If every device you own has an Apple logo on it, and you only ever need to store logins, Apple Passwords will probably serve you well. It’s free, it’s built in, and it’s genuinely good software.

The question worth asking is what happens at the edges — the Windows laptop at work, the Android phone in the family, the passport number you need on holiday, the contractor who needs one login for six weeks. That’s where the two diverge, and it’s worth being precise about how.

What Apple Passwords does well

Apple’s Passwords app became a standalone app in iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia, and it has matured since. Give it credit where it’s due:

• Passwords, passkeys, and verification codes in one place, so your two-factor codes live with the login they belong to
• Wi-Fi passwords and your FileVault recovery key
• Security recommendations flagging weak or compromised credentials
• Password history, so you can see previous versions of a credential
• Sharing groups, covered properly below
• End-to-end encryption through iCloud Keychain
• Import and export, so you aren’t trapped

For an Apple-only household storing Apple-only logins, that list covers most of what most people need. Anyone telling you otherwise is selling something.

Where it stops

It isn’t only Apple devices, but it isn’t everywhere either

You’ll read that Apple Passwords works solely on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. That’s not quite right — iCloud for Windows includes iCloud Passwords, which autofills in a browser on a PC, and supports importing and exporting.

What there isn’t is Android. No Apple Passwords app, no browser extension, no workaround. If anyone in your household or team is on Android, their passwords have to live somewhere else — and a vault that doesn’t cover everyone quietly turns into two vaults.

mSecure runs natively on iOS, Android, Mac, and Windows, with browser extensions for autofill. One vault, everyone in it.

It stores credentials, not everything else

The Passwords app is for passwords, passkeys, verification codes, and Wi-Fi. Credit cards and addresses are handled separately, in Safari’s AutoFill settings, and there’s no home at all for the rest of the things people need to find in a hurry:

• Passport and driving licence numbers
• Bank account details
• Insurance and healthcare information
• Backup codes for accounts
• Software licence keys
• Safe combinations, membership numbers, frequent flyer details
• Scanned documents and images as attachments

mSecure stores all of it in the same encrypted vault, with custom templates and fields so a record looks like the thing it actually is.

Sharing works, with real limits

Apple’s shared groups are better than they’re often given credit for. They sync over iCloud — no AirDrop, no standing in the same room — and you can share passwords, passkeys, and Sign in with Apple accounts with anyone in your contacts.

The limits are structural:

• Everyone needs an Apple device running iOS 17, iPadOS 17, macOS 14, or later
• A password can belong to only one group, so overlapping circles — family and work and the holiday rental — don’t map cleanly
• Every member can edit shared passwords, which is fine for a household and awkward for a business
• The group creator alone controls membership

mSecure’s Sharing Center shares specific records with specific people, including mSecure users outside your team, and access can be revoked when the work ends. For businesses, the Teams plan adds proper license management: ten seats, centrally administered, with a documented way to remove someone’s access on their last day.

Your vault lives inside your Apple Account

Apple Passwords is tied to your Apple Account. That’s convenient right up until it isn’t — an account lockout, a switch to Android, a work environment that’s Windows-only.

A dedicated manager keeps your vault independent of any one platform. mSecure also lets you choose how it syncs, including mSecure Cloud, Dropbox, iCloud, or over Wi-Fi.

So which one?

Apple Passwords is enough if everyone involved is on Apple hardware, you only need logins and two-factor codes, and sharing stays inside the family.

A dedicated password manager makes sense if any of these are true:

• Someone in your household or team uses Android
• You want documents, cards, and IDs in the same vault as your passwords
• You share credentials with people outside your ecosystem, or need to revoke that access cleanly
• You’re a business and need licenses you can administer
• You’d rather your vault not depend on one company’s account

That’s not an argument that Apple built something bad. It’s that a built-in tool is designed for the platform it’s built into, and most people’s lives aren’t confined to one platform.

Switching is not a trap

Both support import and export, so this isn’t a decision you’re locked into. Apple Passwords can export, and mSecure imports from CSV and from other managers. See the features page for the full list, or browse the rest of the blog for more on getting your credentials in order.