OTP Auth Reviews

App has -great- features and support, but what ultimately convinced me to switch? Steve Gibson's recommendation on SecurityNow! Steve is security expert and was longtime Google Authenticator user and advocate before switching to OTP Auth in 2018 (episode #679). The clincher was episode #719, in response to a listener request: "Could you maybe recommend the two-factor authentication app that has some organization behind it and has the Steve Gibson seal of approval? I can't be the only listener with this problem." Steve continues: "Well, so it just so happens ...". Interested? Download episode #719 and search for 'Pastuszak' (the listener's last name). Also,'Show Notes' download for this episode has nice summary that includes iOS App Store developer's app info and links. In episode #750 Steve says OTP Auth is his 'favorite app on the iPhone'. Steve leaves no stone unturned, including apps he personally uses. He vets them well. If it's good enough for Steve, it's good enough for me.

I tried Microsoft Authenticator and Google’s but there was always something missing. I wanted dark mode but also a good watch app. I couldn’t get MS’s watch app to work at all. OTPAuth is perfect. Clean looking, super functional. Copying passwords from my watch to my phone is one tap, and the icon looks clean and not-gaudy when I add it to my watch complications. It even syncs with the cloud! When I wiped and set my phone up as new all my accounts were there waiting! I was dreading having to recover them one by one. Highly recommended.

Update 7/21: There seems to be an issue with the Watch app where the watch will no longer format codes or adjust the text size larger. I’ve deleted OTPAuth , reinstalled, even set my phone and watch up as new (for other reasons) and it still won’t adjust the formatting and text size on the watch. Please fix!

I’ve been combing through two factor apps to find one that is responsive and well designed. I’ve found it!

Apps like Google, Microsoft and Lastpass Authenticator are all responsive but fairly simple in their functionality (only an app view). And the other highly recommended app out there, Authy falls short in its responsiveness and it’s poor design and formatting of both OTPAuth and widget leave a lot to be desired.

OTPAuth hits it all out of the park. It’s fast to load, full of features including iCloud syncing, a very responsive Watch app (on a 1st gen watch) simple widget and is all formatted and designed very cleanly. I wish OTPAuth got as much press as the major names. It blows away the competition.

this is such a perfect app and it does its job so well. i’ve been sifting through authentication apps the past day or so and have tried authy, bitwardens premium feature, duo and so on and this is by far the best one of the bunch. the way OTPAuth blends in perfectly with iOS is just reason alone to use it! the UI is so fluid and enjoyable to use and so well thought out. seriously, this is great. would you ever consider making extensions of OTPAuth for browsers? i’d love for this to sync with safari or even firefox too. (maybe that defeats the purpose of having 2FA? maybe.) but anywho, if you’re stuck pondering on what app to get for any authentication purposes, get this one, the rest will only be downgrades imo.

Finally spent an hour this weekend and switched away from Google Authenticator. OTPAuth syncs through iCloud Drive, unlike other popular services that require a phone number and store info on another server. Works great on Apple Watch, in the notifications widget, share extension, and even on the Mac. I can’t believe all that is free, so I’m glad you’ve added a way to take a couple dollars as a donation. If I ever wanted to change apps, I can simply export all my keys to a new app without visiting every site and revoking again. Thanks for the great app!

Suits most cases and allows for it to be password protected.

You do need to pay for a custom reference date, but this is not really an issue in most cases as its fairly uncommon for it to be changed (in my case, at least), and it’s a good thing to support the developer anyway. I’m totally fine with custom icons being a paid thing as well.

One problem I had was that when using the shortcut features it has, it will give an error (presumably since I have it password protected). It would probably assist a few others in troubleshooting if this error was a bit more specific.

I would love for a new shortcut action to be added (or simply a new parameter in the copy ones already present) so that I could resolve this by prompting for a password and then using that password to attempt to copy it.

Allowing descriptions would also be nice, but I feel like that would cause OTPAuth to become a it too bloated for some people, and in most cases they might just be better off switching to BitWarden or KeePass in combination with another app.

Edit: as indicated on Twitter, the old widget reappears after a reboot. Please make sure it stays there in future versions of OTPAuth . I love OTPAuth again, 5 stars.

Original: I used to love OTPAuth. It was my go-to because of how easy it made it to access my OTP codes from my lock screen or home screen. The new “update” renders this feature completely worthless, showing fewer accounts (only 3) and not even showing the codes! I’m disappointed.

I love OTPAuth , and have been using Pro for years. IMO, just a better interface than Authy, etc. The one thing though, that I would love, if it worked, is being able to use a screenshot for adding the TOTP info. I’ve tried on several occasions, and it just never figures out the image. (Most recent, tried with Facebook, today.) It would also be nice if OTPAuth could reference an image in the camera roll vs having to store it under Files.

Other than that one thing (which is t a deal breaker), great app!

When I turned on iCloud sync, OTPAuth wiped out my authenticity information for three websites. I sent a support email to the developer but have not heard back. These sites are telling me that I am screwed because they cannot do anything since I turned on two step verification. If I cannot recover the information I will not be able to get into these websites and have to set up new accounts. I do not recommend this or any other authenticity app because of the rules that these websites have. If you lose your information then you will have to get them to delete your account change the billing and restore the information which is beyond a real pain.

I finally switched away from Google Authenticator in preparation for getting a new phone after realizing there’s no way to backup Google Authenticator’s two-factor codes to transfer them to a new phone.

OTP Auth was a great choice. It’s easy to use, has a few nicer features than Google Authenticator, and most importantly, it allows backups so you don’t lose your two-factor codes even if you lose your phone or switch to a new one.

I was an Authenticator user for a long time and just migrated to OTP Auth. Of course it had to be a manual migration because Authenticator does not support backing up anything and even excludes itself from iCloud Backups, so one has to use encrypted iTunes backups to have a fallback. With the future of iTunes in question, I finally jumped ship to OTP Auth. Now I can finally have proper backups of my 2FA keys.

I happily bought the OTP Auth Pro option.

Hi so I’m a long time user of OTPAuth and considered it the best out of all the OTP apps.

An issue that’s been reoccurring is if I delete an account or move an account to a folder, it will reappear a few moments later. That and OTPAuth seems to have issues with duplicates. OTPAuth randomly creates duplicates. I’m not sure if iCloud syncing is to blame. Every time I use OTPAuth I notice the file in iCloud uploading and downloading. I’m assuming this is where the issue lies. In any case it creates a bad user experience.

Another issue is the Apple watch app. Copying codes from the AW never works.

This is the only authenticated app you’ll probably ever need.

Syncs securely to iCloud. You can create individual backups if you’re paranoid.

I’m shocked that it’s (still!) free.

The in-app “Pro” purchase let’s you customize the icon (emoji, or choose your own photo) for each account which I didn’t need in the slightest but I purchased it to support the developer.

It’s still free after all this time and has been updated regularly.

Please definitely give OTPAuth a try, you won’t regret it.

Afterwards, it would be awesome if you support the developer via the in-app purchase after you find that OTPAuth provides tremendous flexibility and convenience to help you keep your accounts secure.

I love OTPAuth. One of my biggest problems was the fact that I couldn't share 2FA codes with others as necessary. Yes, I understand this is a security issue, however it was much needed. I have many virtual assistants that need access to my accounts. This is the perfect system to use and handle that with.

5 stars and worth every penny!

Looks good, functions correctly. What more could you ask for? Well if you purchase you can then customize the icons, nice touch! Also backups/returns work as expected where as other apps I’ve used just randomly turn syncing off. I feel safe about having my OTP in OTPAuth.

I used to use google authenticator for Discord and Microsoft but then I realized if OTPAuth were to be deleted by mistake or my device were to not work then I would lose access to either of those, found OTP and it’s been great it’s clean and really does feel secure.

No update for nine months and no developer response. Looks like OTPAuth has been abandoned, which is unfortunate, because it’s one of the best! This won’t age well once iOS 15 is released and it becomes more and more obsolete.

Update: updated today! Looks like it gets an update every year for the new version of iOS. Fingers crossed for some new features!

I’ve used OTPAuth for a couple years now and it works just fine, but it is frustrating that the widget option on iOS doesn’t work. It says no accounts available, but when you go onto OTPAuth the accounts are obviously there. Deleting and re installing OTPAuth doesn’t fix it, haven’t been able to get it to work on multiple phones. Other than that it works fine, but it would be cool if all advertised features actually worked.

I use this application for work! Let me tell ya, it’s one of the best two factor authorization apps out there. FREE! I absolutely love how the complication app on my Apple Watch is seamless. I emailed him about an update issue I had. Heard from him within 24 hours. He literally launched the update today just to accommodate that pending issue. Thank you again!

If you’re reading this, stop what you’re doing, install this, and pay for the upgrade.

I have tried all of the Authenticators out there and this one handles all of my accounts like a wood chipper.

I can’t say enough how much OTPAuth goes by with out me noticing it’s there.

I tried Microsoft Authenticator and Google’s but there was always something missing. I wanted dark mode but also a good watch app. I couldn’t get MS’s watch app to work at all.

OTPAuth is perfect. Clean looking, super functional. Copying passwords from my watch to my phone is one tap, and the icon looks clean and not-gaudy when I add it to my watch complications. It even syncs with the cloud! When I wiped and set my phone up as new all my accounts were there waiting! I was dreading having to recover them one by one. Highly recommended.

I’ve been using this Auth app for a while now and it’s always worked and lets me sort things exactly as I want them.

The Apple Watch app is brilliant. Sometimes the handoff doesn't work; but really, I’m pretty sure it’s handoff itself because it’s sometimes kind of spotty weird going from my iPhone to my Mac.

The complete and utter omission of advertisement (even while free) is very greatly appreciated.

I started looking for an OTP Authenticator to use for work applications. I tested a couple including the popular Microsoft Authenticator. I found OTP Pro did everything Microsoft Authenticator and more. MS Auth doesn’t have a Notification Center widget. This was a deal breaker for me because I didn’t want to have to log into my phone and find an app every time I logged in. Win for OTP Auth. Definitely recommend OTPAuth.

Simple, yet great OTP app does does exactly what you need. No ads, spyware, or extra junk. I purchased the Pro version simply to support the developer for making a perfect little app that puts app quality above monetization, especially as this is getting quite rare in the current development climate. Thank you for this great app!

I use to use 2STP but that dev had to remove his app due to his new job, good for him, but lame for updates.

This has been the closest to that, you care about the user experience, the Apple Watch complication is almost perfect! Everything stacked is a little too packed, but I’m sure you will keep evolving.

I’ve been using OTP Auth for almost a year now and have had absolutely no issues with it. OTPAuth is secure and does what it’s supposed to do. The option to support the developer is a no brainer and is more than worth the extra security features and peace of mind!

OTPAuth does everything it should and feels solid. Sadly the watch app still hangs with 'waiting for iPhone' and never achieves anything.

Edit: adding and removing folder didn't fix problem with Watch, nor does removing and readding OTPAuth to the watch. No matter what I do, the watch app stubbornly refuses to do anything.