How we tested...

The software on our list is not resource-intensive. Only a couple of the tools are available in the software repositories of the popular desktop distributions, but the installation itself requires little more than unpacking the tarball and running a script; hence installation isn’t a criteria for deciding the best password manager. We’re running these tools on top of Gnome, running on a Fedora 26 workstation.

Since these tools will be used to store login credentials for various services, we’re most interested in the security features they offer. The tools should store the data in an encrypted file, and it’s a bonus if they use a master password. Tools that offer a password generator, to help you create complex passwords, are rated higher.

The number of stored entries will grow over time, so we want a tool that makes it possible to search for entries and offers a clean interface.