Best Password Managers (2026): 1Password vs Bitwarden vs NordPass vs Proton Pass, Plus Which to Avoid

How we reviewed this: this is a research-based review. We did not buy or test the product ourselves. We checked the official website, policies and independent customer feedback, and every fact below links to its source. Facts checked 2026-11-01. How we review · Affiliate disclosure: we may earn a commission if you buy through our links, at no extra cost to you.

Quick answer: the best password managers

A password manager stores all your logins in an encrypted vault, fills them in for you and creates strong, unique passwords, so one stolen password can’t unlock everything. We compared how eight major review outlets ranked them in 2026 (Wirecutter, PCMag, CNET, Tom’s Guide, TechRadar, Zapier, Security.org and Consumer Reports’ ratings as reported by BGR), then checked what matters most for a vault holding every password you have: independent security audits, breach history, price and refund rules.

Best overall: 1Password ($47.88/yr; families $71.88/yr for 5). The top pick at Wirecutter, Tom’s Guide and Zapier, the families pick at CNET and TechRadar, and tied for Consumer Reports’ highest score.
Best free: Bitwarden (free; Premium $19.80/yr). The best free password manager at Wirecutter, CNET, Tom’s Guide, TechRadar and Zapier, and fully open source.
Best value: NordPass ($23.88 first year). Best overall at PCMag (Editors’ Choice), CNET and TechRadar.
Best for privacy: Proton Pass (free; Plus $35.88/yr). PCMag’s free Editors’ Choice, open source and based in Switzerland.

Read this first: 1Password, our top pick and the only one here we can earn from, has no free plan and says it is “unable to issue refunds,” so use its 14-day free trial before you pay. Most outlets that rank password managers earn commissions, and PCMag notes one company paid for highlighted placement on its page. And we’d skip LastPass: its 2022 breach let attackers copy customer vaults, researchers tie tens of millions of dollars in later crypto thefts to it, and UK regulators fined it in 2025. Details in security track records.

Comparison: price, free plan, security and refunds

Password manager	Price, 1 person / family (yearly)	Free plan	Open source	Independent audits	Refunds
1Password	$47.88 / $71.88 (5 people)	No (14-day trial)	No	SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001; annual pen tests; public bug bounty	No refunds
Bitwarden	$19.80 / $47.88 (6 people)	Yes	Yes	Many Cure53 and Fracture Labs audits 2023-2025; SOC 2	30 days
NordPass	$23.88 first year ($35.88 list) / $44.28 first year (6)	Yes, single device	No	Cure53 audit (2020)	30 days
Proton Pass	$35.88 / $59.88 (6 people)	Yes, unlimited devices	Yes	Cure53 pen test (2023); ISO 27001	30 days
Keeper	$42.99 / $91.99 (5 people)	Limited (1 mobile device)	No	NCC Group pen tests; SOC 2, FIPS 140-3	Terms say fees nonrefundable
Dashlane	About $65 / about $98 (10 people)	No (ended Sept 2025)	No	Not checked	Not checked

Prices from each company’s official US site on November 1, 2026 (yearly billing; NordPass prices are first-year promotions). Apple Passwords and Google Password Manager are free and built in if you only use one company’s devices.

Best overall: 1Password

1Password is the password manager reviewers agree on most: Wirecutter’s top pick, Tom’s Guide’s best overall, Zapier’s best for most people, CNET’s and TechRadar’s best for families, and tied for the highest overall score in Consumer Reports’ ratings (as reported by BGR). It works on Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android and ChromeOS, supports passkeys, can share items with anyone (even non-users) through expiring links, and includes Travel Mode on every plan (PCMag names it best for frequent travelers). Your vault is protected by both your password and a separate Secret Key. It holds SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 certifications and runs a public bug bounty. Individual is $47.88 a year ($4.99 month to month), and Families is $71.88 a year for five people.

The catches: there’s no free plan, and 1Password says, “We’re unable to issue refunds for past charges or for any time remaining on your account at the time of cancellation,” so test it during the 14-day trial. PCMag rates it only 3.5 out of 5, mainly for price and the missing free tier. It isn’t open source. A 2023 incident at its identity provider, Okta, touched 1Password’s systems, but it says “no compromise of user data.” In August 2025 a researcher showed a browser-extension clickjacking trick that worked against 11 password managers; 1Password was reported unpatched at disclosure, and we couldn’t confirm its current fix status. Trustpilot: 4.1 from 12,516 reviews. Read our full 1Password review.

Try 1Password free for 14 days →

Best free: Bitwarden

Bitwarden is the free password manager almost every outlet recommends: best free at Wirecutter, CNET, Tom’s Guide, TechRadar and Zapier. The free plan covers unlimited passwords on unlimited devices, and Premium costs just $19.80 a year (Families $47.88 for six). Its whole codebase is open source, you can host it yourself, and it publishes a long list of third-party audits, including multiple Cure53 and Fracture Labs reviews in 2024 and 2025. It offers a 30-day refund on paid plans.

The catches: TechRadar notes paid prices have gone up (Premium roughly doubled in early 2026), and CNET recently moved it from best overall to best free. A 2026 ETH Zurich study found 12 possible attacks against Bitwarden if its servers were taken over by attackers, the most of the three managers studied; Bitwarden said the scenario is hypothetical and the issues were addressed. In April 2026, a tampered version of its command-line tool was online for about 93 minutes; Bitwarden says its regular apps weren’t affected and there was no evidence vault data was at risk.

See Bitwarden’s plans →

Best value: NordPass

NordPass is the best overall password manager at PCMag (Editors’ Choice, 4.5), CNET and TechRadar, and it’s the cheapest paid option here for the first year: $23.88 for Premium or $44.28 for a six-person family plan, with a 30-day money-back guarantee. It uses XChaCha20 encryption and adds email masking and breach scanning. NordPass is from Nord Security, the company behind NordVPN.

The catches: those are first-year prices (Premium lists at $35.88), and the free plan works on only one device at a time. Nord Security faces several US class actions over auto-renewals and hard-to-cancel subscriptions; Nord says its terms are shown at purchase. Its most recent named independent audit we found is from 2020.

See NordPass plans →

Best for privacy: Proton Pass

Proton Pass, from the Swiss company behind Proton Mail, is PCMag’s free Editors’ Choice (4.5) and Tom’s Guide’s best for privacy. Its free plan is the most generous here: unlimited logins and devices, passkeys and 10 hide-my-email aliases that keep your real address private. Pass Plus ($35.88 a year) adds a built-in authenticator and unlimited aliases; Family is $59.88 for six. It’s open source, and Proton offers a full refund within 30 days.

The catches: it’s newer than the others, and only 18 Trustpilot reviews exist for Pass specifically.

See Proton Pass plans →

Also worth a look: Keeper

Keeper is Tom’s Guide’s best for security and tied for Consumer Reports’ top score. It’s FIPS 140-3 validated, holds SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO certifications, and has been pen-tested by NCC Group. It’s $42.99 a year or $91.99 for a family of five, but extras like dark web monitoring cost more, the free plan is limited to one mobile device and 10 passwords, and its terms of use say fees are nonrefundable. Its BBB complaints are mostly about auto-renewal.

See Keeper plans →

Security track records

LastPass (we’d avoid it): in 2022 attackers stole source code, then used a hacked employee computer to copy production backups including customer vaults. Researchers have linked more than $35 million in later cryptocurrency thefts to cracked LastPass vaults (they note this is correlation, not proof). The UK’s data regulator fined LastPass £1.2 million in December 2025, and a $24.5 million US class settlement followed in 2026. CNET says it won’t recommend LastPass, and its Trustpilot score is 1.3 with 81% one-star reviews.
Dashlane: in June 2026, attackers brute-forced two-factor codes and downloaded the encrypted vaults of fewer than 20 users; Dashlane says vaults can’t be opened without the master password.
ETH Zurich study (2026): assuming a password manager’s own servers were fully compromised, researchers found 12 attacks on Bitwarden, 7 on LastPass and 6 on Dashlane. 1Password reviewed the paper and said it “did not identify any new attack vectors impacting 1Password,” while acknowledging a known limitation in how sharing keys are verified. The researchers still advise using a password manager.
Browser clickjacking (August 2025): a DEF CON researcher showed all 11 password manager extensions he tested could be tricked by at least one method; Dashlane, NordPass, Keeper, RoboForm and Proton Pass were reported fixed at disclosure.

Free built-in options

If you only use Apple devices, Apple Passwords (built into iOS 18 and macOS) is free and supports passkeys, verification codes and shared groups; Zapier names it best for Apple users. Google Password Manager is free in Chrome and Android. They’re fine starting points if you stay within one company’s devices; a dedicated manager like those above works across Apple, Windows and Android.

FAQ

What is the best password manager in 2026?

1Password is the most consistent top pick: Wirecutter’s, Tom’s Guide’s and Zapier’s best overall, CNET’s and TechRadar’s best for families, and tied for Consumer Reports’ top score. PCMag, CNET and TechRadar name NordPass best overall instead.

What is the best free password manager?

Bitwarden: Wirecutter, CNET, Tom’s Guide, TechRadar and Zapier all name it the best free option, with unlimited passwords on unlimited devices. Proton Pass is PCMag’s free Editors’ Choice.

1Password vs Bitwarden: which is better?

1Password is more polished and wins more top-pick awards, with extras like Travel Mode, but costs $47.88 a year with no free plan and no refunds. Bitwarden is free (Premium $19.80 a year), open source and the most-audited, with a 30-day refund.

Is 1Password safe?

It holds SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 certifications, runs a public bug bounty, protects vaults with a password plus a Secret Key, and says a 2023 Okta-related incident involved no user data. No password manager is risk-free, but we found no 1Password vault breach.

Should I still use LastPass?

We’d switch. Its 2022 breach let attackers copy encrypted customer vaults, researchers tie more than $35 million in later crypto thefts to it, the UK fined it in 2025, and CNET won’t recommend it.

Does 1Password offer refunds?

No. 1Password says it is “unable to issue refunds for past charges or for any time remaining on your account at the time of cancellation,” so use its 14-day free trial first. Bitwarden, NordPass and Proton Pass offer 30-day refunds.

Are free built-in password managers good enough?

If you stay within one company’s devices, they can be: Apple Passwords and Google Password Manager are free and support passkeys. A dedicated manager works across Apple, Windows and Android.

What’s the best password manager for families?

1Password Families ($71.88 a year for five) is CNET’s and TechRadar’s pick for families. Bitwarden Families ($47.88 for six) and Proton Pass Family ($59.88 for six) cost less.