Password Strength Checker

Peter Smyth
Guide by Peter Smyth

“Password” and “12345678” are commonly used passwords to this day.

Unfortunately, coming up with a strong password can be difficult.

Luckily, you can use the password strength checker below to find out how strong your password really is.

About This Tool

This password checker is created for curiosity and educational purposes. A green rating does not mean that your accounts will remain safe. However, if you follow best practices so you have a lot lower chance of your accounts falling a victim to hackers.

What Affects Password Strength

Password strength is affected by a multitude of factors. However, there are two main factors that affect the strength of password; length and characters. Both of these factors increase the number of variations that are required to brute force a password.

The length of a password is the main factor that comes into play when it comes to password strength. Though many say that it’s special characters, mathematically speaking length is more important. However, it’s important that it’s not only long but also something that can’t be guessed e.g. a lot of people just use their name in lowercase letters followed by 123.

Of course, you’ll need to make sure that you’re using special characters such as; uppercase letters, numbers, and symbols. A long password isn’t very useful if it’s something easy to crack such as “password123456789”.

In reality, it’s the combination of these two factors that’s important. One isn’t worth much without the other, and vica versa.

Is It Safe to Use a Password Strength Checker?

This is a fantastic and extremely valid question. Entering your password on a random website can lead to it being stolen. However, most websites won’t be able to do anything with this information as they have no additional data on you. For example, if you test your password above we won’t be able to do anything with it as we don’t know your name, email, or any other useful piece of information. If the website has a login feature or has the possibility to know more information about you, then you should be more cautious.

Additionally, our strength meter is completely open-source. If you look at the source of the code of this page you’ll see exactly how the data is handled.

How Can I Make My Accounts More Secure?

To make your accounts more secure you can follow these simple steps:

  1. Use a Password Manager. It will keep all your password safe in one place and help you use stronger passwords.
  2. Don’t use the same password everywhere. If hackers get one password, they will then have access to all of your accounts.
  3. Enable 2FA. By having two-factor authentication, gaining access to your account becomes close to impossible.

FAQs

What is password brute-forcing?

Password brute-forcing is when a systematic approach is taken to try and guess a password. This is only really possible with simple passwords and good computing power. Using a strong password makes this close to impossible.

How to check if my password has been leaked?

Some password managers (e.g. Bitwarden) have a built-in tool that checks if your login details have been leaked, and will automatically warn if you if a leak that affects you has been discovered. You could also use a service such as HaveIBeenPwned.

How secure is my password?

It doesn’t matter if you have a strong password if you don’t store it securely. Using a highly rated password manager will mean that only you have access to it.

Conclusion

So there you have it. Now you should have an idea of how strong your password is, and ways and ideas of improving it.

What’s your password? Let us know in the comments for a free gift.

(Please don’t, you should never reveal your password to anyone)