Note: This comparison is based on NordPass’s and Dashlane’s official pricing pages, security pages and help-center articles, all checked on September 27, 2026. We did not run hands-on benchmarks, so there are no invented speed or autofill test numbers here. Both vendors change promo prices often, so confirm on their sites before you buy.
Short answer:
- Pick NordPass if you want the lower price, a free plan that still exists, or cheap seats for a small team. Premium starts at $1.39/month on a 2-year promo, and the Business plan costs $3.59–$5.99 per user/month depending on term.
- Pick Dashlane if you want a command-line tool for pulling secrets into scripts, or SSO and SCIM on its standard business package ($8 per user/month). It has no free plan any more, and in June 2026 it disclosed an attack in which encrypted vaults of fewer than 20 personal users were downloaded.
Pricing at a glance (September 2026)
| NordPass | Dashlane | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes. 1 user, no simultaneous login on multiple devices | No. Discontinued in September 2025 |
| Personal | Premium: $1.39/mo (2-year + 3 months, $37.53 for the first 27 months) or $1.99/mo (1-year, $23.88 for the first 12 months) | Premium: $5.42/mo, billed annually |
| Family | $2.49/mo (2-year, $67.23 for 27 months) or $3.69/mo (1-year, $44.28), 6 users | Friends & Family: $8.13/mo, billed annually, 10 members |
| Small team | Teams: $1.79–$2.49 per user/mo, sold as a 10-user pack | No separate small-team tier |
| Business | Business: $3.59 (2-year), $3.99 (1-year), $5.99 (monthly) per user/mo, 5-user minimum | Omnix Password Management: $8 per user/mo, billed annually |
| Enterprise | Enterprise: $5.39 / $5.99 / $7.99 per user/mo (2-year / 1-year / monthly) | Omnix Enterprise: custom pricing (aimed at 50+ users) |
| Trial / refund | 30-day money-back on personal plans; 14-day business trial | 14-day free trial on Premium and on Password Management |
What this means in practice:
- NordPass’s personal prices are introductory. The plans page shows $80.73 (2-year) and $35.88 (1-year) as the pre-discount prices, so expect to pay more after the first term. Prices exclude VAT.
- Dashlane shows one annual price with no separate intro rate.
- Dashlane also sells Omnix Credential Protection at $4 per user/month. That package covers phishing and credential-risk detection; it is not a password vault.
Dashlane’s free plan is gone
Dashlane announced on August 5, 2025 that its Free plan was ending. Free users lost the ability to view or edit their vault data after September 16, 2025 and could only export it. The window to upgrade or export ran until September 16, 2026, which has now passed. Today’s pricing page lists only Premium and Friends & Family for individuals.
Security, features and developer tools
| NordPass | Dashlane | |
|---|---|---|
| Vault encryption | XChaCha20 | AES-256 (AES256-CBC-HMAC) |
| Key derivation | Argon2id with a 16-byte salt | Argon2d |
| Zero-knowledge | Yes | Yes, plus AWS Nitro Enclaves for some cloud features |
| Passkeys | Create, use and share passkeys in the mobile app, browser extension, web vault and desktop app | Create and store passkeys in the web and mobile apps, synced across devices. Passwordless login to Dashlane is listed for new users only |
| Breach monitoring | Data Breach Scanner (Premium and Family; Business covers 1 domain, Enterprise up to 10) | Dark Web Monitoring (Premium); Credential Risk Detection (business) |
| Extras | Email masking, file attachments, emergency access | VPN on Premium, real-time phishing alerts, AI scam protection |
| CLI | None listed on NordPass’s plans or feature pages | Dashlane CLI (dcli), open source |
| Business SSO | Google Workspace on all business tiers; Entra ID, MS ADFS and Okta on Enterprise only | SSO and SCIM included in Password Management ($8) |
| Provisioning | User and group provisioning via Entra ID and Okta on Enterprise only | SCIM provisioning included in Password Management |
| Audit / API | Activity log on all business tiers; Activity Log API on Enterprise only; Splunk and Microsoft Sentinel on Enterprise | Admin policies; SIEM integration on business packages |
| Certifications stated | ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type 2, HIPAA | SOC 2 Type II (annual), ISO/IEC 27001 |
| Named independent audit | Cure53 audit of NordPass Business apps, extensions and admin panel (published October 2021) | Not named on the pages we checked |
Encryption: XChaCha20 vs AES-256
Both are strong, modern ciphers. Neither vendor’s choice is a practical weakness. NordPass says it is the only major password manager using XChaCha20. That is a real difference, but not one that makes your vault meaningfully safer. The most important factors for your vault are your master password strength and whether you turn on 2FA.
The CLI question
This is where Dashlane is ahead for developers. According to its docs at cli.dashlane.com, the Dashlane CLI can:
- read vault items from the terminal
- load secrets as environment variables (
exec) and inject them into templated files (inject) - for team admins, list members and pull audit logs and Dark Web Insights reports
Its GitHub releases page shows the most recent tagged release as v6.2636.0 from September 2024, so check that it still meets your needs before you build a pipeline around it.
NordPass does not list a CLI or a secrets-management SDK on its plans or features pages. Its developer-adjacent features are admin-side: an activity log, an Activity Log API, and SIEM integrations on Enterprise.
If terminal and CI/CD access is your main requirement, also look at Keeper, which has a CLI (Commander) and a dedicated secrets manager. See our NordPass vs Keeper and Keeper vs Dashlane comparisons.
Security incidents
Dashlane (June 2026). Dashlane’s security advisory says that starting on May 31, 2026, attackers sent a large volume of automated requests to the device-registration flow to get around 2FA. The attackers downloaded encrypted vaults of fewer than 20 personal-plan users. Dashlane says those vaults cannot be opened without the master password, and that it found no evidence its internal systems were compromised.
In a September 3, 2026 update, Dashlane said it had:
- added extra verification to device registration
- retired legacy API endpoints faster
- strengthened its defenses against automated attacks
It advises users to review their registered devices and enable 2FA.
NordPass. We found no official breach disclosure from NordPass on its site or help center.
Which should you pick?
| Your situation | Pick |
|---|---|
| Want a free password manager | NordPass Free (no simultaneous multi-device login), or see our best free password managers |
| Cheapest paid personal plan | NordPass Premium |
| Family of 6 or fewer on a budget | NordPass Family |
| Up to 10 people who need VPN and phishing alerts bundled | Dashlane Friends & Family (VPN is for the plan manager only) |
Pull secrets into scripts or .env files from a terminal | Dashlane (CLI), or consider Keeper |
| 10-person startup, Google Workspace login | NordPass Teams |
| Okta or Entra SSO plus automatic provisioning | Dashlane Password Management ($8) vs NordPass Enterprise ($5.39–$7.99). NordPass is cheaper on annual terms |
Pros and cons
NordPass pros
- Much cheaper personal, family and team plans.
- A real free tier still exists.
- Premium includes the Data Breach Scanner, email masking and passkeys.
- XChaCha20 encryption, plus a named third-party audit (Cure53).
NordPass cons
- Personal prices are introductory and rise after the first term.
- No CLI or secrets-management tooling.
- Okta and Entra SSO, provisioning and the Activity Log API require Enterprise.
- The Teams plan is sold only as a 10-user pack.
Dashlane pros
- The CLI supports
execandinjectfor secrets, plus admin audit-log access. - SSO and SCIM are included in its standard business package.
- A VPN and phishing alerts are included in Premium.
- SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001.
Dashlane cons
- No free plan since September 2025.
- Roughly 3–4x NordPass’s 2-year promo price for a personal plan.
- The June 2026 brute-force incident exposed encrypted vaults of a small number of users.
- The CLI’s last tagged GitHub release is from 2024.
FAQ
Is Dashlane still free in 2026? No. Dashlane ended its Free plan in September 2025. Individuals can now choose Premium ($5.42/month, billed annually) or Friends & Family ($8.13/month, billed annually), each with a 14-day trial.
Is NordPass cheaper than Dashlane? Yes, on every tier we compared. NordPass Premium is $1.39–$1.99/month on promo terms versus $5.42/month for Dashlane Premium. On business plans, NordPass Business is $3.59–$5.99 per user versus Dashlane’s $8.
Is XChaCha20 more secure than AES-256? Both are modern, widely used ciphers, and AES-256 is not a weak point. Your master password and 2FA matter far more.
Was Dashlane hacked? Dashlane disclosed a brute-force attack on its device-registration flow beginning May 31, 2026. Encrypted vaults of fewer than 20 personal users were downloaded. Dashlane says it found no evidence that its internal systems were breached.
Does NordPass have a CLI? We could not find a CLI on NordPass’s plans or feature pages. Its programmatic access is the Activity Log API on the Enterprise plan.
Which is better for a small dev team? NordPass Teams is the cheapest option if you have about 10 people and use Google Workspace. If you need Okta or Entra SSO with SCIM, compare NordPass Enterprise with Dashlane’s $8 package, and consider Keeper if CLI and secrets management matter.
Sources, checked September 27, 2026: NordPass personal plans, NordPass business plans, NordPass security, NordPass passkeys, NordPass Business Cure53 audit, Dashlane pricing, Dashlane Free plan ending, Dashlane security, Dashlane compliance and certifications, Passkeys in Dashlane, Dashlane security advisory: brute force attack, Dashlane CLI docs, Dashlane CLI releases.