1Password vs Dashlane in 2026: Which Password Manager Should You Trust?

Pick 1Password if you want the strongest architecture, and Dashlane if you specifically want a VPN in the same subscription. 1Password is the only one of the two that requires a second secret to decrypt your vault, which removes your master password as the single point of failure. Dashlane matches it on apps and autofill and adds dark-web monitoring plus a bundled VPN. One fact settles a lot of shortlists before any of that: Dashlane retired its permanent free plan in September 2025, so there is no free Dashlane any more, only a 14-day trial.

This comparison covers the security difference that actually matters, the pricing as both vendors list it today, what the bundled VPN really is, and where NordPass undercuts both. For the wider field, including VPNs and private email, see our security and privacy tool reviews.

What actually separates 1Password from Dashlane?

On the things most comparisons lead with, very little. Both have good apps on every platform, reliable autofill, passkey support, secure sharing and breach monitoring. Both encrypt on your device and neither can read your vault. If you put a normal user in front of each for a week, the main difference they would report is the colour scheme.

The differences that survive scrutiny are narrower and more decisive: how the vault key is derived, whether a free plan exists, and whether you want a VPN in the bundle.

Is a password manager safe after the LastPass breach?

Yes, and the 2022 LastPass incident is the best argument for using one properly rather than against using one. It is worth reading what LastPass actually confirmed, because it defines the threat model. Its notice says "the threat actor was also able to copy a backup of customer vault data from the encrypted storage container". Inside that backup, usernames, passwords and secure notes were encrypted with AES-256, but some fields, "such as website URLs", were not. LastPass never held the master passwords, so the attacker's only route in was to guess them offline.

That is the scenario every password manager has to answer for, and it is where the two designs diverge:

• Dashlane and NordPass raise the cost of guessing. Both run your master password through Argon2, a deliberately slow and memory-hungry function, to produce the vault key on your device. A long unique master password behind Argon2 is genuinely hard to crack. Dashlane adds a separate per-device key for server authentication, so stolen authentication data alone does not help an attacker either.
• 1Password removes the guessing target. Its vault key needs your account password and a 34-character Secret Key generated on your device at sign-up. The Secret Key is never transmitted to 1Password. Its own documentation is blunt about the consequence: "Without it, no one can access your 1Password data, including you." A server-side leak therefore yields a file with no password-shaped weak point.
• Neither design saves you from your own machine. If malware is running on your laptop while the vault is unlocked, the architecture is irrelevant. Device hygiene and two-factor authentication still carry most of the real-world risk.

So the honest ranking is: 1Password is structurally safer, Dashlane and NordPass are safe provided your master password is long and unique, and all three are far safer than reusing passwords. If you are the sort of person who would pick a memorable 12-character master password, the 1Password design is worth paying for precisely because it stops that choice from mattering.

Does Dashlane still have a free plan?

No, and this is the single most out-of-date claim in this category. Dashlane retired its permanent free plan on 16 September 2025. Its personal pricing page today lists Premium and Friends & Family, with "Try free for 14 days" on Premium and nothing else. Existing free users were moved onto a temporary Premium trial and then asked to upgrade or export.

Articles describing a free Dashlane tier capped at one device, or at 25 passwords, are describing products that were withdrawn in 2023 and 2025 respectively. Our own review page said the same thing until this comparison was written, which is corrected now. If free is a hard requirement, the choice is NordPass, whose free tier keeps unlimited passwords but permits only one active session: sign in on your phone and your laptop signs out. It also withholds the breach scanner, secure sharing and emergency access.

Is the bundled VPN a real reason to choose Dashlane?

It is a real VPN, and it is not Dashlane's. The service comes from Hotspot Shield through a partnership, so what you are buying is Hotspot Shield with a Dashlane login. In this form it carries no ads and it does the basic job well: encrypting your connection on untrusted wifi. What it does not give you is the server breadth, the streaming support or the independently audited no-log posture you would weigh if you were choosing a VPN on its own merits.

Then the detail almost nobody mentions, and it changes the maths for families. On Friends & Family, Dashlane grants VPN access to the plan manager only. The nine other accounts get everything else and no VPN. If your reason for choosing Dashlane over a cheaper manager was "the whole household gets a VPN too", that reason does not hold. Paying for a standalone VPN alongside a cheaper password manager is usually both better and, for more than one person, cheaper.

Where does NordPass beat both of them?

On price, and on having a free tier at all. About $1.99 a month on a one-year plan does the core job: unlimited passwords and passkeys, sync across devices, autofill, a breach scanner and secure sharing, with XChaCha20 encryption and Argon2id key derivation. For one person who wants a competent vault and nothing else, it is roughly a third of Dashlane's price.

Two caveats worth knowing before you commit. The headline prices assume a long commitment, and the two-year rate is cheaper still while the renewal rate is higher than the rate you signed up at, so the first bill and the third are different numbers. And the power features are thinner: sharing, recovery and admin controls are all less developed than 1Password's. See the full picture in our 1Password and NordPass head-to-head.

Which one should you actually pick?

• Choose 1Password if security is the deciding factor. The Secret Key design is the only thing in this comparison that changes what a server breach means for you, and at $2.99 a month it is also cheaper than Dashlane for one person.
• Choose 1Password for a family of up to five. $4.49 a month for five people with separate private vaults beats Dashlane on both price and architecture.
• Choose Dashlane if you want one subscription and one login. Password manager, dark-web monitoring and a working VPN in a single bill has real convenience value, as long as you are the plan manager.
• Choose Dashlane for a group of six to ten. Ten accounts for about $7.49 is the best per-head price here once you pass 1Password's five-person ceiling.
• Choose NordPass if the budget decides. It is the only one with a free tier, and the cheapest paid plan by a wide margin.
• Do not choose on breach history alone. Every vendor will eventually have an incident. Choose on what the incident would cost you, which is what the diagram above is about.

The verdict: 1Password, unless you want the VPN

1Password takes this on the thing a password manager exists to do. It is the cheaper option for an individual, the cheaper option for a household of five, and the only one of the three where your master password is not the last line of defence. We rate it 4.8 out of 5. Dashlane earns 4.6 and remains a genuinely good product, but its case now rests almost entirely on the bundle, and that bundle is weaker than it looks once you notice the VPN is a third party's and that invited family members do not get it.

If you are moving off LastPass, do the migration this week and rotate your important logins as you go rather than after. Read the detail in our side-by-side comparison page, then start the 1Password trial, which needs no card, or try Dashlane for 14 days if the VPN is the part you want. Whichever you pick, set a long unique master password and print the recovery material before you import anything.

Frequently asked questions

Is 1Password or Dashlane more secure?+

1Password, on architecture rather than on encryption strength. Both are zero-knowledge and both encrypt on your device, but Dashlane derives your vault key from your master password alone, while 1Password requires your account password plus a 34-character Secret Key that is stored on your devices and never sent to its servers. 1Password puts it plainly: "Without it, no one can access your 1Password data, including you." That means a stolen copy of a 1Password vault cannot be attacked by guessing passwords, which is exactly the attack LastPass customers faced in 2022.

Does Dashlane still have a free plan in 2026?+

No. Dashlane retired its permanent free plan on 16 September 2025, and its own personal pricing page now lists only Premium and Friends & Family, with a 14-day trial on Premium. Plenty of comparison articles still describe a free Dashlane tier limited to one device or 25 passwords. That tier no longer exists, so if a free plan is what you are shopping for, Dashlane is off your list before the comparison starts.

How much do 1Password and Dashlane cost?+

1Password lists Individual at $2.99 a month and Families at $4.49 a month for up to five people, both billed yearly, with a 14-day trial and no card required. Dashlane advertises Premium at about $4.99 a month for one person and Friends & Family at about $7.49 for ten accounts, also billed annually. For one person 1Password is the cheaper of the two. For a group of more than five, Dashlane works out lower per head.

Is Dashlane’s built-in VPN any good?+

It is a genuine VPN but not Dashlane’s own: the service is provided by Hotspot Shield under a partnership, so you are judging Hotspot Shield rather than Dashlane. It is fine for encrypting a connection on hotel or cafe wifi and it has no ads in this form. It is not a substitute for a VPN you would choose on its merits, with no server-choice depth and no streaming guarantees. One catch to know: on Friends & Family, only the plan manager gets VPN access, not the members you invite.

Should I switch from LastPass to 1Password or Dashlane?+

Either is a clear upgrade, and the move matters more than the choice. In the 2022 incident LastPass confirmed that "the threat actor was also able to copy a backup of customer vault data", with URLs unencrypted and passwords encrypted behind keys derived from each user’s master password. If your LastPass master password was short or reused, treat every credential in that vault as compromised and rotate it, whichever manager you move to. Change the important logins first: email, then banking, then anything with a saved card.