RoboForm 7 Pro review

Managing logins and passwords these days is a problem of almost insurmountable proportions; we have so many accounts to remember that it’s near-impossible to keep track of them all. The answer for many people is to write them all down, or to use the same password (or selection of passwords) for every account, neither of which is particularly safe or secure.

In the absence of a photographic memory (ours is more like Swiss cheese), we prefer to use a password manager coupled with a sensible password strategy, and the simple RoboForm is just the ticket. After installing a toolbar in your browser and adding an icon to your system tray, it offers to remember and save usernames and passwords, which you can then access with a single click.

They’re protected with a master password and stored using AES, Blowfish and RC6 algorithms; for extra security you can also ask the software to generate pseudo-random passwords instead of trying to come up with your own. If you don’t know what your passwords are, there’s little chance anyone else has of guessing them.

The new version has been given a visual overhaul, and has broader browser support than before (Chrome and Safari have been added). It introduces mobile device support, including those running on Android, iOS and Nokia’s version of Symbian, and lets you set up one-click shortcuts for multiple logins.

There’s more too, with form filling for personal and address details and credit card numbers, plus secure contact and note storage. These are all nice features, but trusting all your personal information to one piece of software such as this isn’t best practice, no matter how secure it is.

That’s especially true if you opt for the Everywhere version (£8 inc VAT per year), which allows you to install the software on as many devices as you like, and synchronises that data across all of them.

We wouldn’t advise storing absolutely everything in RoboForm’s database – after all, its master password still represents a single point of failure – but if used sensibly it can be a fantastic timesaver. We wouldn’t be without it.