The best password managers

When you realise that basically every password manager of note has military-grade encryption, picking the best of the bunch can feasibly come down to cost. And if you’re done with free password managers—Google Password Manager, free trials/tiers or otherwise—your first stop for bargain pricing should be Bitwarden. While it still follows the unfortunate trend of annual USD pricing, Bitwarden is cheap. Dirt cheap. As in, pay US$10 per year for a single user. Even converted to roughly $15 Australian dollars, that’s not a lot to pay for a year of Bitwarden Premium and the subsequent peace of mind. If you want it for more than just yourself, Bitwarden Families supports up to six users for US$40 a year (and there’s a seven-day free trial).

You won’t find a cheaper single-licence password manager out there, but NordPass is competitively priced and Google Password Manager is free.

In ever-raging password manager war, LastPass and 1Password are the big names. But LastPass had a far-too-recent data breach to be a serious contender these days, and 1Password hasn’t ever had a data breach. That said, 1Password tips the security/convenience scales so far in favour of security that it’s not really the best place to start your password manager journey. But if you get past the learning curve of its user-unfriendliness, there’s no denying how secure 1Password is. It’s so secure that, when I didn’t save my 1Password Emergency Kit when I first tested 1Password, I was unable to access that initial account. While inconvenient, that’s a big plus for security. 1Password is so secure that it requires more of its users to restore accounts or access password vaults on new devices. It also has a unique Travel Mode feature for those worried about prying customs officers or cops. If you want ultimate peace of mind in a password manager, use 1Password.

For more convenient security, consider Dashlane, NordPass or Bitwarden instead.

Many of the password managers on this page have free trials and/or free subscription tiers, including Dashlane, Bitwarden and NordPass. But Google Password Manager is completely free without any option to pay for more features. Admittedly, you need to be a Chrome user to even access Google Password Manager, but given Chrome is the most popular browser in the world (by a healthy margin), the chances are good you’re one of those people. Google Password Manager works as part of the Chrome browser just by logging in with a Google account. It handles autofill for credentials and personal information in a very straightforward way, and there’s even a password-strength checker if you dig into the settings.

Alternatively, start your password manager journey with the free versions of Dashlane, Bitwarden or NordPass.

If you want the best VPN, it’s hard to look past NordVPN. Not content with that accolade, Nord Security is also responsible for one of the best password managers around, too. While NordVPN has a reputation for being expensive, NordPass is very competitive with its pricing. Fees are also mercifully charged in Australian dollars, even if there aren’t any monthly pricing options for NordPass. But unlike any of its competitors on this page, NordPass offers two-year pricing. Better still, if you want to try before you buy, NordPass Free includes a 30-day no-credit-card trial, so you can take it for a spin before buying in for two years. When I tested NordPass, I found NordPass to be user-friendly and, outside of some odd quirks, reliable.

None of the other password managers I’ve reviewed offer multi-year pricing, but Bitwarden is the cheapest of the lot for annual pricing (individual and family plans).

I used LastPass for years and, legitimately, the only reason it’s not in a more meaningful category is because of the late-2022 data breach, which involved user data. It’s a shame because LastPass is an incredibly user-friendly password manager that works across major devices. Pricing is competitive and there’s even a viable free version to try before you buy. While that data breach will likely loom large for at least a while, LastPass still does one thing better than most other password managers: password generation. There’s a simple one-click/tap option for secure passwords when creating a new website login, plus customisation is a cinch. Shift a slider to control password length, then modify by ticking or unticking boxes for upper case, lower case, numbers and symbols. There are also radial options to help better remember passwords, with toggles for ‘easy to say’ or ‘easy to remember’.

For a similarly impressive password generator, check out Bitwarden or NordPass.