What Is the Best Password Manager? Our Top 4 Options Analyzed

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The Best alternatives to LastPass

Fact: password managers are a must; it really doesn’t matter if your endpoint’s part of a larger enterprise network or hooked up to your home’s router. With each account demanding a unique and, therefore unrepetitive password (yes, I have felt the need to say that out loud), the odds are that you’ll forget a couple of them along the way.

This is one reason why a password manager should become the norm, the second one being auto-generated phrases. If you’re still having any doubts about whether or not your business should make the switch, keep on reading. This article may change the way you look at password management, which isn’t an easy task considering the number of accounts (23 per person, on average).

So, without further ado, here’s the best password manager money can buy and some notable alternatives. Enjoy and stay safe out there!

What is the best password manager?

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room which, in this case, would be the best password manager. So, in my (humble) opinion, the best app out there is 1Password. If the name doesn’t ring a bell, I won’t blame me – it took a lot of research and a whole a lot of trial-and-error to nail this one. I have to admit that I was a little suspicious at first.

Maybe because I’ve grown a little too comfortable with LastPass. Anyway, after giving 1Password a try, I’ve discovered that the ‘rumors’ were not exaggerated. Although it’s pretty light compared to, let’s say, BitWarden, DashLane, and even LastPass, it packs quite a lot of features. On top of that, it’s easy to set up and can be deployed on any machine running Windows, Mac OS X, Android, iOS, and ChromeOS. Pretty impressive considering that 1Password started out as an Apple-dedicated product.

Features-wise, let’s start with the basics: password vault and the secret key generator. As you probably know by now, every password manager asks you to create a so-called Master Password (the one to rule them all). Unlike other apps, 1Password will give you a helping hand in generating a strong password. Not exactly an in-app feature, but it does come in handy when all you think of is your cat’s name or DOB.

As any honorable pass manager, 1Password supports in-browser integration; works with the major league players and with a bit of wishful thinking, it can be integrated into newcomers such as Brave.

1Password’s key differentiator is, without a doubt, the secret key generator. It’s marketed as being an extra security layer, but it’s more than that. Upon activation, this feature generates a one-time and unique key that encrypts all registered passwords.

An outstanding security feature, but has one major caveat – if you lose this key, you won’t be able to decrypt your passwords, and, well, use them. To make matters worse, should this occur, not even 1Password can decrypt the passwords on your behalf. Still, keeping your secret key safe (perhaps in a vault-type folder or something similar) will prevent any accidents.

Another one of 1Pasword’s perk is its built-in 2FA authentication system. It works, more or less, like Google’s Authenticator – if you attach an email address, it will generate a unique authentication code. Hurry up, because you’ll have about 30 seconds or so to input the code before it expires.

And, finally, we come to the very reason why we consider 1Password to be the best password manager: the travel mode. You may be inclined to think that this feature may be similar to Waze’s drive mode or something like that. Well, it doesn’t. Travel Mode is a nifty feature that allows the account user to wipe all sensitive data from a device.

That includes cookies, any passwords stored in plain text, and other such info that can be used to track or spy on the user. Basically, you leave home with a clean slate – you can connect to any public or private Wi-Fi, without having to worry about someone stealing your data. Once you get back home to ‘safety’ you can restore the wiped data with a single click.

OTHER USEFUL FEATURES

1. 365-DAY ITEM HISTORY

Restore/retrieve passwords deleted within the last year. Quite useful if you want to redeem an account you haven’t used in a very long time.

2. AES-256 ENCRYPTION KEY USING THE ENCRYPT-THEN-MAC TECHNOLOGY

No, it doesn’t have anything to do with Apple’s Mac devices. Mac’s short for message authentication code is a cryptographical practice that involves appending a short piece of information to the delivered package.

This ‘tag’ is used to confirm that the package came from the stated sender and not from someone else. In Encrypt-then-Mac schema, the plain-text password is first encrypted in order to produce what cryptography regards as Ciphertext.

A key is then used to encrypt the encryption (yes, I know it sounds odd). But that’s not the end of it – the hash function (the file’s ‘footprint’) also receives its own encryption key. This produces the message-authentication key. So, the Encrypt-then-Mac approach is a Cyphertext with an appended MAC.

3. INTEGRATION WITH MOST BROWSERS AND A OF THIRD-PARTY APPS

For instance, 1Password supports full integration with your favorite browsers and some popular third-party apps such as Slack.

4. PASSWORD-CHECKING FOR DUPLICATE, WEAK OR COMPROMISED PASSWORDS IN THE VAULT

1Password crawls your vaults at regular intervals, searching for duplicate, weak or potentially compromised passwords. It also serves as a reminder to change passwords on a regular basis, a rule-to-be that should be embraced by home and enterprise users alike.

5. COMPETITION-GRADE FEATURES

AgileBits’ password manager features: password recipes (shows you the ‘magic’ formula to create strong passwords for your accounts), unlimited devices & passwords (allows you to generate an unlimited number of passwords for, well, an unlimited number of devices; great asset if you’re looking for scalability), automatic form-filling, optional 2FA, multiple vault generator, activity log and full trail audit, vault-sharing and syncing.

Last, 1Password allows you to create custom groups and digital wallets. Additionally, it’s fully compatible with all biometric login methods such as Face ID, Touch ID, and fingerprints.

As you can see, there is a lot of things to be said about 1Password, but from what I sketched so far, it’s not hard to imagine why this is the best password manager on the market.

The only other caveat I could find is pricing. 1Password doesn’t have a free version, although it does come with a 30-day free trial. Still, compared to the competition, it’s much cheaper, at least as far as the consumer part is concerned ($3 per month will get you cross-platform compatibility, 365-day deleted passwords, 2FA, 5 guest accounts, round-the-clock support, and Travel Mode).

The second price tier, which mostly concerns small businesses and enterprises, comes with full features and a negotiable monthly fee.

Anyway, that’s it about 1Password. If you’re interested in more technical details, you can always check out the company’s blog and support pages.

The next step would be to take a closer look at what the competition has to offer. Let’s get cracking.
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