Dashlane vs 1Password

The premium showdown

Both Dashlane and 1Password are premium password managers aimed at users who want the full-featured experience and are willing to pay for it. Neither has a meaningful free tier (Dashlane’s 25-password, 1-device free plan is barely a trial; 1Password has no free tier at all).

The question is what you’re paying for:

• Dashlane (£39/year): One-app security suite. Password manager + VPN + dark web monitoring + phishing alerts. If you’d buy all three separately, Dashlane bundles them.
• 1Password (£29/year): Best-in-class password manager, nothing bundled. The best migration fidelity from LastPass (5/5), the best iOS UX, Travel Mode, and the Secret Key architecture that has produced zero confirmed vault exposures.

Feature scorecard

Security scorecard

Both managers use AES-256-GCM for vault encryption. The key architecture difference: 1Password’s Secret Key means that even with vault data exfiltrated, you need a second factor (the Secret Key) that never touches 1Password’s servers. Dashlane uses standard zero-knowledge architecture without an equivalent second factor.

1Password has significantly more external audit coverage (3 audits across 3 firms vs Dashlane’s 1 Cure53 audit). For users whose purchase decision includes transparency, this matters.

Pricing reality

Individual plans:

• Dashlane Personal: £39/year
• 1Password Individual: £29/year
• 1Password wins by £10/year

Family plans (headcount matters):

• Dashlane Friends & Family: £59/year for 10 users = £5.90/user/year
• 1Password Families: £47/year for 5 users = £9.40/user/year
• Dashlane wins on per-user cost — significantly better for large households

Teams (10 users):

• Dashlane Starter: $50/month
• 1Password Teams Starter: $19.95/month flat
• 1Password wins by $30/month

Gate 19 disclosure: Dashlane has historically applied renewal price increases. Verify your year-2 renewal rate before subscribing. 1Password’s pricing has been stable year-over-year.

VPN — the bundle decision

Dashlane bundles Hotspot Shield’s VPN infrastructure. This is a functional VPN for public WiFi protection and basic geo-unblocking.

Does the bundle save you money?

• Dashlane Personal: £39/year (password manager + VPN)
• Bitwarden Premium: £8/year + ProtonVPN: £80/year = £88/year
• Dashlane Personal: £39/year vs £88/year for the two best-in-class alternatives separately

On pure cost, yes — if you would otherwise pay for a separate VPN, Dashlane’s bundle saves money.

Is the VPN good enough? If your VPN use case is public WiFi protection and occasional streaming geo-unblocking, yes. If your threat model includes adversaries who could compel a VPN provider to disclose logs, no — Mullvad and ProtonVPN have better audited no-logs policies and better jurisdiction/ownership structures.

Dark web monitoring comparison

Both managers offer dark web monitoring, but the implementations differ:

Dashlane: Real-time breach alerting from a proprietary database. When a breach occurs, Dashlane identifies which specific credential type was exposed (email only, email + password, password hash) and whether it matches your current password for that service. This granularity is genuinely useful.

1Password Watchtower: Uses the Have I Been Pwned dataset. Alerts when your email appears in a breach database. Less granular than Dashlane’s implementation — it tells you that you were in a breach but not the credential specifics.

For users who want the most actionable dark web monitoring, Dashlane wins this category.

Migration from LastPass (Gate 20)

Dashlane: 3/5 migration fidelity from LastPass. Credentials transfer cleanly. TOTP seeds require manual re-enrolment (Dashlane has a 2FA migration tool but it doesn’t ingest LastPass’s .totp format directly — you re-scan QR codes). Folder structure partially preserved.

1Password: 5/5 migration fidelity from LastPass. TOTP seeds, folder hierarchy, attachments, and notes all preserved natively. The fastest and most complete migration in the market.

If you’re migrating from LastPass: Choose 1Password. The TOTP seed preservation alone justifies the choice — re-enrolling 50+ TOTP seeds manually takes 2-3 hours, and 1Password eliminates that entirely.

Use-case verdicts

Choose Dashlane if:

• You want one subscription covering password manager, VPN, and dark web monitoring
• Your household has 10 members who all need access (Dashlane’s 10-user Family plan is the most generous in the market)
• You’re not migrating from LastPass with TOTP seeds
• Dark web monitoring granularity (per-credential-type breach alerts) is important to you

Choose 1Password if:

• You’re migrating from LastPass — 5/5 migration fidelity, no other manager comes close
• Your team has 10 or fewer people — $19.95/month flat for 10 users vs Dashlane’s $50/month
• You travel and need Travel Mode (temporarily remove vaults at border crossings)
• You want more audit transparency (3 audits from 3 firms vs 1)
• The individual plan saves you £10/year vs Dashlane