Consumer Reports reveals best password managers

With so many of us learning and working from home, the number of logins we have with unique passwords is going up.

This is where a good password manager comes in. Consumer Reports just tested some and reveals which ones work best.

Remembering all your passwords is tough, but making sure each one is unique and strong enough to keep hackers out of your online accounts is even tougher. That's why Consumer Reports tests and rates password managers, which are apps and online services that do all the heavy lifting for you.

"In our testing we focus on three main factors: security, privacy and usability," said Bree Fowler, Consumer Reports tech editor.

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Consumer Reports said security means how resistant the product is to hacking attempts. Privacy is how much data the password manager collects, what it's used for and with whom it's shared. And usability includes how flexible the password manager is when it comes to sharing passwords between platforms and devices.

"With password managers, you only have to remember one password, your master password, for the password manager," said Fowler.

That's because they create, store and automatically fill in complex passwords for the dozens of sites and apps you may log into each day.

"And these kinds of products use encryption, which means your passwords are scrambled into a code that's hard for hackers to crack," she said.

So which one did the best in Consumer Reports' tests?

"Our experts say 1Password is the best option out there. It was the only password manager we tested to receive an overall "excellent" rating in all three categories," she said.

If you're looking for a free alternative, Consumer Reports recommends Bitwarden. It scored "very good" across the board for data privacy, data security and usability.

And what about the password manager that's part of your internet browser? Like Mozilla's Firefox, Google's Chrome or Apple's Safari. Consumer Reports said they don't offer the capabilities that most password managers do but can be a big help in wrangling all of your various logins.