NordPass review: a free password manager with deluxe support

Everyone knows keeping track of hundreds of passwords is a heavy burden. That’s why password managers have become indispensable. NordPass, a solution that comes from the cybersecurity experts behind NordVPN, aims to make it safer and easier to log in across all your devices.

I researched NordPass pricing, privacy, and security, and tested the convenience and quality of Nord Security’s software to find out if it deserves a spot on our list of the best password managers. I reviewed the NordPass Free, Premium, and Family plans to see if it’s worth using.

Tiers and pricing

NordPass has a full-featured free version that lets you store an unlimited number of credentials and sync passwords across all your devices. It also supports secure notes, so you can access your ID number or credit card details from your computer and phone.

If you subscribe to NordPass for $24 per year, you get extras like login monitoring, email masking, password health checks, and secure sharing of logins with other NordPass users. If you pay for two years in advance, the annual cost drops to $20.

Paid plans also include 3GB of secure file attachments. That’s three times more cloud storage than you get from most other password managers. For example, the lower-cost, open-source Bitwarden includes just 1GB of encrypted storage.

NordPass Family costs $44 per year and provides Premium accounts for up to six people, expanding file storage to a total of 9GB. The Family plan is a good deal for two people, and the savings improve for larger families. The $67 price of a two-year plan is a bargain.

Full-featured business plans start at $239 annually for five users and $48 for each additional user. There’s a Teams plan for 10 members with fewer features at a bargain price of $239 per year. For larger organizations, you can contact NordPass for a quote.

Design

I began with NordPass Free, which starts as a 30-day trial of the Premium plan. If I didn’t subscribe, I’d lose some features. I had an activation code for NordPass Family, but I wanted to explore the trial version first.

I installed the NordPass browser extension and opened a new tab that guided me to create an account and come up with a secure master password. This is a critical step and a common requirement of password managers.

NordPass encrypts all my logins and other information with the master password serving as a key to unlock and use this data. The key should be written down and stored offline so there’s minimal risk of exposure to malware and hackers.

After importing my passwords, NordPass was ready to use. The setup was quick on my Windows PC. NordPass makes a Windows app, but the browser extension includes almost every feature, including Windows Hello, recovery codes, and multi-factor authentication (MFA). However, I’d still need the NordPass app to sign in on Windows apps.

I also installed NordPass on my iPhone to test cross-platform compatibility. Within seconds, all my Windows logins synced to my iPhone.

Features

Autofill worked as expected. For example, when I opened Netflix on my PC and iPhone, NordPass instantly entered the email and password. I can also use the extension like a quick launcher. I can search or browse my account list and one click opens the website in a new tab and logs me in.

NordPass supports biometric unlocking so I could use fingerprint scanners and Face ID to unlock my vault. It’s easy to organize hundreds of passwords by creating folders that appear in the sidebar.

I upgraded to NordPass Family to test password sharing, which also works with NordPass Premium. It works well and provides options to limit how the recipient can use the login. However, it’s not as refined as 1Password’s login sharing, and the recipient needs a NordPass account to access the link.

A paid NordPass subscription comes with a variety of tools like email masking, a data breach scanner, a password generator, and password health checker.

Support

NordPass offers 24/7 support via live chat and email to paid and free users, which is a very generous service policy. I tested it out and got a reply instantly. Keeper also offers live support all day, every day, but it costs more.

I asked for more detail on the breach scanner and learned that it’s a custom tool that also scans the dark web for all the email addresses and credit cards I add to NordPass.

Privacy and security

According to Nord Security’s privacy policy, NordPass won’t sell, rent, or share your personal data to third-party advertisers. It only uses your data to provide services.

NordPass uses end-to-end encryption so only you and people you share with can read your logins, secure notes, and other items stored in your vault. The same is true of files uploaded to your NordPass account.

NordPass uses ChaCha20 encryption since it’s faster and runs better on mobile devices than the more widely used AES-256. Google and Cloudflare also use ChaCha20. There’s an option to enable MFA for added security.

While NordPass hasn’t had any breaches, NordVPN, another app from Nord Security, did has some trouble in 2019. A cyberattack exposed 2,000 usernames and passwords. That’s a tiny percentage of NordVPN users, but any breach is worth noting.

Is NordPass right for you?

NordPass checks all the boxes needed to rate well as one of the best password managers. The Premium plan is a solid choice. While the Family plan doesn’t provide advanced administrative controls, and the sharing options aren’t as sophisticated as some others, the price is among the lowest.

If you don’t want to pay anything, NordPass also offers a full-featured free password manager. It doesn’t include login sharing, dark web monitoring, or email masking, but does let you access all your passwords across all your devices.