Top 3 Password Managers for Android [+Alternatives]

Whether you're a full-fledged netizen or just an occasional Internet user, the amount of accounts and passwords you have is probably growing. Like most, you're likely losing oversight of these, and, for no fault of your own, have started using the same combinations of username and password for each service that you register with. Unfortunately, few things could help data thieves and hackers more.

For smartphones in particular, where tapping out an entire username and password is frustrating and time-consuming, it's important to be able to reliably and quickly input login credentials. Saving passwords automatically in your browser helps, but doesn't do your security any favors. Enter password managers: What works so well on desktops and laptops, has also become available for mobile devices, and you won't need to sacrifice any of your digital protection to use them.

Managing Passwords on the Go: Different Approaches

Practically every password manager has responded to the demand for mobile security, offering smartphone apps in addition to their desktop clients. As the dominant mobile OS, Android is usually the most taken care of, however, a number of developers clearly cater to iOS. With that said, most apps provide nearly identical functionality and user experience to either, with the end goal being a satisfied and loyal customer base irrespective of the OS they use.

However, the approaches taken by developers when designing functional mobile versions of their desktop apps do differ. Sometimes, the mobile app is simply a copy of the desktop client, lacking only a few options or buttons here and there. For other developers, the Android app provides a completely different user experience, prioritizing mobile usability over brand uniformity.

During our evaluations, we encountered both approaches. Keep reading to find out which three mobile password managers we think are the best for Android users!

When assessing the desktop clients of the password managers from our sample, we paid close attention to how many features each came with. For mobile apps, on the other hand, ease of use and the autofill's reliability are of greater importance.

On a desktop or laptop, poor autofill functionality isn't the end of the world, since you can just copy and paste login data with a mouse and/or keyboard. On an Android device, however, autofill is the name of the game, and its absence, or subpar performance, almost completely defeats the purpose of having a mobile password manager in the first place.

With that, we believe that the following three apps excelled at mastering the challenges we placed before them on an Android device.

With a cumulative score of "Very Good", Dashlane was not only the top-performing password manager from our sample, it offered one of the best smartphone apps as well.

All important features from the desktop and web clients found their way over to the Android version. For instance, Password Health lets you keep tabs on the strength of all of your passwords, and, as its name implies, Password Changer lets you effortlessly and automatically alter passwords for specific online accounts, without having to log in yourself. Even the VPN, one of Dashlane's unique extras, has been integrated into the mobile app.

The app's autofill is also highly intuitive: Whenever you tap on a form field, the username and password you've saved for that particular site will automatically appear above your virtual keyboard. Should you have multiple accounts for the same website or service, you can toggle between these by tapping on the Dashlane icon. During our evaluation, autofill didn't trip up a single time in Chrome (Dashlane's mobile app does not come with an integrated browser of its own).

You also won't have to constantly enter your master password to access your vault, and can configure access to instead be granted via fingerprint scan, facial recognition, or a four-number PIN.

As such, it's plain to see why Dashlane was our favorite smartphone app for Android devices.

Even though Keeper had to share second place in our evaluation with 1Password and NordPass, we found its mobile app to be slightly better than those of the other two services.

With it, you won't need to worry about losing any important features known from the desktop client. Security Check, through which you can monitor the strength of your passwords, and BreachWatch, which informs you about compromised passwords, are both offered in the Android app.

Thanks to the integrated browser, you can easily visit websites and automatically log in using the data you've saved in your vault. Autofill also worked flawlessly when using Chrome on our devices.

As such, Keeper's Android is definitely, well, a keeper!

LastPass's mobile app is intuitive and easy to use largely because the app's menu is, more or less, identical to that of the desktop version's browser extension. Most of all though, we liked that LastPass's Android app simply works, doing precisely what it's supposed to.

The service's autofill was reliable whenever a web form appeared, however, to make this a certainty, we recommend using the app's integrated browser, rather than Chrome. Even with Chrome, we only had to occasionally tap again on the login form for the LastPass icon to appear.

LastPass's Android app also comes with plenty of nifty features, such as its convenient password generator, Emergency Access, and a security dashboard, the last of which keeps you up to date as to the safety of your online accounts.

Overall, we were definitely impressed with LastPass's Android app.

Some of the mobile apps we assessed performed very well as password managers. Since we focused on how intuitive and easy to use each Android app was, this list of our top three definitely reflects some subjective preferences. A number of other password manager apps exist for Android capable of providing equally good mobile experiences. Two honorable mentions that just barely missed our top 3 are 1Password and NordPass.

Below, you can find a list of all password managers from our sample that offer Android apps:

For a closer look at all password managers we evaluated, check out our comprehensive review and comparison.