The Best Password Managers to Secure Your Digital Life
Password managers are the vegetables of the internet. We know they’re good for us, but most of us are happier snacking on the password equivalent of junk food. For nearly a decade, that’s been “123456” and “password”—the two most commonly used passwords on the web. The problem is, most of us don’t know what makes a good password and aren’t able to remember hundreds of them anyway.
The safest (if craziest) way to store your passwords is to memorize them all. (Make sure they are long, strong, and secure!) Just kidding. That might work for Memory Grand Master Ed Cooke, but most of us are not capable of such fantastic feats. We need to offload that work to password managers, which offer secure vaults that can stand in for our memory.
I'm not just talking to you either. When you're playing tech support for half a dozen family members this holiday season, why not get them set up with a password manager while you're at it? The whole internet will thank you. Silently.
A password manager offers convenience and, more importantly, helps you create better passwords, which makes your online existence less vulnerable to password-based attacks. Read our guide to VPN providers for more ideas on how you can upgrade your security, as well as our guide to backing up your data to make sure you don’t lose anything if the unexpected happens.
Updated March 2024: We’ve noted some updates to some of our top picks, including some more support for passkeys, along with improvements in 1Password's autofill feature.
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Table of Contents- Best for Most People: Bitwarden
- Best Upgrade: 1Password
- Best Full-Featured Manager: Dashlane
- Best DIY Options (Self-Hosted)
- Honorable Mentions
- What Are Passkeys?
- How We Test
- Password Manager Basics
Most web browsers offer at least a rudimentary password manager. (This is where your passwords are stored when Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox ask if you’d like to save a password.) This is better than reusing the same password
