Keeper Password Manager

Keeper is a business-first service that does everything a password manager needs to – but it’s neither as pretty nor as feature-packed as some rivals.

Introduction

Keeper Password Manager is one of the more overtly business-orientated password management services around, but it has solid personal subscription tiers whose pricing compares well to the likes of LastPass and Dashlane.

But is it good enough to qualify for our Best Password Manager roundup? Here are my thoughts.

Pricing

A Keeper Personal account costs £30 per year, while a Family subscription includes five accounts and costs £72 per year. That may seem expensive, but the Family account includes 10GB of shared encrypted storage, which is normally priced at £6.99 per year.

Keeper provides a range of bolt-on services, including storage and breach monitoring. While other services provide some storage and monitoring to see if your credentials appear in breacher, these cost extra from Keeper. They’re also automatically added to your basket as suggested purchases when you check out on the site, so keep an eye out for that. Two- and three-year subscriptions are available, too.

Keeper Security also offers a wide range of accounts targeting different business needs, which are beyond the scope of this review. However, if your employer or your own business uses Keeper, it’s worth knowing that all users associated with a Keeper Business or Enterprise account get a free five-user Family account.

There is a free version, but it’s very limited. If you have an account or a trial and it ends, the free version is what you’re left with. It supports only a single mobile device, and while it will store an unlimited number of passwords and payment details, and handle TOTP (Time-based One Time Password) two-factor authentication, it won’t sync online to Keeper’s vault, or to otherwise back up your passwords. Needless to say, this is an extremely bad idea to use in the long term, although it’s incredibly useful if your subscription lapses by accident.

Features

• Range of two-factor authentication methods
• Dedicated forms to store wide range of information
• Supports biometric sign-ins

Keeper Password Manager’s core subscription is well equipped, but some features are only available as paid-for extras. There’s a good range of browser extensions, mobile apps and desktop clients, all with a consistent interface that, while not as attractive as those of 1Password or NordPass, is clear and easy to use.

You can use a range of two-factor authentication methods to secure your connection to Keeper, including via text message, TOTP authenticator, RSA SecurID, Duo and KeeperDNA. It also supports in-app TOTP password generation for other services – something that’s increasingly become a must-have feature in top-flight password managers.

Keeper has dedicated forms to store a wide range of information beyond simple passwords, payment cards and addresses, from identity documents and driving licences to Wi-Fi passwords and software licence keys.

There’s a structured account recovery process if you forget your master password, involving a backup verification code plus a security question. These have to be configured before the account password is lost – you’re prompted to set them up when you start using Keeper. In case you didn’t, there’s also a more complex recovery method involving approved Vault Transfer recipients.

As well as transferring entire vaults to other Keeper users, you can grant full or limited password record or folder access to other Keeper users, with either view or edit access. Time-limited, one-time record sharing is also available, and doesn’t require the recipient to have a Keeper account.

In case of emergencies, you can designate up to five people who can be granted access to your Keeper account, after a designated wait period.

To help minimise the amount of password filling you have to do, Keeper can authenticate logins to your password vault using biometrics for the mobile app, Windows Hello, and its own Keeper Push service, which sends a login challenge to a linked mobile device.

Keeper has reasonably sensible vault-locking defaults, which can be further configured by the user. You’re logged out of your vault when you close your browser or app, and if you leave the desktop app open and idle for 60 minutes, it’s logged out.

Logging into the desktop app requires that you go through a step confirming your user name before entering your password, which is a little bit of extra friction that I’d like to see dispensed with.

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