What's the best password manager for enterprise organizations?

Passwords are everywhere, and managing them across hundreds of employees, systems, and vendors is more complicated than ever. This article breaks down why consumer password tools fall short in business settings and what true enterprise password management looks like in 2025 and beyond.

Let’s be honest: passwords aren’t likely to show up on anyone’s top ten list of the most exciting parts of their business day. Yet every enterprise depends on thousands of them — for employee logins, shared service accounts, vendor credentials, cloud storage, and more — all quietly working the doors to sensitive systems.

Ideally, organizations should be moving towards passwordless solutions, but that process takes time, and most will be dealing with passwords for years to come. So, in the meantime, password managers are one way to bolster password security.

Consumer password managers promise a simple way for individuals to stay cyber-secure, and most offerings have expanded their use case to businesses - but when you scale that idea to a organization with hundreds or thousands of users, the cracks start to show.

What is a password manager and how does it work?

Consumer password management emerged to solve a simple problem: most people can’t remember dozens of unique passwords, so they reuse a few weak passwords across dozens of websites and apps, making them easy targets for hackers. A password manager saves and autofills credentials, generates strong passwords, and syncs them across devices, reducing friction while improving basic password hygiene.

A typical app of this kind creates an encrypted password vault protected by a single master password, sometimes fortified with multifactor authentication (MFA). When the user is logged in and authorized, browser extensions and mobile apps autofill saved passwords. Some managers can also store and autofill sensitive data like credit card details and addresses, prompt users to rotate weak credentials, and notify users of data breaches.

These tools solve a real problem for individuals needing to protect their personal information. But when you shift to a business environment, the search for the best password saver for employees should lead to something very different.

Are password managers appropriate for businesses?

So, are password managers ever appropriate for businesses? The easy answer is no, not if it was designed for consumer use. Rolling out a consumer-grade password saver in the workplace introduces operational and security gaps that are unacceptable for enterprises.

Administrative burden and disruption: To ensure cybersecurity, many IT teams provision, deprovision, reset, and audit all apps approved for employee use. When a master password is lost or a browser profile is corrupted, employees get locked out, support tickets spike, and productivity dips.

Account commingling: Employees inevitably blend work and personal accounts within the same vaults, devices, and browser profiles. This complicates discovery, HR offboarding, and legal hold, while increasing the risk of data leakage.

Limited governance: Most consumer tools were not purpose-built for businesses. They lack enterprise policy controls, granular role-based access, break-glass workflows, compliance approvals, strong session auditing, and tamper-evident logs across endpoints and networks.

Insufficient risk controls for vendors: Third parties need just-in-time, time-boxed access to sensitive systems for everyday operations to function both properly and securely. But consumer tools don’t have third-party security features that broker vendor sessions, mask credentials, or record keystrokes for forensic review.

Security model mismatch: Storing and autofilling employee credentials in browsers or personal vaults creates more risk, not less, at enterprise scale, especially for shared accounts, service accounts, and privileged access.

The bottom line? Consumer password managers are not sufficient for enterprise needs. They increase IT support burden, stress operational continuity, and leave gaps in compliance and auditability.

So, what is the best password manager for enterprise?

The best password manager for business is a purpose-built, privileged access security solution anchored by credential vaulting and delivered through modern privileged access security (PAS) capabilities. The solution should treat passwords as secrets to be centrally controlled, rotated, brokered, and monitored, rather than as artifacts to store on endpoints.

Think of it as four layers working together.

1) Credential vaulting (the enterprise way to say “password manager”)

• Centralized secrets storage for human and non-human accounts (admins, shared, service, API keys) to reduce friction and boost productivity
• Automated credential rotation (scheduled and event-driven) to eliminate static, aging passwords and to minimize a bad actor’s window of opportunity if credentials are compromised
• Check-out and check-in with MFA and ephemeral, one-time credentials
• Just-in-time provisioning and time-bound access with automatic revocation
• Audit-quality logs showing who accessed which credential, when, and why, plus approvals and ticket ties

2) PAM for employees with privileged credentials

• Proxy-based session brokering so users never see raw passwords
• Full session recording/keystroke logging for investigations and compliance
• Command and clipboard control to prevent data exfiltration
• Workflow integrations (IT service management/ticketing) and approval chains for high-risk actions
• Role- and task-based policies that enforce least privilege by default

3) Vendor Privileged Access Management (VPAM) for third parties

• Just-in-time access and zero standing privileges for vendors, with no VPNs, and no shared admin accounts
• Isolated, brokered sessions with masking and recording to keep vendor accounts safe
• Granular entitlements per vendor, per technician, and per asset — tied to purchase orders or SLAs
• Temporary elevation and time boxing to reduce the risk of lateral movement

Why enterprise password vaults win over consumer tools

Enterprise credential vaults will always perform better in a business environment than any tool designed for consumers – and here’s why.

• No endpoint access sprawl: Secrets live in a hardened vault, and endpoints receive time-limited tokens or brokered sessions.
• Operational resilience: Just-in-time access, credential rotation, and centralized policies reduce lockouts and support tickets, and prevent attrition-triggered access gaps.
• Improved compliance and forensics: Tamper-evident logs and session recordings enable swift investigations and clean audits.
• Least privilege by default: Access is requested, approved, and time-boxed, rather than permanently granted and forgotten.

For enterprises, the best password manager in 2025 and beyond is a privileged access management and credential vaulting solution that also addresses vendor and contractor access for a unified, privileged access security strategy.

The Imprivata access difference

Modern enterprises need privileged access management solutions that handle access for employees, vendors, and customers through credential vaulting, just-in-time elevation, and end-to-end auditability. Ideally, this should be through a centralized Privileged Access Security (PAS) platform that enforces least privilege and standardizes privileged workflows for internal and external users alike.

We provide this centralized access control with:

Imprivata Privileged Access Management (PAM): Vaulting, rotation, brokering, and session control for admins and shared accounts, with automated credential rotation and session recording that produce audit-quality evidence.

Imprivata Vendor Privileged Access Management (VPAM): Purpose-built capabilities to keep vendor accounts safe — just-in-time access, credential masking, brokered sessions, and detailed oversight — without expanding your VPN or handing out persistent credentials.

What this gets you in practice:

• Risk reduction: Eliminate exposed, saved passwords on endpoints; rotate and scope credentials automatically.
• Operational simplicity: Central policy, directory integration, and IT support management tie-ins reduce friction compared to managing a dozen “best password keeper” browser extensions.
• Complete visibility: Unified logs and recordings cut investigation time and strengthen compliance narratives.
• Scalability: One model for employees and third parties is the best password management solution when your environment and vendor ecosystem keep growing.

Decision framework: choosing an enterprise password management approach

Use this quick 6-step rubric when evaluating a password manager for business:

1. Does it eliminate static, endpoint-stored secrets? (Broker, mask, rotate)

2. Can you grant and revoke access just in time? (Time-bound, approval-based)

3. Will it cover vendors and contractors with the same rigor as employees – can you validate employment and enforce MFA for non-employees?

4. Are sessions captured with audit-ready evidence? (Recording, keystrokes, commands)

5. Can security prove least privilege at scale? (Role/task policies, reporting)

6. Does it reduce help desk load vs. add consumer-style lockouts? (Centralized control)

If the answer is “yes” across the board, you’re implementing enterprise password management the right way.

Schedule a demo to see how Imprivata solutions can transform credential vaulting for your organization.