The Best Free Password Generator
The results were concluded from their features and their real performance for ten websites chosen randomly from Dumb-password-rules. Each password manager had ten stars at first in two reviews and might lose stars due to missing important features, usability issues, or bad performance on real websites.
| Products | Stars |
|---|---|
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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐⭐️☆ |
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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️☆☆ |
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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️☆☆ |
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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️☆☆☆ |
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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️☆☆☆ |
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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️☆☆☆☆ |
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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️☆☆☆☆☆ |
All things considered, Zero Password Manager performed better than any other password manager in the review. KeePassXC, KeePassDX, KeePassium and Enpass followed.
Feature review
We selected essential features for review from the three following aspects.
requirements of most websites (to create suitable passwords in daily life);
experts’ advice (to create strong passwords);
users’ needs (intuitive and make-life-easier).
If you are interested in feature gathering, you can see the source of feature requirements here.
As mentioned, each password manager had ten stars at the beginning and might lose stars due to missing important features or usability issues. To see details click on each feature below, like “Can decide the composition of passwords”.
| NO. | Features | Bitwarden | Enpass | LastPass | KeePassium | KeePass DX | KeePass XC | Zero Password Manager |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Can decide the composition of passwords | 10 | 8 | 10 | 7 | 9 | 9 | 10 |
| 2 | Password length | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 10 |
| 3 | Can generate 4-PIN or 6-PIN code | 5 | 8 | 0 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 9 |
| 4 | Can use, and even choose special characters | 5 | 8 | 5 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 10 |
| 5 | Can exclude repeat characters, continuous repeat characters | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| 6 | Password strength measurements | 0 | 10 | 10 | 0 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| 7 | Avoid ambiguous characters | 9 | 7 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 7 |
| 8 | Can generate passphrase | 10 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 0 |
| 9 | Intuitive user interface. | 10 | 6 | 10 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 10 |
| Average stars | 6 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 |
(The average value is rounded to the nearest integer.)
Real websites review
To evaluate the performance in real life, we used them to generate passwords for 10 websites chosen randomly from Dumb-password-rules.
We ran ten times for each password generator for each website. If all passwords were good, it would get 10 stars. It would lose 1 star for one unqualified password, two stars for two unqualified passwords, and so on. They might also lose extra stars due to its comeplex setup for the website. To see details of reviews for each website, click the websites below.
| Websites | Requirements | Bitwarden | enpass | LastPass | KeePassium | KeePass DX | KeePass XC | Zero Password Manager |
| Admiral | Password must be eight or more characters with at least one number and not a percentage(%) character. | 5 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 10 |
| Advaniza | Requires at least 6 to a maximum of 12 characters [sic!] Allows only digits and letters without umlauts Allows only specific special characters: ? ! $ €% & * _ = – +. ,:; / () {} [] ~ @ # Allows no spaces | 7 | 7 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 10 |
| Ameli.fr (French national health insurance) | The password must be more than eight characters. But you cannot use more than 13 characters. You can only use digits. You cannot use your birthdate or your login. You cannot use a sequence of numbers (if your password happens to contain 56 or 89, it will be rejected). You cannot repeat the same character (if your password includes 22 or 55, it will be left) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| AOK (German Health Insurance) | Length between 8 and 14 characters At least one letter, one number and one special character Special characters are: !@$%/=?`+@#_.;:{}| The password must not start with ? or !. The password must not include the username The password must not be the same as any of your previous passwords. | 4 | 7 | 4 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 10 |
| Bank of America | Contain 8 to 20 characters at least 1uppercase letters, 1lowercase letters, and 1 number that does not repeat the same number or letter more than 3 times in a row not include spaces, and contains only the following speacial characters:@#*()+={}/?~;,.-_ | 0 | 8 | 6 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 10 |
| BDO | Please nominate a password that contains UPPERCASE, lowercase, numbers, and symbols. The password should not be the same as the user ID. Avoid using consecutive characters such (ex. abc, DEF, 678) and invalid characters such as [!#$%^&’;”]. | 0 | 7 | 0 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 10 |
| Bloomingdale’s | Mixed letters(uppercase or lowercase letters/digits) 7-16 letters cannot contain spaces or . -｜/= _ | 8 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 10 |
| Capital One | May only use the following characters: Aa-Zz 0-9 – _ . / \ @ $ * & ! # No spaces | 1 | 7 | 3 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 10 |
| Costco.com | Use between 8 and 16 characters. Include at least one lowercase (a-z) and one uppercase letter (A-Z). Include at least one special character (e.g. !@#$&) – i.e., any symbol above the 0-9 keys). Does not contain blank spaces or the following special characters: < > , Include at least one digit (0-9) | 8 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 10 |
| IHG | 4 digits only | 0 | 8 | 0 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 10 |
| Average stars | / | 3 | 7 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 9 |
(The average value is rounded to the nearest integer)
Combining the average scores of the two charts, we can get the final score of each password manager. Final scores= (average score of criteira assessement + average score of real review )/2
| Bitwarden | Enpass | LastPass | KeePassium | KeePass DX | KeePass XC | Zero Password Mangager | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Feature review |
6 |
6 |
8 |
8 |
8 |
8 |
8 |
|
Average score of real review |
3 |
7 |
4 |
6 |
7 |
7 |
9 |
|
Final stars |
5 |
7 |
6 |
7 |
8
|
8
|
9 |
Discussion
Although we made an effort to have a professional review, we cannot guarantee its accuracy due to the limitation of the review for various reasons. We hope to discuss it with you and improve the review together.
Limitation
There are no standards for assessing password generators. To create secure, strong, and suitable passwords, we have considered website requirements, experts’ suggestions, and users’ needs when gathering review features. Nevertheless, some features might still be missed.
As we all know, the conclusion would be more convincing if more websites were reviewed. However, due to the time limit, there are only ten websites in this review. Therefore, the review result might need to be more accurate, but it did show the real performance of these password generators since ten websites were randomly chosen.
The features are not equal. Some are more important than others. For example, the feature of password managers to generate suitable passwords was much more critical than the user-friendly setting. We cannot find data to weigh each feature. It is a highly complex topic. For simplicity, we just calculated the average.
Although having followed specific rules, passwords are generated randomly, meaning that users might get different results even if they use the same password managers and follow the same rules. Take Bitwarden as an example, it does not allow users to exclude(%) in passwords. When users try to generate passwords for Admiral with Bitwarden, they might get less than or more than four qualified passwords.
Of course, if we ran 100 times, the results would be more accurate. But the results based on 10 times’ test were still convincing. Since each website weighted only 10%, it would not be a big problem
Everyone has their preferences, and this can affect their thought. The reviewers’ preferences also affected the review results, although we strictly followed the gathered features.
Do you agree with the review features, results, and methodology? Are there any websites you need help generating suitable passwords? Please let us know if you have any ideas about the password generator.
An interesting finding: Repeated or descending numbers?
During the review, we also had an interesting finding.
Unfortunately, no password generators can generate suitable passwords for websites like Ameli.fr (French national health insurance). Although Zero Password Manager and KeePassium can limit the continuous repeat characters, they do not stop using the descending numbers or restrict the times of repeating the same numbers in passwords.
This won’t be a big problem since few websites require a long password only consisting of digits. Meanwhile, most password generators generate passwords randomly with three kinds of characters(letters, digits, and special characters) and thus do not generate passwords with repeated or descending numbers. But it might be nice to see such a password manager with these features for those with accounts of Ameli.fr (French national health insurance).
Conclusion
This review aimed to find the best free password generator of password managers and showed every password manager has pros and cons. The present review clearly shows that Zero Password Managers effectively generate passwords quickly, especially for those dumb websites. KeePassXC, KeePassDX, KeePassium, and Enpass follow below since they also allow users to choose specific unique letters. Next comes LastPass and Bitwarden. If you want an online password manager, Enpass would be better. We also need aware that the result might not be very accurate because it was based on a limited number of websites reviews.
Do you agree with the review? Are you satisfied with the password generator that you are using? We are eager to discuss it with you and improve the review togetherDo you agree with the review features, results, and methodology? Are there any websites you need help generating suitable passwords? Please let us know if you have any ideas about the password generator.