For years, the team at Interplay has been using and recommending Dashlane as our preferred password management app. However, we’ve been having a few troubles with Dashlane lately, so we switched to 1Password.
We think you should switch too, and here’s why.
Nope, you don’t have to switch at all. Dashlane is fine, we just think 1Password is better. However, let’s clear the air with a couple of need-to-know comments:
This article isn’t a warning or anything. We still think Dashlane is a great password manager with solid security, and we love its time-saving features… but only when those features work. Lately, Dashlane’s features haven’t been working well for us, so we researched our options and found something better.
We’re pretty excited about 1Password, and we know this article might sound like some sort of paid thing. Let’s be clear: We’re not getting paid to write this, and we have no weird ulterior motives for our endorsement. We just really like 1Password and we want to share the love. ☺
Now, let’s get down to the juicy stuff – here’s why we totally love 1Password.
In general, the reason why we love 1Password is because of its ease of use and security. As we researched and tried out various password management apps, we realized that 1Password was easy enough to use for the novice but sophisticated enough to bend and flex to a power user’s whim.
Now, let’s talk details:
Our biggest issue with Dashlane was that the tools didn’t work consistently (and often didn’t work at all). With 1Password, the tools feel very well-coded. They work consistently, on every device, in nearly every situation. (In a few cases, 1Password didn’t fill in logins on a few phone apps during our testing process, but it was really minor.)
In our experience, 1Password never hangs (unlike Dashlane), it never does something without visual feedback, and it never generates weird errors. It just works – and works well.
Structurally, we think the entire system is well thought out. It’s easy enough to use for the average user, but it can get really sophisticated as needed, directly supporting multiple logins and vaults per user. (Dashlane doesn’t do this.)
We know, we know. We’re total nerds for saying that a password management app is fun to use… but it’s true! The software is extremely responsive, allowing us to do everything we needed at the point of password insertion in 95% of cases. We almost never had to open the extension or the full app to change/update/add new sets of credentials. (If you’ve been using Dashlane, you know it’s pretty clunky at this.)
We were excited to see that 1Password has a really extensible database that can store a significant amount of information that’s replicated very quickly across devices when needed. In our experience, sync never froze up and we never really had to wait for a password to sync across devices.
In one particularly awesome testing situation, an Interplay teammate entered a new password into his phone and then tried to log in to a website on his desktop. Immediately, the extension caught on that it needed to sync, and it quickly flashed the new credentials into the login box within a couple seconds without any intervention on the tester’s part.
We were shocked and amazed because we were just so darn used to fighting with Dashlane all the time about syncing.
In 1Password, each password in the database is extensible, which allows for a lot more tricks. Maybe you won’t get this extreme with your password management habits, but we loved that you can store as many duplicates of items inside an object in 1Password as you want, so you can store multiple URLs to simplify the login process when the name of the site changes but still uses the same login credentials. 1Password also lets you store multiple one-time passwords (OTPs) if you want to do that, as well as secret keys and challenge questions, free-form text, documents, images – whatever you want.
In Dashlane, sharing passwords one at a time gets really tiresome really quickly, especially if you need to share a large number of passwords. In 1Password, you can create multiple vaults and attach people to those vaults. After that, you simply drop passwords from one vault to another, even across linked accounts like your personal password vault and your business password vault.
We tried contacting support through multiple channels (including Twitter, which is an official channel!) and they were very responsive with fast turnaround times. When you get a business license with 1Password, you are assigned a “Sales Sommelier,” which is a fancy term for your account manager. In addition, the documentation is good, even though it’s not always easy to find from the app.
Not sure if you have the time or energy to deal with installing, learning, training, and paying for a new password management app? Waiting for your annual Dashlane contract to end before making the switch? That’s okay. Even though we’re excited about 1Password, we still think Dashlane is a great option.
If you want to stick with Dashlane, there is no problem with that.
Here’s what we like about Dashlane:
Why did we switch? For reasons that should sound familiar to you if you’ve been a longtime Dashlane user:
The choice, of course, is yours – but if you’re as excited about 1Password as we are, you’ll be glad to hear that it’s super easy to make the switch. When it comes to exports, 1Password handled our Dashlane JSON export file really well, with no questions asked and no hassle. That means it should be an easy export/import process for you to change over to your new password management app.
However… that being said, if you have any problems or any questions, you know that the friendly IT experts at Interplay are always here to lend a helping hand with whatever you need.
Need help? All you have to do is reach out.
[email protected]
16300 Christensen Rd Ste 304 Seattle, WA 98188
(206) 329-6600
