Why we chose this
We require Yubikeys for every account that supports them, and we recommend the same for anyone whose work matters. The 5C NFC is the right buy for ~95% of people — get two (one daily-carry, one backup at home), and you'll never get phished again. At $59, the math is obvious.
The review
The Yubikey 5C NFC is the security key we recommend for almost everyone — USB-C for laptops, NFC for phones, supports FIDO2/WebAuthn (the modern passwordless standard), U2F for legacy 2FA, OTP for older sites, and even PIV smart card for enterprise use. The form factor is small enough to live on a keychain without complaint, the build is rated for chemical resistance and crush forces that no human will ever realistically apply, and the lack of a battery means it'll work the same in ten years as it does today. The use case is simple: instead of getting a 2FA code via SMS (insecure) or an authenticator app (annoying), you tap the key against your phone or insert it into your laptop. Every major service supports it now — Google, Microsoft, Apple, GitHub, AWS, password managers — and once you set it up, signing in becomes one of the fastest and most secure parts of your day.
