IronVest Review 2024: Is It Worth It?

IronVest is a password manager for desktop and mobile devices. It allows you to create, store, and auto-fill passwords. For increased privacy, you can also mask your email address and get a disposable phone number, something not many password managers offer.

The user interface is clean and easy to navigate, and the web application works well. I love that it blocks trackers and uses biometric authentication to protect your login credentials, which is much more difficult to compromise than regular master passwords.

That said, IronVest is far from perfect. It doesn’t provide secure password sharing, emergency access, or passkey support, which many top password managers offer. Plus, the app is still a work in progress, with several features not yet available despite appearing in the mobile and web apps. These include masked credit cards, crypto wallet protection, phishing protection, and financial account protection.

Nonetheless, I think IronVest is a decent password manager — with the potential to become even better. IronVest’s premium plans start at $39.00 / year and come with a 30-day free trial, which is plenty of time to see if this password manager works for you.

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IronVest Full Review — Good Privacy Tools, but It’s Not Very Feature-Rich

IronVest is a secure password manager with useful privacy-enhancing tools like email masking and disposable phone numbers.

However, it doesn’t offer password sharing, extensive vault auditing, or emergency access, and some of its features are still in development. What’s more, IronVest is pricier than top competitors like 1Password.

IronVest Plans & Pricing — Decent Value on the Lower-Tier Plans

IronVest offers 3 tiers: the free Essential plan, Plus, and Ultimate. There’s a 30-day free trial of the premium plans but no money-back guarantee. All plans are yearly, with no monthly subscriptions available.

The free tier includes most of IronVest’s features. However, it doesn’t have biometric protection for 2FA codes or virtual phone numbers, and it limits the number of masked emails you can create to just 3. What’s more, it doesn’t offer cross-device syncing, which basically means you’ll be limited to using it on just 1 device. To register an account, you need only an email address, so it’s a good place to start before committing to a paid plan.

Plus offers everything the free tier does and adds 50 anonymous email addresses, priority support (email and live chat), single-use masked cards (with a fee), and a virtual phone number at $39.00 / year. It also comes with Backup & Sync, so with this plan, you can install IronVest on as many devices as you want.

Ultimate adds 2 extra features on top of all those included in the Essential and Plus plans: no fees for the first 2 masked cards you use every month (but again, these aren’t currently available anyway, so it’s a moot point) and unlimited masked emails. But at $99.00 / year, it’s significantly costlier than Plus, so I don’t consider this plan particularly cost-effective.

Here’s a quick breakdown of each plan:

IronVest Security Features — Covers the Basics Well (& More Features Coming Soon)

IronVest protects your passwords with AES 256-bit encryption, the same standard used by the US government and military. Your passwords are saved in the cloud, allowing access to them even if your device is lost or stolen.

IronVest operates under a “zero-knowledge” policy, ensuring that not even its employees have access to your personal data or passwords. Data is encrypted locally before transmission, so even if there is a data breach or government request, IronVest cannot access your data.

The primary feature, Access Guard, serves as your password vault. It’s where you go to access all your logins. In addition to passwords, you can store addresses, credit cards, and secure notes (on mobile only). However, you won’t be able to attach files (like scans, receipts, or photos) to your entries, which is a bit of a bummer. Compare that to NordPass, for example, which lets you attach files up to 50 MB in size to any item in your vault.

That said, I like how you can easily import credentials from other password managers or browsers with IronVest. I tested it in Firefox: after downloading my CSV file from that browser, importing was easy, and no passwords were lost.

I also tested password generation and auto-fill on both my Android and my computer, and they worked well. You’ll find the password generator under the Add Account tab in the browser extension. It’s relatively simple, allowing you to create up to 30-character-long passwords that can be customized to include numbers and special characters. That said, it can’t create passphrases like 1Password or very long passwords like RoboForm.

IronVest also lets you create “masked” login credentials. You can generate a fake email address instead of using your real one when signing up for accounts, keeping your real email private. This is one of IronVest’s coolest and most useful features — it lets you receive emails to your regular address without ever revealing it. The same applies to sending emails. In practice, this feature can save you from a lot of spam, since you can always opt not to forward the emails sent to the masked email to your regular inbox. However, it’s not all that unique since 1Password and NordPass both have this feature as well.

Then, there are Identity Profiles. This feature lets you create profiles to auto-complete information while shopping online or registering accounts. You can create profiles with your real information or any fake information you want, including names, addresses, and email addresses. I like this option because it really takes your privacy to the next level.

Keep in mind that using a fake identity for online shopping will only work if you also use the Masked Card feature. This is because your credit card information, name, and address have to match for a transaction to be approved. That said, masked cards are one of the features that aren’t available yet, so I couldn’t test them. And even when they do become available, creating them will come with a fee on any but the highest-tier plan, Ultimate. If you want to use masked cards, 1Password’s Private Cards are a better choice, at least for US users.

Not many password managers can help you avoid online tracking, but IronVest can. Once you install the IronVest browser extension, Tracker Blocker begins operating in the background without requiring any input. It automatically blocks trackers on websites you visit, enhancing your online privacy and preventing data collection. It’ll also notify you of how many trackers it has blocked on each page you visit.

US users can also use masked phone numbers to enhance their privacy. This feature replaces your phone number with a disposable one. I like it because it can help you avoid giving out your real phone number in many situations. To get a masked phone number, though, you’ll have to upgrade to the Plus plan.

I was a bit disappointed to see the lack of vault auditing, which is a handy feature that lets you know if any of your passwords aren’t secure enough — but IronVest does at least let you know if you’ve reused any passwords across multiple accounts. It’s also a shame that there are no dedicated apps for PC and Mac; IronVest only provides a web extension for desktop use. But overall, IronVest provides a decent set of features, and it has more on the way.

Ease of Use & Setup — Intuitive & User-Friendly Apps

IronVest is really simple to set up and use. You can download the app on your Android or iOS device or install the browser extension on your PC or Mac (but Mac users should note that IronVest isn’t available on Safari).

When it comes to actually using IronVest for managing passwords, auto-fill worked flawlessly on both my Android phone and the web browsers on my computer. However, auto-save really only worked on my phone. I could never get it to work in my web browser on the computer.

The web-based application’s user interface provides really easy access to every tool and feature you need. I never found myself getting confused about where something was. The same can be said for the mobile app.

However, while the web dashboard is very well organized, I did experience occasional glitches while using it. For example, when I wanted to view my recovery passphrase, which would enable me to sign into my account in case I forgot my master password, the app would prompt me to enter my master password. After I typed it in, though, it wouldn’t show the passphrase, redirecting me instead to the Pay tab!

There are some notable differences between the web and mobile apps, primarily in how you interact with the tools. To start off, some have different names in the mobile apps. For instance, Access Guard in the web app is called Account Logins in the mobile app. Additionally, features like Pay and Masked Phone are not available in the mobile apps, while Secure Notes, on the contrary, is only available on mobile and not in the online dashboard.

Another difference is biometric authorization, which allows you to log into the mobile app using your face or your fingerprint. Unfortunately, this feature isn’t available in the web application like it is with Dashlane, for example.

Overall, the layout and features of the iOS and Android apps are very similar. Cross-device sync, auto-save, and auto-fill work seamlessly on both. I had a pleasant experience using both apps, and I’d say they work slightly better than the web-based dashboard.

IronVest Customer Support — Good Email Support (Premium Users Get Live Chat, Too)

IronVest offers customer support via email and live chat, but the latter is only available to premium users. The web app has a knowledge base you can search, and the mobile apps have a section ambitiously called Help Center that, in reality, provides answers to just 5 FAQs.

I reached out to the support team via email to see how the experience would be. Overall, I was impressed with the speediness of the response. While the answer wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for, the agent did reply to my original inquiry in less than 24 hours and was friendly and polite.

What’s more, it’s impressive that live chat is on offer at all — while top password managers like Dashlane and Keeper offer live chat support, most password managers don’t.

Would I Recommend IronVest Over Other Password Managers?

I think IronVest is a good product that works well, but it’s not for everyone. The free plan comes with many useful, seamlessly functioning features, and the Plus plan, albeit on the pricier side, comes with (impeccable) cross-device syncing, which is indispensable for anyone who wants to use a password manager on multiple devices. It also includes biometric protection for your 2FA passcodes, 50 masked emails, and more.

IronVest offers some features most other password managers don’t, such as masked email addresses, a tracker blocker, and virtual phone numbers, but it also lacks some common features like password sharing, shared vaults, or emergency access. In particular, if you’re a family that needs to share passwords, IronVest won’t work for you. But if you’re an individual user who prioritizes privacy, getting an IronVest subscription might well be worth it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is IronVest worth it?

For some people, yes; and for others, no. If you want to store your passwords, sync them across devices, or create masked email addresses, identities, and phone numbers, IronVest could be worth it for you. However, it’s missing some important functionalities. One of the features it’s missing is auto-save for passwords in the browser extension, which I could just never get to work.

IronVest also doesn’t have password sharing, so you can’t share your passwords with your spouse or family members, which will be a deal-breaker for some users. Additionally, IronVest promotes (and charges for) features it doesn’t yet offer, including masked credit cards, crypto wallet protection, and financial account protection. It’s also more expensive than the top password managers.

What is the old name for IronVest?

IronVest was previously known as Blur. It’s a password manager and privacy tool rebranded to IronVest, but it continues to offer the same core features with an emphasis on security and privacy.

What is the IronVest browser extension?

The IronVest browser extension is essentially a password manager web application. It can perform a variety of tasks, like managing and auto-filling your passwords, creating various identities for auto-filling forms, and securely storing your credit card information. Once installed, it automatically blocks trackers on websites you visit, enhancing your online privacy and preventing data collection.

Additionally, the web app also allows you to receive emails via masked addresses, keeping your real email private, and it supports biometric authentication for secure logins.