Password Manager Review: Dashlane – the Popular Password Manager

Whenever a list of the best password managers is published, Dashlane usually makes the cut. The password manager, which is available for Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android, regularly tops reviews and rankings owing to its low price, array of features, and easy-to-use interface.

Below, we'll let you know whether Dashlane really deserves its reputation and how it stacks up against its competitors.

Dashlane is an all-in-one password manager, digital wallet, and general security app. The software is available as a desktop app for Windows and Mac, as a mobile app for Android and iOS, and as a browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, and Edge.

Its latest edition, Dashlane 6, comes with a wide selection of features, including a VPN. However, do all of these bells and whistles detract from its performance as a password manager, potentially compensating for deficits and shortcomings? Find out below!

It doesn't take much fiddling around to get Dashlane up and running. The first thing you'll have to do is create a master password, but don't worry, the app will help you with this. Once Dashlane has been properly configured, you'll only need to remember the master password. We recommend choosing something that can't be easily guessed by others, but that you won't forget either!

Next, the app then guides you through every step of its basic features in a tutorial. This shows you how to use the auto-login feature in order to manage any online accounts you've secured using the app.

After logging in for the first time, Dashlane will prompt you to install its browser extension for whatever browser you're using. This is simple, taking no more than a few seconds. Thereafter, whenever you log in to a website, you'll receive a notification to allow Dashlane to save and manage that password.

Installing Dashlane is a walk in the park, even for the technically inept, because the service guides you every step of the way. If you're only using the basic features, you'll be ready to go in no time.

Score: 5 / 5

Dashlane's browser extension and desktop application do differ somewhat from one another. Should you only need everyday functionality and simple configurations for surfing the Internet, the former will be more than sufficient, however, for anything beyond that, you're going to want to familiarize yourself with the desktop app.

Desktop App

The desktop app is divided into three sections.

1. Your passwords, accounts, data, receipts, IDs, and payment methods are all stored in the "Vault".

2. In the "Security" section, you'll find the identity dashboard which alerts you to potential security risks. "Password Integrity" informs you of everything you need to know about the general security of your passwords.

3. Via the "Sharing Center" in the "Contacts" submenu, you can share passwords and notes with other Dashlane users.

Using the menu bar, you can manage your browser extensions and toggle advanced settings. In the "Security" submenu, you can make use of two-factor authentication.

Browser Extension

As in the desktop app, the simplified browser extension sorts all main features intuitively. In your vault, you'll find every website you've connected Dashlane to, and be able to sort these alphabetically, by date, or by category.

"This Website" allows you to manage your accounts on whatever website you're visiting at that moment, as well as modify how the app interacts with the page, or report problems about it.

You'll also find the password generator here, which we'll discuss in greater detail below in the Features section.

If you've lost or misplaced your Dashlane master password, you're in for a lot of heartache, since, as of the time of writing, there's no convenient method to recover or reset lost passwords. As far as emphasizing security or comfort, Dashlane's designers have clearly gone with the former. Those who forget their password and don't have an emergency contact need to manually reset their account – resulting in the loss of all data.

Score: 4.7 / 5

Dashlane has all the features one expects from a password manager: password management, autofill settings, encrypted notes, and more. But the app offers more than just the bare minimum and gives some popular features a dash of extra convenience.

Password Changer

One of these is Dashlane's password changer. This handy premium feature allows users to change multiple saved passwords with a single click. If you're one of those people who uses the same password for every website but want to plug that security gap in one fell swoop, Dashlane has got you covered. The password changer also lets you check the effectiveness of your passwords and change whatever needs correcting.

Password Generator

A password manager wouldn't be a password manager if it didn't come with a password generator. Dashlane's version lets users configure and create secure passwords with a single click. On top of that, it's easy to find, lightning-fast, and intuitive.

Identity Dashboard

The identity dashboard acts as a sort of bulletin board for your passwords. There, security scores (out of 100) are displayed for your passwords. These scores are calculated based on the complexity of your individual passwords, as well as the number of times you've reused a password.

Premium users can take advantage of a rather ominous-sounding feature called "Dark Web Monitoring", which tasks Dashlane's security experts with checking whether your data or passwords have been misused on the 'Dark Web'.

VPN

Starting with its sixth iteration, Dashlane's password manager comes with a virtual private network (VPN), albeit again, only for premium users. The feature offers users an extra layer of data security, especially when browsing on public Wi-Fi networks.

Compared to dedicated VPNs, Dashlane's offering is fairly limited. Instead of giving you the option to choose from a list of servers, it automatically connects you with the nearest one. If you want to use a VPN to "trick" location-dependent services such as Netflix, you're going to need a real VPN program. Still, we commend the feature's inclusion and the added layer of security it provides.

Dashlane comes filled with convenient features and offers one of the best packages on the market. Unfortunately, many of the most useful tools are only offered to paying subscribers.

Score: 4.7 / 5

Dashlane saves passwords using AES 256-bit encryption, which is considered to be extremely secure.

Just how secure your master password is though depends on you. Since there's no way of recovering your master password, – besides adding one or more emergency contacts – it's impossible to abuse the recovery feature to obtain it, making Dashlane more secure than a number of its competitors.

You can further reinforce your Dashlane logins using two-factor authentication, limiting it to new devices, or each login attempt.

Using the mobile app creates a potential security risk. In addition to the master password, users can include fingerprint verification for logging into websites, however, this is optional.

Score: 4.7 / 5

Dashlane's mobile apps are available for Android and iOS devices. These are nearly identical to the desktop apps, making them very easy to use.

With its auto-login feature, Dashlane remembers your apps' passwords. The mobile apps also come with a dedicated browser and can be used as authenticators, should you want to apply two-factor authentication.

In the event that you're tired of inputting our master password, it's possible to login using your fingerprint, or, for iPhone X users, Apple's Face ID.

Score: 4.7 / 5

There are two ways to contact Dashlane's support team. Support in languages other than English is only available via email. While preparing this review, it took Dashlane's support team around two hours to respond to our queries – and a bit longer when we had follow-up questions.

The support chat offers faster support, but only in English. When preparing this review, all our questions were answered promptly.

Score: 4 / 5

Three versions of Dashlane are available. The free version limits the number of passwords you can save to 50 as well as the number of devices you can use the application on to one. You can use the same account on your mobile device, but it isn't possible to synchronize them.

The premium package will set you back around $3.33 a month if you subscribe for a year. If doing so, you can look forward to saving an unlimited number of passwords, synchronizing across all of your devices, the VPN service, Dark Web Monitoring, and more.

Dashlane's business package costs slightly more at $5.00 per month and user.

Dashlane 6's launch saw the service's price increase. Since 2018, the premium package costs $60 or 50 % more than its earlier versions. Additionally, you can also take out a Premium Plus subscription for $9.99 a month, which includes extra security and monitoring features.

Despite its somewhat complicated pricing structure, Dashlane remains one of the more affordable password managers on the market

Dashlane definitely deserves top billing in whichever rankings it appears on. This is because relatively few providers offer more cohesive or comprehensive packages. The bread and butter of the service (its password manager and password generator) perform well, and its extras are useful, relevant, and most importantly, well-designed. The paywalls for accessing these extra features are, at least in our opinion, reasonable and affordable, justifying their cost in relation to the extra security they provide.

We do have to deduct some points owing to aspects that aren't too relevant for an English-speaking audience. The slower response times for non-English support and the potential differences in pricing affecting customers outside of the US are our main gripes. A free version of Dashlane is offered, so you can trial the service before buying it.

Dashlane is a popular choice among customers. Check out what its users have to say here:

There's no shortage of password managers available today. On the contrary: Those who aren't entirely convinced by Dashlane for one reason or the other can check out other services we reviewed.

We tested the Dashlane desktop app on a Lenovo laptop running Windows 10. The browser extension was tested with Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. The mobile application was tested on an Android device (version 8.1.0).