If you need a reliable portable pistol safe, here’s my personal ranking of the most popular options in America. Read these hands-on reviews.
FYI, prices and ratings are accurate as of time of writing.
1. VAULTEK - LifePod 2.0 Biometric Travel Safe
Highlight: Thin and lightweight, great for travel safety.
Helpful review: I have been looking for a slim, lightweight pistol safe that I can carry relatively quickly when traveling. I have a few bedside table-style pistol safes, and they all share the bulk. All the safes I have right now are too heavy to carry in a shoulder bag. I should not say it is too heavy, but when the clothes and stuff are added to the shoulder bag, my destination must be close to the car.
The LifePod 2.0 is the answer to my search. The side clamps make this safe and as close to waterproof as I think it can get without a nitrogen purge. This pistol safe comes with pluck-out style foam, so when I carry the safe in my carry bag, the pistol does not rattle around like my others. The safe will open with a combo or biometrics, depending on what I want to use. The safe also has a cable tether that comes with it to secure it to the bedframe when I leave the hotel room.
The thing I really like about this Pistol safe is the top tray. Like a toolbox with a removable tray, this safe has the perfect place for the rest of my EDC stuff. I can put my phone, wallet, and keys in the tray and lock it all up. If I leave the room and don't take the gun due to the place I am visiting, I don't have to let the rest of the folks in the room see there is a gun there.
I keep this pistol safe under my seat in the Navigator, so it is a secure place to stash it when I go somewhere I am not allowed to take it. Many folks in our downtown area have had their cars broken into when they return to put their pistol in the console at a basketball game. I can keep this safe in the center console of my F350, but it is a much bigger vehicle. I have found that with all the modern seats having adjustable seats, there is not much room under the seats anymore. My last car was a Genesis, and I had to tether the safe to the trunk and lock it up that way. The problem with putting my gun in the safe in the trunk is that if anyone is paying attention, they can see me doing that. I have tried to invent a method to remove the gun and not show it; the best I could come up with was to use a bandana that I wrapped around the gun under my shirt, then lock the whole thing in the safe in the trunk.
Get it from Amazon now: $199.99 & FREE Returns
2. RPNB - Smart Pistol Safe
Highlight: Three ways to open the safe: Biometric, Key, or RFID.
Helpful review: This safe is marketed as a vehicle safe. This safe is a standard top open safe and does not have a particular vehicle mounting system. This does not mean it can't work in a car; the safe is supplied with a heavy cable rope to keep it in the car. The box is made out of heavy sheet metal. It will take considerable force to crush or pry it open, and none of that will be easy to do in the backseat of the car by a dirtbag.
The RPNB will open with an RFID fob or by entering the code I enter, and of course, I can use the key. This safe will fit under some seats, or it can sit on the backseat floor for folks with short legs. I put this one in my truck or the back of the Navigator, whatever that is called. I will use this safe to hold cash and gas cards as I drive everywhere. I prefer other vehicle safes, but this strong box is excellent for storing different items that I don't want folks to see and don't want other folks to touch.
Now, let's talk about the most impressive thing about this safe: the price. To secure a gun in my car, this safe cost less than 60 bucks. So, when I use it to hold cash or other stuff, I am not out a lot of money, and I have a near-perfect way to lock it up. The tether I talked about is three feet long, so I can pull this to the back bumper, put in stuff, or remove things and then push the safe back to its hidden spot so it does not alert dirtbags to try their luck at getting my stuff out of the safe.
Get it from Amazon now: $82.99 & FREE Returns
3. LANGGER V - Quick-Access Handgun Lock Box
Highlight: Combination buttons and Biometric reader are bright and easy to find under the seat.
Helpful review: This safe option is a good and strong one. It is not explicitly made as a vehicle safe; it is a bedside table pistol safe. The outside of the box is made of metal and has no special coating or covering. Not being covered or coated is not a deal breaker; it is just a plain metal box. The interior is padded just like the rest and will protect my gun when I place it here.
The combination keys and the fingerprint reader are bright and easy to find under the seat, in the closet, or the trunk if that is where it will end up. On hanging up, I could see that the buttons' brightness was how it would affect my night vision. This is not critical, as right next to the pistol is a flashlight that will disturb my night vision when I turn it on to identify my target.
This safe is like the rest and comes with a tether to keep it safe where it is placed. The lid opens from the top or a pop-up top. The lock will unlatch from the loop and pop up about half an inch. To gain access to the gun, I will take my other hand or the same hand, with little delay, getting my hand on the gun and the flashlight.
Let me step back a bit and talk about the finish. If this is an issue for anyone other than me, I used a rattle can of rubberized paint from Home Depot to paint tool handles. What I thought would happen is that the rubber paint would keep this safe from rattling against the electronics and stuff under my front seat. I was wrong; it would rattle and scrape off the paint. It will look extraordinary in the rubber flat black, a very tacticool-looking item. My next idea is to get a book, take off the cover, glue it to the outside of the box, and put it on the shelf to hide in plain sight. The box will remain locked, and little fingers can't get to the dangerous stuff inside.
Get it from Amazon now: $85.99 & FREE Returns
4. SnapSafe - Treklite Lock Box
Highlight: Made like a heavy-duty toolbox.
Helpful review: Here is an excellent option for storing luggage or other carry-on items. The safe is much lighter than a backpack, so you can pack it around all day. The multi-colored plastics make this safe very appealing. In my opinion, the locking mechanism needs a little help and a lot of improvement.
Let me talk about the locking mechanism. The combo mechanism works like a tumbler lock found on a briefcase. I have had this style of lock on other older pistol safes, and eventually, they bind up and break or get broken by the owner. This combo lock is designed for TSA access. The other safe only works with a key. The TSA-accessible lock, to me, is asking for trouble. TSA or any other agency cannot open that safe without you, and they cannot handle the contents without you. If that lock is accessible, they will open it, and you don't know what is happening.
The safe is made like a heavy plastic toolbox and is very tough. In my opinion, the only thing that is missing is the rubber seal to keep dust and water out of the box. That will increase the weight, but the payoff will be massive. The internal area is lined with foam, keeping the pistol safe. One other thing to point out is that the plastic box should not scratch the gun inside of it.
Get it from Amazon now: $44.99 & FREE Returns
5. HOLEWOR - Biometric Travel Safe
Highlight: Can hold 100 fingerprints.
Helpful review: It's a good thing this will hold 100 fingerprints, as I had to put about 5 prints per finger I plan to use to open this. For my wife and I to add enough fingerprints so this would work, we ended up inputting 24 fingerprints. This safe does not use a combination code, so it is biometric or the little round key to pad the lock.
The safe is built OK. If I was good with an OK-built safe, I would have kept it for something, but I can't tolerate a safety item built to just a passing standard. The fit and finish on this safe would allow a simple flathead screw drive to fit and pry open the lid. As I said a second ago, the biometric was a subpar reader. It may have been just the reader on my tested unit, but that wasn't very reassuring. The Key is OK; it's one of the round keys that always works, which is good.
The interior of this safe is lined with padding on all sides, so if the gun rattles around when the safe is moved, it will not bang against the steel box, which is a great feature. The padding they use for the interior is egg crate style, leaving plenty of room for airflow around the gun. Putting some desiccant packets in the safe would keep my gun from rusting. Still, I live in the desert and do not worry about rusting from humidity.
The safe can hold my 1911 and its spare magazine, so it is long and wide enough for pretty much anything I can think of. However, it is tight or thin for some bigger frame guns and will not fit a gun left in the holster like others. If I were to stash my CCW polymer frame gun in this safe by taking the IWB holster out of my beltline and placing it in the box, I would have to push the lid closed, and that made it stick a couple of times.
Get it from Amazon now: $69.99 & FREE Returns
6. MD MADOATS - Portable Biometric Pistol Safe
Highlight: One of the few pistol safes powered by a 9-volt battery.
Helpful review: This safe claims to be rated IP65, meaning it is supposed to be waterproof. I'm not too fond of the waterproof part, but if it is water or weather-resistant, I will support it all day.
This safe is made of heavy plastic. It is not reinforced with ribs like a pelican case but is very smooth. The keypad is significant, and it is easy to push the buttons. The biometric reader is handy and has a backup key, just in case. The safe comes with a power cord if the 9-volt goes dead, which is a first for me.
The safe is not lined well, but it comes with a felt bag to protect the gun when put in it. When leaving the house, this safe will hold a CCW gun left in its holster to store ready and easy to replace. Here is a thing that none of the other safes offer: It has a black tote bag to take the safe from the house to the car, so it will obscure the transport from one to the other.
I am optimistic that if this safe was bolted to my RZR to hold whatever I want to secure in it, it would keep the water and dust out. The lid closes against a rubber seal, and the lock snaps tight when closed. The safe does have a tether with it, so I could keep it from being hauled away unless a dirtbag was very motivated to take it. The tether may be able to be pulled through the safe's walls, as they are made from plastic.
This safe would work well to take to gun shows to hold pistols to show customers, as the plastic body would not make my heart cringe so much when it is placed on the glass display case. The only hand-up with that idea is I would have to take the pistol out of the wooden display box and put it in this safe, but the plastic would work better against a surface that can scratch.
Get it from Amazon now: $89.99 & FREE Returns
7. Younion - Portable Pistol Lock Box
Highlight: This is a very affordable way to keep unwanted fingers off my pistol.
Helpful review: This safe is cheap. Its price point is under 35 bucks, and the materials and engineering are also cheap. The lock is poorly made, and the release mechanism is also poor. So, what good is this safe? How did it make the list? Everyone can afford this safe, which makes gun storage safer, and that is a winner in my book.
The sheet metal this safe is made from is an acceptable thickness, and the metal works well. The tether will pull through the wall with some serious effort. I know that because I have done this with one of these made by a different maker. The padding is OK; it is thin but will protect the gun from being scratched up. Another thing to mention about the sheet metal is that once upon a time, I pushed my car seat back, and it landed on the lid of one of these. It bent the box so much that it popped open and would not secure again.
The lock is an effortless hook-and-pin style. The knob is twisted until the hook reaches the pin, and the lock will hold that hook in place. The owner can reset the combination, so if someone knows the numbers, they should use something other than the simple-to-use kit to reset the combo. If the hook movement gets in the way of the gun or other stuff, the lock will not latch. If the case is closed and something gets behind the hook, the safe will not open. This is an easy fix; just stand it on end, and the stuff will move out of the way. Nothing about this safe is quick access, so that is not a thing to worry about.
The one great thing I can attest to is that this safe will keep a kid's hands off the gun. If the combo needs to be changed for fear of someone having a mental crisis, that can happen, and keep their hands off the gun as well.
Get it from Amazon now: $29.99 & FREE Returns
8. Dalmbox - Small Handgun Lock Box
Highlight: Small and thin to fit many places.
Helpful review: The main thing that this safe is good for is a thin and compact design. Anyone who knows anything about safes or lock boxes knows smaller ones, which usually means it does not work either. And if a customer thinks that this is safe, they are correct.
The best part about this safe is the price tag, which is barely over 20 bucks! I got one of these to check out for that price and never planned to haul a gun around in it. My idea is to keep cash in it if I keep it in the car, but my main idea now is to keep my external hard drives at the office. I am unsure If I need to keep the hard drives in it, but it makes me feel good. And if I keep the HDD in the safe, I cannot lose them doing a dumb thing.
This safe does not have the electronics of others, nor does it have the combination latches of others. It uses a simple key and lock. The best thing about the key only is the simplicity of the lock. I like this approach.
The safe is made from heavy sheet metal, which is heavy considering its size. I will fit it in my computer case, but there are better ways to haul the gun from the car to the hotel room. It will slide under most seats, and the tether can be placed around the seat frame to keep the box in the car.
Get it from Amazon now: $22.95 & FREE Returns
9. Hornady - Rapid RFID Vehicle Safe
Highlight: RFID wristband keeps a fast entry method at hand.
Helpful review: The Hornady vehicle safe is the most unique answer to a problem that I have found. The number one issue with a vehicle-mounted safe or a holster is where and how I will mount it. Being the supersized variety of humans, I don't have extra space to screw anything like a safe close to me in the car, not even in my F350. Along comes this car safe, and it answered my problem.
The Hornady folks have been thinking like me or talking to other folks like me to find an issue to solve. What I think happens at Hornady is they're filled with high-IQ folks who figured out a new way to solve an old problem. The safe will "mount" alongside the seat with a pneumatic bladder. It is the same as a blood pressure cuff if anyone does not know what that means. The bladder fits between the seat and the center console. The safe then sits in front of the center console. The safe opens to the side, so if it sits on the driver's side, the door must open to the left, and vice versa if the safe sits on the passenger's side.
The lock is activated by a code or by the RFID functions. The safe has a wristband as well as a key fob. My first thought was that if the RFID were close to the safe, it would pop open when I didn't want it to, so I did not get all hot and bothered initially. I learned by reading the instructions that I had to put my hand on the safe to activate or wake it up, then use the RFID to open the lock. Talking about perfect planning, again, they have fixed my problem. The bladder does not secure the safe; it holds it in the car. The safe comes with a heavy cable tether and a 1500-rated cable; this means keeping that gun in that car.
The thing I did not think about when reading and studying this safe is that it will move from car to car. This one safe will work in my wife's Aviator, my Navigator, and my F350. The air bladder does not care what kind of car it is sitting in; it just inflates. I will check this one safe fits all in the RZR next weekend to see if I may have finally found a method to keep a pistol secured in place and away from dirtbags when I go to another lodge in the National Forest to get some ice cream.
Get it from Amazon now: $199.99 & FREE Returns