Password manager free software reviews

Chances are, you have all kinds of sensitive data lurking on your computer that could easily fall into the wrong hands if your machine were ever lost or stolen. Free Password Manager does much more than its name might imply. In addition to storing passwords, this simple utility can securely store all kinds of personal information, making it easy for you--but not others--to access.

The program has a simple but professional-looking interface, with a tree hierarchy down the left side that lets users organize their records in folders. The program comes with a sample database with folders for contacts, credit cards, software, notes, and Web sites, but users can easily create their own custom folders.

For each record, users can enter a title, username, account name, URL, and password. The program will also track when each entry was created and modified, and by whom.

The built-in Help file provides surprisingly comprehensive documentation, but most users will be able to figure out Free Password Manager on their own; it's quite intuitive.

We liked the fact that unlike similar programs we've seen, Free Password Manager is specific about the kind of encryption it uses, stating in the Help file that it's AES encryption with a bit key. We also liked it that Free Password Manager can be used either on your computer or on a portable device, as it comes with an installation wizard specifically for use with USB drives and other portable media.

Overall, Free Password Manager is a versatile and easy-to-use tool, and we recommend it. Free Password Manager is a freeware program to help you systematize and store any kind of valuable information in an encrypted database. How often have you lost passwords, forgotten access codes and other sensitive information? With this program, you safely store all your passwords, logins, credit card numbers, access codes, and any other confidential information in one place.

With the help of Free Password Manager you can create encrypted databases for storing any kind of information. Each database has its own access password and is encrypted using an AES algorithm. Database folders can be fully customized. You can add data fields of any type to create the desired database structure. Free YouTube Downloader.

IObit Uninstaller. Internet Download Manager. Advanced SystemCare Free. This is what makes a good password manager essential. A password manager relieves the burden of thinking up and memorizing unique, complex logins—the hallmark of a secure password. It allows you to safely share those logins with others when necessary.

And because these tools encrypt your login info in a virtual vault—either locally or in the cloud—and lock it with a single master password, they protect the passwords themselves.

But password managers vary widely in their capabilities and cost, so we compared several of the most popular. And all will let you sync your data across multiple devices, though you may have pay extra for the privilege.

Here are our top two picks, followed by tips on what to look for when shopping for a password manager and links to full reviews of all the products.

LastPass ticks all the boxes on our password manager want list. It makes it a breeze to create unique, complex passwords; capture and manage login credentials; sync them across multiple devices; and share them with others you trust. The Premium version of the password manager also allows you to share passwords, logins, memberships and other items with trusted family and friends, use multifactor authentication through YubiKey and get 1 gigabyte of encrypted storage.

Meanwhile, the Families plan gives you six individual accounts, shared folders and a dashboard for managing the family accounts and keeping an eye on your account's security.

No, LastPass isn't flawless: A vulnerability privately reported in September was a scary flaw that could potentially compromise passwords. But the company patched it before it was known to be exploited in the wild. It was one of several vulnerabilities that have been discovered in LastPass over the years.

More recently, however, privacy and security concerns emerged around LastPass' Android app when a privacy advocacy project discovered seven web trackers within the mobile app. In light of these concerns and LastPass' new restrictions on its free-tier service, we're reevaluating LastPass' rank in our list of top password managers. Read our LastPass review. Read more: LastPass vs. If you're looking for a trusted password manager app to keep your login information private and secure, 1Password is the best password manager for the task, letting you access your accounts and services with one master password.

It's available for all major device platforms. This nicely designed password manager lacks a free version, but you can check it out for 14 days before signing up. Alas, that's down from the earlier day trial period. A travel mode lets you remove your 1Password sensitive data from your device when you travel and then restore it with one easy click when you return, so that it's not vulnerable to border checks. Each person gets their own password vault, and it's easy to control who you share information with and what they can do with it.

You can also create separate guest accounts for password sharing to share Wi-Fi connection passwords, for example, or home alarm codes with guests.

Read more: The best web hosting providers. Bitwarden, LastPass and 1Password are solid, affordable or free password keepers, and in a straw poll of CNET staffers, they were about neck-and-neck in use. But if you find none of our three recommended password managers works quite how you want, a handful of other apps are worth considering.

These all have free versions available. Dashlane provides a simple and secure way to manage your passwords and keep other login information stored. Just for managing passwords, we like it as much as our picks, but the free Dashlane app limits you to one device and 50 passwords. A free version gives you unlimited password storage on one device.

KeePass, another open-source software password manager, started on Windows and has been ported using the same code base to other platforms, including MacOS, Android and iOS. On the plus side, it's totally free and endorsed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. On the other hand, it's really for advanced users only: Its user interface takes a bit of fiddling to get all the independently built versions of KeePass to work together.

There's been a shift in the market for VPN and antivirus software in recent months. Many of the companies behind these software packages are expanding them to become wider software suites. We haven't specifically reviewed these password storage managers, if only because they don't yet appear to have a feature set or pricing option that beats any of our preferred options above.

If and when that changes, we'll check them out in more detail. Still need more info on what password managers are, and why they're better than the alternatives? Read on. To get started, a password manager will record the username and password you use when you first sign in to a website or service. Then the next time you visit the website, it will autofill forms with your saved password login information. For those websites and services that don't allow automatic filling, a password manager lets you copy the password to paste into the password field.