Expert's Rating
Pros
- Syncs across platforms and devices
- Identifies weak, duplicate, and reused passwords
- Supports comprehnsive form filling for multiple identities
Cons
- Requires paid subscription for two-factor authentication and other features
- Doesn’t automatically change weak passwords
- Imports from fewer password managers compared to competing products
Our Verdict
Roboform Everywhere is a capable password manager and a good option for first-time users. It lacks the polish and advanced features of competing products, though
Best Prices Today: Roboform Everywhere
One of the earliest password managers, Roboform Everywhere doesn’t quite have the cachet that its longevity would suggest. Despite its age, it lacks much of the polish and sophistication of products like LastPass and Keeper. But its relative simplicity makes it good option for newbies or user who want get a better handle on their passwords without too much complexity.
Note: This review is part of our best password managers roundup. Go there for details about competing products and how we tested them.
Setup and interface
Roboform Everywhere works on Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. The download page recognizes what platform you’re on and supplies the appropriate installation file.
After you install Roboform Everywhere, it asks you to create an account by inputting your email address and a strong master password. Then it prompts you to add its browser extension. Although it doesn’t prompt you to do so during its installation and setup, Roboform can import from a dozen popular password managers including LastPass, 1Password, Keeper, and Dashlane, as well as Chrome, Firefox, and Safari web browsers. It can also import from a properly formatted .CSV file.
Michael Ansaldo/IDG
Security Center helps you improve vulnerable passwords.
Roboform Everywhere has a straightforward, if not terribly sophisticated, user interface. A left rail lists five data storage options: Logins, Bookmarks, Identities, Contacts, and Safenotes. The first two are self-explanatory. Identities stores your personal data, while Contacts stores the personal data of people you know. Safenotes is the repository for any text data that doesn’t conform to any of the other categories.
You can organize entries in any of these categories into multiple folders, which are displayed in a tree view to the right of the left rail when you click on the category. Clicking on any individual entry opens its contents in a third pane on the far right.
Password capture and replay
As you log in to secure sites, Roboform’s browser extension offers to save your credentials. You can give the entry a new name—it defaults to the name of the website—and save it to an existing or new folder. Once a login record is created, you can add notes to it, share it with another Roboform user, and launch the site from the record.
Whenever you return to a website for which you’ve saved your credentials, Roboform Everywhere displays that site’s entry and you click to submit your login. Alternately, you can launch a site from the browser extension by selecting it from a drop-down list of logins.
Password generator
Michael Ansaldo/IDG
You can generate strong passwords from the Roboform Everywhere browser extension.
Creating strong, secure passwords can be a challenge, so like any password manager worth the name, Roboform Everywhere can generate them for you. The generator is accessed through browser extension. The default setting was too weak for my comfort, containing too few characters with only upper- and lower-case letters and numbers. Opening the advanced settings doubles the number of characters to 16—though you can manually change this—and adds special characters. From there you can choose to automatically fill the current field with the new password or copy it to the clipboard.
Form filling
Roboform Everywhere is particularly good at form filling. It supports multiple identities and you can input eight categories of data for each—Person, Business, Passport, Address, Credit Card, Bank Account, and Car, plus a Custom category that lets you add your own fields and values. Whenever you come upon a form, you can automatically fill it out by selecting an identity from the browser extension.
Security auditing
Good password managers don’t just store you passwords, they help you make them better. Roboform Everywhere does this through its Security Center. It displays an overall security score that reflects the uniqueness and complexity of your passwords, and breaks down weak, reused, and duplicate passwords on separate tabs. Some password managers like Last Pass and Dashlane—our two current top picks—provide the option to automatically change any password deemed subpar. Roboform Everywhere just supplies a link to the entry so you can go in and change it yourself.
Pricing
Michael Ansaldo/IDG
Roboform Everywhere captures your login credentials on secure sites.
A one-year Personal license for Roboform Everywhere is $23.88 annually, and a Family plan, which includes up to five user accounts, is $47.75 a year. Discounted three- and five-year licenses are available for each as well. Roboform can be used for free, but it does not include some key features such as device sync, cloud backup, and two-factor authentication.
Bottom line
Roboform Everywhere is worth a look, particularly if you’ve never used a password manager before. Its interface is pretty straightforward and its features are easy to use, though it lacks some advanced capabilities users prefer like automatic password updating. It’s worth trying the free version first though, as well as trials for competing password managers, before you commit to the paid version.