I’ve caused this. I’m sure of it.
I just released a new guide to the Best Password Managers last week. I’ve knocked the planets and asteroids out of alignment—or into alignment; I don’t know how it works—and caused a cascading domino effect that’s resulted in Dashlane discontinuing the free version of its service.
The silver lining is that, from now until September 16, when the free version is discontinued, all current free users will be upgraded to a free trial version of the premium plan.
Use a password manager, free or not
You should be using a password manager. Free, paid, green, or written in some House of Dragons language, it doesn’t matter. It helps keep your numerous online accounts secure by serving as a digital vault that stores all the unique keys (passwords) to your accounts and websites.
Each key, or password, is uniquely generated and highly secure. There are no reused passwords, which reduces the risk of a single account hack snowballing into a bigger problem.
And you can create very complex, hard-to-crack passwords without having to remember them every time you log in. You have to be logged into your password manager account, and the manager will take care of remembering the rest of the passwords.
Free versions of password managers always had limits. The typical person has so many accounts that they’d quickly fill up the allotted number of saved accounts of any free service before long. That and you’re typically limited to accessing them on only one device.
That’s why I’ve always viewed free password managers as more of an open-ended trial than a permanent solution. “Use a free version for a while to see how you like it, and then upgrade to the paid version,” I’d frequently say.
I still feel that way, even though Dashlane will be discontinuing its free version on September 16, 2025. Upgrade to the paid version. Or if you aren’t using any password manager yet, go straight to the paid version.
Five bucks per month (billed annually) is well worth a service that I’ve been using daily for the past eight or so years.
If you’re dead-set on not paying for a password manager, LastPass and Proton Pass both still offer free and paid versions. I’ve used them all, and each is a worthy, reliable password manager with a long history of stable service.
The post Dashlane Is Ditching Its Free Password Manager—Switch to One of These Instead appeared first on VICE.
