1Password

A FACELIFT FOR THE POPULAR PASSWORD MANAGER. Free trial; From $3.99 | 1password.com

THIS TRUSTY PASSWORD manager has been kept regularly updated since its birth back in 2005, but since your humble reviewer has only jumped on board within the last 12 months or so, it’s worth finally covering its latest iteration: version 7. This recent-ish major facelift (released back in November 2017, but which has since been updated to the current version of 7.0.6) has made this already great app even better.

Like all password managers, the goal is to input all your login details and passwords, and anything else you need stored securely so you can happily forget them all (freeing up room in the brain for more important things). The Favourites panel updates automatically, meaning if you frequently access only a handful of your entries, they’re easily accessible in one place. Categories naturally separates the types of entries you’ve created into all items, logins, secure notes, identities, documents, software licences, credit cards, bank accounts, driver’s licences (which we can utilise legally from next year in Australia, hopefully), passport details, router info and much more. The Organise tab will remain empty until you add tags to your entries (say, identifying all your gaming login details under ‘gaming’, or subscription information for work purposes under ‘work’ and so on).

In Settings, you can dictate just how secure the app behaves. We personally have ‘Lock on Exit’ and Touch ID turned on, as well as Auto-Lock enabling after a couple of minutes of idling and passwords being automatically hidden. Extra security measures can be added, including clearing the Clipboard after you’ve copy-pasted a password, meaning you won’t accidentally paste it anywhere else later.

The biggest boon for using 1Password, however, is how flawlessly it works in tandem with its other versions — for macOS, Windows and web. It also comes in home and business flavours, has a one-year item history so you can retrieve accidentally deleted information, two-factor authentication, round-the-clock support and you can link family accounts, so information can be shared with those you trust the most. It’s also super simple to use, clean and reliable. What more do you want? Definitely a contender for best password manager.