NordPass and Dashlane are both solid Silver-tier password managers, but they've been built for different buyers. NordPass is the price leader: $1.49/mo for the premium plan, built on XChaCha20 encryption, and backed by the team behind NordVPN. Dashlane is the bundle play: $4.99/mo but includes a VPN and real-time dark web monitoring most users would pay extra for elsewhere. This is fundamentally a price-vs-features decision.
Option A
Zero-knowledge password manager from the makers of NordVPN
| Feature | NordPass | Dashlane |
|---|---|---|
| Starting Price | ✓$1.49/month (Premium, billed annually) — free tier available | $4.99/month (Advanced, billed annually) — free tier available (25 passwords, 1 device) |
| Encryption Algorithm | XChaCha20 — a modern stream cipher recommended by Google and used in TLS 1.3; well-suited for high-performance environments | ≈AES-256 — the industry standard, used by the U.S. government, banks, and most password managers worldwide |
| Bundled VPN | No VPN included — NordPass is a standalone product (separate from NordVPN subscription) | ✓Hotspot Shield VPN included in Advanced and above — unlimited bandwidth, 500+ servers |
| Free Tier | ✓Unlimited passwords, 1 device — the same vault features as paid, just limited to one active device at a time | 25 password limit, 1 device — intentionally restrictive to push upgrades |
| Dark Web Monitoring | Data Breach Scanner — checks your email addresses against known breach databases on demand and via alerts | ✓Real-time dark web monitoring — continuously scans 20+ billion records with proactive alerts and remediation steps |
| Family / Group Plans | ✓Family plan: $2.79/mo for 6 users — best per-seat value of any major password manager | Friends & Family: $7.49/mo for 10 users — more seats, higher total price |
| Business / Enterprise | Teams ($4.99/user/mo) and Enterprise (custom) — SSO, admin console, activity logs | ✓Business ($8/user/mo) — dedicated onboarding, phone support, SCIM provisioning, MDM integration |
| Brand Trust / Backing | Built by Nord Security — the same team behind NordVPN, one of the most widely used VPN services globally | ≈Standalone brand — Dashlane, Inc., founded 2012 in Paris, now based in New York, 18M+ users |
| Password Health Dashboard | Password Health score — flags weak, reused, and old passwords with a scannable overview | ≈Password Health score — similar dashboard with actionable recommendations and breach correlation |
If budget is the primary consideration, NordPass wins clearly at $1.49/mo vs Dashlane's $4.99/mo — especially if you already pay for a VPN separately. Choose Dashlane if you want a VPN bundled and don't have one: the $3.50/mo premium over NordPass is often less than what you'd pay for a separate VPN subscription, making Dashlane the better value in that specific scenario.
