Best Password Managers For Business

A business password management solution, or enterprise password manager, is a security tool that helps end users to store their business credentials more securely. The core feature of these solutions is a secure, encrypted password vault, in which users can store account credentials—including usernames and passwords—, one-time-security codes related to accounts, credit card information, and notes. These solutions are commonly delivered as cloud-based, SaaS subscription services, paid monthly or annually. They are delivered as web applications, or desktop/mobile apps.

Users access the secure vault using a master password, which (according to admin policies) may need to be a certain length and complexity to improve security. Some password managers have also announced support for FIDO Passkeys, enabling passwordless access to the vault. Within the password vault, admins can log all their workforce passwords, which can be sorted into folders and groups, and any passwords that have been shared with them. This should be reinforced with multi-factor authentication.

Using a browser plugin, desktop, or mobile application, passwords are automatically entered into web forms when a user needs to log into an account. When a user creates a new account, the service automatically generates a secure password and stores this in the password vault. This means the user experience is simple and straightforward. Within the vault, users should be able to easily add, edit, remove, and share passwords securely with their team, and view if passwords have been re-used or need to be updated.

For admins, password managers enable password policy enforcement, management of secure passwords and teams, reporting into password health, and access controls, with the ability to share and revoke account access.

Business password managers are designed to make it as easy as possible for employees to securely store, retrieve, manage, and secure business passwords, as well as enable admins to enforce secure password policies and manage password sharing. To that end, there are several important features to consider when selecting a password manager tool for business, including:

• A user-friendly password vault
• Secure password sharing functionality, with shared passwords hidden
• Browser plug-in for automatic password collection and password auto-fill
• Password importing ability
• Reporting of weak and re-used passwords
• Notification when passwords have appeared in a data breach
• Secure password generator when creating new accounts
• Password groups and folders
• Admin policies and reporting
• MFA & SSO for account access

Ultimately, the choice of which password manager to choose will be down to your individual business requirements and use cases, but market-leading solutions will include the above key features.

Yes, password managers can be hacked. Password managers keep all your passwords in one place, and if you don’t have robust multi-factor authentication place for your password manager, it’s possible the secure password vault could be compromised.

With that said, password managers are highly recommended by security experts. All the password managers on this list offer secure password vaults and, with MFA switched on, it is very difficult to compromise passwords stored in a password manager. Many services store passwords locally (with backups available) so that there is no way for an attacker to compromise passwords without gaining access to your device.

However, it is important to consider each password manager’s security policies. There have been instances in which password manager providers themselves have been affected by data breaches. Fortunately, when vault data is encrypted, the information is unreadable. Even if attackers compromise the vault itself, the odds of them being able to successfully decrypt the data are slim.

Secure password sharing is one of the best benefits of implementing a password manager. There are several ways that password managers approach this feature and admin policies can affect this too. Generally, users will be able to share select account usernames and passwords with other colleagues, or within groups and folders shared with multiple team members.

The benefit of sharing a password in a password manager is that the password itself can be hidden. When users with access to the shared password need to log into the account, the password can be automatically filled in to authenticate access, without them needing to know the password at all.

When a team member leaves, access to the password can then be automatically revoked. This means you can be confident that only authorized users can access shared resources, thereby reducing the risk of data loss or breach caused by poor password sharing policies.

The master password is needed for each user to log into their password vault. Many organizations will mandate this to be a certain level of length or complexity – this can mean users will sometimes forget or misplace their master password. In this instance, remediation usually depends on company policies or the password management platform’s policies. Access can normally be reset by the user themselves using a secondary form of authentication, or by account admins.

Many password managers are moving to support FIDO Passkeys, which replaces the use of the master password with passwordless authentication. Using Passkeys, authentication is completed with a private key held on the local device, then matched with a public key registered the password manager. There is no need for the local end user to ever have an account password. Combined with an extra verification step leveraging biometric controls, or a physical hardware token, this offers powerful security benefits and means the password cannot be forgotten or phished.