NordPass Review 2024 – Everything You Need To Know

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Our Verdict

NordPass is an excellent password manager

Strong security and affordable pricing make NordPass an excellent pick. It offers everything you’d need from a password manager and adds extra tools on top.

From its XChaCha20 encryption algorithm to a generous 3GB of encrypted file storage and reliable form filling, NordPass makes using passwords fast, secure, and simple.

With that said, the free password manager isn’t perfect, as its usability and features are limited. An alternative is to try NordPass’ premium features free for 30 days, with its lengthy free trial.

Pros

  • Multiple multi-factor authentication formats
  • Secure password sharing
  • XChaCha20 encryption
  • 3GB of encrypted storage
  • Great password health checker
  • Free plan and 30-day trial

Cons

  • Limited free plan
  • Advanced sharing options only for business accounts

In this NordPass review, we’ll explore the password manager’s features, usability, and pricing, which make it the choice of more than three million users worldwide. We’ll also explore its compatibility with different devices and its strengths and weaknesses.

Keep reading our complete NordPass review to learn how it can help you protect your passwords, how it performed in our tests, and how it compares to the competition.

What is NordPass?

NordPass is a password manager for individuals and businesses looking to secure their online accounts. Its ease of use makes it one of the most popular picks for beginners, and its security features can help secure your online accounts against threats.

Although NordPass isn’t as customizable as some competitors, it’s known for its intuitive, user-friendly interface and compatibility with popular operating systems and browsers. This means you’ll need just one NordPass account to secure all your devices and won’t have to log in when you switch between them.

Run by the same company as NordVPN, NordPass is an excellent choice for privacy-conscious users. It operates out of the United States.

Is NordPass Safe?

NordPass passwords
NordPass passwords
Yes, NordPass is a secure password manager and a safe choice for consumers. It has no history of losing or selling user data or of data breaches. In addition, password vaults are encrypted by user master passwords, and the company operates on a zero-knowledge architecture and has no access to vault contents.

This means NordPass can’t surrender your passwords or information to anyone, including the government.

NordPass has also undergone security audits, testing its security and confirming its claims. However, no password manager can protect you if you share access to your password vault with third parties.

NordPass Pricing and Plans

NordPass dashboard
NordPass dashboard

NordPass offers some of the most affordable password manager services around. Although the free plan isn’t the most practical solution, NordPass has two tiers of paid services you can upgrade to, with subscriptions running for one year or two. Here’s how NordPass prices its plans for premium users:

Plans 2-Year Plan 1-Year Plan Accounts
Premium $1.49/month $1.99/month 1 Premium Account
Family $2.79/month $3.69/month 6 Premium Accounts
NordPass PremiumNordPass FamilyNordPass BusinessNordPass Free

NordPass Premium

Choosing the premium plan for individuals lets you use one NordPass account, which you can connect to unlimited devices. Premium unlocks all NordPass features and allows you to store passwords, passkeys, and credit cards in a secure vault.

Besides keeping your passwords safe from brute-force attacks, this plan also provides additional layers of protection by scanning the internet for data breaches that have exposed your details and providing email masking to keep your details confidential.

NordPass Family 

For less than twice the price of one Premium plan, the Family plan gives you six NordPass accounts, which you can assign to colleagues, friends, or family members.

Each user will have access to all the premium features, including email masking, file attachments, data breach scanning, and more.

There aren’t a lot of customization options – such as being able to share separate folders between NordPass users  – but the Family plan is an excellent investment into security for your household.

Is NordPass Good For Business?

NordPass offers three tiers of business plans, which can help you secure your company accounts and make Google Workspace SSO available for small to medium-sized businesses.

With its entry-level plan, Teams ($1.79/user/month), NordPass lets you secure the accounts of up to ten employees and set up company-wide policies.

With the Business ($3.59/user/month) and Enterprise plans ($5.39/user/month), you can secure anything from 250 to an unlimited number of employee accounts. These plans also let you access a company dashboard, which displays all security issues at a glance.

Is NordPass Free?

NordPass has a free-forever plan that gives you unlimited password storage and lets you use the password generator and autofill feature.

However, one major downside is that you’ll need to log into NordPass every time you switch to another device, which isn’t the case with the premium plans.

Additionally, NordPass’ free features don’t include Password Health, which automatically alerts you to weak, old, or overused passwords.

That said, the free plan does offer a 30-day free trial of NordPass’ premium features.

How Does NordPass Work? NordPass Security Features

In this section of our NordPass password manager review, we’ll go into detail to explain how its features work and what they can do for you.

NordPass Encryption and Architecture

Unlike most of its competitors, NordPass uses the XChaCha20 encryption algorithm to ensure your passwords remain secure.

While the industry-standard AES-256 uses block encryption, XChaCha20 uses stream encryption. With this, each bit of data is encrypted, making it virtually impossible for hackers to penetrate your password vault.

Thanks to NordPass’ zero-knowledge architecture, hackers wouldn’t be able to access your password vault even if they pulled the data from NordPass’ servers, as NordPass doesn’t store any access keys to user vaults on its servers.

NordPass also uses end-to-end encryption (E2EE) with its business plans to ensure none of your data is exposed during transit.

NordPass Password Generator

NordPass Password Generator
NordPass Password Generator

Nord Pass allows you to create strong, complex passwords with a single click. Using weak passwords or reusing a single password on your accounts can quickly lead to data breaches and loss of access.

To help you secure your accounts, NordPass will provide passwords that use numbers, symbols, and random combinations of lowercase and uppercase letters. You can use the NordVPN password generator to create passwords that are up to 60 characters long, as well as passphrases.

Form Filling

NordPass card storage
NordPass card storage

NordPass’ Autofill feature automatically fills out your credentials using saved passwords, saving you the bother of remembering and typing out passwords.

Autofill doesn’t just fill out password fields, though, and you can also use it for your emails, phone numbers, credit cards, and billing addresses. In testing, we found form filling to be effective and intuitive.

Password Sharing

NordPass password sharing
NordPass password sharing

NordPass allows you to easily share your passwords with other users without exposing them to potential interception.

The password-sharing feature lets you share select passwords with another user’s vault, keeping them encrypted, and you can choose whether or not the user can view or edit the password. A shared folder feature is available but only for Business and Enterprise plans.

NordPass Multi-Factor Authentication

NordPass is compatible with several major authenticator apps, including Microsoft Authenticator, Google Authenticator, Authy, and more.

Adding multi-factor authentication options via these apps means that even if someone obtains your master password, they won’t be able to log into your vault without the unique code these apps provide for login attempts.

The app also supports biometric authentication, meaning you can replace your master password with your fingerprint, voice, or face, depending on your device.

NordPass Authenticator

NordPass also has a patented Authenticator feature. This offers time-based one-time passwords (TOTP) from the app to provide multi-factor authentication for other services. The business plan feature is useful for teams as it allows users to generate their own TOTPs from the app for shared services.

NordPass Secure Notes and Encrypted Storage

NordPass Secure Notes
NordPass Secure Notes

Using built-in notes apps on smartphones to store information comes with several risks, as they’re accessible to anyone using the device and are vulnerable to hackers.

NordPass provides Secure Notes, which hide potentially sensitive information in your password vault. This means these notes will be protected by XChaCha20, your master password, and any additional authentication methods set up on your account.

NordPass encrypted storage

NordPass encrypted storageWith NordPass, you can store links and files of up to 50MB and add up to 50 files to each item in your vault. In total, you get a generous 3GB of storage for each premium account, which is more than most competitors offer.

You could, for example, attach a copy of your ID to your credit card inside the vault. These files are then encrypted, meaning no unauthorized parties can reach them. In testing, we found NordPass makes downloading attachments to be a breeze.

NordPass Emergency Access

NordPass Emergency Access
NordPass Emergency Access

NordPass Emergency Access lets you entrust a family member or friend with your password vault. This eliminates the possibility of permanently losing your passwords, notes, and other stored information if you forget your master password or are otherwise incapacitated.

They’ll have read-only access to your vault, meaning they won’t be able to change anything. We found this feature to be easy to use, and you can entrust someone with your vault in just a few clicks and revoke their access even more quickly.

NordPass Security Dashboard and Data Leak Monitoring

NordPass Data Breach Monitoring
NordPass Data Breach scanner

NordPass’ Password Health feature automatically detects weak, old, or reused passwords in your vault and prompts you to update them. This feature is also available for business accounts via a unified security dashboard that highlights employee accounts with security issues.

NordPass Premium also includes a data breach monitoring feature that will alert you if your emails, passwords, or credit cards details appear in online data leaks. The password manager continuously scans the internet for your information, allowing you to react if it detects a security leak.

This feature has a company-wide overview available for businesses via a dashboard that highlights employee accounts that have been exposed in data leaks.

NordPass Compatibility and Ease of Use

We found NordPass to be easier to use than most of its competitors. It has a modern and intuitive user interface for all major operating systems. Here’s how it works on different platforms, including on browsers.

NordPass Desktop AppNordPass Mobile AppNordPass Extensions for Browsers

NordPass Windows and Mac Apps

Nordpass’ clients for Windows and Mac devices are straightforward, well-organized, and easy to use. All its features are listed on a sidebar menu, which lists categories, including passwords, credit cards, and shared items.

To use NordPass’ desktop apps, you’ll need Windows 10 or later or macOS 11 or later.

NordPass Android and iOS Apps

We didn’t run into any issues while testing NordPass on iOS and Android devices. The apps have an identical layout, with three tabs at the base to access the homepage, saved information, and the menu.

We were impressed by the mobile app’s autofill capabilities, as some password managers struggle to provide fast, accurate form-filling capabilities on mobile.

To use NordPass’ mobile apps, you’ll need Android 9.0 or later or iOS 15.0 or later.

NordPass Browser Extensions

NordVPN NordPass works on all popular browsers, including Chrome, Opera, Firefox, Edge, Brave, and Safari. Installing an extension on a browser is required for the autofill feature to work.

To ensure the app properly syncs with your browsers, NordPass will help you with an in-app tool to add extensions.

How Does NordPass Compare Against Other Password Managers?

NordPass offers numerous robust features that make it a strong competitor in its market. However, to help you make an informed decision, we’ll compare the pricing and features of the Nord VPN Password Manager to its top competitors.

Password Manager Price (lowest price) Free Version Max Devices Password Vault / Generator
NordPass $1.49/month (two years) Free plan Unlimited
1Password $2.99/month (annual) 14-day trial Unlimited
Dashlane $4.99/month (annual) Free plan (up to 25 passwords) Unlimited
Keeper $2.92/month (annual) Free plan (up to 10 passwords) Unlimited
Bitwarden $0.83/month (annual) Free plan Unlimited

NordPass vs 1Password

NordPass beats 1Password on almost every front, from its pricing and free plan features to its customer support. We also found it easier to use on mobile devices, though the core password manager features perform at a similar level.

That said, 1Password’s Travel Mode feature, which hides select vaults while you’re crossing borders, which may interest frequent travelers.

NordPass vs Dashlane

Whether you want an all-in-one security suite or simply a password manager can determine your choice between NordPass and Dashlane. For a premium price, Dashlane offers a VPN, phishing protection, and more features – but it costs considerably more than NordPass.

However, NordPass is also available as part of NordVPN’s plans, which offer comparable features to Dashlane at a similar price. To find out more about the features the NordVPN password manager includes with the bundled package, read our NordVPN review.

NordPass vs Keeper

The Nord password manager and Keeper are both robust, feature-rich services. Keeper offers an encrypted messaging app, which most competitors lack. However, you won’t find encrypted storage for free with Keeper’s Personal plan, while NordPass lets you store 3GB of files per account.

NordPass vs Bitwarden

NordPass password manager and Bitwarden both offer powerful security features and comprehensive free plans.

While Bitwarden is the only provider on our list that’s more affordable than NordPass, NordPass does encrypt your data with XChaCha20 rather than AES-256, making it a more future-proof investment.

How to Set Up NordPass

Like other password managers, NordPass is fairly easy to set up. In this section of our NordPass premium review, we’ll provide a step-by-step guide on installing its Windows client.

  1. Download the NordPass Client

    Go to NordPass’s website and pick a plan that suits you. Once you’ve subscribed, scroll down to the “Apps” section on the website and select “Windows” to start downloading the app.
    <strong>Download the NordPass Client</strong>
  2. Install NordPass on Your Desktop

    Launch the downloaded file to install NordPass. During the installation, follow the on-screen instructions to complete the process. Once installed, the app will require you to log in. You can log into an existing account or create one before you proceed.
    <strong>Install NordPass on Your Desktop</strong>
  3. Create Your Master Password

    When you log into the app, NordPass will prompt you to create a master password, which should be easy to remember but not easy to crack.

    Once you’ve set up your master password, you can start securing your online accounts by creating and storing strong, complex passwords within the app and checking on alerts about any password vulnerabilities.

    <strong>Create Your Master Password</strong>

Customer Support and NordPass Reviews from Users

Having an intuitive and user-friendly interface goes a long way for products like NordPass. However, customer support is always important for addressing issues you can’t fix.

We contacted NordPass’ customer support team to evaluate their responsiveness and professionalism. We found the team to be knowledgeable and polite, and they were able to quickly help us.

NordPass Help Center
The NordPass Help Center

You can contact NordPass’ customer support via email, live chat, or through the company’s Help Center. We found that submitting a request via the Help Center got a slower response than the other two methods, but the answers were no less detailed.

Most issues won’t need professional support, though, as the NordPass Help Center has lots of helpful articles, guides, and tips for resolving common problems with the apps.

To get a sense of the long-term customer experience, we also looked at third-party NordPass reviews. On Trustpilot, NordPass has a very positive rating of 4.2/5, with over 1,000 reviews.

With 83% of reviewers giving NordPass full marks, most pieces of feedback mention its usability, quality of customer support, and affordability. We also noticed our own positive experience with the autofill feature is shared and noted several user reviewers praising its accuracy and consistency.

Moving all my security info to NordPass. Reviews said support was very good – an important feature for me. Ran into a touchy problem… by Kingsley got me going again quickly. So kuddos to NordPass support! BTW – The browser extensions and the mobile apps work great, and NordPass features meet my requirements.

User review from Trustpilot

The only common complaints about NordPass relate to account recovery. This process can be complicated if you don’t have the unique recovery information tied to your account.

However, we don’t consider this a real downside, as verification is required for account security to stop thieves stealing your account.

Other Password Manager Guides

NordPass offers an excellent service with its feature-rich plans and extra tools. However, we’ve also got password manager guides for a wide range of use cases, which you can check out below.

FAQs

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Ilijia Miljkovac
Technology Writer
Ilijia Miljkovac
Technology Writer

Ilijia Miljkovac is a Techopedia writer with seven years of experience covering all things tech. He writes about cybersecurity topics, spanning VPNs, antiviruses, and hosting, helping to inform B2B and B2C audiences about the latest products and services. He's written for publications such as Business2Community, TheTechReport, Comparitech, and more. When he's not working, Ilijia spends his time hiking in nature or holed up in his apartment gaming.