Saving your passwords in the cloud is never totally secure. LastPass has suffered two data breaches in the last ten years. Security vulnerabilities have cropped up in 1Password, Dashlane, Keeper, and Norton LifeLock, too. If you’re serious about keeping your sensitive credentials secure, a local password manager is always a safer bet.

Why Password Managers Are Better Offline

An offline password manager works just like a cloud password manager, except your sensitive data never leaves your device—your computer, your phone, or even an external drive. No one except you has access.

In 2022, attackers managed to get into personal LastPass vaults by simply installing a keylogger on a LastPass employee’s home computer. You never have to worry about an attack like that with a local password manager. It has zero risks of server hacks or cloud breaches.

You can create your own backups and never rely on a company’s policy to recover your passwords. That way, you won’t be locked into a vendor because you can use the same backup file across platforms. Plus, you’ll be saving some five bucks a month on the subscription fee.

I’ve tested and used these five free password managers for Android that I can wholeheartedly recommend. Some of them are cross-platform, too.

Before switching apps, I suggest exporting your password database of the password manager you’re currently using. Google Password Manager and many others export in the CSV format. You can use this exported file to bring all your saved passwords to the new app of your choice with a single click.

Buttercup—Amazing Cross-platform Support

Buttercup is a FOSS Awards winner. It’s open source and works on every platform—Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, and even Linux. Buttercup for desktop also supports extensions for Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Edge. It is the most complete free password management solution I’ve found. It also supports BitWarden, LastPass, and 1Password exports.

You can create a Buttercup vault and use it in four simple steps. Let me show you how.

First, download Buttercup from the Play Store or the App Store and open it.

The dashboard should have an “Add Vault” button. Tap it. Then select “Local” as the vault type.

Buttercup will show you a warning that you’re responsible for your own backup. Read it and tap “Next.”

The app lets you create multiple password vaults and store them in a directory. If you’re planning to create multiple vaults, tap “New Directory,” give it a name, and add your first vault to it. Most people only ever need one vault, so we’ll tap “New Vault” and give it a name.

Tap “Set New Vault.” A new vault should appear with the .bcup format. Keep it selected and tap “Next.” The last step is to set a master password for this vault. Here’s a good guide to creating and remembering a strong password.

There you have it. A new Buttercup vault has been created where you can safely stash credit card info, logins, or notes. You can add new entries to the General folder by tapping the hamburger menu and selecting “Add Entry.”

Once you’ve saved some passwords, you can set Buttercup to autofill your logins. Alternatively, you can import a backup file into Buttercup, too. It supports pretty much every password manager.

Hop on to the Settings tab and toggle the “Enable automatic login form filling using this vault” switch.

For quickly accessing the vault, you can also enable a biometric lock here.

To actually use the autofill service, you need to change the default from Google Passwords to Buttercup. You’ll have to go into device settings to do so. You can switch to any provider using these steps, so it should come in handy later, too.

Open Settings and search “autofill” or look for the tile in “User and Account” settings.

Tap the default autofill service button and pick “Buttercup Autofill Service.” With autofill enabled, your Buttercup setup is good to go.

You can later move the .bcup file to your desktop to use the same vault across platforms if you like.

KeePass—For PC and Android

KeePass is an oldie but a goodie. It’s also open source, and it has a bunch of forks, all compatible with each other and the original Windows app. You can install KeePass2Android or KeePassDX, both freely available on the Play Store. The former is more popular, so that’s the one I’ve been using.

The UI is dated and ugly, but the app works just fine. When you first open KeePass2Android, it’ll ask you to either import an existing file or create a new vault. These vaults have the KDBX, and any password manager that’s compatible with the format (many are) should let you import it.

Click “Create New Database” and give it a master password. These vaults are offline by default, and you can see the location where they’re saved.

KeePass will walk you through setting up a biometric lock for the vault and enabling autofill. It doesn’t allow taking screenshots within the app, so I can’t show you the process. But it only takes two taps for each.

Once the setup is complete, you’re ready to add new entries to the vault. You can save credit cards, emails, ID cards, Wi-Fi passwords, notes, and regular logins for websites and apps. Choose the standard entry for website logins.

This is what it looks like when KePass2Android offers to save or autofill passwords.

If you want to bring this vault to your desktop, you’ll need to download KeePass for Windows and send the KBDX file from your phone to your PC. I couldn’t find a way to sync vaults between two platforms, though, easily. Apparently, the only way to use the same vaults between two devices is to move the files back and forth manually.

Passy—Syncs Passwords Locally and Easily

If you only intend to use the password manager on multiple platforms, Passy is another awesome tool. You can install it on Windows, Linux, Android, or your desktop browser.

Instead of creating a separate database file, Passy lets you create an offline account (with a username and password). You can use that login to access your passwords and sync between platforms.

Passy isn’t available on the Google Play Store, but you can download it through F-Droid and the official GitHub repository.

Once installed, open the app and set a username and password to access Passy.

Passy lets you save passwords, payment cards, notes, and IDs. Just tap on the relevant tile to create a new entry. It has a neat QR scanner built in to capture login credentials quickly.

Alternatively, you can import KBDX or CSV databases to populate the vault. Passy also allows you to export in the same formats. Hop on to the Settings tab and tap “Import & Export” to do so.

One feature that makes Passy stand out is its local synchronization. You can install Passy on Windows, Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or Linux and then open a randomly-generated port and scan a QR code to quickly sync the entire vault. Both devices should be connected to the same network. It’s a lot more convenient than moving files between PCs and Android. The data is, of course, encrypted and only accessible via the master password.

You can set a biometric lock to easily lock and unlock Passy. Tap “Security” and then “Biometric Authentication” to set that up.

This password manager also makes it easy to turn on the autofill feature. Just tap “Enable Autofill” and pick Passy from the list. It offers to save passwords, too, when you try a new login.

Vault—Straightforward Password Keeping

Some people only need a basic password vault without any frills, which is why I’m including Vault in this list. It’s a simple Android app that does just one thing and does it well: saving passwords.

It doesn’t offer cross-platform support or offline syncing. It doesn’t even have an autofill feature. Vault does let you import existing password databases, though. It reads and exports KDBX files, so anything that supports the KeePass format should work with Vault.

To populate it with passwords, just tap the plus icon and fill in the login details.

I love its built-in password generator. You can use it to create unbreakable random passwords of any length with a single tap. Very handy.

You can install Vault through F-droid.

KeyGo—Modern and Feature-rich

If you don’t care about cross-platform support and you just need a modern offline password manager app, give KeyGo a try. It’s available on the Google Play Store.

It’s built on the Material UI theme and has a robust built-in password generator. The password generator lets you specify the length and types of characters that appear in the password. You can also generate strong passphrases, which are much easier to remember. You don’t see those in most password generators.

You can import KeePass-compatible password archives or CSV files (which the Google Password Manager spits out) and export them, too.

KeyGo also lets you autofill your saved passwords with a single tap, and it offers to save them, too, regardless of the app or browser you’re using. To enable it, just go to the settings tab and toggle the Autofill Service switch. Then, pick KeyGo from the available selection.

With an offline password manager, you can have peace of mind that your sensitive logins won’t be leaked in some mass data breach or accessible to anybody other than you. The apps on this list will make switching over super easy.