Dashlane Password Manager Review – Is It Safe and Secure?

In today‘s digital world, we all have a multitude of online accounts and passwords to keep track of – from email and social media to shopping, banking, and more. Using the same password everywhere is risky, but creating strong, unique passwords for every account and remembering them all is challenging. That‘s where password managers like Dashlane come in.

Dashlane is a popular password management solution that aims to make your online life easier and more secure. In this in-depth review, we‘ll take a close look at Dashlane‘s features, security, usability, and how it stacks up to the competition to help you decide if this password manager is right for you.

What Is Dashlane?

Dashlane is a password manager application that works across computers, phones, tablets and web browsers. Its core function is to store all your passwords securely, generate strong new passwords, and automatically fill your login credentials when you visit websites and apps.

By remembering just one "master password" to unlock Dashlane, it does the work of remembering all your other passwords for you. This allows you to use strong, unique passwords for every account without the hassle of memorizing or writing them down.

In addition to passwords, Dashlane can also store and fill other private information like credit card numbers, addresses, and notes. It offers some unique features beyond other password managers too, such as a basic VPN service and real-time alerts if your data is found in a breach.

Plans and Pricing

Dashlane offers a few different plan options depending on your needs:

• Free: Stores up to 50 passwords on 1 device
• Premium: $39.99/year – Unlimited passwords, sync across devices, dark web monitoring, VPN, and more
• Family: $59.99/year – Premium features for up to 6 accounts
• Business: $48/user/year – Business-oriented features like admin console and user management

While Dashlane does offer a free plan, it‘s limited compared to some competitors that allow unlimited password storage for free. Most users will likely want at least the Premium plan to have their passwords available on all their devices. A 30-day free trial of Premium is available.

Key Features

Let‘s dive into the key features Dashlane provides and see how they work:

Secure Password Storage

At its core, Dashlane is a secure digital vault for all your passwords and other sensitive data. When you save a password in Dashlane, it is encrypted and stored either locally on your device or synced securely in the cloud if you have a Premium plan or above.
Dashlane uses industry-standard AES-256 encryption to protect your data along with a master password that only you know. Not even Dashlane‘s employees can see your passwords.

Password Generation

When you create an account on a new website or app, Dashlane can instantly generate a strong, randomized password for you. This saves you from having to think up passwords yourself and takes away the temptation to reuse passwords across sites.
You can customize the generated passwords to your liking, such as length and what kind of characters to include. Dashlane will remember the generated password and automatically fill it in the next time you log into that account.

Auto-filling Logins

One of the most convenient features of Dashlane is its ability to automatically fill in your username and password when you land on a site‘s login page. As long as you are logged into Dashlane, it will recognize the site and populate the login fields for you with a single click.
This works across the web on both desktop and mobile devices. Dashlane can also fill other typical form fields like your address and credit card info to make online shopping a breeze.

Secure Sharing

There may be times you need to securely share a password with a family member or coworker, such as to a joint bank account or company social media profile. Dashlane enables you to share passwords and notes with other Dashlane users without them being able to actually see the password.
As an admin, you can grant and revoke access as needed. This is a handy feature for both families and businesses who need to share access without compromising security.

Password Health & Security Alerts

Over time, you may end up with some passwords that are weak, repeated across multiple accounts, or that have appeared in known data breaches. Dashlane includes some helpful tools to keep your password hygiene in check.
The Password Health dashboard will flag any problematic passwords and prompt you to change them. It even includes an automatic password changer that can update your passwords on compatible sites with one click.

Dashlane keeps an eye out for your email address and personal info across the dark web and will alert you if anything is found. This gives you a heads up to change passwords if you‘ve been compromised in a breach.

VPN Service

A unique feature Dashlane provides that most password managers don‘t is a basic VPN service. A VPN encrypts all your web traffic to increase privacy on public WiFi and shield your browsing from your ISP.
Dashlane‘s VPN is unlimited but bare bones – you can‘t choose your server location, for example. Think of it as a nice extra layer of protection but not a full replacement for a standalone VPN app.

Interface and Ease of Use

For an app you interact with every day, a password manager needs to be intuitive and easy to use. Dashlane offers a clean, modern interface that makes navigating your password vault a snap.
The main view shows all your passwords as tiles that you can organize into categories. Hovering over a password copies it to your clipboard temporarily. You can click one to view its details or launch directly to the site and log in automatically.

Adding new accounts is straightforward with Dashlane‘s auto-detect feature. When you log into a site for the first time, Dashlane will ask to save the credentials. Importing existing passwords from your browser or another password manager is also supported.

Web browser extensions put Dashlane‘s core features at your fingertips while surfing the web. With a couple clicks you can generate passwords, auto-fill logins, access your vault, and view security alerts without leaving your browser.

The mobile app experience is slick and offers the same capabilities as desktop. Dashlane integrates nicely with iOS and Android for seamless autofilling in apps and browsers.

How Secure Is Dashlane?

No review of a password manager would be complete without analyzing its security model. After all, you are trusting this software to safeguard your most sensitive data. Fortunately, Dashlane takes security and privacy very seriously.
Your master password, the key to unlocking all your other passwords, is never stored on Dashlane‘s servers. It is used to derive an encryption key (using PBKDF2) that secures your data locally. Dashlane employees have no way to access your master password or view your data. The downside is that if you forget your master password, not even Dashlane can recover your account.

All your vault data is encrypted end-to-end with AES-256, the same encryption standard used by banks and militaries. Data is always encrypted in transit using TLS when syncing between devices.

Dashlane underwent a full security audit by an independent firm in 2016 which found no major issues. The company also runs a bug bounty program to proactively discover and fix any vulnerabilities.

Two-factor authentication is available and highly recommended to secure your account with a second layer of protection beyond your master password. You can use an authenticator app or physical U2F security key.

While no software is immune to potential security flaws, Dashlane‘s security architecture is sound and in line with industry best practices. Using a password manager is far more secure than reusing passwords or storing them insecurely.

Support and Resources

Ideally, you won‘t run into issues with a password manager but if you do it‘s important to have easy access to support. Dashlane offers several options for users to get help:

• Web Help Center: Searchable knowledge base with articles and tutorials
• Email support: Contact the support team with account or billing issues
• Live chat: Speak to a real agent 9am-6pm Eastern, Monday-Friday

In my experience, email support was responsive even on weekends. Live chat is a nice option for more urgent queries during the week.

Dashlane also maintains an active blog with password security tips and a forum where users can interact. The company is transparent about its security practices and publishes a quarterly transparency report.

Dashlane vs. LastPass vs. 1Password

Dashlane is one of the most popular and full-featured password managers available, but how does it compare to its top competitors? Let‘s quickly stack it up against two other leading options, LastPass and 1Password.
In terms of features and supported platforms, all three are quite similar and tick most of the boxes you‘d want in a password manager. They can all store unlimited passwords, auto-fill logins, generate passwords, securely share, and sync across devices.

LastPass has the edge on price with its free tier that doesn‘t limit the number of passwords stored, although it doesn‘t include some premium features. 1Password is a close match to Dashlane feature-wise but doesn‘t have a VPN or live chat support.

Ultimately, all three are solid choices for a reliable password manager. Dashlane stands out for its intuitive interface, unique VPN offering, and handy automatic password changer. You can‘t go wrong with any of them but Dashlane is a top pick.

Conclusion

After putting Dashlane through its paces, I can confidently recommend it as an excellent password management solution. It provides all the core features you would want, enhanced by some unique capabilities like its built-in VPN and automatic password changer. More importantly, its security is top notch with strong encryption and a zero knowledge architecture.
No password manager is perfect and Dashlane has a few drawbacks. Its free tier is limited compared to LastPass. It‘s also pricier than some alternatives, although not unreasonable for the features offered.

Dashlane really shines in its ease of use and cross-platform support that lets you access your logins anywhere. Setup is a breeze and the apps are a joy to use. If you‘re looking for a powerful yet user-friendly way to get a handle on password security, Dashlane is well worth considering.

Everyone should be using a password manager in 2021, and Dashlane is one of the best all-around options on the market. You can try it free for 30 days to see if it meets your needs. Using strong, unique passwords for every account is one of the most important things you can do to protect yourself online and Dashlane makes that a snap.