Value for money.Genuinely curious - what is VFM? Thanks![]()
Value for money.Genuinely curious - what is VFM? Thanks![]()
Value for money.
Genuinely curious - what is VFM? Thanks![]()
Hey, MR, you really should update your article to note that AgileBits is going to continue to sell standalone licenses of 1Password just as they always have. This article is going to cause a bunch of people to freak out unnecessarily.
I'm becoming less hostile to the idea of subscription software. In many respects it makes sense in the Internet age. It must be a nightmare for developers to maintain compatibility and fix bugs across multiple versions in order to support people who refuse to upgrade. Keeping everyone up to date has a lot of advantages.
That said, I find $3/month too expensive for this product. I love 1Password, but iCloud Keychain does a "good enough" job. All we really need is for some developer to create a simple little iCloud Keychain viewer app with a few nice features and a nice UI...and 1Password (and other apps like it) will be rendered borderline obsolete. If they'd priced it at $1/month, I'd gladly switch to the subscription model because the application is quality and offers some great password management features not found in iCloud Keychain. But the fundamental reason to use the app, password storage and syncing, is more than adequately addressed by iCloud Keychain.
I don't recall a time when an article about 1Password got a single negative comment. And now, half a dozen in here pages!
People are sour because it's a great product and they believed the company was different.
It's no surprising how much it stings to find out you were wrong.
As more and more companies go to subscription model, those scammers can use "one-time charge" even more to trap more victims.
A bit off topic but I am not a lover of subs. I was planning to use password management software like this one but...
Value for money.
I have no doubt a subscription model can be (and perhaps even usually is) more cost effective. However, I get concerned when companies switch their models to subscription-only. Again, referecne the recent Textexpander debacle. They had to do some major backpeddling.
My advice to you and Agile is to pay attention to what your user’s want. And if what they want is one-time-pricing, continue to support that. Right now, I can’t even find it on the web site. Which is why this is looking a lot like the Textexpander situation.
I don’t mean to sound so confrontational. I like Agile a lot. I enjoy 1Pass - it’s a rocking app platform. Howver, I start to feel disenfranchised when I’m forced into a new payment model for something I’ve already paid for.
Yes, I read the FAQ about continued support of the old model. But what happens when the next MacOS release after Sierra comes out and v6.5 breaks because of a new OS feature? Will I even have the opportunity to upgrade to a working release? The currentl marketing spin on the 1Password web site would suggest not. Hoping I’m completely 100% wrong so I can eat my words and pay for a v7.0 upgrade when the time comes!
Hey, Ben, thanks for pointing all this out, I added a quick update at the end just to be as clear as possibleHi folks!
Full disclosure: I work for AgileBits.
We do still offer standalone 1Password licenses for folks who don't want or need the benefits offered by our 1Password.com services. We do think that for most folks the subscription service will be the way to go (better disaster recovery, access to latest versions of all apps, etc) we will still sell licenses to folks who prefer to purchase that way and are comfortable managing their own syncing & storage.
No plans like that.
You are certainly welcome to continue doing that, but hosting the data allows us to do a number of things that we can't with iCloud... such as sharing, web access, etc.
Major upgrades for the licensed standalone products will typically have a price associated with them (e.x. going from v6 -> v7), but in-version updates are included.
Taking my AgileBits hat off for a moment...
You generally don't "own" any software. Unless you wrote it. Then you might.
Thanks!
Ben
Hey, Ben, thanks for pointing all this out, I added a quick update at the end just to be as clear as possible![]()
Yes, until the time they force upgrade everyone to a subscription. Always happens! Subscriptions that come from a stand alone are usually the last ditch effort of a poorly managed product and greed. As I see a few others have mentioned.. put your passwords into notes, lock it down and there you have it.From the AgileBits blog...
Yes, until the time they force upgrade everyone to a subscription. Always happens! Subscriptions that come from a stand alone are usually the last ditch effort of a poorly managed product and greed. As I see a few others have mentioned.. put your passwords into notes, lock it down and there you have it.
You generally don't "own" any software. Unless you wrote it. Then you might.
Thanks!
Ben
Ben,
I haven't paid for anything since I bought the 1Password Mac app and the iPhone app in 2013, and have gotten free updates since then. Are you saying that this fall's releases (which coincides with iOS 10 and macOS Sierra) will still be free for me to update to, or would I need to pay?
I'm not on the subscription plan and don't plan to be. I hope this made sense.
Yes, until the time they force upgrade everyone to a subscription. Always happens! Subscriptions that come from a stand alone are usually the last ditch effort of a poorly managed product and greed. As I see a few others have mentioned.. put your passwords into notes, lock it down and there you have it.
I wanted to simply read the view of an Agile Bits worker but that last bit of your answer is so arrogant that I can't ignore that.
You know exactly what he wanted to say! It is absolutely toxic that EVERY SINGLE APP is now moving to subscriptions. I can understand that companies like Netflix or Spotify do it but I see absolutely no reason to do so for 1Password. 1Password is an app which serves only one purpose: to securely store your passwords and valuable information and make it accessible from any device (and maybe fill out the information on websites). Nothing more nothing less. I see no reason to pay a monthly fee for such a program which worked like that beautifully since its beginnings with no monthly fee. It adds no value to your product, and I fear that these fees are starting to make the companies lazy. Why? Because when a customer had to pay like €50 for that program you had to convince him to buy your product by adding great features. And now? The money will flow, and you can press more money out of the customer, simply because unfortunately most consumers are lazy.
And maybe in a year you will end support for the standalone version with no monthly fees. The reason is already mentioned here: because the people can save money by not subscribing and by buying the product alone.
I'm simply fed up with all these monthly fees. Every single time, the company says something like "hey, but we offer great value for that money" by adding more and more features, most of them unnecessary - look at the 1GB "secure" storage for documents. Who stores that in 1Password? There are great open source alternatives (Cryptomator!) which are free and which are not limited to 1GB. Or look at youtube red with google music. It is all the same. Or you argue that there are great new features like the collaboration, but if you are honest, this is no reason for a subscription, this is a feature which is held back from a major update just to justify the monthly fee.
It is "only $3" or "only $5", but in the end it adds all up to horrendous amounts of money which are much higher than the price of a standalone product would have been. I'm so fed up with this. First the developers ruined games with In App Purchases and now the developers ruin normal apps by converting them into services. It is just a ridiculous development.
And while I'm writing this answer I now get why you were raising the price of 1Password in the App Store from €49,99 to €64,99, is it to make the subscription look better? Because that raise came suddenly out of nothing.
I really like the app of the company that hired you (I can't write "your company" because of your arguments in your answer), but when you kill everything in favor of subscriptions I will run away. Maybe you are successful, since I can't calculate the % of people who will subscribe, but there are great alternatives out there, many of them open source, which are much cheaper (look at LastPass, Encryptr, KeePass). I'm really interested how it will turn out, but I hate these developments.
And I assume that you haven't written 1Password alone, or? Then you have no right to judge other opinions so harshly. I think your answer speaks louder than you think because you simply have no argument against a reasonable ONE TIME ONLY paid app.
I would refrain from going into the field of intellectual property....Taking my AgileBits hat off for a moment...
You generally don't "own" any software. Unless you wrote it. Then you might.
Thanks!
Ben
- Cars work because software tells all the parts how to operate
- The software that tells all the parts to operate is customized code
- That code is subject to copyright
- GM owns the copyright on that code and that software
- A modern car cannot run without that software; it is integral to all systems
- Therefore, the purchase or use of that car is a licensing agreement
- And since it is subject to a licensing agreement, GM is the owner and can allow/disallow certain uses or access.
Is that a Roland Deschain icon? Nice!Hey, Ben, thanks for pointing all this out, I added a quick update at the end just to be as clear as possible![]()
I would refrain from going into the field of intellectual property.
He is a legitimate owner of a copy of copyrighted work, you as AgileBits are the copyright owner.
The legal dispute in this field is not over with the Tim Vernor case.
Just an interesting consequence of this type of legal quibble: "GM: That Car You Bought? We're Really The Ones Who Own It".
Okay, I'm sorry, but this makes me mad. I do understand the need to move on to newer plans, I really do. But, this wasn't done with advance notice and kind of is a "rude awakening." I really think you should make v7/iOS 10's version free to existing users to help with the transition, THEN maybe make an announcement that v8 and future standalone versions will be moving to paid upgrades. That'd help reduce the sting and keep existing customers. Please consider this feedback.While we have not made any firm announcements it is very possible that 1Password 7 will be released as a paid upgrade. Major upgrades are supposed to be paid upgrades. We've opted to not have a paid upgrade since v4... making v5 and the current v6 free to existing v4 (or v5) license holders. That was not a typical situation.
I'm sorry but I think you've taken my point way out of context.
All I was saying is that almost all software is licensed, not sold, and as such the company that creates the software typically retains ownership.
Ben
Who exactly is complaining about app updates? I’m happy to pay $50 for a decent utility app. I’m also happy to pay $30 for an upgrade to v2.0 of said utility app. Subscription pricing is a money grab for those who do it. It provides continuous, ongoing, stable income. I don’t begrudge those vendors who do it. However, when one has to stretch the imagination as to justify a reason for doing so, it starts to make me wonder whether or not I want to continue supporting that company.
And yes, I blame the stupid app store $0.99 software pricing for a lot of this. People have ridiculous expectations. Go back 15 years when you had to buy software off the shelf and take a look at what these apps cost. Sure as heck wasn’t $0.99.
The reason for the increase in price there is that we now also include 1Password for Windows with that. We no longer sell 1Password for Mac and 1Password for Windows separately. We've simplified down to one bundle license (which is less expensive than a Mac+Windows bundle license used to be).
I don't have a Windows PC so you are forcing me to pay for something I don't need.
This is not a pro-consumer decision by AgileBits. Stop pretending it is.