Are Password Managers Worth It? from Serenity's blog

Password managers are one of the most reliable solutions through which you can employ strong and unique passwords for your different accounts on the internet. But are password managers actually worth it? Let us find out more about them.

 

What is a Password Manager?

 

As its name suggests, a password manager helps you in managing your passwords. A password manager is basically a software that not only assists you in creating secure passwords for your accounts but also keeps them secure in encrypted form with the help of a master password.

 

Moreover, it automatically retrieves the respective login details of the website you are about to use.

 

Why do you need a Password Manager? 

 

In this growing world of the internet, we usually access dozens of password-secured websites and applications on a daily basis. But most of us tend to use extremely weak passwords and often reuse them on various websites.

 

If this is also the case with you, then I would highly recommend you to use a good password manager. It saves a lot of your precious time that otherwise would have been spent on remembering and resetting the passwords.

 

Are Password Managers Totally Safe?

 

To be honest, no system is completely safe at all. But as most of the password managing software use exceptionally powerful 256 bit AES encryption method, a hacker would not be able to access your information.

 

Besides, by following some simple practices, you can also ensure the security of your passwords.

 

As you are required to remember just a single password, i.e. the master password for accessing your multiple accounts, make sure that you only use a strong one.

 

It must be a random string of capital as well as lower case characters. Furthermore, you must use numbers and symbols in your master password.

 

And one more thing, don't ever forget to turn off the autofill feature on your browser. It would be a lot more secure if you manually copy and paste your password from the manager. 

 

Advantages of a Password Manager.

 

Apparently, a password manager comes up with numerous advantages that are as follows:

 

First of all, the biggest benefit of using a password manager is that it requires you to remember just one password for accessing your different accounts. By knowing only the master password of your password managing tool, you can get a whole list of other passwords as well.

 

With the help of a password manager, you can also generate a powerful and complex password to login into the websites. It also memorizes those passwords on your behalf. For example, you can not easily learn a complicated password like apJ3@yhiZEnü#dh, but a password manager can do it for you.

 

Many password managers store your password database online. Thus, you can easily get your passwords on any device, be it your phone, laptop, or your PC. Also, you can access them anywhere in the world.

 

Now, you must be wondering whether saving such a valuable database of passwords online is safe or not. For security purposes, a password manager encrypts your database before syncing it on the internet. Such highly encrypted files are nothing but a piece of trash for hackers. It is nearly impossible to decrypt them.

 

 

 

Disadvantages of a Password Manager.

 

One of the major drawbacks of using a password manager is that you have to rely on just a single password (i.e. the master password) to access your multiple accounts.

 

Accordingly, if you anyhow forget your main password, you will not be able to get the other ones. In that case, even your password managing agent will not be able to do anything for you.

 

This is only because of the fact that these password managers themselves can not decrypt the locally encrypted database of passwords.

 

To resolve this issue, an offline password manager proves fruitful as unlike the cloud-based password managers out there, it keeps the encrypted database of passwords on the hard drive of your device. 

You just need to install it on your device and the password manager will do the rest.

 

However, it also has several shortcomings. For example, while using it, you can not sync your password in different devices. Secondly, if anyhow, someone gets physical access to your device, he can easily steal your important passwords.

 

With that said, storing all your passwords online might be a risky choice.

 

 

 

5 Best Password Managers in 2021

 

 

1. Dashlane

 

Our first pick for the list of 5 best password managers in 2021 by  the dark web. One of the most secure password managing tool comes up with free as well as the paid version. A prominent feature of this tool is that it has an inbuilt VPN that enables you to access geo-restricted services.

 

In the free version of Dashlane, you can store the passwords of only 50 accounts. Apart from this, you can only use it on a single device. But, its paid version has a lot more advanced features than the free one.

With a premium plan, you can easily sync your data between devices.

 

The powerful password managing tool supports two-factor authentication. It also scans the dark web for login identity and other details and notifies you whenever your data has been breached. However, as expected, its premium plan is quite expensive than the others.

 

Visit Dashlane's website.

 

 

2. LastPass

 

LastPass is certainly one of the best free password managing tools out there. Similar to Dashlane, it has both free as well as premium plans. But the good thing about LastPass is that its free version possesses a lot more features than that of Dashlane.

 

Unlike the Dashlane's free plan that allows only 50 passwords, LastPass's free plan does not impose any restriction on the number of passwords or devices being used. With LastPass free, you can synchronize your passwords on multiple devices.

 

Equipped with multi-factor authentication, LastPass tends to use cloud storage for keeping your confidential data secure. For the security of your valuable data, it monitors and highlights weak and easy to guess passwords. Along with a Premium Plan and Families Plan, the password manager also has 4 other business plans.

 

Visit LastPass's website.

 

 

3. Keeper

 

Keeper is an easy-to-use password manager that contains various security features that are being required by decent password managing software. Being easy to use does not mean the software lacks smart security options. In fact, it is among the most powerful managing tools and is enabled with biometric authentication.

 

It provides plugins for a large number of browsers including Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, Edge and Opera. Besides the desktop app for Windows, macOS and Linux, Keeper's Android and iOS applications are also available on the internet.

 

The only real downside of this password managing tool is that it does not have any free version for the users. In order to avail all its amazing benefits, you are required to buy one of its premium plans. However, before taking its subscription, you can also go for a 30 days trial.

 

Visit the Keeper's website.

 

 

4. RoboForm

 

If you are looking for a simple and secure password managing software that is providing great facilities for form-filling, then, in my opinion, RoboForm would be the best choice for you. It is one of the most impressive password managers that is powered by two-factor authentication.

 

RoboForm's password generator can generate passwords containing about 512 characters. It also analyses the strength of your passwords and suggests changes accordingly. It tells you about your security score by discovering the number of weak or duplicated passwords.

 

Having great customization options, the password manager provides reasonably low pricing choices for business owners as well as individual users. And you will be pleased to know that along with such a low price range, RoboForm also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.

 

Visit RoboForm's website.

 

 

5. NordPass

 

NordPass is the last password managing software on this list. Originally created by the team of NordVPN, a popular VPN service, NordPass is one of the most cost-effective password managing choices out there. The software has a straightforward interface and is designed in such a way that it turns out to be more effective.

 

Much similar to the other managers mentioned in this article, NordPass offers both free and premium services. Its free version allows you to sync with only one device but you can save unlimited passwords. And with its paid version, you can synchronize your information with 6 devices.

 

Aside from this, one of the biggest disadvantages of using NordPass is that you will not get the autofill feature in this software. However, this decent password managing tool contains some other functions including two-step authentication and XChaCha20 encryption.

 

Visit NordPass website.

 

 

 

Conclusion

 

So, what do you think about the password managers? Please tell us in the comments below as I am quite excited to know your opinion on these password managing tools. I hope the article helped in getting more about them.

 

Above mentioned is a list of 5 best password managers that include both free and paid choices. However, if you are seriously concerned about the security of your passwords, just go for the paid ones.


Previous post     
     Next post
     Blog home

The Wall

No comments
You need to sign in to comment
Our website is made possible by displaying online advertisements to our visitors.
Please consider supporting us by disabling your ad blocker.