Safe and simple password-management software that works on all your devices
It’s safest – if not always practical – to use a unique password for every website you have an account with. Although your browser can store these for you, it’s easier and more secure to use a specialised password manager like Dashlane. This software is also described as a ‘digital wallet’, which means it can also remember your bank or payment-card details and submit them securely to a website to save you the bother.
Dashlane is easy to set up and use – you simply download and install it, set a master password, and follow some onscreen prompts to configure the main features. The master password is known only to you, and it effectively encrypts everything before it’s saved on your computer. It should, therefore, be impossible for anyone else to access it. With Dashlane’s free version, the encrypted data stays on your PC, but with the Premium version reviewed here, it’s also backed up to Dashlane’s servers and can then be synchronised to your other PCs and Macs, as well as your iOS and Android tablets and phones.
We installed Dashlane on a PC and an Android smartphone. It automatically imported several existing logins that we’d previously saved in web browsers, although we had to enter some passwords that it couldn’t retrieve. You can enter logins manually, otherwise Dashlane will automatically capture them the first time you type them on a website. You can give each password a name and assign it a category (such as email, finance or shopping). To find a particular password you can search by name or category. Once a password is logged with Dashlane, you can visit a site and it will sign you in automatically, whichever device you’re using.
Dashlane can also measure how safe your passwords are, based on how easy they are to guess, how long you’ve used them and whether you’ve re-used them on multiple sites. Pressing a button by each password in the program’s main window replaces the login with a randomly generated and highly secure one. We particularly like the program’s Compromised feature, which prompts you to change your password for any site that’s been hacked, and any other sites where you’ve used the same login.
Other features include the ability to share one or more logins or secure notes with trusted friends and family. We also like Emergency, which lets you pre-select friends who may need to access your data urgently. They still need to request access, which is only granted if you don’t (or can’t) respond within an agreed timeframe.
Dashlane has many good features and is both easy to use and helpful (it warns you when a stored credit card is near to expiry). The free version is excellent if you only have one device and don’t need the cloud backup feature. If you have several devices, however, the £26 annual fee for Dashlane Premium is money well spent.
VERDICT
It’s easy to use and full of great features. The free version is good, but it’s worth paying for Premium.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Windows XP or later • Mac OS X 10.6 or later • iOS 6 or later • Android 4.0 or later