Avira Password Manager review
Avira Password Manager is a new security product by German company Avira which is probably best known for its antivirus offerings.
The password manager niche is crowded, and if you want to conquer it with a new product, you better make sure it is offering something unique.
Avira's reputation may certainly help the company acquire customers for its password manager.
The announcement over on the Avira blog leaves quite a few questions unanswered. Avira mentions that the password manager will be offered as a free and pro version, and that all pro features are unlocked in the free version until March 2017.
This includes the ability to back up passwords, and synchronize the data across multiple devices, and to access and manage all passwords from an online dashboard.
This reads as if the free version is only good for running it on a single device. The price of the Pro version has not been revealed yet, neither have the actual limitations of the free version.
Avira Password Manager
You need to sign in to an Avira account or create a new one to use the password manager. Once that is out of the way, you are asked to enter the master password twice. Since it is used to protect the data, it is recommended to make it secure.
The password manager itself is available for Firefox, Chrome and the company's own Scout browser, as well as Android and iOS. It installs fine and configured to trigger on certain events automatically.
This includes logging you in automatically, suggesting passwords, filling email addresses automatically, and asking before saving accounts.
You may import passwords from a number of popular password management programs and solutions such as LastPass, KeePass, RoboForm, Dashlane or 1Password, or import data using plain CSV files.
The automatic functionality that the password manager offers works well on sites that display the login form directly.
Funny anecdote, Avira Password Manager does not work on Avira's own website at all. It won't log you in automatically, nor will it suggest passwords or fill out your email address when you register a new account there.
The online dashboard displays an option to look up the log in history. This reveals when the Avira Password Manager account was accessed. Another useful feature of the program is that it can lock automatically.
How does it compare to other password managers?
Avira Password Manager is rather bare bones right now. I mentioned already that it does not work on all sites, but that is probably true for all password managers with auto-fill functionality.
What weights more is that it does not support two-factor authentication and that it offers no option to add notes or additional data fields to the database. The latter means that you cannot add the answer to security questions to the password manager, nor any other form of note that you may require.
If you dig deeper, you will notice that it lacks features such as grouping, automatic clipboard erasing, or support for adding files to password entries (PGP signatures come to mind).
To be fair, not all users need these features but having them would certainly increase the appeal of the password manager.
Closing Words
Avira Password Manager suffers from a couple of oversights, namely a lack of information regarding the limitations of the free version, and lack of features. Add to it that the password manager does not work on Avira's own site, and you get a product that you may not want to use right now.
This could change in the future if Avira continues to improve the program.
Now You: What's your favorite password manager and why? Mine is KeePass, but you know that already.
sucks, problems with login
i started from notepad, after that tried roboform, lastpass, and after i heard about leakage i moved to keepass and now it’s the best solution i think. It was not userfriendly but now it’s really comfortable with plugin for chrome, firefox (keefox), android (keepass2android). Two of these solutions (chrome and android) take actual version of DB from dropbox, firefox uses keepass installed on pc which opens db from dropbox folder, SO you can set it up once and don’t think about syncing. I recommend.
One concern that I suspect applies to all PW managers is the fact that you need a strong PW to secure the site.
Then if you find you need to access the PW files its a pita to have to type in a long & strong PW.
Frankly that’s beyond my ability & I see enough users struggling with PW entry to know I am far from being alone.
We are constantly bombarded with advice about strong PWs.
My practical experience is that no-one listens; in almost every office you can find a PW either stuck on the monitor with a sticky note or the same note stuck inside the top drawer. Users explain they can’t remember & they keep the PW very short so that they are easy to type.
What’s desperately needed is a better system!
ah, but all password managers are not created equally! I use password safe and one of the features is the delay. you can set the delay so that after signing in, there is a short delay before it opens. this makes a brute force attempt at discovering the main password very hard and very long. just a thought.
I use Password Safe, originally designed an written by Bruce Schneier. Pretty good and simple password manager.
I use Last Pass but can’t recommend it.
It is a constant source of irritation & simply can’t be arranged to auto logon.
That means you are perpetually interrogating the vault records to find a PW.
Password Safe for me. Avira not having clipboard clearing and notes means a program not ready for prime time. Not really interested in slowly growing up with a program. but always nice to hear your news, martin.
I used keepass before keefarce was found.
Now i use Enpass, which also got dropbox, google drive and more cloud storages support.
But Avira password manager is interesting thing. Just need to wait for further development for more features.
I’m also a KeePass user and I see no reason to change it.
I have been using Sticky Password for many years after I got it for free. Now I have a lifetime license that works with all my devices. It supports Windows, Mac, Android and iOS. It can also do cloud syncing or just local network syncing for those who don’t trust the cloud.
I use Ascendo DataVault on my iPhone and Mac. Has served me well over the years. Good to see lots of competition.
I use Keepass, because I can secure it with a YubiKey for two-factor authentication.
My current password manager is 1password. I like KeePass but it’s a second class citizen on the Mac, the User Experience is bad on macOS.