1Password Introduces $2.99/Month Plan for Individuals, With 6 Months Free at Sign-Up [Updated]

[dfgddikf]

I pay about 9 €/month for Dropbox Pro and my FastMail enhanced account costs about as much as Agilebits wants for their password manager. Compared to those services, 1Password just isn't worth it.

With this changes I don't see my future in the 1PW system. I won't even pay the onetime charge for 1PW 7 when they release it on iOS. Instead I'll look into alternative solutions. Maybe Keepass for Windows and the Apple Keychain for iOS - if I remain on iOS at all.

A company that obviously finds customers who pay $70 for a password manager, won't offer their online service for 3 $/month for too long. Be prepared for a price increase to 4-5 $/month or bail out now.

 

[Hippocrates]

For your information - many people actually stick to one platform and invest in buying software for that one alone. You don't buy MS Office license for both Windows and Mac if you are using either a PC or a Mac (Oh..and don't bring in Office 365 here, because we are talking about standalone installation not subscription).

If most people use one platform then why would they feel limited by having license only for that platform - charging for bundled license is unnecessary. If you don't see it now, your sales will reflect it soon.

Just give an option as before so that everyone will be happy - if you want single license buy just that, if you want bundle then get that.

The fact is you want to push subscription model and that's why you are making standalone license more expensive by bundling unnecessary stuff.

To be fair, I don't think the support staffs here decide how the products are priced, but it's their job to explain the decisions made by the Agilebits no matter how ridiculous it is.

No matter what price 1password is, there will always be some people who could buy it without feeling a pinch. The worst among them would accuse others asking for a lower price as greedy. If the trend of raising price of standalone product or setting a high subscription price as a company grows its user base (as opposed to lowering price due to having the economy of scale) continues, then we could predict shelling out hundreds of dollars a month just to maintain the softwares. I wonder how many people will shed their garments of moral high priest and complain like a commoner then lol...

 

[gaanee]

Support staff can pass on customer opinions to decision makers

This practice of bundling different OS licenses and not giving options for a single OS license is not standard.
In this case it's quite clear that they have artificially inflated the price for standalone license to push subscription.

To be fair, I don't think the support staffs here decide how the products are priced, but it's their job to explain the decisions made by the Agilebits no matter how ridiculous it is.

 

[Ulenspiegel]

For your information - many people actually stick to one platform and invest in buying software for that one alone. You don't buy MS Office license for both Windows and Mac if you are using either a PC or a Mac (Oh..and don't bring in Office 365 here, because we are talking about standalone installation not subscription).

If most people use one platform then why would they feel limited by having license only for that platform - charging for bundled license is unnecessary. If you don't see it now, your sales will reflect it soon.

Just give an option as before so that everyone will be happy - if you want single license buy just that, if you want bundle then get that.

The fact is you want to push subscription model and that's why you are making standalone license more expensive by bundling unnecessary stuff.

+1. I agree with you fully.
There a number of alternatives, some are capable of the same (or even more) as the app in question for much less (w/o subscription).

 

[mwd25]

It may not make sense for everyone, and we aren't trying to claim that it does/should. But we do think that it will make sense for a lot of folks (especially new customers who have never used 1Password before).

Translation......We know it doesnt make sense and a lot of people will see through this, but we also know a lot of people will fall for it. Especially new customers who havent been getting the service without having to pay for a needless subscription. They havent used 1Password before so dont know any better.

 

[bwoodruff]

For your information - many people actually stick to one platform and invest in buying software for that one alone. You don't buy MS Office license for both Windows and Mac if you are using either a PC or a Mac (Oh..and don't bring in Office 365 here, because we are talking about standalone installation not subscription).

If most people use one platform then why would they feel limited by having license only for that platform - charging for bundled license is unnecessary. If you don't see it now, your sales will reflect it soon.

Just give an option as before so that everyone will be happy - if you want single license buy just that, if you want bundle then get that.

The fact is you want to push subscription model and that's why you are making standalone license more expensive by bundling unnecessary stuff.

If you look at what AgileBits has done, historically, I think you'll find that we've been fairly generous (much more so than many other software developers). For example, when we released 1Password 4 for Mac as a paid upgrade from v3, we offered a 9-month free upgrade window. Anyone who had purchased v3 in the previous 9 months got a free upgrade. I don't know of many (any?) developers who have ever offered such a large window on a paid upgrade. And then we went on to release v5 and v6 as free upgrades when by all rights we could have charged for them. They were huge upgrades. This means that someone who purchased v3 in 2013 could be using v6 today (upgrading right along) without ever paying anything more than that initial v3 license purchase. You can see all of the updates and upgrades that included here and here.

As far as this particular change goes, we found there were a number of people who would purchase a 1Password for Mac license for their use at home. Then they would later on realize how convenient it would be to also have access to that data at work where they were forced to use a Windows PC. Some folks felt "nickel and dimed" at having to "buy 1Password again" just because their employer chose to use a different platform than they did at home. This was especially true for folks who had purchased both a 1Password for Mac license and the Pro features for 1Password for iOS. Now we can let them know that their license purchase already covers both platforms (if purchased after the change).

This is all part of our effort to bring consistency to 1Password across platforms. Ideally it wouldn't matter what device you pick up, you should be able to use 1Password the same on it as whatever device you picked up yesterday. We're not there yet. But that is the goal. Again, it is something we're trying out. If it doesn't work well then we will consider other options.

At the end of the day we need to price our products and services such that AgileBits continues to be a sustainable company and can continue to provide the level of quality and service that folks have come to expect from us.

--
Ben Woodruff
Positive Experience Architect
AgileBits

 

[gaanee]

What about majority of the customers who don't fall into the situation you described? Many people use only one platform and even if they use different OS at home and work, they prefer to invest into buying software for one platform only.

All this argument would not have arised if Agilebits continued to give an option as before for buying single OS license or bundle as per their needs -- Let the customer decide what to buy.

If you look at what AgileBits has done, historically, I think you'll find that we've been fairly generous (much more so than many other software developers). For example, when we released 1Password 4 for Mac as a paid upgrade from v3, we offered a 9-month free upgrade window. Anyone who had purchased v3 in the previous 9 months got a free upgrade. I don't know of many (any?) developers who have ever offered such a large window on a paid upgrade. And then we went on to release v5 and v6 as free upgrades when by all rights we could have charged for them. They were huge upgrades. This means that someone who purchased v3 in 2013 could be using v6 today (upgrading right along) without ever paying anything more than that initial v3 license purchase. You can see all of the updates and upgrades that included here and here.

As far as this particular change goes, we found there were a number of people who would purchase a 1Password for Mac license for their use at home. Then they would later on realize how convenient it would be to also have access to that data at work where they were forced to use a Windows PC. Some folks felt "nickel and dimed" at having to "buy 1Password again" just because their employer chose to use a different platform than they did at home. This was especially true for folks who had purchased both a 1Password for Mac license and the Pro features for 1Password for iOS. Now we can let them know that their license purchase already covers both platforms (if purchased after the change).

This is all part of our effort to bring consistency to 1Password across platforms. Ideally it wouldn't matter what device you pick up, you should be able to use 1Password the same on it as whatever device you picked up yesterday. We're not there yet. But that is the goal. Again, it is something we're trying out. If it doesn't work well then we will consider other options.

At the end of the day we need to price our products and services such that AgileBits continues to be a sustainable company and can continue to provide the level of quality and service that folks have come to expect from us.

--
Ben Woodruff
Positive Experience Architect
AgileBits

 

[countryside]

What about majority of the customers who don't fall into the situation you described? Many people use only one platform and even if they use different OS at home and work, they prefer to invest into buying software for one platform only.

All this argument would not have arised if Agilebits continued to give an option as before for buying single OS license or bundle as per their needs -- Let the customer decide what to buy.

This. I do not need both platforms, so do not charge me for both platforms. I buy and invest in what I need, no more or less. I do not need a windows platform, so please, give me a cheaper option for just macOS. I am going to be waiting to subscribe until they (if ever) offer a version like this.

 

[bwoodruff]

Thanks for the feedback. We don't have any plans in that direction but I'd be happy to pass the suggestion along to the team.

Ben

 

[Floris]

Totally agree. I'm not at all paranoid, but I'm careful. I don't believe many things are 100% secure, we've seen too many hacks and data losses. I have so many passwords and very important pieces of information stored in there to even consider letting anyone get near that info.

I find it insulting that the developer is on here doing the big sell trying to convince us the business model is all about us and they feel it's for our own good, when we all know it's purely about profit, if they get people to subscribe and keep repeating the payments month after month year after year it means a bigger boat in the marina.

I hate being lied to, I'm actually considering looking for an alternative app jsut because I don't like the way they are pushing this 'new amazing benefit'.

There isn't one. I would not trust a new one, I and the competition doesn't have the "feature" that 1Password currently still has for stand alone licenses (the data is on your system, syncing over your LAN, and you have the keys - not shared etc).
There's just no competition. It's 1Password, or nobody else. Until in a few years someone build an even better reputation. It's the one thing that keeps me on here, great support, great features, and sometimes NOT having a feature "IS" a feature. We all know companies are in it for a profit. Otherwise there's no use going to your job every day, or being innovating, investing back into company etc. Not sure you could use that as an argument against feeling lied to. They're here just honestly explaining and answering. Something I think is value. I don't see Dell or Mark Zuchy do that.

I hope we're writing a little history today when in 10 years we can look back and say 'damn, they were the first company that said we will not go and change that and put your data on our servers, because a year later we decided subscriptions is something everybody has to do so we have to host it for you'

 

[bwoodruff]

Thanks for the kind words and vote of confidence @Floris!

Ben

 

[Apple_Robert]

Totally agree. I'm not at all paranoid, but I'm careful. I don't believe many things are 100% secure, we've seen too many hacks and data losses. I have so many passwords and very important pieces of information stored in there to even consider letting anyone get near that info.

I find it insulting that the developer is on here doing the big sell trying to convince us the business model is all about us and they feel it's for our own good, when we all know it's purely about profit, if they get people to subscribe and keep repeating the payments month after month year after year it means a bigger boat in the marina.

I hate being lied to, I'm actually considering looking for an alternative app jsut because I don't like the way they are pushing this 'new amazing benefit'.

You disagreeing with the current company position does not constitute a lie by those from 1Password.

 

[Floris]

Thanks for the kind words and vote of confidence @Floris!

Ben

I know this isn't really public feature yet. But I guess if I we use the MFA that the master pass and account key is also still required?

If the account ends up frozen, do any of the features like these turn off or do they hopefully stay on?

 

[bwoodruff]

I know this isn't really public feature yet. But I guess if I we use the MFA that the master pass and account key is also still required?

If the account ends up frozen, do any of the features like these turn off or do they hopefully stay on?

The keys used to encrypt your data are derived from your Master Password and Account Key and as such they are always required (frozen or not).

The MFA is more difficult to comment on because it is still in beta and honestly my only experience with it at this point is as a user... we have it enabled for one of our AgileBits accounts. I don't imagine your 1Password account freezing would have any effect on it though. But Duo (the MFA provider we are using) is a separate account, with their own subscription options. I'm honestly not sure what would happen if your Duo subscription were to expire, but I'm sure as we get closer to moving that feature out of beta we'll have more information to share.

Ben

 

[Easttime]

I migrated. All went well, nice little interface design features to smooth the process. Only wrinkle is that the iOS app is still showing the old Primary vault. I turned off everything for that old vault, but how can I delete from the iOS app so only the Personal vault is showing? Thanks.

(For Canadians who might be wondering, the price worked out to C$40.90 after taxes when I selected the cheaper annual billing option, which works out to C$3.408 per month).

 

[bwoodruff]

I migrated. All went well, nice little interface design features to smooth the process. Only wrinkle is that the iOS app is still showing the old Primary vault. I turned off everything for that old vault, but how can I delete from the iOS app so only the Personal vault is showing? Thanks.

(For Canadians who might be wondering, the price worked out to C$40.90 after taxes when I selected the cheaper annual billing option, which works out to C$3.408 per month).

Glad to hear it.

We hope to make an easier / more obvious way to do that in the future, but at the moment the best way is to go into 1Password > Settings > Advanced > Erase All 1Password data and then set your account up again.

As the name implies that erases all of the 1Password data from the device, so please double check you've migrated all data in all vaults to 1Password account vaults.

Ben

 

[joshen]

Typical over the top replies.

Am I the only person that has been using 1Password for years and doesn't care about the change? Personally I'd rather have a license and I'm glad they still offer it, but why on earth would the fact that they added a subscription option bother me?

Don't like a subscription? Buy a damn license. Simple. Subscription based sounds like a good move for the company, the average person wouldn't easily spend $65 on a piece of software and $2.99 a month with a 6 month trial seems much more tempting.

 

[Steeley]

I'm currently using dropbox sync, so if I give this a go for 6 months and then decide I'm happy enough to stay with dropbox can I export it out, or is anything added to the subscription service stuck in the subscription service?

 

[bwoodruff]

I'm currently using dropbox sync, so if I give this a go for 6 months and then decide I'm happy enough to stay with dropbox can I export it out, or is anything added to the subscription service stuck in the subscription service?

Nearly everything transitions from a 1Password.com account to a standalone vault seemlessly. The exception is Documents. If you add Documents to your 1Password.com vault you'll need to manually attach those to other items in a standalone vault as standalone vaults don't support the concept of Documents.

Ben

 

[MillieWales]

You disagreeing with the current company position does not constitute a lie by those from 1Password.

Being told it's perfectly safe and my data couldn't be hacked and this is the best way isn't a lie? Sure!

The company saying something is best for users and disagreeing that a user should just pay once for a product does constitute a lie - it clearly isn't 'best' for the user, it's simply a way to make lots of money. It's called selling, many pressure selling techniques rely on a little fear and a bunch of misinformation and half-truths. These can be abbreviated to 'lies'.

 

[bwoodruff]

Being told it's perfectly safe and my data couldn't be hacked and this is the best way isn't a lie? Sure!

The company saying something is best for users and disagreeing that a user should just pay once for a product does constitute a lie - it clearly isn't 'best' for the user, it's simply a way to make lots of money. It's called selling, many pressure selling techniques rely on a little fear and a bunch of misinformation and half-truths. These can be abbreviated to 'lies'.

We're happy to have a civil discussion here about this new offering, but if you are going to resort to calling us liars and accusing us of "pressure selling" (which is quite the claim) then unfortunately that can't happen. Constructive feedback is appreciated, but your current attitude and hostility does not encourage participatation in these forums.

Our new services (which are offered alongside our existing offerings) were built based on user feedback that the process of setting up syncing and sharing, installing on a new device, having had a device lost/stolen, etc were too difficult. As such we do believe the new services offer the best experience for most customers. Obviously the audience here is one that is generally of a higher technical skill level and many of the folks here are perfectly comfortable setting up their own syncing, sharing, backups, etc. That is not the case for most of the less technical users we've heard from.

We do offer one time payments for products. e.x. you can buy a license for our 1Password 6 desktop products. New products are sold separately. The services have a recurring cost to us to offer (besides just the cost of staffing), and as such it doesn't make business sense to sell them without a recurring cost to the customer.

Ben

 

[PhoenixDown]

So far, so good with the online trial. I really like the option of being able to get my passords from the site if needed.

I think the price per month is a little high when compared to subscription services from Microsoft and Adobe but I also understand that MS and Adobe have tens of millions of customers more than agilebits and the big guys can make up the $ in terms of total customer base.

End of the day, I am going to keep it.

 

[bwoodruff]

So far, so good with the online trial. I really like the option of being able to get my passords from the site if needed.

I think the price per month is a little high when compared to subscription services from Microsoft and Adobe but I also understand that MS and Adobe have tens of millions of customers more than agilebits and the big guys can make up the $ in terms of total customer base.

End of the day, I am going to keep it.

Thanks so much for the kind words @PhoenixDown! Glad to hear you are enjoying it so far. If you have any questions please feel free to reach out to us directly.

Ben

 

[Floris]

Nearly everything transitions from a 1Password.com account to a standalone vault seemlessly. The exception is Documents. If you add Documents to your 1Password.com vault you'll need to manually attach those to other items in a standalone vault as standalone vaults don't support the concept of Documents.

Ben

Am I correct that from today onwards this documents stuff is resolved (OPM-3974) ?

 

[bwoodruff]

Hi @Floris!

Sorry for the (very) delayed reply. For some reason I didn't get the email notification that there were new messages here.

Hopefully you've already gotten an answer elsewhere but in case not / for anyone else's benefit: OPM-3974 was for an issue copying documents from one account to another, and that has been resolved in Mac v6.3.2. Unfortunately I'm not sure there is anything forthcoming re: copying documents from an account to a local vault. The concept of documents simply doesn't exist there, so I'm not sure how that would work. For now the stated workaround stands.

Ben