Comparing spreadsheets and the browser's saved passwords against a real business password manager — what breaks, what it costs, and which to choose.
Quick to set up and familiar — but once the file is shared, copies spread and there's no clean way to revoke access or see who has what.
Great for one person's own logins. Limited central business control — no company vault, and credentials often walk out with the personal account.
Individual access with centralized management: per-item sharing, auditing, and one-click offboarding when someone leaves.
Want the details? Here's where the risk actually lives ↓
A password manager breaks this chain at step one: per-item access + instant revocation instead of one shared file.
Why it feels safe but isn't: Modern Excel can encrypt a workbook with a password, and that encryption is real. But encryption alone doesn't make a spreadsheet a safe way to manage business credentials — everyone who knows the file password can see the entire list, copies spread outside your control, and there's no per-credential access, auditing, or simple offboarding.
| Issue | Detail |
|---|---|
| "Protect Sheet" ≠ encryption | Excel's Protect Sheet / Protect Workbook options only discourage editing — they don't encrypt anything and are trivially removed. Only Encrypt with Password actually protects the file. |
| One password for everything | Even with real encryption, anyone who has the file password can open every credential in it at once — and if it leaks, the whole list is exposed. |
| No audit trail | No way to see who opened the file, when, or which passwords they copied. |
| Version chaos | Copies spread via email, OneDrive, desktops, USB drives — uncontrolled once shared. |
| No revocation | Someone leaving means rotating every password in the file, not just removing access. |
| No sharing granularity | Everyone with the file password sees everything — no per-account limits. |
Google Sheets has no native password-to-open feature at all — unlike Excel, there's no file-level encryption option to turn on in the first place.
| Issue | Detail |
|---|---|
| No real protection exists | Sheets has no "enter a password to open" mechanism. |
| "Protect ranges" only blocks editing | Anyone with access can still view every password in the sheet. |
| Security = sharing settings | An accidental "anyone with the link" share exposes everything. |
| Copy / print / export still work | Protection doesn't actually contain the data. |
| Same all-or-nothing access | No way to share just one login with one person. |
Google Password Manager feels like an upgrade — autofill, sync, free. For a person, it works well. But it wasn't designed to give a business centralized control of its credentials — and unless every account is company-managed, your logins can end up somewhere you can't see, audit, or revoke.
| Issue | Detail |
|---|---|
| Tied to the individual's account | Company credentials get saved to an employee's Google account. If that account isn't company-managed, the business loses control the day they leave. |
| Not built for business sharing | Google supports limited password sharing, but there's no company vault with team permissions and central ownership — so logins still get texted, emailed, or pasted into a sheet. |
| Limited business controls | It lacks the centralized vault permissions, access management, auditing and offboarding controls that a dedicated business password manager provides. |
| One account protects many credentials | A compromised Google account or an unlocked, signed-in device puts everything stored behind it at risk — MFA and device security become the whole ballgame. |
| One-click export to plain text | Chrome's "Export passwords" dumps every saved login into an unencrypted CSV file in seconds — no approval needed, and nothing tells the business it happened. |
| Websites & apps only | It handles website and app passwords well — but Wi-Fi credentials, recovery codes, license keys, server logins and secure notes still need a home, and they land back in the spreadsheet. |
| No audit trail for the business | Nobody can answer "who accessed the bank login, and when?" |
| Protected Excel | "Protected" Google Sheet | Browser saved passwords | Business password manager | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Encryption | Real if you "Encrypt with Password" — but one key for the whole file | No file-level encryption | Encrypted, but tied to one personal login | Strong vault encryption |
| Team sharing | Whole file or nothing | Whole sheet or nothing | Limited — no company vault | Per-item, per-person |
| When someone leaves | Rotate everything | Rotate everything | Often leave with the account | Access revoked instantly |
| Audit trail | None | Limited (Drive activity) | None for the business | Full access logs |
| Admin controls | None | None | Limited | Central console & policies |
| Export to plain text | Easy to copy / export once opened | Easy to copy / download once authorized | Can export credentials | Export controlled by product / admin policy |
| Beyond the browser | Anything (in plain text) | Anything (in plain text) | Websites & apps only | Servers, Wi-Fi, licenses, notes |
| 2FA code storage | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Built in |
| Cost | "Free" | "Free" | Free | A few $/user/mo |
Business password managers typically run a few dollars per user per month — and typically offer shared vaults, secure credential sharing, admin controls, and centralized offboarding.
| Option | Sticker price | The real cost |
|---|---|---|
| Spreadsheet | "Free" — bundled with Microsoft 365 / Workspace | IT hours on resets, offboarding rotations, and breach cleanup |
| Browser saved passwords | Free | Company logins scattered across personal accounts you can't see or revoke |
| Business password manager | A few $/user/mo | Predictable — and offboarding takes one click instead of an afternoon |
That's a protected Excel file — and it can't be re-keyed. A password manager is a smart lock: different access per person, every entry logged, and revoked instantly when needed. We'll set it up and migrate your logins, usually in week one.
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