Mobile apps
Sign in on the move – a handy resource to have in your pocket.
Due to the open source nature of KeePass 2, there is more than one mobile app that can be used to interact with your password database. They all have to contend with the fact that KeePass 2 isn’t based around an online service, which means you must do some of the database synchronisation work yourself. KeePassDroid only supports Google Drive for storage, but this does work well. The KeePass 2 apps don’t quite match the polished experience of the commercial services, but it’s possible to get a workable solution up and running.
We’re not putting down the KeePass 2 clients, but moving on to Bitwarden, we noticed an upgrade in the overall presentation. We like the way that each entry has an icon for the website. Within the settings, there are options for autofill, if you prefer to have Bitwarden carry this out rather than Android’s browser. There is also a little built-in utility to generate passwords. These complex passwords might seem unwieldy, but Bitwarden would be handling their storage and use, of course.
The NordPass app has a clean, attractive layout. The built-in utilities include a password strength assessor, a data breach scanner and a password generator.
We like Keeper’s Enable Self Destruct option, which erases all locally stored data after five failed entry attempts. We didn’t appreciate being hit over the head with a pop-up reminder about the paid-for plan as soon as we logged in. It seemed to be talking down its own product (in its free version) by forcing us to press the Stay Unprotected option to dismiss the pop-up. Overall, it’s a basic, usable tool with a rather plain look.
As is the case with the web application, we like the aesthetics of the RoboForm app because it makes use of large icons representing each of the websites, and it does this without imposing a performance penalty that we can notice. If you don’t like that way of working, there is also a plain-looking list format option. All of the apps feature fingerprint login, but RoboForm also has a PIN number option.