1Password 8 for Mac With Improved Interface, Performance, and More Now Available in Early Access

[Alwis]

I am still in the process of evaluating the alternatives.

As I wont the vault to be stored locally only Bitwarden is out of the play, even if Im could host it on my own server. But this is just unnecessary effort for me.

Currently KeepassXC for macOS and Keepassium for iOS look promising. I am not in a hurry, as I expect to be able to use 1Password7 in Monterey and iOS 15 to (if I will update).

 

[Kev_D]

After all is said and done, what is the closest (best) alternative?
I've been with 1pw since JUNE 7, 2016, never really looked at other options, now I am, so I need some help.

I use macOS, iOS, Android, and Windows PC, so diverse no doubt, always have incorporated 1 PW with credit card details , pictures, front and bank , Gov info, (like social services etc) Health cards, and all of the various things I can store, so more than just a password manager.

I am looking non stop at options, so please don't think I'm lazy, I'm not, just looking for some help in alternate direction.
If there is nothing better, I'll stick with 1 PW, I am a paying customer and have no problem to continue to subscribe, so $ is not a factor in my decision.

Any help is and will be appreciated.

I'm currently testing Enpass & I like it so far. Vault synched to iCloud and accessible accross my iPhone, Macbook & Win10 PC. Not open source but they did get audited in 2018 I think.

Haven't encountered any weird behaviour so far but @macintoshmac seemed to have an issue with updating a password directly when changing it on a specific website.

I also noticed when deleting the Vault from iCloud there might be a bug where they only empty the database but don't delete the actual file from iCloud. Probably for when you go back to them later they can reuse the same db file but tbh this might also be a bug as I stated before.

Been playing around with Strongbox (iOS/macOS) too since they use KeePass Vaults which can be used cross platform with any client of your own choosing.

Need to do some more testing with both but currently I'm liking Enpass. My final decision will depend on any bugs that surface and if they will fix that "bug" that needs to delete the empty file from iCloud.

Enpass is either subscription or a onetime Lifetime License (which you can get for half off if you search the net for coupons) & unlimited devices. Currently only Vault synching with 3rd party Cloud providers (iCloud, Dropbox, ...) but their next release will support WiFi synching so you just synch databases on multiple devices via your own network. That way your data will never leave your own devices.

Strongbox is an appstore purchase $49.99 for iOS and $22.99 for macOS. Don't have any experience with KeePass clients for other platforms yet. Since KeePass is open source there's an abundance of options but that also means a non unified approach (as in different clients with different UX) for all your devices.

 

[MacBH928]

Nonsense. You can export all your passwords from 1Password if you decide to switch apps. You're not a prisoner. Also, the subscription model sure doesn't seem to be hurting other companies that use it. Believe me, they're not going to continue to do something that loses them money. If they thought selling perpetual licenses would make them more money, then they'd do so. If they continue with subscription only and see a loss of profits over time, they'll re-think it. That's what's so great about the free market - the market gets to decide these things ultimately (unless the business is just stupid, in which case they'll go out of business). It's not greed; it's simple economics. So vote with your wallet - but just know that it will take a whole lot more than just a relatively small group of disgruntled users jumping ship to make a company change their pricing structure.

It's amazing the reaction at subscription apps. I don't like it but ... EVERYONE is doing it today because.... it results in more stable income for the company to pay developers their hourly/salary wages. Companies today no longer abide by the rule of having stagnant money sitting around, meaning when hard times hit, there's nothing to fall back on.

Despite the small minority here of overall users (my opinion), most people will continue to use 1Password, and they may even gain users over time.

I'm starting to get very fed up with subscriptions - I've gone out of my way to cancel about 60% of stuff I subscribed to this year alone. I used to spend hundreds and hundreds a year on applications - I love supporting developers and trying new things but ... I am getting so fed up with subscriptions, I'd rather have more $ in my bank account than feel forced to use an app cuz I'm paying monthly for it.

I think 1Password's biggest competition is going to be Apple Keychain. MOST people will look at a monthly subscription and choose keychain. Few of us who are heavy password manager users will keep paying for 1Password but for most people I know (easily vast majority) - Chrome password manager, Keychain, or something of the sort is more than enough for what they need.

I've been a long time 1Password user and I really liked the beauty and power this application had. Like DayOne - I wasn't terribly happy when they went subscription and left iCloud but ... I followed them both and still pay for both for now. But I don't like that my data sits on their cloud for several reasons: They have the key and if they go out of business, they'll stop paying for their cloud.

You could also argue the opposite - with a subscription, a unhappy user could cancel and switch to another service at any time, so there is a strong incentive to maintain quality, feature parity (at least) with competitors and so on. It’s a lot easier to switch to a different hotel than to move house.

I think there are merits to both models, and both can produce high quality, innovative software, and both can produce complacent, shoddy work. It’s easy to look around and see examples for all of these.

With 1Password and other similar services I’m much more interested in maintenance than innovation. Shiny new features are always fun, but I can’t really think of anything missing from 1Password. Maintenance, on the other hand, is critical. I’m not a software developer, but I imagine this is one of these areas where there is a huge amount of work to be done just a stand still - keeping up with new OSs, new browser versions across many platforms, dealing with all sorts of web design edge cases that need fixing, staying on top of emerging security threats, etc. So it seems to me to be a product that better suited to a stream of regular, minor updates rather than periodic new Big Bang releases.

The market can be wrong. People who are opting for the free service lead to the creation of the monster that Google and FB is and now major services and huge parts of the internet do not work with them tracking you. We reached to a point where you have to give up your privacy to have a functioning phone or a functioning web.

Once people's brain washed and think everything must be paid via subscription and every other developer turned into subscription model we have gave up the power to chose and created our own monster. Now enjoy a bill for $200-300 monthly for everything you use or go back to being a caveman.

Subscribe to your router manufacturer= because they need to maintain the firmware
subscribe to your PC manufacturer=because they have to maintain drivers
subscribe to your appliances manufacturer=because they still have to higher technicians to fix it
subscribe to your car= because manufacturer still has to build spare parts for it
subscribe to your razor blades(its actually a thing)= So they continue to make it

where does it end?

The biggest lie told in the software business is "we have to maintain the software" costs . Affinity build complex image processing software, they support Mac, Windows, and iPadOS and they ONLY have license model. The company is flourishing.

Doom Eternal is sold for Windows, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S and you don't have to pay subscription and you do get bug fixes and improvements and some times new content and features.

What a load of none sense this "maintianance" and "support multi-platform" costs this is.

 

[thisisnotmyname]

bye agilebits. I'll no longer be your customer.

@bwoodruff - now we can see that all your previous comments were just corporate spin. It was clear that AgileBits was looking to milk customers for SaaS from version 7 and now we see the fruition of that plan. Should have had the integrity to own it back when we could all see the writing on the wall.

 

[usagora]

The market can be wrong. People who are opting for the free service lead to the creation of the monster that Google and FB is and now major services and huge parts of the internet do not work with them tracking you. We reached to a point where you have to give up your privacy to have a functioning phone or a functioning web.

Once people's brain washed and think everything must be paid via subscription and every other developer turned into subscription model we have gave up the power to chose and created our own monster. Now enjoy a bill for $200-300 monthly for everything you use or go back to being a caveman.

Subscribe to your router manufacturer= because they need to maintain the firmware
subscribe to your PC manufacturer=because they have to maintain drivers
subscribe to your appliances manufacturer=because they still have to higher technicians to fix it
subscribe to your car= because manufacturer still has to build spare parts for it
subscribe to your razor blades(its actually a thing)= So they continue to make it

where does it end?

The biggest lie told in the software business is "we have to maintain the software" costs . Affinity build complex image processing software, they support Mac, Windows, and iPadOS and they ONLY have license model. The company is flourishing.

Doom Eternal is sold for Windows, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S and you don't have to pay subscription and you do get bug fixes and improvements and some times new content and features.

What a load of none sense this "maintianance" and "support multi-platform" costs this is.

To me, it's simple. Software companies use the subscription model because it generates a more consistent income and makes them more profitable. There's nowhere near a monopoly with pw managers, so I don't see the problem. If you don't like the price of one, then find another that suits your budget. If enough people jump ship, they'll either lower the subscription prices or revert back to perpetual license offerings or whatever they need to do to get back to being profitable.

 

[nylon]

To me, it's simple. Software companies use the subscription model because it generates a more consistent income and makes them more profitable. There's nowhere near a monopoly with pw managers, so I don't see the problem. If you don't like the price of one, then find another that suits your budget. If enough people jump ship, they'll either lower the subscription prices or revert back to perpetual license offerings or whatever they need to do to get back to being profitable.

This is true but I feel a disingenuous argument. The company has been profitable and sustainable prior to the current attempt to shoehorn everyone into a subscription based service; so one has to ask why now. The answer is pretty obvious. Once the VC's came on board the pressure for ever higher revenue was inevitable. As a business I understand that but I believe they can and should still offer a perpetual license to those who want one. They already stipulated vast majority of new customers choose a sub anyway (since they effectively made one jump through hoops to find the perpetual license option on their website) then offering a perpetual option should not hinder their revenue growth potential regardless. The argument they are putting forward is full of contradictions and those of us that have been long-term customers can see through them.

 

[Mr. Heckles]

I'm genuinely curious what sort of external security threats you're envisioning on an Apple ][e?

You’re missing the point. You said you can buy an app and pay once 20 years. That’s not happening.

 

[usagora]

Once the VC's came on board the pressure for ever higher revenue was inevitable. As a business I understand that but I believe they can and should still offer a perpetual license to those who want one.

This is where we disagree on a fundamental level. You make it sound like they have some sort of moral obligation to offer perpetual licenses when you say they "should" do so.

I ran into this mindset recently on a business-related forum where someone said business owners who didn't offer veteran discounts were basically immoral and should be ashamed of themselves. My argument was why stop with veterans then? What about retired teachers and all retired public servants? Are they second class citizens? What about single moms and dads? Where do the demands of self-entitlement end?

Now, would it be NICE if 1Password continued to offer perpetual licenses? Of course! Would it be NICE if every single business gave veteran discounts (or discounts to many different categories of people)? Of course! But they are under no legal NOR moral obligation to.

 

[Enlightened Doggo]

This is where we disagree on a fundamental level. You make it sound like they have some sort of moral obligation to offer perpetual licenses when you say they "should" do so.

I ran into this mindset recently on a business-related forum where someone said business owners who didn't offer veteran discounts were basically immoral and should be ashamed of themselves. My argument was why stop with veterans then? What about retired teachers and all retired public servants? Are they second class citizens? What about single moms and dads? Where do the demands of self-entitlement end?

Now, would it be NICE if 1Password continued to offer perpetual licenses? Of course! Would it be NICE if every single business gave veteran discounts (or discounts to many different categories of people)? Of course! But they are under no legal NOR moral obligation to.

Well morals don't exist outside of your head, so not sure what you're going on about there. What they "should" do in the context is about business sense, and you're not taking into account the cost of selling out their most loyal customers. They didn't need to remove features that would have allowed perpetual use of the program. They could have just stopped providing updates for non-paying customers like Stripe does. Throwing out previously repeat customers is not good business sense if it can be avoided.

 

[nylon]

This is where we disagree on a fundamental level. You make it sound like they have some sort of moral obligation to offer perpetual licenses when you say they "should" do so.

I ran into this mindset recently on a business-related forum where someone said business owners who didn't offer veteran discounts were basically immoral and should be ashamed of themselves. My argument was why stop with veterans then? What about retired teachers and all retired public servants? Are they second class citizens? What about single moms and dads? Where do the demands of self-entitlement end?

Now, would it be NICE if 1Password continued to offer perpetual licenses? Of course! Would it be NICE if every single business gave veteran discounts (or discounts to many different categories of people)? Of course! But they are under no legal NOR moral obligation to.

Talk about multiple strawmen. No one is asking for anything that has not already been the status quo offering. Sadly, the only one moralizing here is you. I’ve read all your posts and sadly you tend to cherry pick your responses without addressing the root issues being raised. 🤷‍♂️

 

[PeteBurgh]

The market can be wrong. People who are opting for the free service lead to the creation of the monster that Google and FB is and now major services and huge parts of the internet do not work with them tracking you. We reached to a point where you have to give up your privacy to have a functioning phone or a functioning web

It seems to me that if you want to make this kind of apocalyptic, sky-is-falling-in argument about how terrible software pricing is and how subscriptions have destroyed choice, you could choose a better example than password managers. A user wanting to use a password manager today has a choice of:

• Paid or free (plenty of good options for both)
• Freestanding or built-in to the OS (e.g. Keychain is quite limited in some ways, but is clearly coming along)
• Proprietary or open source (again, lots of choice for those that care about that)
• Cloud based or self-hosted

That seems to me to be an explemary version of a competitive market that gives customers lots of choice and quality.

The biggest lie told in the software business is "we have to maintain the software" costs…What a load of none sense this "maintianance" and "support multi-platform" costs this is.

I respectfully suggest that you don’t know what you’re talking about.

Colleagues in my team at the university where I work are responsible for maintaining the software we deploy to staff and students - some that we buy, some open source, and some simple ‘home grown’ mini-applications. A huge part of that job is coping with the constant stream of changes coming across multiple OSs - even seemingly minor updates can introduce unexpected changes to APIs (often undocumented) and particularly security features like notarisation. Some applications can work perfectly well unchanged for decades, but when you’re talking about anything that needs to be both secure and sync across different devices, the complexity quickly starts to multiply.

 

[usagora]

Talk about multiple strawmen. No one is asking for anything that has not already been the status quo offering. Sadly, the only one moralizing here is you. I’ve read all your posts and sadly you tend to cherry pick your responses without addressing the root issues being raised. 🤷‍♂️

Your response makes no sense and is deflecting. Did you not say that 1Password SHOULD offer perpetual licenses? Does that not imply there's some ethical/moral principle in your mind guiding that pronouncement of "should"? I don't care if the "should" is attached to something they've always done before or something new - you're still implying they have some sort of obligation to do it.

Now, if you mean you'd PREFER them to continue to offer perpetual licenses, that's a totally different thing (but it's not what you said).

 

[usagora]

Well morals don't exist outside of your head, so not sure what you're going on about there. What they "should" do in the context is about business sense,

I'll let the person I was replying to speak for himself, thanks. IF that's what he meant, then he should have qualified that. In fact, he already replied again and still didn't qualify it.

and you're not taking into account the cost of selling out their most loyal customers. They didn't need to remove features that would have allowed perpetual use of the program. They could have just stopped providing updates for non-paying customers like Stripe does. Throwing out previously repeat customers is not good business sense if it can be avoided.

Such emotional language! No one is "throwing out" customers. The customer has a choice to continue using the software and pay a subscription or to look elsewhere. Just because another company does something one way doesn't mean every company has to do it that way.

 

[Puonti]

They didn't need to remove features that would have allowed perpetual use of the program. They could have just stopped providing updates for non-paying customers like Stripe does. Throwing out previously repeat customers is not good business sense if it can be avoided.

One way to look at it is that they did exactly that. If someone sticks with 1Password 6 or 7, using a previously purchased standalone license, AgileBits has essentially stopped providing updates to that "non-paying customer" (your words - I'd rather say non-subscriber). That former customer continues to have perpetual use of the software and features they paid for (where perpetual is defined as until the software refuses to run on available systems).

At least that's my current understanding. There's business decisions that are customer-unfriendly (like removing local vaults), and then there's business decisions that are suicidal (revoking past, perfectly legit and paid-for licenses). If you've seen official communication indicating that's what's happening when 1Password 8 is released, I'd be genuinely interested in seeing it on account of it being so outlandish.

Then there's the case of subscribers like myself. AgileBits has confirmed that 1Password 8 will not be an update to the existing software but rather its own entry in the App Store (macOS certainly, I assume iOS as well), but I don't know if they've confirmed any period of continued 1Password.com / .ca / .eu account support for 1Password 7 clients.

There will be a transition period, certainly, and it helps that regardless of client version subscribers are all "paying customers". But considering that AgileBits have officially stated they want 1Password to be easier to develop for multiple platforms than it has traditionally been, it would be counter-intuitive for them to actively support two different sync systems (v7 and "modern") in the long run.

Right now v8 doesn't come across as something I want to move to, but it remains to be seen whether us v7 subscribers have enough runway left to transition to a much better iteration of 1Password (meaning, native-like and efficient) or if business reasons will dictate a plan B. Either way right now I don't need to do anything.

 

[nylon]

Your response makes no sense and is deflecting. Did you not say that 1Password SHOULD offer perpetual licenses? Does that not imply there's some ethical/moral principle in your mind guiding that pronouncement of "should"? I don't care if the "should" is attached to something they've always done before or something new - you're still implying they have some sort of obligation to do it.

Now, if you mean you'd PREFER them to continue to offer perpetual licenses, that's a totally different thing (but it's not what you said).

Your argument is semantics. Deflecting as in veterans discounts? 😂 They have already been offering perpetual licenses. They are taking this option away. It has nothing to do with morals or ethics. You are the one assigning morality/ethics to it by essentially saying, "I don't care" whether they have done it in the past. You are entitled to that view. However, as a business, if one has long term customers and you are forcing them into a new payment paradigm then the only obligation that exists is for the Company to provide valid justification for that. At that point everyone can make up their own minds. As you said, and I agreed, there are plenty of alternatives.

The problem here is that motives they have laid out are not transparent and their stipulation that the vast majority of new customers choose subs is disingenuous. And if the majority of new customers are picking subs then the rationale not to provide perpetual licenses as an option has not been rationalized adequately. Not to mention the many technical decisions that seem to have been made that seem to undermine performance and security concerns of existing users, many that have been borne out in this thread. But hey maybe you want to engage in further semantics on the word 'should'.

 

[usagora]

Deflecting as in veterans discounts? 😂 They have already been offering perpetual licenses. They are taking this option away. It has nothing to do with morals or ethics. You are the one assigning morality/ethics to it by essentially saying, "I don't care" whether they have done it in the past. You are entitled to that view. However, as a business, if one has long term customers and you are forcing them into a new payment paradigm then the only obligation that exists is for the Company to provide valid justification for that. At that point everyone can make up their own minds. As you said, and I agreed, there are plenty of alternatives.

So if that's not an ethical/moral principle, then where are you getting that from? Upon what principle are you declaring that they are "obligated" to explain anything to you about how they choose to operate their business? Is it in writing somewhere? Are you on the board of directors? Shareholder? I don't get it. And it's not "forcing" anyone, because they can walk away as you admitted. So you're saying two contradicting things: 1. users are forced 2. users have a choice. Pick one (and we both know the correct answer is the latter) and stop trying to over-dramatize things.

The problem here is that motives they have laid out are not transparent and their stipulation that the vast majority of new customers choose subs is disingenuous. And if the majority of new customers are picking subs then the rationale not to provide perpetual licenses as an option has not been rationalized adequately. Not to mention the many technical decisions that seem to have been made that seem to undermine performance and security concerns of existing users, many that have been borne out in this thread. But hey maybe another veterans discount analogy might do the trick.

Again, they don't need to "rationalize" anything to you. They're doing what they believe best for their business in terms of the pricing structure. As for security or performance concerns, I'm not experiencing any of those as a 1Password subscriber myself, so I'll leave that for you and others to discuss.

 

[deeddawg]

You’re missing the point. You said you can buy an app and pay once 20 years. That’s not happening.

I said no such thing.

Why won’t you answer the question I asked? What sort of external security threats are you envisioning on an Apple ][e?

 

[bradl]

So if that's not an ethical/moral principle, then where are you getting that from? Upon what principle are you declaring that they are "obligated" to explain anything to you about how they choose to operate their business? Is it in writing somewhere? Are you on the board of directors? Shareholder? I don't get it. And it's not "forcing" anyone, because they can walk away as you admitted. So you're saying two contradicting things: 1. users are forced 2. users have a choice. Pick one (and we both know the correct answer is the latter) and stop trying to over-dramatize things.



Again, they don't need to "rationalize" anything to you. They're doing what they believe best for their business in terms of the pricing structure. As for security or performance concerns, I'm not experiencing any of those as a 1Password subscriber myself, so I'll leave that for you and others to discuss.

that is what we have been discussing, yet you think that we are being irrational and on a tirade because “$3 is incredibly cheap!”, despite the fact that some of us have had a license to use the application we have for 10-15 years or longer.. and think that it is a good idea to pay more to continue to use the same application we already have.

BL.

 

[bradl]

It is. You use the same app for 10/20 years, no updates, not supported, you’re going to have security issues. But hey, you only bought it once.

hmm..

I updated to 1P6 in 2016 from 1P5 and that from 1P4. Not only is there updates to it, but my last TM backup had version 6.8.6 on it. When I restored from that backup last night…
BOOM! Update 6.8.9 popped up for me to upgrade to from the App Store.

that last TM backup was from March 2021.

you might want to reconsider what is still supported and able to be used in perpetuity, because that opinion is highly incorrect.

BL.

 

[Puonti]

...my last TM backup had version 6.8.6 on it. When I restored from that backup last night…
BOOM! Update 6.8.9 popped up for me to upgrade to from the App Store.

that last TM backup was from March 2021.

I'm not doubting that this happened, but it should be noted that 6.8.9 was released on the 18th of May 2018. 7.0.0 was released on the 22nd of May 2018, and that marked the end of v6 updates.

https://app-updates.agilebits.com/product_history/OPM4#v689001

https://app-updates.agilebits.com/product_history/OPM7#v70000019

That doesn't prevent v6 from being used, of course.

 

[nylon]

So if that's not an ethical/moral principle, then where are you getting that from? Upon what principle are you declaring that they are "obligated" to explain anything to you about how they choose to operate their business? Is it in writing somewhere? Are you on the board of directors? Shareholder? I don't get it. And it's not "forcing" anyone, because they can walk away as you admitted. So you're saying two contradicting things: 1. users are forced 2. users have a choice. Pick one (and we both know the correct answer is the latter) and stop trying to over-dramatize things.

You think that a company with long-term paying customers doesn't have an obligation to honestly explain to those customers changes that will directly impact them. And you think this falls under some sort of moral/ethical paradigm instead of the fundamentals about how to run business and hold on to those paying customers (revenue stream)? If so then why are they trying to do exactly that. You know exactly what I mean by 'forcing' in the context laid out but you continue to engage spurious semantics. It's ironic you harp on about shareholders and boards of directors if you don't understand the fundamentals about how to run a business. And yes, anyone can walk away. Everyone understands that basic concept. You don't need to patronize them with the obvious. That line of reasoning is an obvious an attempt to end any discussion/debate amongst customers who obviously care about a product and company they have relied on and supported for years. But you do you and continue to lay out your asinine reasoning. I'm looking forward to the next word you cherry pick and base your argument around.

Anyone can lay out a position derived from a theoretical textbook capitalist framework but I hope you aren't that naive and realize the real world is not that black and white and there are competing interests that all corporations have to take into account, including the interests of their long term paying customers.

 

[bradl]

I'm not doubting that this happened, but it should be noted that 6.8.9 was released on the 18th of May 2018. 7.0.0 was released on the 22nd of May 2018, and that marked the end of v6 updates.

https://app-updates.agilebits.com/product_history/OPM4#v689001

https://app-updates.agilebits.com/product_history/OPM7#v70000019

That doesn't prevent v6 from being used, of course.

I agree. and that is exactly what has happened; But to say that it is not being supported or even available for use is disingenuous.

BL.

 

[bradl]

You’re missing the point. You said you can buy an app and pay once 20 years. That’s not happening.

No. He didn't. I did.

BTW: My Mid-2011 MBA still has the following running on it, smoothly, from a single 1-time purchase:

• Microsoft Office 2011.
• OS X Mountain Lion (lest you forget, it was a $29.99 cost, and wasn't free until Mavericks).
• 1Password 4.
• 1Password 5.
• 1Password 6.
• Postbox (Apple's Native mail app for Lion to High Sierra was horrible, yet fixed in Mojave and later).

All of this being 10 years and counting. And judging from how well my Apple IIe is still working 38 years after getting it, the odds are not in your favor for this MBA and all of the apps on it to still be working in another 10 years' time.

BL.

 

[Enlightened Doggo]

Such emotional language! No one is "throwing out" customers. The customer has a choice to continue using the software and pay a subscription or to look elsewhere. Just because another company does something one way doesn't mean every company has to do it that way.

The fact is they cut a useful feature seemingly only because it allowed people to use the software without always being connected to their servers. Is that an emotionally detached enough way to describe to you why long-term customers are not buying the updates now?

 

[Enlightened Doggo]

One way to look at it is that they did exactly that. If someone sticks with 1Password 6 or 7, using a previously purchased standalone license, AgileBits has essentially stopped providing updates to that "non-paying customer" (your words - I'd rather say non-subscriber). That former customer continues to have perpetual use of the software and features they paid for (where perpetual is defined as until the software refuses to run on available systems).

At least that's my current understanding. There's business decisions that are customer-unfriendly (like removing local vaults), and then there's business decisions that are suicidal (revoking past, perfectly legit and paid-for licenses). If you've seen official communication indicating that's what's happening when 1Password 8 is released, I'd be genuinely interested in seeing it on account of it being so outlandish.

Then there's the case of subscribers like myself. AgileBits has confirmed that 1Password 8 will not be an update to the existing software but rather its own entry in the App Store (macOS certainly, I assume iOS as well), but I don't know if they've confirmed any period of continued 1Password.com / .ca / .eu account support for 1Password 7 clients.

There will be a transition period, certainly, and it helps that regardless of client version subscribers are all "paying customers". But considering that AgileBits have officially stated they want 1Password to be easier to develop for multiple platforms than it has traditionally been, it would be counter-intuitive for them to actively support two different sync systems (v7 and "modern") in the long run.

Right now v8 doesn't come across as something I want to move to, but it remains to be seen whether us v7 subscribers have enough runway left to transition to a much better iteration of 1Password (meaning, native-like and efficient) or if business reasons will dictate a plan B. Either way right now I don't need to do anything.

No amount of mental gymnastics will make these two subscription models the same. One piece of software, if updated fully, will completely stop working once the subscription ends. They even removed a key feature to ensure this is the case. The other software product will continue to work when the subscription expires, minus the completely optional cloud features.