The Best Form Fillers for Mac, PC and Mobile – Round-up

The web is booming like never before. More and more businesses are setting up online portals and funky new web services are starting up every day. Which is all well and good, but it also means that web surfers spend a lot of time entering the exact same details into online forms over and over again. But it doesn’t have to be that way – by installing a form filler add-on for your browser you can complete mundane form entries in a single click.

LastPass -Multi-platform – Free or Premium ($1 month)

If there’s a behemoth of the password/form filling scene then LastPass is it. It’s available on Mac, Windows, Linux, WebOS, iOS, Blackberry, Windows Mobile and Symbian, so short of support for Texas TI Scientific Calculators they pretty much have everything and everyone covered. It’s primarily a password storage system that enables you to use secure log-ins on all your sites and only have to remember one (preferably good) password yourself to unlock LastPass itself.

LastPass’s form-filling capabilities are extensive. You can set up multiple identities (for work and home for instance) and assign credit cards to these profiles. When presented with a form, you simply click the Form Fill button in your browser and all the appropriate data is entered across the relevant fields. If you’re creating a new account, LastPass will even offer to generate a secure password for you for the site in question which it will then store.

In terms of browser support, LastPass features add-ons or extensions for Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Opera, so no matter how you prefer to view the web, you’re sorted. All things considered it’s a incredibly useful service and one which, with its multi-platform support, will enable you to secure and leverage your personal details no matter what computer, phone or browser you’re using. Highly recommended.

RoboForm – Multi-platform – Free or Pro ($9.95 Annually)

Roboform was the original form entry add-on and has been with us for an unbelievable 12 years. It was the first service to be run natively on USB sticks, transforming what had previously been considered dumb storage devices into mini life-lockers. Over the years it has evolved into a full featured service offering many of the same goodies as LastPass. Like its more popular competitor it’s primarily a password storage tool these days, but unlike LastPass it has its roots in form-filling – hence the name.

Roboform’s available for PC, Mac, Android and iOS devices and for Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox and Chrome browsers. It’s also available in a Roboform2Go format that enables you to run it on a USB stick, thus having all your personal details to hand when you need them, whether there’s Internet access or not.

Like LastPass, Roboform enables you to setup multiple identities for form-filling purposes. You can create personal and business ones or alternative addresses. You can also set up profiles for your different credit cards and use two different form profiles on the same page. RoboForm’s a full featured application, reasonably priced and well worth trying out to see if you prefer its functionality to LastPass’s.

1Password – Multi-platform – $39.99

1Password started its life as a Mac only password/form filler, but Agilebits who developed it, recently released a Windows version too. It’s considerably more expensive than either LastPass or Roboform, but there’s just the one-off payment and not an annual fee. It is also available on iOS (iPhone and iPad native) and Android and it will sync between all these devices offering solid multi-platform support. Combine that with built-in Dropbox support and you’re covered in most instances.

While LastPass and RoboForm are more browser-centric, 1Password is a standalone application. Once it’s installed you can also enable browser extensions for IE, Safari, Firefox and Chrome – these are regularly updated so you can normally keep using the extension even if you decide to install a Firefox beta. Access to the form-filling functions in browsers is enabled via a handy button on your browser’s toolbar – just click to fill in a form with the profile of your choice.

1Password is much more of a life-vault than RoboForm or LastPass. It includes a secure note area, multiple credit card profiles, the usual cross-browser password support and even an area to record all your serial numbers for your applications. It’s more expensive than many password/form filling apps, but it’s an incredibly well-rounded application with a superb and very useable interface and is well worth the download.

KeePass – Free – Multi-platform

Secure password and identity storage has long been a concern for any (sensible) Internet user and KeePass (a free open-source application) is a superb tool for locking down your data. It’s a stand-alone browser that does not utilise browser extensions, but does offer form-filling capabilities by way of an auto-type feature.

KeePass uses a split-window interface with your grouped cards on the left and the data window on the right. You can combine different kinds of data into groups for easy access and store as many individual entries as you like under each heading (work, banking etc). When you want to enter details from a card into a webform, you simply select the Auto-type feature by right-clicking on a card and the app minimises and enters the data.

While KeePass is not as flexible or full featured as the other form-fillers in this round-up it does have a dizzying number of ports and builds including the obvious (iPhone, BlackBerry) and the esoteric (J2ME for older mobile phones). It’s also available in a completely portable format, enabling you to store it on a USB stick and have all your safely encrypted data to hand whenever you need it.

Sticky Password – Windows – Free or Pro ($29.95)

Available for Windows only (currently) Sticky Password combines password protection with strong form filling capabilities. It includes some innovative security features (stepping beyond the simple password protection) and offers one-click form completion alongside the usual log-in storage and retrieval. It integrates well with the Windows operating system and includes browser extensions for all the main browsers including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Flock, Seamonkey and Opera along with plug-ins for a raft of other apps including Skype, Filezilla, Dropbox and  Messenger. It’s comprehensive support to say the least.

The first time you run Sticky Windows it can import all your existing passwords from all your existing browsers – this is an incredibly useful facility at it means you can hit the ground running with your password protection. Setting up identities for form-filling is simple too – just create a profile and fill in the forms. When you require access to your profile you can access Sticky Passwords by clicking on the discrete caption button up next to the minimise button. We particularly liked the unlock feature which enables you to secure your passwords with a special USB stick or Bluetooth device.

While Lamantine Software, the developers of Sticky Password, do offer a free version it’s incredibly restricted, enabling you to store just 15 accounts and use one forms profile. In fact it’s only good for trying the software out and it seems a bit rich to flag this as free software. That said, the full application is a professional bit of software and can be teamed up with an iPhone app giving you access to passwords, profile and note information when you’re away from your PC. At $29.95 it represents good value for money, particularly considering the massive number of applications it supports.