They are indeed encrypted but the encryption key is stored in the user’s profile on disk, which defies the purpose.

You might find this interesting on a technical level: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIOsemj3kl4

Regarding import from chrome, here is the article for 1password https://support.1password.com/import-chrome/

The cost is not free but if you’re comfortable with having anyone but you handle your (encrypted) data I think they are a good option. Like others said, Bitwarden is another popular alternative which you can also self-host if that’s your thing (either through their official server or through the alternative vaultwarden open-source project).

The passwords store on Google chrome is not encrypted in a way that makes it hard to steal your credentials. The encryption key is stored on your file system alongside it in plain text. There are generally much fewer concerns for security in browser password managers than in standalone solutions. The standalone password managers also allow you to enter credentials into apps on your phone or desktop even if login doesn’t happen in a Web view. Usually they also allow to store much more data besides passwords (passports, encryption keys, secret text documents or pdfs, credit card information, …). I use 1password and they have very good integration I the browser and os through their extensions and apps. It’s not less convenient than chrome’s own solution.

I’m on lemm.ee using wefwef and had zero problems in the past few days since I started using it. I think most of the problems come from the instance that hosts your account rather than the frontend of wefwef.