Matt Elliott/CNET Welcome to CNET's 2018 directory of password managers. We've picked our favorite tools for taming the chaos of all those accounts and passwords.

And let's be honest: 'chaos' is an accurate description. Complex passwords are difficult to remember, so many users have defaulted to passwords like 'password,' 'abc123,' their pet's name and other hacker-friendly naming conventions.

In a world where password breaches can affect hundreds of millions of users, it's plausible that your passwords may already be floating around the seedier corners of the internet. Disclaimer: CNET may get a share of revenue from the sale of the products featured on this page. Password managers to the rescue! A password manager servers many purposes, all of them helpful.

It keeps all your passwords under one encrypted (and password-protected) roof. It generates strong passwords for you and automatically inserts them when you log into different sites. It can even store payment information to simplify online shopping. 1:09 Almost all these tools work on the principle that you create a master password for access to your identity vault, and then the password manager fills in individual user IDs and passwords for the sites and apps you use. One benefit of this approach is, because you no longer have to recall the passwords yourself, you can give each site or app a different, complex and hard to remember password. What's the risk? All your passwords in one place?

What if a hacker gains access to your master password? That would leave all your accounts open to plundering. Likewise, if a hacker manages to breach the central vault of the password management company, it's possible that millions of account credentials could be stolen in a single hack. There are defenses to both these concerns.

Most password managers employ multifactor authentication, so access to your credential vault is granted only with both a correct password and a correct authentication code. That code exists only on a device you own, limiting the ability for someone across the world to gain access to your information. Master vaults are also usually protected by the vendors by encrypting your password information locally, before it ever leaves your devices. That information is stored, in an encrypted form, on the servers operated by the vendors.

In most cases, this is strong enough security. How we rate them Even so, some people prefer to store all their passwords locally (meaning only on their devices, not some central server). There are also issues of jurisdiction, where some users don't want their passwords stored in certain countries, in case of governmental intervention. Where possible, we've pointed out which services give you the option of determining how your passwords are stored. We also give credit for the platforms supported, the browsers supported and whether or not the secure vault acts as a secure wallet, storing and organizing other information like credit cards. (Almost all of them do.) As for pricing, nearly every service offers a free trial. We've shared the single-user prices below, but many password managers offer family, team and enterprise plans as well.

Let's look at some of the top password managers. Check back often, as we'll be updating this listing as these services continue to evolve. Free Trial. Works on: iOS, Android, Windows, Mac. Base price: $25.49 per year (15% savings) offers a wide range of supported devices and browsers, along with a variety of strong authentication methods. It has a software development kit (SDK), enterprise features like single sign-on (SSO) and it integrates with for one-tap authentication.

It also allows your data to be isolated to specific regions in the world, so access outside those regions is not available (and the data isn't stored in those regions). Like many of these products, Keeper supports bio-metric login (finger print and face recognition) on mobile. Keeper records can be shared with those who have a paid Keeper account. It picked up points because it allows you to designate a legacy or emergency contact who can have access to your data in the event of an emergency. Imports from a wide range of other password managers, including 1Password, Dashlane, EnPass and LastPass.

It will also import from password stores from, Opera. There is a family plan available, as well as plans for businesses and teams.

Offers free version. Works on: iOS, Android, Windows, Mac. Base price: $39 per year is a product that creates instant virtual credit card numbers, manages passwords, provides a dedicated private phone number and more.

Blur is the only all-in-one solution to protect your passwords, payments and privacy. Blur is built on an extremely secure Password Manager foundation, with a wide variety of unique online privacy features that have never been combined into a single product in the past.

An earlier version of the product was a browser extension called MaskMe, but it's morphed into a full security product for consumers. Parallels desktop 13 download. Offers both local storage and a cloud-based vault, as well as the usual password capture, autofill and password generator. What makes Blur unique is how it goes beyond the digital wallet concept to help you communicate while also protecting your identity.

It allows you to create one-use credit card numbers, so you're never giving your real number away. It also allows you to create a virtual phone number, so if you need to give someone your digits, you can keep your real number private. Abine, the company behind Blur, also offers a $129 service called DeleteMe that requests online data brokers remove your personal information from the Internet.

Offers free version. Works on: iOS, Android, Windows, Mac. Base price: $29.99 per year is produced by Lamantine Software, named after the French word for manatee, an endangered species of sea creature.

And the company puts its money behind its namesake: A portion of the license fee for every copy of Sticky Password sold is donated to the nonprofit Save the Manatee Club. Although doesn't work on Edge, it does provide support for Chrome, Chromium, Firefox, Thunderbird, IE, Comodo Dragon, Opera, Pale Moon, SeaMonkey and Yandex on Windows; Firefox, Dolphin and UCWeb on Android; on iOS; and Safari and Chrome on Mac. A minor ding is that this product does not offer any form of digital wallet. It does, however, have a robust form filling capability, bio-metric support for Touch ID on iOS and Android fingerprint scanning, and the option to keep only local copies of your password or store them in the cloud.

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Offers free version. Works on: iOS, Android, Windows. Base price: $29.99 per year.

SAVE 25% - Use code SAVE25 supports Windows, iOS and Android but does not list a Mac or Linux version. If you need password access across platforms, you might want to look to another tool. We liked that you can choose what region or regions in the world your password data is stored in, both to manage access speed and to handle any jurisdictional or government privacy concerns you might have. Passwords created in the native password managers for Chrome, IE, Firefox, Opera and Edge can be imported into Password Boss. It also supports import from 1Password, Dashlane, LastPass and RoboForm. We were pleased to see that Password Boss offers its full version.

Offers free version. Works on: iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, Linux. Base price: $24 per year In 2015, was, which caused something of an outcry among users.

Although the product has remained substantially unchanged after the acquisition, users were upset about a reduction in free features and the doubling of the premium product's price from $12 to $24 a year. However, as you can see from our directory this year, even at $24 a year, LastPass is still less expensive than many of its competitors.

Unlike some of its rivals, is a cloud-only service. There is no local vault. The product works well inside of browsers that have installed browser extensions.

One of LastPass's strongest features is its security challenge. It goes through your entire password database, determines how many accounts have duplicate passwords and which have weak password protection. The product also allows you to automatically change some passwords without having to do so manually. This allows you to have a constantly changing set of identity information, which removes any value to hackers that older passwords may have. LastPass has its own authentication app and, for some common websites, allows you to simply tap to authorize entrance. Screenshot by CNET. Offers free version.

Works on: iOS, Android, Windows, Mac. Base price: $39.96 per year One of the most interesting features of is what it calls Site Breach Alerts.

The idea is that if any of the sites you access has had a breach, Dashlane will notify you. Of course, this is limited to those sites that let it be known they have a breach, and generally more major sites. Even so, it's a cool feature that will both help you sleep better at night and lose sleep. Security is like that. Can import from some other competitors, including 1Password, RoboForm and LastPass.

It also offers a mechanism for importing from CSV files. You can choose to not store any password data on Dashlane's servers (which utilize a ), but to do so, you must disable sync, which means you're responsible for managing, backing up and moving your password data across machines. Even so, it's a good option to have.

Offers free version. Works on: iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, Chromebook. $9.99 one time per mobile device works on pretty much everything, including devices, Chromebooks, Linux machines and there's even a portable version that lives on a USB stick.

It has excellent support, including an extension for the Edge browser and a Windows Store app. The pricing and business model for EnPass is appealing.

Rather than a monthly fee, you pay a for each mobile device OS you want to use. The desktop version is free. The product is oriented around local stores of data, rather than a cloud archive. This reduces the hacking and breach footprint substantially. If you want to keep your password archives in sync across devices, the product allows for cloud sync across iCloud, OwnCloud, GoogleDrive, One Drive and Box. Offers free version. Works on: iOS, Android, Windows, Mac.

Base price: $12 per year The first thing to know about is that its product naming conventions can be confusing. It has a 'Premium' version, which is free. It also has Professional and Ultimate versions, for $12 a year and $39 a year respectively. There's also a business version with SSO. Nomenclatures notwithstanding, LogmeOnce offers a wide range of features, including a photo login option (a form of multifactor authentication).

It also has the ability to determine where your data is located, store it locally or store it and sync it via a cloud-sharing service. Can wipe, remote locate, lock and display messages too. One interesting feature of the mobile version, called LogmeOnce Mugshot, lets it capture a photo of someone trying to break into your phone. For corporate warriors, it provides the option for you to have both a personal data vault and a business data vault for BYOD situations. Oddly enough, it also has a weather forecast feature included, because, well, why not?. Offers trial version.

Works on: iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, Linux, Chromebook. Base price: $19.95 per year goes back, waaay back. I remember using what was then called AI RoboForm back in 1999 or 2000, before Window XP was on the market. Back then, it was a system tray application that filled forms on native Windows applications. Back then, you really didn't need multifactor authentication because most of the applications requiring passwords existed on your local area network and were not accessible to bad guys on the other side of the planet. Has evolved considerably since those early days.

Today, RoboForm's cloud storage system, called RoboForm Everywhere, is available for those with paid accounts. Free RoboForm accounts can store passwords locally on your individual computers and mobile devices, but without sync or backup services. Has excellent browser integration, including with Edge and Opera.

Unfortunately, perhaps because it was a local password manager originally, the company hasn't seemed willing to fully embrace multifactor authentication. Offers free version. Works on: iOS, Android, Safari (Mac), Chrome and Firefox (Mac and Windows). Base price: $12 per year is another product in Zoho's extensive office and productivity offerings. The company supports iOS and Android, as well as Chrome, Safari and Firefox browsers. The product is really intended for team use, but there is a free version available for individuals.

Team use starts at $12 a year per user with no user count minimum. The pro version is $48 a year and the enterprise version, which adds Active Directory and provisioning features, is $84 a year. Both the pro and enterprise versions require you to have a minimum of five users. We like how lives in the space between consumer password managers and high-end enterprise-level SSO federated login systems. Zoho Vault is something any small business or departmental administrator can run without the need for dedicated corporate or security professionals on staff. This is a password manager only. There is no digital wallet support.

The company does have 24-hour phone support, but only Monday through Friday. Don't lose your passwords over the weekend. Offers trial version. Works on:, Android, Windows, Mac.

Base price: $35.88 per year has been gaining in popularity over the last few years, and for good reason. One of the more interesting features of 1Password is its in-code integration with a large number of. Rather than the copy/paste process required with other password managers (in particular on iOS, which is quite fussy about inter-app communication), 1Password is integrated at the code level into a huge number of popular mobile apps. Another helpful feature is the ability for to act as an authenticator app, so you don't need to have both a password manager and an app like Authenticator or Authy. 1Password doesn't use traditional multifactor authentication (with the exception of fingerprints on iOS and Android). Rather than using an authentication app to add an additional factor of security, 1Password adds a secret key to the encryption key, so no data can be decrypted without that key. That key lives on your devices, so no one who doesn't have your device can gain access.

One big highlight of is its well-designed 'travel mode,' which allows you to remove all but a certain subset of your passwords from any vault accessible by any machine traveling with you. This prevents anyone, including law enforcement at border checks, from having access to your complete password vault.

Offers free version (15 passwords or fewer). Works on: iOS, Android, Windows, Mac. Base price: $19.99 per year was developed, in part, by the folks who originally created PasswordBox.

That service closed in 2015 when Intel acqui-hired the PasswordBox team. Offers a $19.99 per year program, which it says is 'unlimited.' As with all things we've found that use the word 'unlimited,' you need to ignore the 'un' part. Oddly, for a product thatneeds to store so little actual data in our data-flooded world, True Key limits its unlimited product to 10,000 passwords. If you have more, you're simply out of luck. Most people won't hit that limit. I have a lot of passwords, and I'm in the 2,000 accounts range.

Even so, it's odd seeing a limit on something as data-sparse as a password manager. In addition to supporting Edge browser on Windows, True Key supports Safari, but only for iOS. If you want to use a Mac, you need to use it with Chrome or Firefox. It also supports native password import from Chrome, Firefox and IE. Offers support for Windows Hello facial recognition on compatible Windows PCs, too.

One limit to the digital wallet is that doesn't support CVV codes (the code on the back of the card) in the wallet. From a pure security point of view, that's a good idea. But it does sort of defeat the purpose of having a way to store all your credit card information for automatic payment and filling in. On the other hand, it does have a cool credit card scanner that lets you enter your credit card into the tool info by simply letting your mobile device take a picture (a la ).

With hundreds to choose from, figuring out which point-of-sale system has the features you need at an affordable price is tricky. We looked at dozens of POS systems to determine the best ones for small businesses in 2018. We focused on cloud-based systems that you can access from any browser, letting you check your sales data and run back-office tasks wherever you are. These systems often run on tablets, making them more affordable and easier to install, set up and use than legacy POS systems. Our top recommendations are below, but if you want to take a step back and learn more about POS systems, check out our guide:. The best POS systems do more than just process sales and accept payments. They make it easier to run your entire business, with features that help you analyze sales data, track inventory, connect with customers and manage employees.

They include or have integrations for email marketing, loyalty programs, and other capabilities that streamline processes and save you time. The best POS vendors provide reliable customer support that you can contact around the clock, so even if your business keeps irregular hours or you're working late, you can receive help when you need it.

As you compare POS machines and software, look for systems that give you maximum flexibility, with month-to-month software subscriptions, a choice of payment processors and compatibility with third-party POS hardware that you can purchase upfront. This way, you're not locked into a system or a lease for several years, but can instead switch out whatever parts of the system you want, when you want – whether you are missing features, feel services aren't meeting your expectations or find a better deal elsewhere. Epos Now is an affordable, versatile POS system that nearly every type of business can use. Both retail and hospitality versions of the software are available, each with a robust selection of features to help you run your business. It also has more than 80 integrations, so you can add extra capabilities and connect to the business programs you already use. Epos Now gives you a choice of payment providers, is compatible with third-party POS hardware, and runs on iPads, Android tablets and touchscreen terminals.

Devices: iPad, Android tablet and touchscreen terminal Support: Email and chat support; 24/7 phone support with Premium plan. Lightspeed is an iPad POS system that has solutions for retail stores, restaurants and online businesses. It's fully mobile, so you can check inventory from anywhere in the store, show customers product images and descriptions, and ring up orders and accept payments on the sales floor or, for restaurants, tableside. Lightspeed has month-to-month and annual service contracts available, gives you a choice of credit card processors, and works with third-party POS equipment. It also integrates with numerous third-party apps, allowing you to customize the system to fit your business.

Devices: iPad Support: 24/7 phone, email and chat support. Vend has everything you need to run and grow a brick-and-mortar store. Beyond processing transactions, it has reporting and inventory management features and provides access to a variety of integrations that can help you run your business, save time and boost sales.

This POS software is suitable for nearly every type of store. Whether you run a clothing store, a sporting goods store, or a specialty service-based business such as a car wash or computer shop, Vend has the features you need. Devices: iPad Support: 24/7 phone, email and chat support. TouchBistro is a simple and affordable POS system that focuses on the unique needs of restaurant owners, with table, reservation and delivery management features.

It's suitable for all types of food establishments – fine dining, casual eateries, cafes, pubs, food trucks and more. It has month-to-month subscriptions, offers a choice of payment processors, and runs on the iPad, iPad Pro and iPad Mini, giving you flexibility and mobility, no matter which type of restaurant you own. TouchBistro offers 24/7 phone and email support, video tutorials, and setup guides.

Devices: iPad and Apple AirPort router Support: 24/7 phone and email support.