Keeper Review

Keeper is a password manager that has always impressed us, and it earned a spot in our best password manager guide for its excellent list of features. However, the last time we looked at the service, we were disappointed by the interface. Thankfully, a recent overhaul of the UI means it’s time to update our Keeper review. 

We’re going to comb through the new interface for all of the areas that make it shine, as well as check up on security, support, features and price. At the end, we’ll give our verdict, where we’ll determine if Keeper is still worth it or not. 

Considering how inexpensive the Keeper password manager is, it’s hard not to recommend it. Although the new interface isn’t perfect, it’s much more robust than the competition. Add on top of that a long list of features and credit card-less 30-day free trial, and Keeper is one of the more attractive password managers around.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Alternatives for Keeper

Features

Keeper has a long list of features, which make the already low price all the more impressive. Although you’ll need to bundle a few services to get the full experience, there are enough unique features to make the base plan stand on its own. 

The strongest feature at your disposal is Keeper’s security audit. In your dashboard, you can view how many reused and weak passwords you have, which Keeper uses to give you an overall security score. Furthermore, because Keeper can log the history of a password, you can see the last time you changed any particular record. 

There are also a few security features, the most notable of which is self-destruct. If there are five unsuccessful login attempts, Keeper will destroy any records it has of yours. Although not ideal, self-destruct is useful to have against brute-force attacks. If an attacker wanted to spam possible passwords to your account, all of your data would be gone after a few attempts. 

KeeperFill for Local, iOS and Android Autofill

Most password managers are focused on the browser experience — read our NordPass review for an example of that — but Keeper goes a step further. Although you don’t need to download the desktop application, doing so will allow you to access autofill locally. By using hotkeys, you can fill your username, password or both for any local app on your machine. 

The same is true for your browser and mobile devices. During our testing, Keeper easily caught entry fields and filled in the relevant information. In the browser, Keeper actually combines passwords, credit cards and addresses in the same autofill window, so you don’t need to navigate to the browser extension to autofill non-password fields. 

KeeperChat and Other Add-Ons

Keeper offers more than just a password manager. You can purchase a few add-ons a la carte or as part of a bundle, which doubles the price of a standard subscription. Although the extras are, well, extra, they’re worth the higher cost. 

The main reason to purchase one of Keeper’s bundles is KeeperChat, which is an end-to-end encrypted-messaging app. In addition to securing your messages while in transit, KeeperChat has a few unique features, including a private media gallery, message retraction and timed self-destruct of messages and conversations. 

Other add-ons include BreachWatch, which monitors the dark web for any compromised records, and the Keeper Cloud Security Vault, which allows you to securely share files with other users. These features are welcome especially as they don’t demand a high asking price to go with them. KeeperChat is what sets apart the full bundle.

Keeper Features Overview

Pricing

Keeper is one of the cheaper password managers out there, priced slightly less than 1Password, which we’d consider standard, and much less than Dashlane, which is fairly expensive (read our 1Password review and Dashlane review).

Personal Price per month, billed annuallySingle user Details	1-year plan $ 2.49/ month $29.88 billed every year
Family Price per month, billed annuallyUp to five private vaults Details	1-year plan $ 4.99/ month $59.88 billed every year
Business Price per month, per user, billed annuallyPrivate vault for each user Details	1-year plan $ 2.50/ month $30.00 billed every year

Keeper has an extensive lineup of plans, which can get confusing (more on that in the next section). The base plan, simply called Personal, comes with unlimited password storage for a single user. Although it’s limited to a single user, it can be used on as many devices as you like. 

There’s also a free plan, though it’s fairly restrictive. It’s limited to a single device and only supports autofill on mobile. If you’re looking for a free password manager, make sure to read our best free password managers guide or just give LastPass a try (read our LastPass review). 

You can still try the premium version of Keeper for free. There’s a 30-day free trial available that doesn’t require a credit card. All you need to do on the site is click “get Keeper free,” enter an email address and password, then import your passwords. Because Keeper offers such a generous trial, refunds aren’t offered. 

The password manager isn’t the end of the story for personal users, though. Keeper sells a “max bundle” across its personal and family plans. 

This bundle includes secure file storage, a dark web monitor and KeeperChat, which earned a mention in our 99 free tools to protect your privacy guide. The price is twice as much as a standard plan, but that still puts Dashlane’s Premium Plus offering to shame. 

Family, Business and Enterprise Plans

In addition to personal plans, Keeper offers a variety of multi-user plans. The family plan rivals the likes of 1Password, offering five private vaults for twice the price of a standard subscription. It also comes with 10GB of secure cloud storage, but if that’s what you’re after, you’re better off reading our best cloud storage guide. 

For business use, Keeper offers Business and Enterprise plans. They’re similar, overall, though the Enterprise plan offers some features for larger teams, including single sign-on support and integration with Active Directory. 

It’s impressive at the asking price of around $4 per user, but if you don’t need the Enterprise features, you can get a cheaper business plan with Zoho Vault (read our Zoho Vault review).

User Friendliness

Keeper’s redesigned web interface is a joy to use, allowing you plenty of options in how you organize your vault. Getting set up is simple, too, with a browser import tool and seamless record creation. That said, sifting through the long list of add-ons can get confusing. 

As mentioned in the “pricing” section above, Keeper has a lot of plans, though most users won’t need to worry about them. From the home page, clicking on “get Keeper free” will allow you to sign up for an account and start a 30-day free trial. No credit card is required for this trial, either, so you can start using Keeper right away. 

There’s some confusion over what you’re signing up for, though. As mentioned in the first section, Keeper has a lot of add-ons, including KeeperChat and BreachWatch. These features are in a bundle, but they can be purchased a la carte, too. However, certain add-ons are automatically bundled if you skip past the 30-day trial, while others aren’t. 

Using the Keeper Password Vault

Once in the Keeper vault, things are excellent. You’re met with a short setup tutorial when you first log in, which asks you to import your passwords and install the Keeper extension. The tutorial also shows the different types of entries Keeper can store, though you can skip this step if you’ve used a password manager. 

You can import passwords from your browser or from another password manager. The browser import supports Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Edge and Opera, and requires that you download an import tool. 

If you’re coming from another password manager, Keeper has import instructions. There are step-by-step tutorials for KeePass, RoboForm, Sticky Password and more, though you can always just drag and drop a CSV file, too (read our RoboForm review and Sticky Password review). 

Adding and Managing Keeper Records

Keeper calls its entries “records,” and there are three main records it can hold: passwords, credit cards and identities. Between the three, you can cover a lot of ground, but Keeper goes beyond that. With support for custom fields, a record can become anything you want. 

The standard fields are accounted for, but you can also add any number of custom fields to a record. Furthermore, you can attach notes, files and photos to the record, as well as store two-factor codes. Once they are stored, you can add the record to your favorites, change the color and even create a shortcut.

As for managing your records, Keeper gives you a lot of options. You can view your records in a tile like format or as a list, and sort them by name or date. Furthermore, you can filter entries in a number of ways, such as finding only records that have files attached to them, and organize them into folders. 

Like individual entries, you can color-code the folders in your vault to further organize your records. Although all of these options seem mundane, there’s a surprising lack of organization options from other password managers (read our RememBear review for an example of that). Keeper gives you all the tools you need to organize your records.  

Sharing Items With Keeper

Once organized, you can share your Keeper records, and like the organization options, Keeper goes a step beyond the competition. When transferring a record, you can choose if the recipient can read, edit or share the record. Furthermore, you can transfer ownership. 

These features are standard for business password managers, but Keeper offers them on personal plans. It’s clear Keeper is dedicated to options, and that shows through with the password sharing and organization settings.

Security

Keeper abides by the standards set by other password managers, encrypting your vault with AES-256 and locking that key behind your master password. Additionally, your encrypted passwords are stored in compliance with SOC 2 and ISO 27001. That said, we still have some questions about how Keeper’s account recovery happens. 

Keeper’s Zero-Knowledge Model and Emergency Access

Keeper abides by a zero-knowledge model, meaning it never sees nor stores your master password. Instead, Keeper generates an encryption key based on your master password using 100,000 iterations of PBKDF2. This key is used to encrypt and decrypt your vault with a separate AES-256 key (read our description of encryption for more on that). 

Because of the zero-knowledge model, Keeper cannot supply your master password in the event you forget it. However, unlike most password managers, it still offers a couple account recovery options. When creating your account, you’re asked for a security question and answer, which is used for account recovery. 

After you’ve signed up, Keeper generates a data key that is used to encrypt and decrypt each record key (the keys for every item in your vault). This data key is encrypted by default with your master password. However, Keeper stores another copy of this data key that’s encrypted with your security question and answer. 

If you have a weak security question, this could pose a few issues. Without two-factor authentication turned on, an attacker would need access to your email and the answer to your security question to access your account. The best way to solve that problem, as we note in our six tips to prevent identity theft guide, is to use a bogus security question and answer. 

Alternatively, you can designate five emergency contacts who can gain access to your vault in the event of an emergency. Keeper never shares your master password. Instead, the contact receives half of an RSA key pair that’s used to decrypt your vault after a specified amount of time. 

Keeper Two-Factor Authentication Options

Although Keeper’s security is sound, we recommend enabling two-factor authentication. Keeper supports the best 2FA apps, using a time-based, one-time password from apps like Google Authenticator. Additionally, Keeper supports hardware keys that abide by the universal two-factor standard, such as the YubiKey.

Support

Keeper provides decent direct customer support with around-the-clock live chat and email responses. However, it comes into its own with self-help resources. Keeper stands apart with dense guides that cover every aspect of its service, without fear of getting too far into technical details. 

You can find support by clicking the “help” link at the bottom of the Keeper interface. Clicking there, you’ll be brought to the customer support hub, where you can check on Keeper’s system status, register for support webinars, browse the FAQ, view video tutorials and, of course, contact support. 

During our review, we used live chat a lot, diving into the weeds about the technical aspects of Keeper’s security. Although the live chat representative eventually reverted to copying text from the security section of Keeper’s website, they held up surprisingly well. We’d recommend using email for technical questions, but the live chat reps we spoke to were surprisingly competent. 

Live chat and email support are available around the clock, though you shouldn’t need to use them often. Keeper has a lot of self-help resources, including everything from video tutorials that walk through the basics of the Keeper app to in-depth guides focused on enterprise customers. 

Keeper is second to none when it comes to self-help resources, covering every aspect of its service in excruciating detail. 

Keeper also has a resource library with infographics detailing the impact of cybercrime, technical white papers and on-demand webinars. Although these resources are mostly focused at business customers, it’s nice to see Keeper’s dedication to informing its customer base about cybersecurity.

The Verdict

Although Keeper has always been a solid password manager, its redesigned interface makes it a joy to use. However, more impressive is the price. Keeper is slightly cheaper than the competition while going toe-to-toe with the most prevalent features. Between the free plan and 30-day free trial, Keeper is a sure bet. 

What do you think of Keeper? Are you going to sign up for a free trial? Let us know about your experience in the comments below and, as always, thanks for reading.

Keeper FAQ

• What Is Keeper?

  Keeper password manager was developed by Keeper Security. In addition to storing your passwords, Keeper can also inform you of your overall password health and autofill your login on websites.

• What Is Keeper Used For?

  Keeper is used to organize and store passwords, credit card information and addresses. By installing the browser extension, mobile app and local application, you can also use Keeper to automatically fill in your login information.

• How Good Is Keeper Password?

  Keeper is an inexpensive password manager that impresses us with its solid security and a long list of features. It’s not perfect, but for the price, it’s hard to complain.

• What Is KeeperChat?

  KeeperChat is an end-to-end encrypted-messaging application that ensures no one can spy on your messages. It includes a number of unique features, including message redaction, timed messages and a private media gallery.