The Best Way to Store Passwords Safely

If you’re using a different password for all the sites and apps you’re signed up for (and you really should), there are only so many combinations of letters and numbers you can hold in your head at once. The good news is there are plenty of tools out there to remember your passwords and secure them for you, and we’ve picked out the best way.

While we’re here, we should remind you to set up two-factor authentication, or 2FA, on all of the accounts that you have that support it (which should be most of them). Enabling 2FA means that if your username and password should be somehow exposed or guessed, there’s still an extra barrier preventing unauthorized access to your account.

Use your browser

Browsers are getting better and better at being able to manage your passwords for you. While we think investing in a dedicated password manager is worth your while, the tools that come as part of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge and other browsers cover the basics and are free to use too.

If you are going to use your browser’s integrated password-saving capabilities, make sure your mobile or computer user account is protected with a master PIN or password, otherwise anyone who sits down with your device is going to have access to Facebook, Gmail, and any other sites that have auto-login enabled.

No matter which browser you use, passwords can be synced across mobile and desktop devices. In the case of Google (with Chrome and Android) and Apple (with Safari, macOS and iOS), you can actually sync and recall passwords for apps outside of your browser too—so your Google account or your Apple ID effectively acts as your authentication for apps such as Netflix and Spotify