Dashlane Review 2025: The Password Manager That Dropped Its Free Plan

What Dashlane Is

Dashlane started in 2009 and spent years as the password manager people recommended to friends who found the others fiddly. It saves logins, passkeys, payment cards, and secure notes, fills them fast, watches the dark web for your leaked credentials, and bundles a VPN into the paid plans. Its 2025 identity, which it markets as Omnix, leans hard into catching risky and phishing-prone logins before they bite.

It is polished and beginner-friendly. It is also, since this autumn, a paid-only product, which changes the recommendation more than any feature does.

The Free Plan Is Gone

On 16 September 2025, Dashlane discontinued its free tier. That matters because the free plan was how most people met Dashlane, and it was the obvious answer to "I just want one device covered for nothing." That answer is now closed. If you are comparing managers on the strength of their free version, Dashlane has effectively removed itself from that shortlist and pointed you at a 14-day trial instead.

It is a defensible business move and a real loss for readers on a budget. Hold that thought for the verdict, because it is the single biggest reason to look elsewhere.

Security, VPN & Autofill

Under the hood Dashlane is a zero-knowledge, AES-256 encrypted vault: the company cannot read your data, and it has a solid track record with no breach of user vaults to its name. Dark Web Monitoring scans for your exposed credentials and alerts you, and the risk-detection tooling flags weak, reused, and compromised logins.

Two things Dashlane does better than most. Autofill is the first: it is fast and accurate across the web and mobile, and it handles messy multi-step logins that trip up rivals. The second is the bundled VPN, included on Premium and Friends & Family, powered by Hotspot Shield. It is not a replacement for a dedicated privacy VPN and its server choice is limited, but for encrypting a coffee-shop connection it is a genuine extra that Bitwarden and 1Password do not include.

What It Costs

All prices checked on Dashlane's site in October 2025. Dashlane bills annually only, with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

• Premium: $4.99/month, billed annually, for one user, with the VPN and dark-web monitoring included.
• Friends & Family: $7.49/month for up to 10 members, which is the best value if you can fill the seats.
• Business: from about $8 per user/month, adding an admin console, SSO, SCIM provisioning, and the credential-risk tooling.

At $4.99 a month, Premium sits above NordPass and well above Bitwarden, and it is roughly level with 1Password. The VPN is what you are paying the difference for.

Where It Falls Short

The no-free-plan change is the headline drawback. After that: annual billing only, so you cannot pay month to month to try it properly. There is no true desktop application either, since Dashlane retired its native desktop apps and now runs as a browser extension plus mobile apps, which bothers people who want a standalone program. And the bundled VPN, while a nice bonus, is basic next to a dedicated service.

None of these are fatal. Together they mean Dashlane has to win on polish and the VPN bundle, because it no longer wins on price or a free tier.

Verdict

Dashlane is worth paying for if you want one subscription that covers passwords, breach monitoring, and a usable VPN, and you value autofill that simply works. Families who can fill the 10 seats get the strongest deal, and businesses that care about catching phishing and risky logins get tooling most rivals lack.

Skip it if a free plan is what brought you here: that door closed in September 2025, and Bitwarden is the free, open-source pick to run instead. If you want the same polish without the VPN and would rather have the Secret Key security model and native desktop apps, 1Password is the better buy at a similar price. But if the VPN bundle and best-in-class autofill are what you actually want, Dashlane's trial is the way to test it.