You keep about thirty website logins and nothing else
This is exactly what Apple Passwords is for. It is free, already set up, syncs across your devices and fills in Safari. Nothing here is worth paying to replace.
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Zen Passwords vs Apple Passwords
If what you keep is website logins and the codes that go with them, use Apple Passwords. It is free, it is already there, and Apple can get you back in if you lose access. Zen Passwords earns its place the moment your list includes a payment card, a bank account or a document, because those have no proper home in the built-in one.
This is the comparison most people arriving here actually need, and for a large share of them the answer is to keep what Apple gave them. Below is the specific line where that stops being true, seven situations with a named winner, and the four things neither app can do for you.
the short answer
Choose Zen Passwords if
- Your card details are currently in a note, and a photo of a document is in your camera roll
- You want logins, cards, bank details, licences and notes under one lock and one search box
- You would rather no company at all held a copy of your vault, including Apple
- You keep passkeys and one-time codes beside things that are not logins
Choose Apple Passwords if
- What you keep is website logins, passkeys, Wi-Fi and verification codes, which is most people
- You want a way back in if you forget, and Apple account recovery is that way
- You would rather not install or learn another app
- You use a Windows machine as well, where the Apple companion app covers you
find yourself here
7 situations, one answer each
Read the one that sounds like you and stop. Where Apple Passwords is the better answer, it says so.
Your bank details live in a note and your passport photo is in the camera roll
That scattering is the actual security problem, and it happens because the built-in app has nowhere to put those things. One vault with one lock over all of it is the fix.
You are genuinely worried about forgetting a master password
Apple holds a way back into your keychain and we hold nothing. A forgotten Zen Passwords master password is final. If that risk keeps you up at night, it is the wrong product for you and we would rather say so.
You have a work Windows PC as well as your iPhone
Apple ships a Windows companion. Zen Passwords runs on iPhone, iPad and Mac only, so the PC would simply be uncovered.
You assume a third-party app will not fill your logins as smoothly
Reasonable assumption, and wrong here. Zen Passwords registers as an AutoFill provider on iPhone, iPad and Mac, so logins, one-time codes and passkeys are offered in Safari and in other apps just as the built-in one is. The only difference is that you switch it on once in Settings.
You want one search box across logins, cards, licences and secure notes
This is the single thing Zen Passwords does that the built-in app does not attempt. Everything is one item type among several, searchable together.
You are happy with Apple Passwords but keep a few sensitive things elsewhere
Running both is a reasonable answer, not a failure to choose. Keep Apple Passwords doing logins, and use Zen Passwords for the things that currently live in the wrong app.
what decides it
Three differences that actually decide it
Not a feature list. These are the three that change which app you should install.
What counts as an item
Apple Passwords is built around credentials: logins, passkeys, Wi-Fi and verification codes. Zen Passwords treats a payment card, a bank account, a software licence and a secure note as first-class items sitting beside your logins. If your list is only credentials, this difference is worth nothing to you.
Who can get you back in
Apple can, through account recovery. We cannot, because we never receive your master password and hold nothing that would let us. That is a genuine advantage for Apple and a genuine trade you are making, in both directions, and anyone who presents it as purely a win for us is selling you something.
Whether it is one more app
Apple Passwords is already installed and already configured. Zen Passwords is a separate app you open, with a master password you set and remember. That friction is real, and it is only worth accepting if the first difference above applies to you.
honest limits
What neither of them fixes
These two share a foundation, which means they share the same four blind spots. Neither app can help with any of them.
- A four digit device passcode. Both of these ultimately sit on top of your phone unlocking, and a passcode somebody can watch you type undoes everything above it.
- A phone handed over unlocked. At a border, in a repair shop, or to somebody you trusted, whatever is open is open.
- Somebody talking you into reading out a code. Far more accounts are lost this way than to anything cryptographic.
- A shop or a bank leaking your card details from their own systems. Nothing stored on your phone has any reach into that.
questions
Choosing between the two
Is Apple Passwords enough on its own?
For website logins, passkeys, Wi-Fi and verification codes, yes, and for a lot of people that is the whole list. Add something else only when you find yourself keeping cards, bank details or documents somewhere they do not belong.
Can I use both at once?
Yes, and plenty of people do. Apple Passwords keeps doing logins in Safari, and Zen Passwords holds the things that have nowhere else to go. There is no conflict between them.
Which is safer?
Both encrypt your data, and the honest answer is that the difference between them is not the encryption. It is who can get back in when something goes wrong. Apple can help you. We cannot, which removes us as a target and removes us as a rescue at the same time.
I have decided to move. What now?
The handover, including what exports cleanly and what you re-enter by hand, is written up separately on our Apple Passwords alternative page.
the handover
Moving from Apple Passwords
The export, the import and the parts that never carry across cleanly are written up separately, so this page can stay about the decision.
Read the handoverkeep comparing
The other two decisions
Zen Passwords vs 1Password
Breadth and sharing against no account at all. Six situations, one winner each.
Read the verdictZen Passwords vs Bitwarden
The better default against the narrower fit. Bitwarden wins more of the cases.
Read the verdictZen Passwords in full
Every feature, the screenshots on all three devices, the privacy detail and the questions people ask most often.
Open the product pagehow this page is written
Everything claimed about Zen Passwords here is what the app does today. Everything claimed about Apple Passwords is limited to things that have been true of it for years, checked on against their own site. There are no prices on this page, because a price nobody re-checks goes wrong in public. If something here is out of date, tell us and we will fix it.