NordPass vs Norton Password Manager: which one reigns supreme?

If you’re weighing the strengths and weaknesses of two popular password managers – NordPass and Norton Password Manager – you’ve come to the right place. While both are reliable choices, they have different focuses. NordPass, developed by the team behind NordVPN, offers a strong security architecture, rich features, and a modern design. Meanwhile, Norton Password Manager includes a more generous free plan and integration within the broader Norton security ecosystem.

I tested both password managers, evaluating their security frameworks, feature sets, ease of use, and overall value for money. Beyond that, I used each tool in real-world scenarios to see how it performs in daily tasks like logins, password storage, and autofill reliability. Read on to learn how these tools compare when put side by side and which would be the better choice for you.

NordPass vs Norton Password Manager – an overview

Both NordPass and Norton Password Manager are reliable options for securely storing and managing passwords. They use strong encryption and provide reliable basic protection for anyone looking to improve their online security. However, in my testing, NordPass outperformed Norton Password Manager. NordPass offers stronger overall security, more advanced features, and a smoother, more consistent experience across devices.

	NordPass	Norton Password Manager
⭐ Rating:	4.9 ★ ★ ★ ★ ★	3.8 ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
🥇 Overall rank:	#1 out of #20	#16 out of #20
🔥 Coupons:	NordPass coupon 53% OFF	Norton Password Manager coupon 75% OFF
💵 Price:	From $1.38/month	Free
✂️ Free version:	Yes, plus it includes a 30-day money-back guarantee	Yes
🔒 Encryption:	XChaCha20	AES 256-bit
🖥️ Platforms:	Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS	Windows, macOS, Android, iOS
🌐 Browser extensions:	Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera, Safari, Brave, Vivaldi	Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge

Recent Updates

Key differences between NordPass and Norton Password Manager

NordPass and Norton Password Manager both cover the basics of secure password storage, but they differ significantly in depth, features, and overall flexibility. NordPass is built as a more modern, security-focused password manager, while Norton prioritizes simplicity and offers a free, entry-level plan.

Choose NordPass if:

• You want stronger overall security features. NordPass uses a more advanced encryption approach and offers a broader set of security tools, so it’s better suited for users who prioritize protection.
• You need more advanced functionality. It includes features such as secure sharing, password health tools, and data breach monitoring that go beyond basic password storage.
• You use multiple devices and platforms. NordPass offers a more consistent experience across desktop, mobile, and browsers, so it’s easier to manage passwords everywhere.

Choose Norton Password Manager if:

• You want a completely free solution. Norton Password Manager’s main advantage is the fact that it’s free, making it appealing for basic use.
• You only need basic password storage. It covers essential functions like saving and autofilling passwords without extra complexity.
• You already use Norton’s security ecosystem. It integrates well with other Norton tools, which can be convenient if you’re already a user.

NordPass vs Norton Password Manager: pricing overview

In terms of pricing, NordPass has the upper hand for several key reasons. It offers a wide range of plans for users of all types, from individuals to families and businesses. In addition to its capable free plan, it offers a 30-day free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee, making it a more flexible and risk-free option overall.

Plan	NordPass	Norton Password Manager
Free	$0.00	$0.00
Premium	$1.38/month (1 user)	–
Family	$2.58/month (6 users)	–
Teams	$1.79/month (10 user packs only)	–
Business	$3.59/month (5 users minimum)	–
Enterprise	$5.39/month (5 users minimum)	–
	Try NordPass	Try Norton Password Manager

As for Norton Password Manager, its completely free plan is one of its most attractive attributes. However, that one free plan isn’t sufficient to serve all types of users and would unavoidably leave some without a fitting solution. Moreover, its sparse features could well lead to gaps in its protection, too.

NordPass pricing

NordPass offers 6 plans to choose from:

• Free – $0.00 (1 user)
• Premium – $1.38/month (1 user)
• Family – $2.58/month (6 users)
• Teams – $1.79/month (10 user packs only)
• Business – $3.59/month/user (5 users minimum)
• Enterprise – $5.39/month (5 users minimum)

The free tier is generously equipped with features, such as unlimited password storage, autosave and autofill, automatic syncing, and multi-factor authentication, along with a 30-day Premium trial. However, to unlock advanced tools such as Secure Item Sharing, Emergency Access, Password Health, and Data Breach Scanner, you’ll need to upgrade to NordPass Premium.

For households, NordPass offers a Family plan that includes all Premium features while supporting up to six user accounts. Businesses can choose between Teams, Business, and Enterprise plans depending on their needs. The Teams plan is designed for groups of up to 10 users and includes features such as secure sharing, activity monitoring, and Google Workspace SSO.

Meanwhile, the Business plan adds advanced capabilities, including shared folders, password health monitoring, breach monitoring, and admin controls for managing permissions and security policies. The Enterprise plan expands on this further with advanced provisioning, integrations with Okta, Entra ID, Microsoft Sentinel, and Splunk, as well as dedicated onboarding and support for larger organizations with more complex security requirements.

Norton Password Manager pricing

Norton Password Manager is completely free to use, which helps explain its more limited feature set compared to premium password managers. Even so, it still includes essential features such as unlimited password storage, a password generator, a Safety Dashboard, autofill, biometric unlock, and encrypted vault syncing across devices.

Alternatively, Norton Password Manager is included in the broader Norton 360 security suite. Depending on the Norton 360 plan you choose, you may also get extras such as antivirus protection, a VPN, dark web monitoring, firewall protection, identity monitoring, and additional privacy tools, in addition to the password manager.

Which one is more secure?

NordPass is the more secure password manager due to its advanced encryption, flexible multi-factor authentication options, and more transparent privacy practices. While its separate secure storage through NordLocker is slightly less convenient, it still offers a more complete security package overall. Norton Password Manager provides solid encryption for basic protection, but it falls behind with limited desktop MFA support, no secure file storage, and less transparency around privacy policies and independent audits. If you want a broader look at the risks and protections involved, read our full guide on whether password managers are safe.

Encryption

In terms of encryption, NordPass has the upper hand because it uses the more advanced XChaCha20. On the other hand, Norton Password Manager isn’t all that far behind using the highly secure 256-bit AES encryption.

In NordPass’ case, it veered from the industry-standard 256-bit AES encryption and opted for the more sophisticated and secure XChaCha20. XChaCha20 is a stream cipher that encrypts individually instead of by block. It’s considered to be more secure and efficient compared to AES-256.

Speaking of AES-256, that’s the encryption algorithm that Norton Password Manager uses to guard your vault. While it’s a rung below XChaCha20, 256-bit AES encryption is virtually impenetrable and still one of the most secure encryption algorithms out there.

Additionally, both NordPass and Norton Password Manager are zero-knowledge password managers. So, their end-to-end encryption prevents the companies and their employees from intercepting, accessing, and leaking your data.

Multifactor security

MFA is one of the best protective measures for your vault. It provides an additional layer of security by requiring two or more identity verification methods before granting access to the vault. In this aspect, NordPass easily defeats Norton Password Manager.

Since MFA is compulsory for all NordPass users, the password manager goes the extra mile and supports various options to make things easier for its users. Here are its three main options:

• Authenticator applications including Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, and Authy
• Security keys like YubiKey and MultiPass FIDO
• Backup codes

Norton Password Manager, on the other hand, doesn’t offer MFA and 2FA on desktop. This is especially worrying since MFA and 2FA protect against most attacks like phishing, malicious code, and brute force. Fortunately, as a mild consolation, the password manager’s mobile apps still support 2FA using authenticator apps, phone calls, texts, and security keys.

Data storage

Some password managers also offer secure file or document storage alongside password management features. In NordPass’s case, you’ll need to download a separate app – NordLocker – to store anything other than passwords.

It’s a slight inconvenience since you’ll have to switch between the two different apps. However, if you can look past that, NordLocker is very liberal with its storage space. Even the free plan gets a generous 3GB storage space. And, you can always purchase its paid plans, too. Those go all the way up to 2TB.

In marked contrast, Norton Password Manager doesn’t offer storage for anything other than passwords. You get unlimited password storage, but you can forget about storing anything else in your Norton Password Manager vault.

Overall, NordPass’ slightly finicky data storage might not get full marks for user-friendliness. Still, it’s certainly enough to help the password manager seize victory in this round of Norton Password Manager vs NordPass.

Privacy policy

While both NordPass and Norton Password Manager have a zero-knowledge infrastructure, they do collect certain personal user data. Of the two, Norton Password Manager is the more aggressive provider.

With NordPass, you can expect it to collect:

• Device information, such as IP addresses, browser types, and operating systems
• Anonymized app usage statistics
• Application diagnostics

As you can see from above, nothing too intrusive is collected. Additionally, NordPass clarifies that there are workarounds to conceal your identity, and you have control over how your data is shared.

In contrast, Norton Password Manager’s privacy policy is trickier because it shares a general policy with other Norton products. This makes it much harder to pinpoint the specific clauses and terms that apply to Norton Password Manager.

Norton Password Manager is also bolder with the data it collects. Among other things, it collects:

• User data like name, email address, billing information, and account-related identifiers
• Administrative data such as usage information
• Security data that may include financial transactions

Third-party security audits

Regular independent audits are essential to evaluate a password manager’s security and eliminate any vulnerabilities that could be exploited. While NordPass isn’t exactly the most prolific password manager in this respect, it still easily triumphs over Norton Password Manager.

NordPass has passed multiple independent security audits, including a SOC 2 Type 1 audit. On top of that, the password manager has also been externally audited by the security firm Cure53. While Cure53 found nine vulnerabilities, NordPass solved the issues before the firm completed the full audit.

In very stark contrast, Norton Password Manager doesn’t share any information about whether it has been independently audited. That said, most – if not all – password managers that have undergone third-party audits are usually keen to share the results with the public. So, in this case, it’s very likely that Norton Password Manager’s silence indicates that it hasn’t been independently audited.

NordPass vs Norton Password Manager: features comparison

NordPass clearly comes out ahead in the NordPass vs Norton Password Manager feature comparison. It offers a much broader selection of both core and advanced tools, including secure sharing, password recovery options, breach monitoring, and more polished autofill and password management functionality. By comparison, Norton Password Manager focuses mainly on basic password storage and lacks many of the advanced features and refinements found in NordPass.

Password importing

NordPass and Norton Password Manager both support multiple options for bulk password import to make it easier to migrate your passwords. Between the two password managers, NordPass supports more applications.

In NordPass’ case, it automatically recognizes the saved passwords on your browser and allows you to migrate them over to its platform with just a few clicks. Furthermore, it also supports password importing from a long list of password managers like Keeper, Dashlane, and RoboForm. The commonly used CSV file is supported, too.

Meanwhile, Norton Password Manager is far more restrictive with its password-importing feature. It still supports bulk password import from familiar apps like Chrome, Firefox, Dashlane, and 1Password. However, Norton Password Manager supports fewer import methods and compatible applications than NordPass, making migration less flexible overall.

Account and password recovery

NordPass races ahead yet again in this round of NordPass vs Norton Password Manager faceoff, courtesy of its helpful account and password recovery feature.

Meanwhile, Norton Password Manager has only one recovery option, which comes with strings attached.

When you sign up for a NordPass account, you must generate a unique 24-symbol Recovery Code. This code is the key to your account recovery. Without the code, you’ll have to reset your NordPass account.

Meanwhile, things are less grave if you subscribe to NordPass Premium. The plan comes with Emergency Access, where your appointed contacts get read-only access to your vault.

Unfortunately, account and password recovery is far more taxing and vexing with Norton Password Manager. Here, there’s only one option: reset using biometrics. And, since biometrics is a requirement, you can only reset your Norton Password Manager account on a mobile device.

Password generator

Both offer a password generator to help create strong, unique, and difficult-to-crack random passwords (read our guide on how to create a strong password). However, where NordPass’ password generator nailed the assignment, Norton Password Manager’s version has a few damning flaws.

NordPass’ password generator lets you customize the length of the password. It’s set to 12 characters by default, but you can go up to 64 characters. Besides that, you can also include/exclude upper and lower cases, symbols, and numbers. Another huge plus is that the generator can create passphrases of up to 10 words.

In addition, NordPass includes Password Health, which is a tool for detecting weak passwords. The recent update also introduced the Exposed Passwords feature. It scans the dark web for your stored login details that might have been leaked.

Meanwhile, Norton Password Manager’s version can create passwords of between 4 and 64 characters. You can also include/exclude letters, mixed cases, punctuation, and numbers.

However, you can’t edit the generated passwords. And there’s no option to create passphrases either. Additionally, Norton Password Manager’s mobile password generator offers fewer customization options than NordPass. For those caught unaware or unfamiliar with password safety, those short passwords could leave them open to attacks.

Password sharing

Regarding NordPass vs Norton Password Manager for password sharing, it’s another triumphant conquest for NordPass. NordPass lets you easily share your saved items, like passwords and secure notes. You’ll also be in the driver's seat and control each recipient’s access level completely.

Select the item you want to share, tweak the access level accordingly, and insert the recipient’s email address. Once sent, your recipient will receive a notification about the shared item.

Recently, NordPass introduced time-limited sharing, which allows you to share items for a specific period of time ranging from 1 hour to 1 month.

For trusted contacts, there’s also a Transfer Ownership option in which you, as the name suggests, transfer all rights to another user.

In marked contrast, Norton Password Manager doesn’t offer a password-sharing feature. Instead, your band-aid solution is setting up an account and sharing the login details with the relevant parties. Naturally, this is far from ideal, given the necessary compromise regarding security and user-friendliness.

Autofill

Autofill is a convenient feature that automatically fills out login, payment, and other online forms for you. NordPass’ autofill feature is an excellent example of how it should work, but unfortunately, Norton Password Manager’s version falls short of expectations.

NordPass’ autofill has all the makings of a great tool. It’s accurate, intuitive, and fast. Instant Login is the latest addition to NordPass, allowing you to log in with one click. This feature can be disabled for certain websites.

Moreover, if you log in with a weak password, you'll receive a prompt to change your password and secure your account. It's a great feature if you forget to change your passwords, and it can be disabled in settings at any time.

Now, most free password managers tend to skip out on autofill. So, Norton Password Manager should be applauded for even including the feature. But, at the same time, its autofill feature tends to frustrate and delay rather than simplify form-filling processes. More often than not, clicking on its icon doesn’t trigger the feature. And, at other times, it simply doesn’t work.

Email masking

Email masking is when you use an alternative email that reroutes your mail to your real email without giving away your real email address. It's a way to increase privacy, and both NordPass and Norton Password Manager offer it.

The email masking feature has been introduced to NordPass with the latest update. Norton has a similar feature called Private Email, which allows you to create an unlimited number of email masks.

Data Breach Scanner

NordPass includes a Data Breach Scanner, which is an additional feature for improved security and privacy. Its main purpose is to detect if any of your stored information has been leaked. In the recent update, NordPass added email and credit card monitoring to the Data Breach Scanner, allowing you to select specific items that you want to be monitored. Unfortunately, Norton Password Manager doesn't have an equivalent to this feature.

Platforms, interface, and ease of use

When it comes to NordPass vs Norton Password Manager for compatibility, NordPass emerges as the victor again. NordPass works with all the major operating systems and web browsers. Meanwhile, Norton Password Manager has browser extensions and mobile apps, but completely neglects to offer desktop apps.

	NordPass	Norton Password Manager
Supported OS	Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS	Windows, macOS, Android, iOS
Browser extensions	Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera, and Edge	Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge, Brave
Number of users	Up to 6	1

Compatibility aside, both password managers’ platforms and interfaces are intuitive and user-friendly.

Desktop apps

NordPass’ desktop apps work on all Windows, macOS, and Linux devices. And, don’t worry about setup. The process takes only minutes, and you’ll be closely guided through the steps.

Whether you’re using a Windows, macOS, or Linux device, you’ll see very similar desktop apps on all three operating systems. Across the board, they’re intuitive, responsive, and well-designed. All the essential features are also right at your fingertips and carefully organized under a sleek menu.

Meanwhile, Norton Password Manager is no threat to NordPass’ winning position whatsoever since it doesn’t even have a desktop app.

Browser extensions

The pair’s extensions work on all the common browsers like Chrome, Safari, and Firefox. To add the extension to your browser, you just need to click when prompted.

Since their functionalities are heavily tied to their web apps, you won’t be able to access all of the features on the extensions. Instead, you can expect to see only core features like autosave, autofill, and password generator. While annoying, this is quite typical for browser extensions.

Mobile apps

To set up NordPass or Norton Password Manager’s mobile app, just download the app from either the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store.

In NordPass’ case, its mobile apps for Android and iOS devices look very alike to each other. Both versions are easy to navigate, responsive, and neat despite being packed to the brim with all the same features as NordPass’ web and desktop apps. Either way, you shouldn’t have any issues finding exactly what you need.

Contrastingly, Norton Password Manager’s mobile apps come with only basic features. Even then, some features are simplified versions of their desktop counterparts. While this does affect the apps’ functionality, it also means that, on the plus side, the mobile apps are uncluttered and beginner-friendly.

Customer support comparison

NordPass and Norton Password Manager offer multiple customer support options, including 24/7 live chat. However, you’ll see vastly different experiences with the two password managers.

With NordPass, you can contact its support team 24/7 via live chat and email. Generally, its agents are helpful and well-trained to assist. Otherwise, you could also visit NordPass’ online help center. Here, you’ll find a wealth of articles, detailed guides, and tutorials on password management.

As for Norton Password Manager, you’ll need to visit Norton’s main page to get to customer support. Your options are 24/7 live chat, phone support, and a community forum. However, unfortunately, its support quality leaves much to be desired.

For starters, its live chat agents have difficulties answering simple questions about the password manager. Additionally, its community forum isn’t very well-moderated or active, and most questions go unanswered. Instead, your best bet is to check out Norton’s shared Knowledge Base and FAQ.

NordPass vs Norton Password Manager – which one to choose?

NordPass and Norton Password Manager are two capable password managers that improve security compared to relying on browser storage or reused passwords. Norton Password Manager stands out for being completely free and easy to use, making it a reasonable choice for users who only need basic password storage and autofill functionality. It’s also a convenient option if you already use other Norton security products and want everything inside one ecosystem.

However, NordPass delivers a far more complete password management experience overall. In my testing, it consistently performed better across security, features, platform support, autofill reliability, and overall usability. Its advanced XChaCha20 encryption, stronger MFA support, password health tools, breach monitoring, secure sharing, and polished apps make it a much more capable long-term solution for both individuals and families.

If you simply want a free and lightweight password manager for basic use, Norton Password Manager can still get the job done. But if you want stronger protection, more advanced tools, and a smoother experience across all devices, NordPass is the clear winner in this comparison.

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