Bitdefender Internet Security may be Bitdefender’s entry-level Windows internet security suite, but it’s absolutely stuffed with features: real-time malware protection, anti-phishing, parental controls for desktops and mobiles, a secure browser, tracker-blocking, a limited 200Mb a day VPN, anti-spam, it’s all here. Factor in Bitdefender’s consistently excellent protection rates and Bitdefender Internet Security could be the ideal security suite for your PC; keep reading and we’ll take an in-depth look at everything it has to offer. 

Bitdefender Internet Security: Pricing

Bitdefender Internet Security is priced from $39.99 to protect a single Windows device for a year ($59.99 on renewal.) Many entry-level suites are priced around $30-$40 for year one, but they typically cover far more hardware. Avast One Silver and Norton 360 Standard both support three devices, for instance, and they can be Mac, Android or iOS, as well as Windows.

Value improves hugely if you’ve a lot of PCs to protect. Bitdefender Internet Security’s 10 device license costs only $94.99 a year, and if you’ll use all 10, that’s only $0.79 to protect each device for a month: a real bargain. 

If you need a full VPN, don’t rule out Bitdefender Premium Security. It adds Mac and mobile device support, an unlimited VPN and a password manager, yet is cheaper initially than Bitdefender Internet Security at $79.99 in year one, and still reasonably priced at $159.99 on renewal.

Bitdefender Internet Security isn’t the cheapest product around, then, especially if you only need to protect a single PC. But the features you get are top quality, and if you can use a 10 device license, the suite looks like a much better deal.

Bitdefender Internet Security: Ease of use

If you’re looking for antivirus software you can install and forget, Bitdefender Internet Security has a lot of appeal. The app installed easily for us, then moved to the background and made most of its decisions entirely automatically, keeping any technical hassles to a minimum.

Other providers often have a very different user experience. Present Avast One with an app it doesn’t recognize, for instance, and it’ll launch a scan and leave you waiting for up to 15-20 seconds before you can continue. By comparison, Bitdefender might ask if you trust the app, but mostly it sorts out the issue for itself.

Try Avira antivirus and you’ll get notified with pop-up alerts for every threat, which can become annoying (a malicious web page opens lots of dangerous links, for instance.) Bitdefender displays the first alert, but doesn’t bother you with the rest. The information is still available in a Notifications page, but you don’t have to look at it unless you’re interested.

Bitdefender Internet Security: Interface & use

Bitdefender Internet Security opens with a simple dashboard offering one-click access to its most useful features: quick scan, system scan, the VPN and the secure browser, Safepay.

In theory you can customize the dashboard with your own shortcuts. But in practice, there are only two other items you can add, in the Password Manager (only a trial) and the Data Shredder. The dashboard would benefit from more flexibility, such as the ability to pin your own custom scans (more on those below.)

There are plenty of other tools and options available, and Bitdefender organizes those with icons in a left-hand sidebar: Protection, Privacy, Utilities, Notifications, Settings. If you need to control the Anti-Tracker, for instance, click Privacy, and you can edit its settings, or turn it on and off with a click.

Bitdefender hasn’t changed the core of its interface for a very long time. That’s a pity, because as we’ve discussed, there is room for improvement. But at its heart the interface is generally easy to use, and it’s likely you’ll find the functions and features you need without any difficulty.

Bitdefender Internet Security: Antivirus scanning

Bitdefender offers a strong range of scan types covering all kinds of situations.

Quick Scan runs a brief check which inspects the most commonly-infected areas only. This took a reasonably short 8:14 on our test system, falling just a little to 7:36 on the second scan.

System Scan is a deeper analysis which crawls your entire storage device and explores everything it finds. That takes much longer for the first scan, but drops hugely afterwards as Bitdefender only scans new or changed files.

To test this, we scanned 50GB of application files. The first run took 37:44, a little behind Avast (35:40) and Norton (32:01.) The story changes on subsequent scans, though, with Avast taking 34:53, Norton falling to 3:48, but Bitdefender completing in just 90 seconds.

Rescue Environment is a bootable scanner which lives on your hard drive and removes even the most stubborn of threats. It’s a great tool and the ability to launch it from your Bitdefender app is a major usability plus (Avira and many other vendors expect you to download, set up and run their boot scanners separately.)

This is all very configurable, too, with options including the ability to build your own custom scans and schedule them to run automatically, perhaps overnight or whenever you’re not around.

Bitdefender Internet Security: Antivirus lab test results

Although we put every antivirus app we review through our own series of tests, we also pay close attention to results from the big antivirus testing labs.

We follow nine tests from labs including AV-Comparatives (Real-World Protection, Malware Protection, Android, Anti-Phishing, Performance), AV-Test (Windows, Android), MRG Effitas (360° Protection Testing) and SE Labs (Endpoint Security Home).

As each site has its own scoring system, we use a special algorithm which converts the various figures into an overall score from zero to 10.

Bitdefender score appears in the latest reports for eight out of our nine core tests, making this a strong all-round test of its abilities. But Bitdefender’s combined score was a little disappointing at 9.92, earning the company seventh place in our charts behind the likes of Avast (9.97), ESET (9.94) and Avira.

Looking at the individual tests, Bitdefender was a little below par in both the AV-Comparatives and AV-Test’s Windows reports. The differences are small, though, and not always about protection; AV-Test found Bitdefender blocked 100% of test threats, for instance, but marked the company down for reducing device speeds a little and falsely flagging 5 legitimate apps. 

Bitdefender isn’t leading the way with the independent labs right at this moment, but the margins between providers are tiny, and it’s not far behind. Where Bitdefender has scored in the past is for its consistency over the long term - it won 2023’s ‘Outstanding Product’ at AV-Comparatives but the sheer number of awards won across all its tests - and we’ll be watching to see if its normal market-leading performance returns soon.

Bitdefender Internet Security: Anti-ransomware

Defeating ransomware isn’t just about spotting known threats as they’re downloaded. A good antivirus needs multiple other layers of protection, such as using behavior monitoring to detect even brand new threats before they can do any harm.

We tested Bitdefender by running our own custom ransomware simulator. This defeated Avira, but Bitdefender killed our simulator before it could damage a single file.

That’s not the end of the story. Bitdefender’s Ransomware Remediation can automatically protect ransomware-encrypted files, recovering them once the infection was removed. The technology has worked faultlessly in previous reviews, giving Bitdefender a major advantage over other security vendors.

The latest MRG Effitas Ransomware tests also brought positive news. Bitdefender, ESET, Microsoft and ThreatDown all blocked 100% of test threats, earning them an equal first place. That’s another great result, and more confirmation that Bitdefender is one of the best vendors around for battling ransomware.

Bitdefender Internet Security: Anti-phishing

The best security tools don’t just detect and block web threats as they appear: they prevent you ever reaching them in the first place. That’s why we’re always very interested in an app’s ability to keep you safe from phishing and other malicious websites.

Antiphishing doesn’t get much attention from the labs, but AV-Comparatives did run a small test on the feature last year. Bitdefender led the pack with an excellent 96% protection rate, just ahead of Avast (94%), AVG (94%), ESET (92%) and Avira (88%.)

We ran a test of our own, and attempted to access 100 brand new phishing URLs on a Bitdefender-protected system. The protection rate was identical at 96%, but Bitdefender didn’t lead the way this time. Avira topped our anti-phishing chart with 100% protection, while Avast managed 99%, and Norton scored 95%.

Bitdefender Internet Security: Performance impact

We expect a quality antivirus to offer reliable and accurate malware protection, but that’s not all. The best apps deliver their protection without slowing down your device, raising endless false alarms or otherwise causing daily hassles.

AV-Comparatives’ Performance Test measures the performance impact of 16 antivirus apps when browsing websites, downloading files, installing and launching applications, and more. Bitdefender had a little impact on application launch times, but was still very fast overall, and received AV-Comparatives top Advanced+ award.

Our own tests with the excellent PCMark 10 benchmark found barely any performance impact from Bitdefender and although our boot times lengthened a little, they’re still comparable to similar apps. Our test system took 65 seconds to fully load Windows and 81 seconds to fully load a collection of apps, for instance; Bitdefender increased this to 73 and 100 seconds, but that’s almost identical to Avast’s times of 72 and 102 seconds.

Overall, our tests suggest that although Bitdefender isn’t quite the most lightweight of antivirus apps, it has less performance impact than most, and didn’t cause us any significant speed issues.

Bitdefender Internet Security: Safepay

Many security vendors offer some form of ‘privacy browser’, but typically you can get much the same result by installing a few well-chosen extensions, or a third-party freebie like Brave Privacy Browser.

Bitdefender Safepay is a secure browser which protects you both from web dangers, and malware which might have smuggled itself onto your own system.

The protection starts by Bitdefender recognizing when you’re accessing a sensitive site. When we visited a banking site, for instance, an alert prompted us to open the website in Safepay (it can automatically connect to the VPN, too.) Sounds like a small point, but that one idea reduces the chance that you’ll forget to turn Safepay on.

The other major Safepay plus is it’s isolated from every other process on your system. Malware can’t capture your keystrokes or record screenshots of what you’re doing (we tried with commercial and custom tools of our own), and the virtual keyboard prevents even hardware keyloggers from recording your activities.

Put it all together and Safepay offers way more protection than other privacy browsers, making it one of the highlights of Bitdefender’s range.

Bitdefender Internet Security: VPN

Bitdefender Internet Security includes the free version of Bitdefender VPN. The paid edition is an excellent service with quality apps using the Hotspot Shield network, but, unfortunately, the freebie is so restricted that many will find it unusable.

You only get 200MB of data a day, for instance. We opened desktop Outlook and a few other applications on a Windows laptop, but just left them running without doing anything ourselves on the device,, and the background traffic alone used 70MB of data over the next hour. The free Bitdefender VPN is only suitable for light use.

The other big issue is you can’t choose your location. Hit Connect and Bitdefender VPN automatically selects whatever it thinks is the best server for you (the closest or the fastest, most likely.). That means there’s little hope of unblocking anything, and, if the VPN chooses a location in a neighboring country to you, there’s nothing you can do about it.

Still, if you only need a VPN very occasionally, perhaps to securely access your email on public Wi-Fi, the free Bitdefender VPN just might be enough. And, if you can live with the data and location limits, there’s a lot to like here.

Bitdefender Internet Security: VPN Features

Bitdefender’s Windows app takes up a lot of screen space, thanks to a large and mostly pointless map. But it looks good, and provides a lot of information: your current IP address, the session length, the data you’ve used, and more.

Using the VPN is easy - just hit the blue Connect button - but connection times were relatively slow for us at around 6-8 seconds (the best apps typically take under two seconds.)

Speeds were acceptable at 60Mbps+ on a 70Mbps connection. That’s adequate for browsing, or a short period of low-quality streaming (30 minutes of standard definition YouTube watching needs around 180MB, for example.)

Useful settings start with a strong choice of secure protocols, including WireGuard, OpenVPN and Hotspot Shield’s Hydra. Quality ad and tracker blocking enhances your privacy online, and we found the effective kill switch immediately blocks your internet access if the VPN drops.

Split tunneling support allows you to select apps which bypass the VPN and use the internet directly. That could help cut your VPN data usage and stretch that 200MB a day just a little further.

A very clever Auto-Connect option can automatically connect to the VPN when your device starts, if you connect to unsecured Wi-Fi, when you access specific domains (your business network, say), even if you visit a particular category of website: banking, online payments, health, and more.

There’s even an App Traffic Optimizer, which can improve speeds of up to three apps by giving them priority for your available bandwidth. That won’t help much with the free version - the more apps you use, the faster your data will disappear - but we have to applaud Bitdefender’s technical expertise.

Bitdefender Internet Security: Webcam and microphone protection

Bitdefender Internet Security includes video and audio protection, a feature which can prevent apps accessing your webcam or microphone without your permission.

Bitdefender says the suite blocks untrusted apps by default. We tested this by running our own custom webcam hijacker app, and Bitdefender realised there was a problem, displayed a notification, and our app couldn’t access the webcam until we clicked ‘Allow.’ 

We ran a safe but little-known command line tool to record microphone audio. Once again, Bitdefender handled the situation well, allowing the app to access our microphone but using a notification to keep us informed.

Although most top suites have similar tools, they don’t always work as well. If Avast One asks permission for an app to access your webcam, for instance, and you close that dialog box without giving an answer, Avast allows access anyway. Bitdefender is more secure because it blocks dubious apps until you specifically hit the Allow button.

If you don’t like the default settings, Bitdefender provides various ways to customise your protection. You can turn notifications on or off, for instance; block browsers from accessing your webcam, or even block webcam access entirely if you’re sure you’ll never need it.

Bitdefender Internet Security: Firewall

Bitdefender’s firewall watches the network connections made by your apps, decides which apps can get online and which can’t, and works to protect you from network scans and attacks.

If you’re a networking novice and that’s already more than you want to know, that’s fine: the firewall makes all its decisions automatically, so you can safely leave it alone (or forget it even exists.) But if you’re the more technical type, there are potentially useful features to explore.

An ‘Application Access’ list showed us which processes had accessed the internet recently, for instance, handy if you’re monitoring what’s happening on your system. 

The Rules page listed the apps Bitdefender allowed online, and any it was blocking. You can change these rules or add new ones yourself, perhaps to prevent specific applications from connecting to the web.

Useful options provide various ways to configure the firewall to suit your needs. For example, if you’re looking for maximum security, you can have the firewall only allow traffic for known trusted processes. That might break a lot of applications (which is why Bitdefender intelligently decides which apps are safe by default), but it does make your system more secure, and could work for some people.

Bitdefender Internet Security: Antispam

Bitdefender’s Antispam tool is a simple spam filter that works for local email clients only (Outlook, Thunderbird, anything which sends and fetches emails via SMTP and POP3.)

The feature isn’t going to be relevant if you access your email in a browser, or you’re using Gmail or some other top provider. The likes of Google, Apple and Microsoft already do a decent job of filtering spam. If you get email from your ISP or a hosting provider, though, and they don’t provide spam filtering, then Bitdefender Antispam may be useful.

In theory, the feature should be easy to operate. Turn Antispam on, and it automatically scans incoming emails,moving anything sufficiently spam-like into your Junk folder. You can customise the results by building block and allow lists, or enabling one or two generic junk-blocking tricks (stop all emails encoded with Asian characters, for instance.)

In practice, it wasn’t quite that simple for us. Antispam should have added a toolbar to our Outlook, but we didn’t see it. Investigating, we found Outlook had disabled Antispam because it was taking too long to load. That’s disappointing, but it was easy to re-enable, and a quick test showed the filter working as advertised.

Overall, Bitdefender Antispam could be handy for some users. If you really need a local spam filter, though, something like MailWasher  gives you more features with even its free version. 

Bitdefender Internet Security: Parental Controls

Bitdefender Internet Security comes with a built-in parental control system to keep your kids safe from the worst of the web.

A decent feature set includes content filtering, screen time limits, device usage scheduling, location monitoring and more.

The service is managed from the company’s Bitdefender Central web dashboard, where you’re able to set up protection and monitor what’s happening on each of your kid’s devices.

Although the Bitdefender Internet Security license protects up to five Windows devices only, those rules don’t apply to Parental Control. These work on Windows, Mac, Android and iOS, and you can install them on as many devices as you need.

Installation varies depending on the device. Desktops are relatively simple, mobile devices more complex, as you have to set up various permissions. 

IOS setup is particularly complicated because the content filtering and app blocking relies on Apple’s built-in parental controls. For comparison, Bitdefender’s Android setup guide lists three main steps; the equivalent iOS document has six, and the Apple Family Control guide potentially has another 23. 

Apps installed, the next step is to create a profile for each child. This is quick and easy - enter your child’s name and birth date, and choose an icon - but Bitdefender does a little more work, using your child’s age to automatically configure which web content they’re allowed to you.

If you’re in a hurry then you could apply that profile to any device your child uses. You’ll probably want to fine-tune Bitdefender’s options to best suit your own children, though, and there are plenty of interesting options to choose from.

Bitdefender Internet Security: Content Filtering

Bitdefender’s Content Filtering allows you to block web content by an impressive 43 categories, covering inappropriate topics (porn, drugs, guns), social media, online shopping and more. We tested this and it worked correctly, blocking the specified types in all browsers.

This approach often blocks at least some sites you’ll feel are safe, but it’s easy to add exceptions so you can block YouTube and TikTok, say, but allow your child to watch their favorite Netflix kids shows.

Bonus features include the ability to enforce safe search at search engines and YouTube, reducing the chance that your child can find inappropriate content. 

The content filtering isn’t tamper-proof, and there is at least one way to bypass Bitdefender on Windows and browse whatever you like. It’s not straightforward and there’s no chance that young children will discover the trick by accident, but teenagers are more likely to find the workaround (or be told around it by more technical friends.)

Bitdefender Internet Security: Screen time limits

Bitdefender’s Parental Control provides several ways to define just how long your kids can use your devices.

You can manually set a total device usage time for each day of the week, though only in 30 minute increments. Your kids can request extra time from their device, or you can add extra time as a reward, or if they need it for some important reason (finishing homework, maybe.) But again, you can only add time in 30 minute blocks, which is a little restrictive.

A separate Focus Time supports creating a simple schedule. If you want your kids to do their homework in the evening, for instance, you could set up Focus Time to run from 7:30-8:30pm, and only allow them to use web search or educational apps during that time. While that’s useful, we’d like the option to set up multiple Focus Time blocks per day.

You’re also able to define two periods of time when device usage won’t be allowed: Bedtime and Family Time. That’s important, but again, you’re limited to one block of time in each case. That’s not much use if you want to set up two or three Family Time blocks for meals.

Bitdefender Internet Security: Location monitoring

The Parental Control system allows you to view the current location of your child’s mobile device (there’s no location support on Windows or Mac.) Just open the Bitdefender Central web dashboard, choose your child’s profile and click Locate to see the device location on a map.

What you don’t get is even the most limited form of geofencing (the ability to raise an alert if your child leaves or arrives at a particular area.) Some security suites deliver far more. Norton 360 Deluxe, for instance, can create multiple Favorite Locations - home, school, grandma, the local park - and display notifications as your kids move from one to the other.

Bitdefender Internet Security: Reporting

Bitdefender Parental Control not only limits what your children can do online: it also logs their activities to help you find out more about what’s going on.

Access your child’s profile from the Bitdefender Central web account and you can view stats including their internet use over the past one, seven or 30 days, and the apps, website categories and websites they’ve used most often.

The ‘Prevented content access’ panel lists any content that Bitdefender Parental Control has blocked. That’s useful, and not just to check whether they’re trying to break the rules. If Bitdefender is preventing access to a kid-safe site then you’ll see it listed here, and can quickly create an exception to make sure it’ll be accessible the next time they visit.

Bitdefender Internet Security: Will Parental Controls work for you?

Bitdefender Parental Control has a lot of features, but these aren’t always available on every platform. Sometimes this is understandable (location monitoring is on mobile devices only), but others are a surprise: kids can only request more time on Android and iOS, for some reason. 

The system isn’t as powerful as the top specialist parental controls applications, either, which are typically more configurable, with better content filtering tools and the ability to raise location alerts when your child arrives at (or leaves) key places.

If your needs are relatively simple then Parental Control could still be useful. That’s especially true if you’ve devices on several platforms, as you can manage them all from the Bitdefender Central web dashboard.

If your devices are all on a single platform, though, especially iOS, we would recommend checking out the built-in parental controls options first. Or if you need lots of functionality, check our Best Parental Control guide to the top competition. 

Bitdefender Internet Security: More features

We’ll complete this review by running through some additional features that Bitdefender Internet Security shares with Bitdefender’s starter product, Antivirus Plus. We’ve only space for a summary here, but check the full Bitdefender Antivirus Plus review for more details. 

Bitdefender Internet Security: Vulnerability scan

Bitdefender’s Vulnerability Scan checks your device for various issues which might make it open to attack: missing updates, weak passwords, dubious Windows and browser security settings, and more.

Sounds good, but this didn’t help us much, incorrectly reporting that our Wi-Fi network had no password and highlighting a couple of very minor technical issues. Avast and Avira did a better job of identifying issues on our review system.

Bitdefender Internet Security: Password manager

Bitdefender includes a password manager on its feature list, but this turns out to be only a three-month trial. That still beats Avast, who dropped its own password manager a few years ago, but it can’t match Norton, who still includes a password manager with even its starter Antivirus Plus package.

We signed up for the trial, and were happy to see Password Manager was available on desktops via Chrome, Edge and Firefox extensions, with mobile apps for Android and iOS.

The option to import passwords from browsers or your current password manager should get you up and running quickly, at least in theory. Bitdefender didn’t correctly import all of our Dashlane logins, though, so it might not always be so simple. 

We found some issues with the tool in real-world use. Importing data from Dashlane didn’t work if we had multiple accounts for a website; it didn’t always automatically enter our email address on login forms, and it had occasional problems capturing our credentials from complex forms.

But there are plus points, including a secure password generator, highlighting of weak or reused passwords, and a check to see if your email address appears in any data breaches.

Bitdefender Password Manager might be suitable if you only need the password basics, especially if you get the full version for free as a part of Bitdefender Ultimate Security or Bitdefender Premium Security. But we wouldn’t pay for it, and if you’re looking for a powerhouse password manager with every possible feature, check our Best Password Manager guide for better ideas.

Bitdefender Internet Security: Anti-tracker

Bitdefender’s Anti-tracker is a Chrome, Edge and Firefox extension which prevents intrusive trackers from collecting data on your online activities.

The technology blocked an impressive 93% of sample trackers, but that success came at a price: it broke some websites, preventing key features from working. There are ways around this - you can tell Anti-tracker not to block anything on these troublesome sites - but that’s perhaps more hassle than it’s worth. 

You might be more lucky, though, so Anti-tracker is well worth a try. And if it doesn’t work out, no problem, you can disable it with a click.

Bitdefender Internet Security: File shredder

Bitdefender’s File Shredder is a simple tool which securely deletes files by overwriting them multiple times. Use File Shredder on your most sensitive documents and even if someone has full access to your device (you’ve sold it, or it’s stolen), they won’t be able to undelete or recover that dara.

The feature worked for us, but it’s not very configurable, and there are far more powerful file wiping tools available for free. File Shredder’s ease of use is a plus, though, and we’re glad it’s included in the package.

Bitdefender Internet Security: Final verdict

Bitdefender Internet Security is a capable entry-level security suite that mostly does a great job of keeping your PC safe. We’re just not sure the parental controls, firewall and webcam add quite enough to justify the upgrade from Bitdefender Antivirus Plus, though, especially when many other entry-level suites protect Macs, Android and iOS devices, as well as Windows.

If you’re happy with Bitdefender Internet Security’s PC-only protection then it could still be a decent choice, but Bitdefender Premium Security looks the best value product in the range to us, with apps for desktops and mobiles and an unlimited VPN, too.

We feature the best internet security suites.

Read more Bitdefender reviews:

• Bitdefender Antivirus Plus review
• Bitdefender Internet Security review
• Bitdefender Total Security review
• Bitdefender Mobile Security for Android review
• Bitdefender Mobile Security for iOS review

Bitdefender Antivirus Plus is a Windows malware-hunting powerhouse which includes all the antivirus basics, and also packs in more protective layers and features than many security suites. Top-notch ransomware protection, reliable tracker-blocking, effective anti-phishing, a limited 200MB a day free VPN, one of the most secure browsers around, and that’s just the start. Fair prices and excellent protection rates make this one of the best PC security tools around; keep reading and we’ll tell you exactly why. 

Bitdefender Antivirus Plus: Pricing

Bitdefender Antivirus Plus is the company’s lowest-priced desktop antivirus. It protects up to three Windows devices for $44.99 in year one, $59.99 on renewal. A 30-day trial gives you a chance to check out the app before you buy.

Bitdefender Internet Security (next up in the range) adds a firewall and parental control. That lifts the price to $59.99 in year one, $84.99 on renewal.

If you’ve anything other than Windows hardware to protect, Bitdefender Total Security could be a better deal. Not only does it include the firewall software and parental controls, it also throws in device optimization, and - crucially - protects any mix of up to five Mac, Android and iOS devices as well as Windows. And yet, it’s only a little more costly than Internet Security at $69.99 in year one, $99.99 on renewal.

If you’re after maximum power, Bitdefender Ultimate Security includes absolutely everything: antivirus and security functionality for up to ten devices, a full and unlimited VPN, and a complete identity theft protection package with up to $2 million insurance. The price is much higher at $119.99 in year one, and $239.99 on renewal.  But the full VPN alone has a lot of value. Sign up for even the most basic NordVPN package and you’ll pay $68.85 in year one, $112.35 on renewal.

These are fair prices, but depending on the mix of features you need, there could be better deals around. Avast One’s cheapest paid plan, Avast One Silver, protects all platforms, has a more generous free VPN (5GB data a week vs. 200MB), includes a firewall and blocks webcam hijacking, but it’s only $35.88 in year one, $79.99 on renewal.

The Norton antivirus range is another one worth a look. Norton 360 Standard covers up to three mobiles or desktops, has antivirus, a full VPN, 2GB cloud backup and a password manager, but is priced at only $39.99 in year one, $94.99 on renewal.

Bitdefender Antivirus Plus: Easy to use

If you’re looking for an antivirus you can install and forget, Bitdefender Antivirus Plus has a lot of appeal. The app installed easily for us, then moved to the background and made most of its decisions entirely automatically, keeping any technical hassles to a minimum.

Other providers often have a very different user experience. Present Avast One with an app it doesn’t recognize, for instance, and it’ll launch a scan and leave you waiting for up to 15-20 seconds before you can continue. By comparison, Bitdefender might ask if you trust the app, but mostly it sorts out the issue for itself.

Try Avira antivirus and you’ll get notified with pop-up alerts for every threat, which can become annoying (a malicious web page opens lots of dangerous links, for instance.) Bitdefender displays the first alert, but doesn’t bother you with the rest. The information is still available in a Notifications page, but you don’t have to look at it unless you’re interested.

Bitdefender Antivirus Plus: Interface

Bitdefender Antivirus Plus opens with a simple dashboard offering one-click access to its most useful features: quick scan, system scan, the VPN and the secure browser, Safepay.

In theory you can customize the dashboard with your own shortcuts. But in practice, there are only two other items you can add, in the Password Manager (only a trial) and the Data Shredder. The dashboard would benefit from more flexibility, such as the ability to pin your own custom scans (more on those below.)

There are plenty of other tools and options available, and Bitdefender organizes those with icons in a left-hand sidebar: Protection, Privacy, Utilities, Notifications, Settings. If you need to control the Anti-Tracker, for instance, click Privacy, and you can edit its settings, or turn it on and off with a click.

Bitdefender’s Explorer integration gives you an easy way to access features without launching the full dashboard. Just choose your preferred files, folders or drivers, and you can scan (or securely delete) them directly from Explorer’s right-click menu.

Bitdefender hasn’t changed the core of its interface for a very long time. That’s a pity, because as we’ve discussed, there is room for improvement. But at its heart the interface is generally easy to use, and it’s likely you’ll find the functions and features you need without any difficulty.

Bitdefender Antivirus Plus: Antivirus Scanning

Bitdefender offers a strong range of scan types covering all kinds of situations.

Quick Scan runs a brief check which inspects the most commonly-infected areas only. This took a reasonably short 8:14 on our test system, falling just a little to 7:36 on the second scan.

System Scan is a deeper analysis which crawls your entire storage device and explores everything it finds. That takes much longer for the first scan, but drops hugely afterwards as Bitdefender only scans new or changed files.

To test this, we scanned 50GB of application files. The first run took 37:44, a little behind Avast (35:40) and Norton (32:01.) The story changes on subsequent scans, though, with Avast taking 34:53, Norton falling to 3:48, but Bitdefender completing in just 90 seconds.

Rescue Environment is a bootable scanner which lives on your hard drive and removes even the most stubborn of threats. Just launch it from the dashboard, reboot when you’re prompted, and Rescue Environment hunts down and removes any threats. It’s a great tool and the ability to launch it from your Bitdefender app is a major usability plus (Avira and many other vendors expect you to download, set up and run their boot scanners separately.)

A scheduler allows you to run scans automatically. That’s good news, though it’s not as flexible as some of the competition. Avast allows you to choose which days of the week need a scan (Monday, Wednesday and Friday, say); Bitdefender can run as a scan every day, or the same day every week, but that’s it. 

On the plus side, Bitdefender has an excellent Custom Scan feature which allows you to create new scan types for different situations. Looking for speed? You could create something which checked running processes, RAM and the Registry only. Maybe you’re worried about the contents of your Downloads folder? A custom scan could check that location only, maybe scan larger archives than usual (regular scanning ignores zips larger than 10MB) to be sure of catching any threats.  

Bitdefender Antivirus Plus: Antivirus Lab Test Results

Although we put every antivirus app we review through our own series of tests, we also pay close attention to results from the big antivirus testing labs.

We follow nine tests from labs including AV-Comparatives (Real-World Protection, Malware Protection, Android, Anti-Phishing, Performance), AV-Test (Windows, Android), MRG Effitas (360° Protection Testing) and SE Labs (Endpoint Security Home).

Each test has its own scoring system, making it tricky to compare performance. To address this, we use a special algorithm which (as long as an app is in at least five tests) converts the various results into a single summary score from zero to 10 representing the vendor’s overall rating.

Bitdefender appears in the latest reports for eight out of our nine core tests, making this a strong all-round test of its abilities. And Bitdefender’s combined score was excellent at 9.97, earning it second place just behind Avast’s 9.98.

Looking at the individual tests, Bitdefender’s most significant weak spot was an 11th place in the Malware Protection test. But that doesn’t represent a huge difference in results; Bitdefender achieved a very creditable 99.92% protection rate, and it just happened that the top-rated Norton and F-Secure managed 99.97%.

Results can vary month to month, though (Bitdefender topped the previous Malware Protection test), and the company scores very highly elsewhere. Bitdefender tops the anti-phishing charts, for example, blocked 100% of Android threats, and scored full marks in the latest MRG Effitas and AV-Test Windows reports.

Overall, the lab test results are very positive for Bitdefender, showing above average performance in most areas, and market-leading results in many. If you’re looking for reliable protection across the board, Bitdefender delivers.

Bitdefender Antivirus Plus: Anti-Ransomware

Defeating ransomware isn’t just about spotting known threats as they’re downloaded. A good antivirus needs multiple other layers of protection, such as using behavior monitoring to detect even brand new threats before they can do any harm.

We test an antivirus’ ransomware-fighting abilities by pitting the app against our own simple ransomware simulator. This has never been publicly released, ensuring that an antivirus can only detect it by picking up on its suspicious behavior (spidering through test files and opening each one in turn.)

Previously we’ve managed to bypass Bitdefender’s protection for just a few seconds, but not this time. Bitdefender killed our simulator almost immediately, before it could damage a single file.

Even if some of your files are damaged, that’s not the end of the story. Bitdefender’s Ransomware Remediation can automatically protect ransomware-encrypted files, recovering them once the infection was removed. The technology has worked faultlessly in previous reviews, giving Bitdefender a major advantage over other security vendors.

To confirm our results, we took a look at the latest MRG Effitas Ransomware tests. This tested the performance of Avast, Avira, Bitdefender, ESET, Microsoft, Norton, ThreatDown and Trend Micro when faced with 37 ransomware samples. Bitdefender, ESET, Microsoft and ThreatDown came equal first by automatically blocking every threat, without needing to use their behavior-monitoring layer. That’s another great result, and suggests Bitdefender is one of the best vendors around for battling ransomware.

Bitdefender Antivirus Plus: Quarantine

Any potential threats Bitdefender detects and removes are sent to quarantine, rather than being deleted. Quarantine is like a Recycle Bin for executables: it keeps potentially dangerous files locked away where they can’t do any harm, but, if Bitdefender accidentally removes something you’re 100% sure is safe, you can restore the file and tell Bitdefender not to touch it in future.

Although this is generally a very good idea, we noticed a problem. Bitdefender detected part of a legitimate app as a potentially unwanted threat, and moved it to quarantine. We hit the Restore button to put it back, but Bitdefender complained that ‘the system does not have rights to access the specified path.’ It had broken our app and couldn’t fix the problem.

This wasn’t a huge issue, as we were able to restore the file to our desktop and manually move it to the right location. But some users may not know how to do that, and even if you’ve no problems restoring any files, this is still a small usability hassle.

Bitdefender Antivirus Plus: Anti-phishing

The best security tools don’t just detect and block web threats as they appear: they prevent you ever reaching them in the first place. That’s why we’re always very interested in an app’s ability to keep you safe from phishing and other malicious websites.

Antiphishing doesn’t get much attention from the labs, but AV-Comparatives did run a small test on the feature last year. Bitdefender led the pack with an excellent 96% protection rate, just ahead of Avast (94%), AVG (94%), ESET (92%) and Avira (88%.)

We ran a test of our own, and attempted to access 100 brand new phishing URLs on a Bitdefender-protected system. The protection rate was identical at 96%, but Bitdefender didn’t lead the way this time. Avira topped our anti-phishing chart with 100% protection, while Avast managed 99%, and Norton scored 95%.

We also compared Bitdefender’s results with Chrome, to give us a better idea of how much extra protection it adds. The answer turned out to be a lot, as Chrome ‘only’ blocked 64% of our test URLs. These included the four URLs that Bitdefender missed, though, so if we used both Bitdefender and Chrome together, we would have received warnings about 100% of our test links.

Bitdefender Antivirus Plus: Performance Impact

We expect a quality antivirus to offer reliable and accurate malware protection, but that’s not all. The best apps deliver their protection without slowing down your device, raising endless false alarms or otherwise causing daily hassles.

AV-Comparatives’ Performance Test measures the performance impact of 16 antivirus apps on various common tasks: browsing websites, downloading files, installing and launching applications, and more. Bitdefender had a little impact on application launch times, but was still very fast overall, and received AV-Comparatives top Advanced+ award.

Our own tests showed much the same results. The excellent PCMark 10 benchmark found barely any performance impact from Bitdefender, and although our boot times lengthened a little, they’re still comparable to similar apps. Our test system took 65 seconds to fully load Windows and 81 seconds to fully load a collection of apps, for instance; Bitdefender increased this to 73 and 100 seconds, but that’s almost identical to Avast’s times of 72 and 102 seconds.

It’s a similar story with false alarms. Bitdefender has a few more than Avast in AV-Comparatives’ most recent Real-World Protection Test (3 false alarms vs. 1.5), but that’s across 512 test cases, such a marginal difference that you’re unlikely to notice.

You may have a different experience, depending on the websites that you visit and the apps you use. But our tests suggest that although Bitdefender isn’t quite the most lightweight of antivirus apps, it has less performance impact than most, and didn’t cause us any significant speed issues.

Bitdefender Antivirus Plus: Safepay

Many security vendors offer some form of ‘privacy browser’, but typically you can get much the same result by installing a few well-chosen extensions, or a third-party freebie like Brave Privacy Browser.

Bitdefender Safepay is a secure browser which protects you both from web dangers, and malware which might have smuggled itself onto your own system.

The protection starts by Bitdefender recognizing when you’re accessing a sensitive site. When we visited a banking site, for instance, an alert popped up prompting us to open the website in Safepay (it can automatically connect to the VPN, too.) Sounds like a small point, but that one idea reduces the chance that you’ll forget to turn Safepay on.

The other major Safepay plus is it runs on its own virtual Windows desktop, isolated from everything else on your system. Malware can’t capture your keystrokes or record screenshots of what you’re doing (we tried with commercial and custom tools of our own), and the virtual keyboard prevents even hardware keyloggers from recording your activities.

Put it all together and Safepay offers way more protection than other privacy browsers, making it one of the highlights of Bitdefender’s range.

Bitdefender Antivirus Plus: Vulnerability Scan

Bitdefender’s Vulnerability Scan checks your device for various issues which might make it open to attack: missing updates, weak passwords, dubious Windows and browser security settings, and more.

This kind of tool can be very useful, but Bitdefender’s offering has rarely told us anything interesting in previous reviews, and we didn’t see much improvement this time around.

The Vulnerability Scan warned that our Wi-Fi network was ‘unsafe’, for instance, because it didn’t have a password. We had intentionally set up a vulnerability, but we hadn’t removed the password; we had changed it to, well, ‘password.’ If a user doesn’t look closely, Bitdefender’s misleading description makes the real issue easy to miss. Worse, this issue has been around for years (we found apparent references to it on the Bitdefender community forum from 2017.)

The Vulnerability Scan found four low-level browser and operating system issues. That sounded interesting, but they turned out to be extremely minor, such as a setting on our system which allowed users to edit Internet Explorer security zones. 

The scan didn’t find any missing application updates. It did report a missing Windows Security update which had just come out, which is good news, although we would expect any properly configured system to find and install Windows updates all on its own. 

Other providers delivered more on the same system. Norton’s Software Updater found 11 missing application updates, for instance. Avast’s Smart Scan clearly warned us about our weak (not missing) Wi-Fi password, and although it ignored the Internet Explorer security zone ‘issue’, did make some more useful suggestions, including turning on Data Execution Prevention (a valuable Windows exploit protection technology) and ensuring device notifications weren’t displayed on the lock screen. 

The Vulnerability Scan still has a little value. Malware often changes system settings to help stay hidden, so if you’ve been infected previously, there’s a chance the report will find something useful. But we’d like to see it updated with a more in-depth look at your system and application settings.
 

Bitdefender Antivirus Plus: VPN

Bitdefender Antivirus Plus includes the free version of Bitdefender VPN. The paid edition is an excellent service with quality apps using the Hotspot Shield network, but, unfortunately, the freebie is so restricted that many will find it unusable.

You only get 200MB of data a day, for instance. We opened desktop Outlook and a few other applications on a Windows laptop, and the background traffic alone used 70MB of data over the next hour. The free Bitdefender VPN is only suitable for light use.

The other big issue is you can’t choose your location. Hit Connect and Bitdefender VPN automatically selects whatever it thinks is the best server for you (the closest or the fastest, most likely.). That means there’s little hope of unblocking anything, and, if the VPN chooses a location in a neighboring country to you, there’s nothing you can do about it.

Still, if you only need a VPN very occasionally, perhaps to securely access your email on public Wi-Fi, the free Bitdefender VPN just might be enough. And, if you can live with the data and location limits, there’s a lot to like here.

Bitdefender Antivirus Plus: VPN Features

Bitdefender’s Windows app takes up a lot of screen space, thanks to a large and mostly pointless map (you can’t pan or zoom, it doesn’t show Bitdefender’s location or even precisely highlight your own location when connected.) But it looks good, and provides a lot of information: your current IP address, the session length, the data you’ve used, and more.

Using the VPN is easy - just hit the blue Connect button - but connect times were relatively slow for us at around 6-8 seconds. Many WireGuard VPNs take only a couple of seconds, and ExpressVPN’s Lightway protocol often gets us connected in less than one second.

Speeds were very acceptable during testing at 60Mbps+ on a 70Mbps connection. That’s adequate for browsing, or a short period streaming if you turn the quality down (30 minutes of standard definition YouTube watching needs around 180MB, for instance.)

Bitdefender VPN’s highlight is its array of advanced features and configurations. Most VPN apps from antivirus providers are a little underpowered, but Bitdefender offers more functionality than many specialist VPN providers.

A strong choice of protocols includes WireGuard, OpenVPN and Hotspot Shield’s Hydra, for instance. Quality ad and tracker blocking enhances your privacy online, and we found the effective kill switch immediately blocks your internet access if the VPN drops.

Split tunneling support allows you to select apps which bypass the VPN and use the internet directly. That could help cut your VPN data usage and stretch that 200MB a day just a little further.

A very clever Auto-Connect option can automatically connect to the VPN when your device starts, if you connect to unsecured Wi-Fi, when you access specific domains (your business network, say), even if you visit a particular category of website: banking, online payments, health, and more.

There’s even an App Traffic Optimizer, which can improve speeds of up to three apps by giving them priority for your available bandwidth. That won’t help much with the free version - the more apps you use, the faster your data will disappear - but we have to applaud Bitdefender’s technical expertise.

Bitdefender Antivirus Plus: VPN alternatives

Bitdefender VPN might work for you if you only need the bare minimum of protection, perhaps to stay safe while you spend 15 minutes a day accessing the web on coffee shop Wi-Fi.

If you like Bitdefender but can’t live with the restrictions, upgrading to Bitdefender Premium Security adds the unlimited Bitdefender Premium VPN. It’s more expensive at $79.99 in year one, $159.99 on renewal, but that’s still fair value. NordVPN’s Basic plan costs $68 in year one, for instance, $112 on renewal, for the VPN alone.

Other antivirus vendors offer free VPNs with a little more. Avast One Essentials gives you a far more generous 5GB a week data allowance, for instance, although it also doesn’t allow you to choose a location.

You could also choose a provider from our best free VPN list. PrivadoVPN, for instance, allows you to choose from 12 locations, and has a far more flexible 10GB monthly data allowance. Well worth a look if you’re on a strict budget.

Bitdefender Antivirus Plus: Password Manager

Bitdefender Antivirus Plus includes a password manager on its feature list, but it’s only a three-month trial version. That still beats Avast, who dropped its own password manager a few years ago, but it can’t match Norton, who still includes a password manager with even its starter Antivirus Plus package.

We signed up for the trial anyway, an ultra-easy process which took just a couple of clicks. Bitdefender supports Password Manager on desktops via Chrome, Edge and Firefox extensions, and there are mobile apps for Android and iOS. 

The tool supports importing existing passwords from many sources, good news if you’re looking for a quick start. There’s direct support for 1Password, Bitwarden, Chrome, Dashlane, Edge, Firefox, KeePass, LastPass, Roboform, Sticky Password and many more.

We tried importing data from Dashlane, and it mostly worked, with one issue. Dashlane supports multiple accounts for a website (same email address, different passwords); Bitdefender Password Manager doesn’t, so where Dashlane had multiple accounts, it imported one and ignored the others.

We found some issues with the tool in real-world use. When we complete a ‘new account’ web form with Dashlane, it recognises fields like ‘email’ and allows us to fill them with a click; Bitdefender does this with passwords, but we had to enter our email address manually.

Although Password Manager correctly captured simple ‘username and password’ screens, it sometimes failed with more complex forms. When one site asked for our name, email and password, for instance, Password Manager recorded the login as our name instead of our email.

But there are plenty of plus points, too. It was easy to access our logins and copy usernames and passwords as required. A secure password generator creates strong passwords as you need them, with your choice of upper case, lower case, numbers and symbols (and a neat ‘easy to type’ option to avoid the harder-to-find symbols.) The Security Report highlights weak or reused passwords, and can even run a leaked password check (via haveibeenpwned.com) to see if your account appears in any data breaches.

Bitdefender Password Manager is a useful tool, especially if you get it for free as a part of Bitdefender Ultimate Security or Bitdefender Premium Security. If you need to buy Password Manager separately, it’s cheap at $19.99 for year one, $29.99 on renewal (that’s half the price of Dashlane.) But if you’re looking for a powerhouse password manager with every possible feature, check our Best Password Manager guide for better ideas.

Bitdefender Antivirus Plus: Anti-tracker

Bitdefender’s Anti-tracker feature is a technology that prevents intrusive trackers from collecting data on your online activities.

Anti-tracker is available as a very easy-to-use browser extension for Chrome, Edge and Firefox. 

We installed Anti-tracker on Chrome and it began blocking threats immediately, with nothing else to configure. You can leave the service to do its work, or, if you’re curious, click the extension icon for a report on whatever it’s blocked on the current page.

Our tests showed Anti-tracker blocked an excellent 93% of sample trackers. But we found that it also blocked trackers that are essential to website functionality. View the radar maps on weather.com, for instance, and although you’ll see radar images of incoming weather, the site doesn’t display cities, roads or any of the underlying map. Reading user reviews, we found many similar complaints of Anti-tracker breaking websites.

You can address this, in theory, by telling Anti-tracker not to block trackers on sites where you notice issues. But if, like weather.com, the only issue is a site not displaying some usual content, you may never realize there’s a problem. And the idea of having to exclude sites on Anti-tracker every single time something doesn’t work as you’d expect just feels too much time-consuming trouble than it’s worth. But if you disagree, give the extensions a try: they’re all free, no need to buy Bitdefender products or even create an account.

Bitdefender Antivirus Plus: File Shredder

Bitdefender’s File Shredder is a simple tool which securely deletes files by overwriting them multiple times. It’s an easy way to get rid of sensitive documents, and ensures that even if someone else has full access to your device (you’ve sold it, maybe it’s been stolen), they won’t be able to undelete or recover that dara.

The easiest way to make this happen is to choose the files in Explorer, then right-click and select Bitdefender > File Shredder. Your files appear in the File Shredder console, and you can wipe them all forever with a click.

There are no configuration options, which might be an issue for the demanding expert users. For example, specialist secure deletion tools often allow you to choose a wiping algorithm, perhaps to overwrite data more often for extra security.

File Shredder delivers all the functionality most users will ever need, though. It doesn’t add a lot of value to the suite because there are more powerful file wiping tools available for free, but File Shredder’s ease of use is a plus, and overall we’re glad it’s included in the package.

Bitdefender Antivirus Plus: Final verdict

Bitdefender Antivirus Plus consistently delivers great PC malware protection results from the top independent testing labs and in our own checks. But where it really scores is in Bitdefender’s array of additional security layers, including effective anti-phishing to block dangerous websites, and multi-layered ransomware protection that can recover damaged files in seconds. It’s our top Windows antivirus, and a must-try for anyone with a PC to protect. 

Read more Bitdefender reviews:

• Bitdefender Antivirus Plus review
• Bitdefender Internet Security review
• Bitdefender Total Security review
• Bitdefender Mobile Security for Android review
• Bitdefender Mobile Security for iOS review

We've featured the best internet security suites.

For good reason, Keeper Password Manager is considered one of the best password managers available. Keeper is one of the most respected names in the security business, and this app emphasizes helping companies keep sensitive data secure.

Thankfully, Keeper has impressive security credentials, including zero-knowledge design, high-end security auditing, market-leading encryption, and other features.

In addition, Keeper offers powerful admin tools, excellent sharing options, and remote access, making it a top-notch choice for any business needing a comprehensive password management system. Check out our roundup of the best business password managers for more information about business password protection.

With cyber threats becoming more sophisticated and frequent, securing sensitive information has never been more critical. That's where Keeper, a leading cybersecurity platform for password management and data protection, comes into play. This blog post explores the key benefits of integrating Keeper Security into your business operations.

Keeper Security provides robust tools to manage and secure passwords across your organization. Unlike traditional methods where passwords are reused across multiple sites or written down insecurely, Keeper encourages using strong, unique passwords for each account. The platform automatically generates high-strength passwords that are nearly impossible to crack, ensuring a foundational level of security against breaches.

By centralizing password management, Keeper significantly lowers the risk of data breaches. It encrypts passwords and sensitive information, storing them in a secure digital vault accessible only to authorized users. This encryption is critical, ensuring that even if data is intercepted, it remains unreadable and secure.

Compliance with legal standards is non-negotiable for businesses in industries regulated by GDPR, HIPAA, or SOC2. Keeper helps ensure that your business meets these standards by providing tools for compliance management. Features like role-based permissions, event logging, and secure sharing conform to the strictest regulatory requirements, protecting your business from costly legal penalties.

Keeper’s interface saves employees time and frustration. With features like autofill and auto-login, employees no longer need to remember or retrieve passwords manually. This leads to more time focused on productive tasks rather than administrative overhead. Additionally, Keeper allows you to securely share passwords and files to facilitate seamless collaboration among team members.

Beyond just managing passwords, Keeper Security offers secure storage for sensitive files, documents, and digital certificates. With high-level encryption, files remain protected at rest and in transit. This is particularly valuable for businesses that need to share proprietary or confidential information securely and regularly.

Keeper is designed to scale with your business, making it ideal for small startups or large enterprises. Its flexible architecture and customizable features mean that as your business grows and your security needs evolve, Keeper can adjust to meet them without shifting to a new platform.

In today's world, accessing information across smartphones, tablets, and desktops is essential. Keeper supports all major platforms, ensuring that your team can securely access necessary information from any permitted device, anywhere, at any time, enhancing security and productivity.

Keeper: Plans and pricing

Keeper Security offers several tiers to accommodate businesses of varying sizes and needs. Below is an overview of the primary packages:

1. Keeper Business Starter includes password management, and sharing, shared team folders, basic two-factor authentication, a family plan for all users, and more. It’s designed for small businesses with 5-10 users, and costs $2/user/month.
2. Keeper Business adds a few more administrative features on top of the Starter plan such as the ability to delegate admin responsibilities. It costs $3.75/user/month and requires a minimum purchase of five seats.
3. Keeper Enterprise offers all the benefits of the Business plan, plus advanced features like single sign-on, SCIM provisioning, active directory, and LDAP sync, command-line provisioning, and advanced two-factor authentication options (Duo, RSA, etc.). This plan too requires a minimum purchase of five seats, though it has custom pricing that is based on the needs and size of the organization.

Keeper Security primarily focuses on business solutions and offers packages for personal use and families. This can benefit small business owners who want comprehensive cybersecurity at home and work.

With Keeper Unlimited, you get unlimited password storage, identity and payments, secure record sharing, and more for about $2.92 monthly.

On the other hand, the Keeper Family Plan includes up to five private vaults, 10GB of secure file storage, and unlimited password storage. When billed annually, this plan is currently priced at $6.25 per month.

Keeper: Setup

Implementing Keeper Security within a business environment helps bridge the gap between complex cybersecurity needs and user-friendly functionality, making it a preferred choice for many.

The first step in the setup process involves choosing the right Keeper Security package that aligns with your business's specific needs and size. From the Keeper Business plan, which offers essential password management and secure file storage, to the Keeper Enterprise solution designed for larger businesses needing advanced features like SSO and delegated administration, there's a tailored approach waiting to fit into your corporate structure. For managed service providers, the MSP package offers customized solutions to manage multiple client organizations efficiently.

Once the appropriate package is selected, the implementation process moves to account setup. This phase usually starts with a centralized admin console that serves as the command center for your organization's cybersecurity management. Through this console, administrators can effortlessly add or remove users, configure permissions, and manage security policies across the board.

Keeper has several data centers around the world, powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS), including US, Canada, Japan, EU, and more, and you can choose which one to use to house your data.

When you log into the admin console, it brings up the Getting Started wizard that helps guide admins through the initial setup, such as adding users, and tweaking enforcement policies. The first order of business is to add users, and assign them roles. By default, the platform has a Keeper Administrator role, and recommends adding multiple admins to avoid single points of failure.

You should also take a moment to review Keeper's default enforcement policies. These policies control how users access their vault, utilize features, and manage their data within Keeper.

The policies are diverse and cover everything from login settings, and two-factor authentication, to disabling specific vault features, and restricting access based on platform, and IP addresses. These policies are applied based on user roles, which helps admins fine-tune access, and permissions for various groups of users within your business.

Training is a pivotal component of the setup process. Keeper Security’s intuitive user interface and straightforward functionality make the learning curve gentle for end users. However, it's imperative to conduct formal training sessions or provide resources to ensure all team members comprehend the features available to them, like generating strong passwords, securely sharing sensitive information, and using the KeeperFill for seamless autofill across apps and browsers.

Integration with existing tools is another cornerstone of setting up Keeper in a business environment. Keeper's versatility is evident in its ability to integrate with popular single sign-on (SSO) services, including Azure AD, Okta, Google Workspace, JumpCloud, Ping and others, and other business tools, streamlining login processes and enhancing security protocols without disrupting workflow. Assessing your current software infrastructure and leveraging Keeper's integration capabilities can significantly boost your cybersecurity posture and operational efficiency.

Security doesn’t end after deployment. Keeper recommends periodic reviews of user practices, shared records, and security policies to adapt to any emerging threats or business changes. Utilizing additional features like BreachWatch can further enhance your organization's defense by monitoring the dark web for compromised credentials, ensuring proactive threat management.

Finally, customer support stands as a pillar of Keeper Security's offering. Should any questions or issues arise during the setup process or thereafter, Keeper provides accessible and knowledgeable support to assist businesses in navigating any complexities.

Keeper: Interface and performance

Each user has their own encrypted vault for storing passwords, credentials, and information, accessible through any number of desktop, mobile, and online apps. All the password management basics are here: a password generator or strong and unique passwords, identity management and payment information, and access to shared passwords. However, identity information for form filling is a bit limited, as you can’t create your own fields or add multiple addresses.

Administrators can easily manage multiple users, who can be assigned roles and divided into teams. Passwords, folders, and subfolders can be shared with individual users, teams, or roles, with the ability to disable password re-sharing, editing, or even viewing, while enforcement policies ensure everybody in your company is using or generating strong passwords. There is also an Admin Console for monitoring and managing Keeper across the organization. This can also help to enforce the use of best security practices like 2FA, and password security.

The desktop app interface is intuitive and easy to use, with tabs for passwords, identities, security audit, and BreachWatch. In-browser password autofill and form-filling are well executed with the KeeperFill browser extension, which offers tabs for entering a password, address, or card information. It’s also great to see a separate area dedicated to IDs like driver’s licenses and passports, in an era when identities are both in regular use and targeted by criminals. Being able to call on passport information to book a flight can be much easier digitally than having to retrieve the physical passport, especially when you’re away from home.

The admin interface is equally agreeable to use, with a Dashboard that gives you a quick overview of user activity and any security issues, and an Admin tab for managing users, roles, teams, two-factor authentication, and provisioning. If you’ve paid for additional modules, you’ll have access to the Security Audit, BreachWatch, and Reporting & Alerts to manage these features. Everything is also clean and well laid out.

Platform support is good, too. Keeper works on Windows, macOS, and the best Linux distros like Fedora, Red Hat, CentOS, Debian, Ubuntu, and Mint. There’s also iOS and Android support, and a password-filling extension that works in the best web browsers including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, Brave, and Opera. The main app can also run directly in your browser. That command-line installation is a boon, and the only thing missing here is functionality on only the most obscure browsers.

Some mobile users will be pleased to see that Keeper also has an Apple Watch app for on-the-go monitoring and quick access to things like notes of combination lock codes. In fact, if you’re really bored, you can use Keeper’s lock-shaped emoji stickers in iMessage chat. While this is totally pointless and nothing more than a gimmick, it’s really enlightening to see a company that’s dedicated to as many platforms and services as Keeper - very few come anywhere near.

Keeper: Security

Security is first and foremost at Keeper. First of all, it’s a zero-knowledge company that undergoes regular SOC 2 and ISO 27001 auditing. It also meets US and EU directives on data protection, and is GDPR-compliant. Encryption is done on the fly and at device level, with AES 256-bit and PBKDF2 encryption, so no readable information is ever kept on Keeper’s servers.

Keeper is also certified by the NIST Cryptographic Module Verification Program (CMVP) and meets the FIPS 140-3 standard, which ensures the platform can withstand various attack vectors. This is particularly important for businesses that operate in regulated industries like finance and healthcare.

Keeper also claims to perform pen testing against the platform every quarter with independent security researchers as well as third-party experts such as the NCC Group, and CyberTest.

As we’ve mentioned earlier, Keeper uses AWS data centers located in multiple geographic locations to securely host your encrypted data. Once you’ve made your choice, your data and access to the platform will be isolated to that specific region. It ensures the encrypted data is further encrypted during transit with TLS 1.3 with an additional layer of encryption.

Admins have full control over which users can access what information and for how long, so there’s no risk of an employee keeping any information after leaving your company, while BreachWatch continuously watches for leaked passwords, and a secure file storage system helps keep your most sensitive documents safe.

For additional security, whenever a user tries to log into an account from a new device, the platform forces them through a verification step, to protect against brute force attacks.

Keeper: Support

Keeper comes with great support for businesses. Not only can you benefit from onboarding and training for the whole team, but the support center features a very rich knowledge base with plenty of videos and articles that balance depth and accessibility.

All business plans include Live Chat and email support (capped at 25 sessions each) between Monday and Friday, from 8AM-5PM CST. We were a little confused by the online chat, which didn’t tell us if we’d been connected to somebody or how long we might have to wait, although somebody did get back to us within two minutes.

If you want phone support, you’ll have to subscribe to the Silver or Platinum support packages. While the former offers 25 calls per year, the latter has no cap. If you are subscribed to any of these two paid support plans, you can avail the support services 24/7/365.

Personal users don’t get the same support as the business clientele. There is no direct phone number, nor an email, but rather they need to go through the support portal. They still have access to all the articles and videos on the self-support side, such as step-by-step guides for installing Keeper on each web browser and supported platform.

Keeper: The competition

There are a number of good password managers out there for businesses. Dashlane has a similar business offering, but includes dark web monitoring at a cheaper price than Keeper Business and its BreachWatch. This is a good solution if you don’t need Keeper’s advanced user management.

At $2/user/month Keeper’s Business Starter Password Manager plan is one of the cheapest options for business users. However, while it does have all the usual features you expect from a business password manager, it doesn’t get you SSO authentication. If that’s something that’s important for your business, you’ll find it bundled with the only slightly more expensive RoboForm Business plan. Even the NordPass Business Plan supports Google Workspace SSO.

Then, there are the do-it-alls. If you’re already using Zoho for its other online collaboration tools, then you may want to stick to having everything under the same roof and opt for Zoho Vault.

Keeper: Final verdict

Keeper provides top-of-the-line security measures through an intuitive interface that appeals to both end-users and IT managers. The pricing is competitive with industry standards, but it’s worth noting that additional features such as BreachWatch and enterprise-grade, customizable reporting and alerting functionality can lead to a notable increase in the annual cost. Nevertheless, when it comes to effectively managing passwords and sensitive data across different teams and roles, Keeper stands out as a reliable choice.

We've featured the best password recovery software

What to look for in a password manager

One of the foundational elements of a solid cybersecurity plan is implementing an effective password manager. However, with many options on the market, identifying the most suitable password manager for your business can be daunting. Here are key features to consider when choosing a password manager to ensure your business's online security needs are comprehensively met.

Any password manager's heart is its ability to safeguard data with unassailable security practices. Look for a password manager that employs AES-256-bit encryption, the gold standard in the industry, ensuring that all stored passwords and data are practically impenetrable. Two-factor authentication (2FA) or multi-factor authentication (MFA) capabilities are also crucial, adding a layer of security upon login.

While robust security measures are non-negotiable, the user experience cannot be overlooked. A password manager should have an intuitive interface that simplifies password storage, retrieval, and management without requiring steep learning curves. This ensures that all staff members, regardless of their tech savviness, can adhere to cybersecurity protocols effectively.

Businesses evolve, and so do their digital security needs. A password manager must be scalable and capable of growing your business without compromising performance. This includes effortlessly adding or removing user accounts, adjusting permissions, and managing different levels of access as your organization expands or changes.

Businesses must be able to track user behavior and compliance to enforce and monitor cybersecurity policies. Opt for a password manager that offers detailed auditing and reporting tools, providing insights into password health, user activity, and security vulnerabilities. These metrics are invaluable for identifying potential risks and fortifying your cybersecurity posture over time.

The modern business ecosystem relies on various digital tools and platforms. A password manager should seamlessly integrate with your existing infrastructure, including single sign-on (SSO) services, directory services like Active Directory (AD), and other critical business applications. This integration streamlines workflows, enhances user experience, and reinforces security measures across all platforms.

In the complex digital security realm, access to prompt and reliable customer support is essential. A vendor that offers comprehensive support through various channels (live chat, email, phone) and possesses a proven track record of reliability ensures that any issue can be swiftly addressed, minimizing potential disruptions to your business operations.

Adhering to specific regulatory standards (such as GDPR, HIPAA, or SOC 2) is not optional for many businesses. A password manager should help your business maintain compliance with relevant laws and industry regulations, safeguarding not just your digital assets but also your reputation and legal standing.

Finally, the cost of implementation should be considered against the return on investment (ROI). While it's vital not to compromise on essential features for the sake of the economy, the chosen solution should offer a favorable balance of cost to features, demonstrating clear value to your business through enhanced security and efficiency.

In conclusion, choosing the right password manager is a critical decision that can significantly impact your business's cybersecurity stance. By prioritizing these essential features, your business can implement a password management solution that protects against current threats and is also equipped to adapt to the future of cybersecurity challenges, ensuring the safety of your digital environment in this relentless digital age.

LogMeOnce is, without a doubt, one of the best password managers we’ve seen. Most password managers offer the same core features, from autofill to secure password generation, but LogMeOnce goes beyond other apps thanks to its impressive range of advanced abilities.

Sign up to LogMeOnce and you’ll be able to use QR code logins, facial recognition, and cloud storage encryption, and security comes from military-standard encryption and security options along a wide range of multi-factor options.

With a free version and a range of plans at decent prices, LogMeOnce might seem too good to be true – so we’ve tested this software to deliver the real verdict.

LogMeOnce: Plans and pricing

For individuals seeking a no-cost solution, the LogMeOnce Premium edition that’s available for free, stands out. Remarkably, it provides a generous array of features, such as unlimited password storage, autofill, secure password sharing, encrypted file storage, two-factor authentication (2FA) options, and a lot more, making it an excellent entry point for anyone aiming to fortify their digital security.

Stepping up, the LogMeOnce Professional subscription, which costs $2.5/month enriches the cybersecurity experience with advanced attributes like 1GB of encrypted storage, multi-factor authentication (MFA), emergency access, advanced activity report, and priority tech support. This level is ideally suited for users who demand more sophisticated security features without substantial investments.

Then there’s the $3.25/month Ultimate plan that bumps up the encrypted file storage to 10GB, and adds even more security features like remote logout, comprehensive reporting, a customizable dashboard, and more.

Furthermore, the LogMeOnce Family plan is specifically tailored to cater to the needs of households. It costs $4.99/month, and allows up to 6 accounts, offering a centralized platform for families to securely manage their passwords, digital assets, and personal information. This subscription not only amplifies online safety but also promotes shared responsibility among family members.

For the business-oriented users, LogMeOnce presents three distinguished plans: Teams, Business, and Enterprise. The Teams plan is designed for a small group of people, and costs $4/user/month when billed annually. It provides all the essential features such as secure password management, comprehensive 2FA, user and group management, multiple login options, including passwordless login, priority technical support, and more.

If you need single sign-on (SSO) and active directory integration you can switch to the $7.99/user/month Business plan, which adds a lot more features such as automated user provisioning, role-based access control, delegated administration, identity theft protection, and more.

The top-tier is the Enterprise plan, which is designed for larger enterprises that require comprehensive and scalable cybersecurity solutions. In addition to all the features in the Business plan, it also offers MFA, IP address-based restrictions, bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy, and more.

Each of these subscription plans by LogMeOnce is developed with the understanding that security needs vary widely among users and organizations. By offering a broad spectrum of features across different tiers, LogMeOnce accommodates a range of budgets and security requirements, making it a versatile choice for anyone looking to protect their digital life or their business's online assets.

LogMeOnce: Setup

Whether you're an individual looking to protect your personal information or a business aiming to safeguard your data, setting up LogMeOnce can be a game-changer. In this blog post, we'll walk you through the setup process, ensuring you're up and running with LogMeOnce in no time.

Creating an Account: The first step is to create a LogMeOnce account. Visit the LogMeOnce website and choose the plan that fits your needs—ranging from a free version to professional and business plans.

Downloading the Software: After signing up, download the LogMeOnce software or app that corresponds to your device(s). LogMeOnce supports a wide range of operating systems, including Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and Linux.

Installing LogMeOnce: Run the downloaded file and follow the installation prompts. Installation typically involves agreeing to terms, deciding on installation locations, and waiting a few moments for the software to install.

Launch LogMeOnce: Once installed, open the LogMeOnce application. If it's your first time, you'll be guided through initial setup procedures.

Import Passwords (Optional): If you’ve been using another password manager or have a digital record of your passwords, LogMeOnce allows you to import these during setup. Supported formats include CSV files, and LogMeOnce can also directly import from many other popular password managers.

Creating Your Master Password: Your Master Password is critical—it's the key to unlock all your other credentials. Choose a strong, unique password that you will remember. LogMeOnce does not store this password, so its recovery relies on security questions or a printed backup.

Manual Entry: You can manually add login details for websites and apps by clicking on the “+Add” button inside your vault. Enter the website URL, your username, and password.

Browser Extension/Add-On: Install the LogMeOnce browser extension to streamline this process. When you log in to websites, LogMeOnce will prompt you to save these credentials to your vault.

LogMeOnce Secure Wallet: Besides passwords, LogMeOnce allows you to safely store other sensitive information, including credit card details, secure notes, and personal documents, further enhancing its utility.

Two-Factor Authentication (2FA): Set up 2FA for an additional layer of security. LogMeOnce offers multiple 2FA options, including SMS, email, and various authenticator apps.

PasswordLess Login: Explore LogMeOnce’s PasswordLess feature that enables you to log in without needing to enter your master password every time, using your mobile device or a photo of yourself.

Customization and Settings: Delve into LogMeOnce’s settings to customize your experience. This includes notifications, default behaviors, and security settings tailored to your preferences.

Syncing Across Devices: LogMeOnce seamlessly syncs your data across all linked devices. Install the mobile app on your smartphone and tablets to access your data on the go.

Staying Secure Everywhere: With LogMeOnce set up on your devices, you gain peace of mind knowing that your passwords are secure yet accessible to you anywhere and anytime.

By following these steps, you're well on your way to enjoying the myriad benefits of LogMeOnce, from heightened security and convenience to advanced features that cater to power users and businesses alike. Embrace this powerful tool and experience a more secure and streamlined digital life.

LogMeOnce: Interface and performance

It’s a well-designed bit of software. The main dashboard offers quick access to your passwords, secure notes and wallet, secure file storage, and dark web monitoring. You’ll also find quick links for your security evaluation and two-factor authentication settings.

The right-hand side has your Daily Journal, which summarizes your current password situation – a smooth feature that allows you to instantly see which areas need attention. There’s also the Identity Scorecard, which presents a quick security evaluation.

Head into different sections and at the bottom of the screen you’ll get a dock that opens more configuration options. Anyone who’s used a PC or Mac will be familiar with the setup – it works like a taskbar.

On top of this, the browser extension is very impressive. It includes quick links to all your saved websites, and logging in is as simple as clicking on the icon for the site you want to access. The mobile apps are equally powerful, and they performed very well on every device we tested them on.

One thing worth noting is that, although LogMeOnce is just as capable as other password managers, the user interface suggests otherwise. The mobile apps are particularly troubling, and have collected a handful of negative reviews accordingly. This, along with the limited browser extension support, put it one or two paces behind most other options.

LogMeOnce is also yet to announce any plans to adopt passkeys, which promise to revolutionize the way we log into websites. Promising the ultimate, passwordless security, passkeys have so far been slow to take off, and for all we know, LogMeOnce could just be waiting to see how it pans out, and whether it represents a worthwhile investment. Nevertheless, there’s no mention of passkeys anywhere on the company’s site.

LogMeOnce: Security

Like all good password managers, LogMeOnce is backed by powerful security features. This includes AES 256-bit encryption compliant with NIST guidelines and communication to the LogMeOnce server via SSL/TSL encrypted tunnel communication. In fact, it goes one step further than most of its competitors, with a range of patented and copyrighted tools to further protect your sensitive information.

Along with encryption and master password access, LogMeOnce also comes with PasswordLess login, powerful two-factor authentication (2FA), and anti-theft tools. Custom security solutions are also available for business users with highly sensitive data.

There are loads of multi-factor authentication options available here. You’ve got biometrics, PIN codes, secure devices, and even the option to login with a selfie. Beyond that, you can also turn a USB drive into an authentication token.

Elsewhere, LogMeOnce has options to wipe devices in emergencies, remind you to reset passwords after specified amounts of time, secure browsing and document storage and secure backup modules. Users also benefit from secure sharing options and auto-login single sign-on settings.

LogMeOnce Business: Team and Admin Features

For any business, a good set of team and admin features in their password manager are essential to help ensure security, efficiency, and control, and LogMeOnce’s business plans don’t disappoint in that regard.

The platform provides a centralized interface that helps admins manage user access, and team credentials, enforce password policies, monitor activities, and a lot more.

Talking of password policies, you can use LogMeOnce to define and enforce granular password policies. This includes setting requirements for passwords, such as minimum length, character complexity, expiration frequency, and such. In addition to mandating periodic password changes, admins can also enforce password history rules to prevent users from reusing old passwords.

LogMeOnce also has adequate user and group management features. You can use the platform to organize users into groups, which can be formed based on a variety of factors, including formal structure like departments (IT, marketing, finance, etc.), or specific tasks, and projects.

The platform also allows for delegated administration, which means specific individuals can be assigned roles at the group level or user level. The platform supports half a dozen roles, which helps streamline the management of access to shared passwords and other sensitive information.

Team password sharing is a core business feature, and LogMeOnce doesn’t disappoint on this front as well. Besides passwords, groups can have notes, and credit card details as well. By default, the platform only lets users within a group use the passwords, but you can give them permission to view, and modify them as well. Similarly, you can enable your users to share passwords as well.

In the same vein, LogMeOnce also lets you allow your users to create their personal vaults. You can do this for individual users, all for all users belonging to a group. Unlike the business vault that you as an admin can create, modify, and delete, you can’t access a user’s personal vault. Conversely, while users can delete their personal vault, they can’t delete the business credentials, unless allowed by the admin.

You can use LogMeOnce’s Cloud Encrypter feature to encrypt your files and photos in your favorite cloud storage platform (e.g., Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive). Once you’ve added your account, the platform will automatically encrypt all your data on the service with your own key using AES 256 encryption.

Additionally, LogMeOnce also includes its own encrypted file storage service. It works pretty much like any other cloud storage service with the exception that it encrypts all its contents.

To use the service, your users will need to install the Secure Drive desktop app. After logging in to their account, they can then open their LogMeOnce Secure Drive, and copy contents to it as they would on any other folder.

The total amount of data that you can store is based on your account limits. The Teams plans bundles 1GB of encrypted storage space, while the Business, and the Enterprise plans offer 10GB. You can easily purchase additional storage space with prices starting from $9.96/year for 10GB, going all the way up to $199.92/year for 250GB.

The platform backs up its set of features with comprehensive reporting and auditing capabilities. It gives admins access to all kinds of security and activity reports, which are useful for compliance purposes, as well as for identifying suspicious activity, and help gauge the overall password health within the organization.

LogMeOnce Business: Integrations and Compatibility

The Business and Enterprise plans of LogMeOnce support SAML 2.0, which allows integration with a wide range of SSO identity providers such as Okta, and Microsoft Entra ID.

This is increasingly becoming a must have feature for most organizations. Thanks to this integration, users in an organization can log in to multiple apps with a single set of credentials, which helps reduce password fatigue and the likelihood of using weak or reused passwords.

Additionally, LogMeOnce also integrates with on-premise active directory and LDAP, which helps automate the onboarding/offboarding of employees directly from their status in the directory services.

Thanks to this, instead of manually creating and managing user accounts in LogMeOnce, businesses can automatically provision new users, update existing user information, and de-provision users when they leave the company. This is another crucial feature for enterprise users as it ensures that access is immediately revoked upon an employee's departure, significantly enhancing security.

One of LogMeOnce’s stand out features is its support for a wide range of 2FA options. In addition to the standard use of email, SMS, and Google Authenticator option to send 2FA codes, the platform offers several other methods like voice calls, USB tokens, X.509 certificates, and its newest home-brewed mechanism called Selfie-2FA.

Thanks to the variety of options, businesses of all sizes can choose the authentication methods that best suit their security policies and user convenience needs.

LogMeOnce also offers an API, which businesses can use to integrate the platform with in-house apps, CRM systems, HR platforms, and such. The API can interact with LogMeOnce features, and can be used to perform functions like user provisioning, activation, deactivation, retrieve and change password, export logs, and more.

LogMeOnce Business: Ease of Use and Deployment

Like a majority of its peers, LogMeOnce Business is a web-based solution, which simplifies deployment as there's no server software to manage in-house. Once you’ve rolled it and signed up your users, they can easily install browser extensions and the desktop, and mobile apps to get going.

Again, just like its peers, LogMeOnce also uses a web-based admin console. The first time you log in, it’ll take you through the interface, and introduce the various sections, and buttons. There’s also an onboarding checklist that’ll help you complete the initial steps to setup the platform.

Unlike other platforms, LogMeOnce Business makes it the responsibility of the admins to import and manage passwords for business apps. The app itself has a curated list of over 4600 business apps that have been tested and vetted by LogMeOnce. You can search and add the apps (and their login credentials) manually. You can also import the credentials from popular web browsers, and password managers.

Next up, you add users, and groups. Again, you can do this manually, or hook up LogMeOnce with your identity provider, and directory services. Adding, and customizing password policies is also fairly straightforward and intuitive.

Once the platform is up and running, you can use the dashboard to get a quick snapshot of your organization's security posture. There’s also the security scorecard that tracks and analyzes various aspects of the managed passwords for the organization as a whole, as well as for individual users.

LogMeOnce: Support

LogMeOnce has a range of customer support and self-help options to draw on if you run into trouble. The main website features a chatbot that will guide you to articles or help you submit a support ticket. Tickets can also be logged directly from your management dashboard or the online portal. We feel that real-time support could be improved - there are no phone lines and emails aren’t always the quickest way to get to the bottom of something.

LogMeOnce: The competition

LogMeOnce is a genuinely good password manager, but there are a couple of powerful alternatives worth considering, especially if you can’t look the increasingly dated UI.

For example, LastPass has long been a leading password management program backed by very advanced features. It includes secure multi-factor authentication, has over 1,200 pre-integrated apps, and comes with a selection of advanced administration controls for IT managers and other tech professionals. Additionally, pricing is quite comparable.

If you’re really going down the business security route, Bitwarden offers self-hosting so that businesses can keep passwords stored in a secure and trusted location, even behind their own firewalls and proxies.

LogMeOnce: Final verdict

LogMeOnce is up there with the absolute best password management programs we’ve used in terms of functionality. It’s extremely affordable, comes with advanced tools designed for business users, and is backed by a range of powerful features.

On top of this, it’s easy to set up and is compatible with most common web browsers, devices, and operating systems. Also, security tools and customer support resources are comprehensive with an extensive library of articles and even videos.

That said, the product’s design could do with quite a significant overhaul, which is most notable on the apps. In theory, this shouldn’t take away from the abilities of the password manager, but failure to keep up-to-date with design could suggest diminishing developer resources. Furthermore, when we attempted to contact LogMeOnce’s press department, we were met with radio silence.

Ultimately, we’d recommend LogMeOnce for anyone who’s looking for a powerful, versatile password management solution backed by advanced features.

What to look for when choosing a password manager

A password manager not only helps in storing your passwords across various platforms securely but also plays a crucial role in generating strong, unique passwords that enhance your online security. However, with a myriad of options available, choosing the right password manager can feel overwhelming. Key features to look for include security, ease of use, compatibility, additional features, and pricing.

First and foremost, security is the cornerstone of any password manager. Ensure the application uses robust encryption methods, like AES-256 bit encryption, to keep your passwords safe from unauthorized access. Two-factor authentication (2FA) adds an additional layer of security, making it significantly harder for intruders to gain access to your vault. Next, consider the ease of use. A user-friendly interface that integrates seamlessly across your devices is essential for a smooth experience. The ability to automatically fill in passwords and form data across websites and apps can amplify convenience and enhance your online interactions.

Compatibility is another pivotal aspect. The ideal password manager should support a wide range of devices and platforms, including Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android, ensuring you have access to your passwords regardless of the device you're using. Moreover, assess additional features such as secure password sharing, digital wallet functionality, and the ability to store other sensitive information like software licenses or confidential notes. These features can significantly enhance the utility of a password manager beyond just password storage.

Lastly, pricing is an important consideration, but it shouldn't be the sole deciding factor. Free versions can be a great starting point, but they often come with limitations that might not meet your needs. Evaluate the features offered in paid plans and consider whether they justify the cost, based on your personal or business requirements. Opt for plans that offer a balance between cost and functionality, ensuring you receive value for your investment.

In conclusion, selecting the right password manager involves considering a balance of security, user experience, platform compatibility, additional functionalities, and cost. By prioritizing these key factors, you can choose a password manager that not only secures your digital life but also simplifies it, allowing you to navigate the online world with confidence and ease.

We've also featured the best business password managers.