1Password al­tern­at­ives: The 5 best password managers

The in­teg­rated password generator is a practical feature, which can generate and remember a long and complex password for each new website you register with. These passwords are auto­mat­ic­ally copied into the re­spect­ive fields in the web browser if required. LastPass also offers a practical feature for online shops, namely the storage of credit card in­form­a­tion, billing, and delivery addresses. This sim­pli­fies online shopping by auto­mat­ic­ally filling out the relevant forms.

The in­teg­rated ‘security challenge’ feature allows you to check the quality of your existing passwords to make im­prove­ments if necessary. LastPass offers a suc­cess­ful step-by-step guide that you can follow to improve your overall security. This includes detecting security risks such as passwords used on multiple websites and clues to poorly for­mu­lated passwords.

LastPass stores all your data on its own servers. It seems that creating a local backup option is not on the cards. The software is con­sidered secure and data leaks have not yet become known, but you must agree to your private data being stored on external servers. The company ensures security for this through reliable end-to-end en­cryp­tion.

LastPass offers mobile password manager apps for Android, iOS, and Windows Phone. These can be syn­chron­ised with the main tool so that you have access to the same password storage with all your devices. You can also manage passwords for other apps via LastPass.

The free version of LastPass password manager already has a wealth of features that make managing your passwords much easier for users, making it an excellent free password manager. The premium version (about £1.50 per month) allows sharing data with others, emergency access for au­thor­ised persons, and 1 GB of online storage. Multi-user licenses are available in the ‘families’ plan (about £3 per month), which allows up to five users to manage passwords together and sep­ar­ately. For busi­nesses, LastPass also offers versions with improved security and in­di­vidu­al support. Prices for this have to in­di­vidu­ally de­term­ined.

KeyPass is a single, portable .exe file. The database can be encrypted with a master password or by a key file. You can also specify that only one par­tic­u­lar Windows user may access the database. This is useful if several people use the same computer.

Unlike 1Password and LastPass, KeePass is not a browser extension, so it can’t be used to auto­mat­ic­ally insert passwords into the web browser. It does, however, offer the pos­sib­il­ity to copy and paste passwords, or to load a password directly into the online form with a key com­bin­a­tion. Fur­ther­more, thanks to being open source, there are now some un­of­fi­cial browser ex­ten­sions for KeePass that directly connect the browser and the tool. Then, an automatic password fill-in will also work.

KeePass also has its own password generator that randomly generates passwords. The passwords generated in this way can be saved and used directly. KeePass will then remember your passwords. The data is encrypted using well-known al­gorithms, including AES and Twofish, which are con­sidered secure.

Dashlane also promote their unique ‘password changer’ feature, which makes password change very easy. To do this, however, websites have to sign up and allow the feature, which currently severely restricts the func­tion­al­ity of the feature. However, if Dashlane can get big names such as Facebook to join, the ‘password changer’ promises to be a great feature.

Using Dashlane, you can share your passwords with third-party sites, and set up emergency contacts to keep your data ac­cess­ible if you’re unable to access your computer or it breaks down. If the software and the extension are running, entered passwords can be saved auto­mat­ic­ally. As with LastPass, users don’t need to open the programme once it’s set up.

In addition to the good en­cryp­tion al­gorithms, the security dashboard provides increased security by high­light­ing security issues such as poorly for­mu­lated passwords for you. In addition, Dashlane will inform you in case of potential security gaps that arise with the websites you use.

The free version of Dashlane can be used for one device, and is an excellent 1Password al­tern­at­ive for users who only want a password manager for their main device. For about £30 per year you can upgrade Dashlane to the premium version, which allows you to syn­chron­ise Dashlane with several devices. You can also create premium backups with Dashlane, and premium members get higher priority with customer support. Fur­ther­more, Dashlane offers a business solution for companies that guar­an­tees higher security and support, and unlocks more ad­min­is­trat­or features. This costs about £34per user per month, billed annually.

The current version of RoboForm (v.8) delivers what you would expect from a modern, efficient password manager. If desired, the programme saves all passwords that you enter and auto­mat­ic­ally loads them into online forms if required. You can reach shortcuts via a drop-down menu. If you click on one of these shortcuts, the saved website is accessed and you’re auto­mat­ic­ally logged in with the saved login data.

RoboForm also has a good password generator that creates and auto­mat­ic­ally stores unique, complex passwords for you, so you never have to remember them. Stored passwords can be con­veni­ently saved in folders. RoboForm’s password en­cryp­tion is based on the well-known al­gorithms PBKDF2 and SHA256, which are con­sidered secure, and you can have your passwords checked for security in the security center. The in­teg­ra­tion of an import and export feature is worth men­tion­ing, because it means that a possible migration from another password manager to RoboForm is easy, or you can create a local back-up file. Generic .csv files are created for this.

RoboForm is available for Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. To use the same account on different devices, you must purchase the ‘every­where’ version. Depending on the duration of the contract, this costs around $20 per year. RoboForm ‘every­where’ includes ad­di­tion­al two-factor au­then­tic­a­tion for increased security, and optional cloud backups of your passwords. Emergency access can also be set in case you don't get your passwords. RoboForm also offers a business version for to create ‘team members’, promises improved security, and contains extensive ad­min­is­trat­or tools. The price of this version must be discussed in­di­vidu­ally with RoboForm.