to all of your passwords in case you need to use several different personal or protected pages simultaneously. It’s a pain to keep track of passwords if you keep changing them, but it’s imperative in order to protect your information from hackers. That’s where password managers come in, storing a record of all of your passwords while keeping your private information safe.