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ExpressVPN Takes Aim at Password Manager Market with New Privacy Tool

Watch out, LastPass and Bitwarden. Here comes Keys.

Rae Hodge Former senior editor
Rae Hodge was a senior editor at CNET. She led CNET's coverage of privacy and cybersecurity tools from July 2019 to January 2023. As a data-driven investigative journalist on the software and services team, she reviewed VPNs, password managers, antivirus software, anti-surveillance methods and ethics in tech. Prior to joining CNET in 2019, Rae spent nearly a decade covering politics and protests for the AP, NPR, the BBC and other local and international outlets.
Rae Hodge
2 min read
A pair of hands hold a mobile device displaying the two-button login screen for ExpressVPN's password manager, Keys.

ExpressVPN's password manager, Keys, will be available for free as an integration within ExpressVPN's Android app in May, but users can try out the new service via its extensions for Chrome. 

ExpressVPN

A new competitor entered the password manager market on Monday with the public beta launch of Keys, the most recent privacy-focused product from leading virtual private network provider ExpressVPN. The free password manager is currently rolling out as a Chrome browser extension for Windows, MacOS and Linux. Keys will also be available for free as an integration within ExpressVPN's Android app in May, the company said. 

ExpressVPN said that Keys uses zero-knowledge encryption and that neither ExpressVPN nor its cloud infrastructure provider has the technical ability to decrypt and access user data. Keys also offers a two-factor authentication feature and provides a recovery method if your master password is lost. 

Three screenshots from three mobile devices display Keys' login search screen, its welcome screen, and its master password login screen.
ExpressVPN

"The team designed ExpressVPN Keys with privacy, security, and convenience at its core to help people take control of their password security and enjoy a secure, effortless online experience," the company said in a release. 

Keys includes a suite of features similar to those found in other leading password managers, including unlimited login storage, a built-in password generator, the ability to import and export your list of logins, and an autofill function for sites you log into. 

For VPN users, Keys could also represent a challenge to industry-leading password manager LastPass, which last year limited its free-tier customers to using their LastPass account on either computer or mobile. Keys, however, allows people to sync their accounts across an unlimited number of devices and types. 
Read more: LastPass review: A Leading Password Manager With a Changing Value Proposition

Three screenshots from three mobile devices display the Keys app's master password login and password recovery pages.
ExpressVPN

To take Keys for a test drive in its beta version, you can head to ExpressVPN's site where you'll find instructions on the Chrome extension installation. Since the rollout is happening over the course of several weeks, you may not gain immediate access to Keys, but ExpressVPN said that people who keep the extension installed will be notified when their access is confirmed.