Dashlane Review: Premium Features with a Premium Price

Dashlane has a free plan, but its best features are reserved for the pricier Premium, Family and business offerings. 

TLDR: Dashlane offers supreme security, excellent customer service and one of the best user interfaces in the industry, but it comes at a higher price point than most.

Tired of forgetting your passwords? Worried about getting hacked? Dashlane protects you from both. With one of the simplest setups for any password manager we’ve tested, Dashlane makes it easier than ever to keep your information safe.

With Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)-256 encryption and a wide range of features, including dark web monitoring, an automatic password changer and a virtual private network (VPN), Dashlane goes the extra mile for its customers.

Founded in 2009, Dashlane is headquartered in New York City and also has offices in Paris and Lisbon. Dashlane employs more than 300 people, is available in 12 languages, and serves more than 14 million users and 18,000 businesses, according to the company.

Dashlane offers a nice range of plans for individuals and families, as well as two solid business plans. We especially like how Dashlane allows its individual customers — but sadly, not businesses — to choose between a monthly and annual subscription.

Furthermore, not only does Dashlane offer a 30-day money-back guarantee, but you can also use a 30-day free trial of the Premium subscription before making a commitment. The pricing for Dashlane’s password manager subscriptions is listed below:

Here’s a closer look at each one:

Free Plan

• 50-password maximum
• One-device limit
• Ability to share each password with up to five accounts
• Autofill, Dashlane password generator, security alerts and Password Health report
• Built-in two-factor authentication

We’re always big fans of free plans because they are a great way to try a password manager on for size before you make a longer-term commitment. Compared to other top password managers, however, Dashlane’s free version is quite limited.

For example, with the free version, you can only receive support for one device and can only save 50 passwords or less. While it’s common for free versions of password managers to limit your options, competitors like NordPass offer an unlimited number of passwords with its free plans.

What we like: Even with its limitations, Dashlane’s free plan does allow expanded sharing of passwords. You can privately share any password with up to five email accounts and revoke access at any time. That’s more sharing flexibility and customization than we’ve seen for most free plans.

Essentials Plan ($3.99/month or $35.99/year)

• Unlimited passwords
• Two-device limit
• Unlimited password sharing
• Secure Notes
• Automatic Password Changer

Dashlane’s cheapest paid plan comes with the free plan features plus unlimited password storage and sharing. Secure Notes, which stores sensitive information like Wi-Fi codes, driver’s license numbers and more, is also included.

We really like Dashlane’s Automatic Password Changer feature, but it’s only available for more popular websites and apps like Twitter and Spotify. In the Dashlane app, you’ll be able to change your passwords to certain websites with just one click. Dashlane will track the change and automatically update your login with the new password. Automatic Password Changer won’t work with every website, but you’ll find support for some websites. Dashlane reports that the company is working hard to add new websites for Automatic Password Changer capabilities.

What we don’t like: For $3.99 a month, the fact that Dashlane only lets you use two devices — when other password managers allow you to use unlimited devices for less — is a definite drawback. That particular restriction makes Dashlane’s Essentials plan the package with the least value for your money in our opinion.

Premium Plan ($6.49/month or $59.99/year)

• Unlimited devices
• Dark web monitoring for five email addresses
• VPN service
• 1GB of encrypted file storage

For $6.49 a month, you’ll be able to access Dashlane on as many devices as you’d like. To the majority of users, this may seem like a steep price, especially when competitors offer unlimited devices for less.

What we like: Dashlane partners with Hotspot Shield to offer an easy-to-access virtual private network (VPN). Dashlane’s VPN couples nicely with its password management, adding an extra layer of security and privacy while you’re online.

Dashlane’s dark web monitoring works well for tracking up to five email addresses. If personal information linked to your email ever shows up on the dark web, you’ll receive an alert to immediately change your associated passwords. We doubt many users have more than five email addresses they want to track, so feel like it is safe to say that Dashlane offers more than enough coverage.

Family Plan ($8.99/month or $89.99/year)

Dashlane’s Family plan includes licenses for up to six users on a Premium account. While this is a good deal if you have six people who will use the password manager, Dashlane’s pricing is still significantly more than other competitors.

Dashlane also provides a Family Dashboard, where you are able to manage who has access to it. Each user will have his or her own password vault, password health reports, alerts and dark web monitoring. Each user can also monitor five email addresses.

Dashlane Business Plans

(Teams: $60/year per user, or Business: $96/year per user)

Like other password managers, Dashlane has largely focused its attention and support on businesses. Dashlane provides a plethora of features for businesses with its Teams and Business pricing plans. Both plans come with a clean security dashboard you can use to monitor and update your security policies, reports, directory integration, sharing rules and more.

Teams Plan

The Teams plan provides every employee with the same benefits of a personal Premium plan. You could even use it for work and home with Dashlane’s Smart Spaces feature which helps divide personal and business accounts.

Business Plan

Dashlane’s Business plan is the same as the Teams plan except that it comes with Single Sign-On (SSO) with SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language). SSO with SAML means that every employee will be able to log in to their company credentials once and instantly sign in to Dashlane. Workers will have access to a Family account, which means they could invite their family members to use the service as well.

We’re not sure SSO and Family accounts for everyone is worth paying an extra $36/year per person, but if you’re looking for the best password manager experience for your whole company — and their families — then the Business plan is the right choice.

Selecting a Dashlane plan will come down to which limitations you can live with. If you have fewer than 50 passwords and only use your desktop or phone most of the time, the free version will most likely work fine. If you have more than 50 passwords, you’ll need to choose the Essentials plan or higher.

The Essentials plan is for people who only need a password manager for two devices: a phone and a computer. If you have a tablet or other devices you regularly use, the Essentials plan won’t work for you. That leaves you with the more expensive Premium plan or the Family plan if you have multiple people who need a password manager.

When it comes to setup and usability, Dashlane is second to none. When we ran our tests on the iOS native app and Safari, as well as the Dashlane Chrome extension on Mac and Firefox on Windows, the iOS native app performed especially well. In addition, it is one of the simplest interfaces we’ve seen for password managers. You’ll follow these basic steps for setting up and using Dashlane on your device(s).

Step 1: Sign Up for an Account

Signing up through the mobile app only required an email and master password, after which we could choose to enable Face ID and a reset for the master password. You don’t have to do this, but Dashlane lets you know if you turn on Face ID or master password reset, as it will encrypt your master password and store it on your device. After you check the box to agree to Dashlane’s terms and privacy policy, you’ll be fully set up with the free version. It’s that easy.

Step 2: Add Passwords

Adding passwords is easy, especially compared to some rival password managers. You’ll only enter the name of the website, your account username and the password you’re currently using. You can also tap “Generate” which populates the Password Generator for ultimate password strength. You can also automatically import your passwords from Chrome or your phone’s keychain.

Once your passwords are loaded, Dashlane will walk you through how to enable autofill for your internet browser. With autofill, you can enter your email with one tap and your password with another tap. It works great, and the process is clean, intuitive and a pleasure to use.

Step 3: Explore Other Tools

You can also share your passwords with contacts right from the app or access security tools, some of which are only available on certain plans. Tools include dark web monitoring, the Password Changer and Dashlane’s VPN. The Identity Dashboard offers a Password Health Score based on a password’s strength or weakness, number of times it’s been reused and whether it has been compromised anywhere on the web.

• Clean security track record
• AES-256 encryption
• U.S.-patented security architecture
• “Zero-Knowledge” security model
• Built-in, two-key authentication
• Password generator
• Security dashboard

Dashlane’s greatest selling point is that fact that it has never been breached. The company’s clean track record is the biggest reason for its higher price points and its favorable relationship with consumers.

All plans come with built-in, two-key authentication and “Zero-Knowledge” security model. This means that the encryption key for your master password never leaves your devices — not even Dashlane stores or knows it. Unique codes and authenticator apps like Google Authenticator or Universal 2nd Factor (U2F) YubiKeys are also supported.

Dashlane uses AES-256, a state-of-the-art encryption. The company also filed a patent with the U.S. for its security architecture. Since you know your data will be encrypted and protected in a unique way instead of a cut-and-paste method known to many hackers, you can be confident that your passwords are in safe hands.

Dashlane Accessibility

Dashlane offers apps for Windows 10, Mac, iOS and Android. You can also install Dashlane extensions for Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge. Linux does not have a native app, but you can still access Dashlane through a browser extension.

In a day when password managers are serving millions of customers, Dashlane stands out for customer service that’s open to users on all of its plans, not just paid ones. It doesn’t offer phone support, but it does offer live chat, which is impressive given its relatively small number of staff. Dashlane’s live chat is available Monday through Friday between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. (EST). One downside we noticed is that you can only chat with a help representative through your internet browser versus being able to reach customer service directly through the app.

You can also send the company an email at any time.

Dashlane Reputation

After more than a decade of conducting business, Dashlane has earned a strong reputation in the industry. Trustpilot has more than 3,100 reviews for Dashlane, and the company’s rating is an impressive 4.1 out of 5 stars.

With a clean security history and supportive customer service through chat and email, Dashlane continues to support its customers and meet their needs. Dashlane takes its security and privacy seriously and continues to clearly communicate with its customer base.

Dashlane’s solid customer support, spotless security history and easy-to-use interfaces and features make it hard not to recommend. The sticking points are the higher cost of Dashlane and its limited plans.

The free and Essentials plans will work fine for casual users, but if you’re serious about keeping all your passwords secure, Dashlane will cost you more in the long run. Your decision ultimately comes down to your budget and how many passwords and devices you need to support. If you need unlimited password and device support but don’t need extras like a VPN or want to pay Dashlane’s higher premium, we recommend looking elsewhere for a password manager.