Best Password Managers for Android 2022: Safely Save Your Passwords

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, recycle the same combinations of username and password for each service that you register with. While understandable, by doing so, you're actually playing right into the hands of data thieves and hackers.

If repeatedly using a password, cybercriminals only need to get lucky once to gain access to multiple accounts. With easy-to-remember passwords, you actually do them a favor, as plenty of Internet users have learned the hard way. Should you notice one of your passwords on this list of the most popular passwords, change it immediately.

For smartphones, where inputting an entire username and password is frustrating and time-consuming, cutting corners with basic passwords is understandable. No one wants to spend a minute tapping out a password only to be told that it's incorrect because they replaced an uppercase with a lowercase letter, or forgot a number. Saving passwords automatically in your mobile browser helps, but doesn't enhance your security.

Enter password managers: What works so well on desktops and laptops, has also become available for mobile devices, making surfing on the go both easier and safer.

When assessing desktop clients of the password managers from our sample, we paid close attention to how many features each came with. For their mobile apps, on the other hand, ease of use and autofill 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. However, on an Android device, 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.

The three apps below mastered the challenges we placed before them on an Android device.

With the only cumulative score of "Very Good" in our sample, 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 makes it possible to 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 its 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 them 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 enter 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 have an edge over the pair.

With Keeper, 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 included 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 on our devices when using Chrome.

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

LastPass's mobile app is so intuitive and easy to use because the app's menu is practically identical to that of the desktop version's browser extension. Most of all though, LastPass's Android app works, doing precisely what it's supposed to.

The service's autofill was reliable whenever a web form appeared, however, we recommend using the app's integrated browser, rather than Chrome to ensure this every time. 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, our Top 3 definitely reflect 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.

Are you after a free password manager for your Android device? There are plenty of options, including the free versions of paid services (i.e. freemium software), as well as free software. In opting for one of these, keep in mind that you'll likely have to make do without a few features. Another disadvantage is that you'll probably be limited to how many data sets you can store, or the number of cross-device synchronizations that are allowed. The average Internet user typically has too many accounts that they want to be able to access across too many different devices to make these worthwhile.

For that reason, it's important to look for a password manager that can save an unlimited number of passwords and synchronize datasets across as many devices as you intend to use. Providers that offer this at no cost include NordPass, Bitwarden, and Avira Password Manager.