KeePass Overview (2025): Options, Pricing, and Safety

KeePass quick info Our ranking: 3.0 stars out of 5 Pricing: Free Key options Downloadable user-generated plugins. Open-source. Utterly free.

KeePass is a free and open-source password supervisor that’s been round for over 20 years. Since its launch in 2003, the password supervisor’s potential so as to add user-generated plugins and extensions has made it a well-liked possibility for fanatics and extra technical customers.

Whereas KeePass affords respectable and safe password storage, its dated design, lack of conventional password seize and replay, and unintuitive utility make it laborious to suggest towards extra trendy password managers.

KeePass pricing

KeePass is a totally free password supervisor that doesn’t have any paid tiers. That is in distinction to rivals like NordPass and Dashlane which have paid plans and have free variations, however with inherent limitations. For instance, Dashlane’s free model solely permits for a most of 25 passwords. Nonetheless, you may avail of their paid plan to get limitless password storage.

One massive distinction between KeePass and different password managers is that lots of options aren’t included out of the field. As a substitute, customers can customise their KeePass shopper’s function set through downloadable plugins from the password supervisor’s website. Plugins can be found for capabilities equivalent to importing and exporting passwords, information backups and auto typing.

Is KeePass protected?

Sure, KeePass is a protected and safe password supervisor. It makes use of the trade normal AES-256 encryption for its database and consumer vaults. It’s additionally open-source, permitting the general public to confirm its supply code for potential vulnerabilities or potential safety holes.

It is a massive function for privateness fanatics, particularly those that worth transparency, because it lets the customers and consultants collaborate with KeePass in preserving it safe to make use of.

Encryption-wise, I like that KeePass encrypts the entire database, which implies that not solely are passwords encrypted but additionally different gadgets equivalent to usernames and notes.

As of March 2025, KeePass had not been concerned in any information breach. The password supervisor has been audited within the European Fee’s Free and Open Supply Software program Auditing (EU-FOSSA 1) venture, which confirmed that it had zero safety points.

KeePass additionally shares that it’s the really helpful password supervisor within the BSI Cyber Safety Suggestions BSI-CS 003 2.0 by the German Federal Workplace for Info Safety and is on the record for really helpful free software program for French public businesses.

To me, these suggestions from authorities businesses maintain lots of weight since they deal with extremely delicate and public information.

Key options of KeePass

Apart from password storage and password technology, KeePass comes with a number of key options that make it distinctive in comparison with different password managers.

Library of plugins and extensions

Certainly one of KeePass’ largest promoting factors is the flexibility to obtain and add plugins for every consumer’s KeePass shopper. These plugins add extra options or modify current performance, equivalent to letting customers import or export completely different file codecs, altering the KeePass consumer interface, or including autofill capabilities.

Proper now, there are greater than 180 downloadable plugins on the KeePass web site. That is excellent for customers who worth having the ability to customise their password supervisor and its function set.

For me, I want a password administration answer that already comes with devoted options, with out having to fret about including them after the preliminary set up. When you’re like me on this, 1Password or NordPass are password managers with quite a lot of options already baked in.

Native-device password administration

One other standout function from KeePass is that it’s a utterly native password administration system. Which means all of your passwords and saved credentials are encrypted regionally in your pc or machine of alternative. That is in distinction to different password managers that retailer passwords within the cloud, like 1Password or LastPass.

When you’re paranoid about cloud-based password managers probably being concerned in a knowledge breach and leaking your information, KeePass could be a nice answer since all the pieces is saved regionally. You may learn our LastPass evaluate to study extra about how information breaches can have an effect on a password administration answer.

On the flip facet, KeePass’ all-local implementation could be a drawback because you received’t have the comfort of easy accessibility to your passwords on a number of gadgets by means of the cloud.

Auto-Kind performance

Not like most trendy password managers, KeePass doesn’t have a traditional autofill function. What it does have is Auto-Kind — a world auto-type hotkey which routinely varieties out credentials in your chosen account pages.

Auto-Kind works by having KeePass open within the background, switching to the web site, and KeePass routinely typing out your login credentials after you hit a specific keyboard shortcut. That is against different password managers that routinely fill out the username and password fields through a browser extension or by means of a clickable pop-up.

Whereas seeing KeePass routinely kind out my password was cool at first, I did discover it actually finicky to make use of after a number of occasions. As a result of I needed to manually set the sequence wherein the login credentials are to be typed, i.e. if the username or password goes first, there have been occasions that KeePass couldn’t kind my particulars within the correct fields.

Regardless of Auto-Kind being a novel occasion trick that I haven’t encountered on different password managers, I truthfully discovered manually copying and pasting from the KeePass shopper to be a greater various.

KeePass authentication and safety choices

KeePass comes with two most important multi-factor authentication (MFA) choices: key file and linking a Home windows consumer account. A key file is a file that you would be able to save both in your pc, USB flash drive, or some other machine, which acts as an extra requirement in tandem together with your grasp password to entry your database.

You may set your KeePass vault or database to solely open in the event you’re logged into a particular Home windows consumer account. I’d have most popular it if KeePass had extra MFA choices like 1Password’s fingerprint verification or NordPass’ authenticator app integration.

Whilst you can obtain two-factor authentication (2FA) or One-Time Password (OTP) plugins, I feel having these authentication choices baked throughout the app itself is extra user-friendly. This protects customers the time of getting to choose which plugin is the very best, particularly since most rivals have these available as soon as put in.

For safety choices, I like that KeePass has a timer for everytime you copy passwords off your database. At default, KeePass routinely removes any copied credential from the clipboard after 12 seconds.

There are additionally completely different Implement Choices that allow you to set whether or not you need your KeePass database to routinely lock after inactivity or have KeePass warn you every time a key transformation setting is weak.

KeePass interface and efficiency

KeePass’ desktop consumer interface (UI) falls flat in each design and ease of use. Its design is dated and appears a bit like legacy-Home windows purposes from the 2000s. I want password managers with a smooth and trendy UI.

KeePass’ utility can be not the simplest password supervisor to make use of and study. As soon as I put in the applying, I received a clean dashboard with no included information. There wasn’t a transparent tutorial on the right way to save my first password or use any of KeePass’ options.

Luckily, there are video tutorials, guides, and discussion board posts on-line that define the right way to use KeePass. Nonetheless, I don’t suppose the password supervisor must sacrifice ease-of-use to get to their aim of customizability.

When it comes to efficiency, I had no bother including new password entries contained in the KeePass app. The included password generator additionally labored with none difficulty and I like that there’s no restrict to password characters.

It’s unlucky that KeePass doesn’t have conventional autofill and password seize and replay performance. With none plugins, you need to manually enter login credentials to save lots of new usernames and passwords. This provides an additional step to the method in comparison with one thing like Keeper’s KeeperFill function that routinely saves and fills in new logins upon creation.

KeePass cell app

KeePass doesn’t have its personal proprietary iOS or Android cell utility. Nonetheless, it acknowledges user-generated cell ports of its service.

This offers customers a ton of choices when it comes to KeePass cell purposes. Nonetheless, which means that there’s no assurance {that a} given cell app will likely be supported long-term. Every cell port may also have various ranges of high quality, so your mileage could fluctuate.

KeePass execs

• Utterly free password supervisor.
• Open supply and safe.
• Extremely customizable.
• Downloadable user-generated plugins.

KeePass cons

• Laborious to study and never user-friendly.
• No autofill function included.
• Auto-Kind is a bit clunky.
• Multi-factor authentication choices are separate downloads.
• Design appears a bit dated.
• No official cell app.

SEE: Penetration Testing and Scanning Coverage (TechRepublic Premium)

Who’s KeePass for?

KeePass is for customers who need a password supervisor they will personalize. With its giant library of downloadable plugins and extensions, KeePass could be a very highly effective instrument for these prepared to take the time to maximise its capabilities.

It’s additionally a superb choose for particular person customers who’re cautious of cloud-based password managers and need a safe method to retailer their passwords regionally.

Nonetheless, its lower than pleasant consumer interface, clunky auto-type function, and lack of conventional password seize and replay make it laborious to suggest towards different prime password managers out there. Its locally-stored password storage additionally makes it laborious

KeePass options

When you discover that KeePass isn’t a superb match, I’ve listed three various password managers which might be price a strive.

Bitwarden

If you’d like a cloud-based password supervisor with a beneficiant free model, take a look at Bitwarden. Bitwarden’s free model permits for limitless password storage and entry on an infinite variety of gadgets. You additionally get sturdy zero-knowledge encryption and reasonably priced pricing on its paid plans throughout the board.

Take a look at our full Bitwarden evaluate.

NordPass

NordPass is an all-around password supervisor that doesn’t have many faults. It has an intuitive consumer interface, plans for each single customers and enterprise, and has independently audited purposes. It additionally makes use of the safe and extra trendy XChaCha20 encryption algorithm.

Take a look at our full NordPass evaluate.

1Password

For avid vacationers, 1Password could be a nice choose. It comes with a helpful Journey Mode function that lets customers cover choose vaults every time they journey. That is on prime of its smooth desktop UI and robust AES-256 encryption. 1Password additionally offers 14-day free trials throughout all its plans that allow you to take a look at their service.

Take a look at our full 1Password evaluate.

Overview methodology

My evaluate of KeePass concerned an in depth evaluation of its security measures and real-world efficiency. I used KeePass on a Home windows laptop computer for testing and for hands-on expertise.

I rated KeePass on all the pieces from its password administration options to its ease of use based mostly on an inner algorithm to get a ranking of three.0 out of 5 stars. The scoring was based mostly each on KeePass by itself and in relation to different password managers.

This text was initially printed in January 2024. It was up to date by Luis Millares in March 2025.