Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
1Password Introduces $2.99/Month Plan for Individuals, With 6 Months Free at Sign-Up [Updated]
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Why would MR do that???
Without a click-bait title, there will be no additional advertising impressions.
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...
A bit off topic but I am not a lover of subs. I was planning to use password management software like this one but...
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.
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.
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.
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.
Thanks for the feedback!
I think if you read all of the comments here many are actually quite positive.
We do still offer licenses for our standalone apps.
Ah! Thanks.
Absolutely. We've had subscriptions available for 6 months or so now... this is just one additional subscription option. We're still offering licenses as well, and for existing users who have no interest in changing what they're doing... there really is no change right now.
We plan to continue offering licenses for the foreseeable future, though I'm not sure it is fair to describe licensing as "one-time pricing." Upgrades are sold separately, so in that sense it isn't "one-time."
Not at all. We appreciate the feedback, and the kind words.
We're still developing the standalone apps. They are the same apps that work with the subscription services, so it isn't as if we can let those languish and die off. It isn't uncommon that a new OS release is associated with a major upgrade, and so I wouldn't be surprised if that were what happened.
In short I don't see there being a roadblock on continued use of the licensed model any time soon, but folks should continue to expect to see a price tag for major upgrades when following that model (of course, they can continue to use the previous version if it still meets their needs).
--
Ben Woodruff
Positive Experience Architect
AgileBits
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
Great! Thank you!
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.
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.
Ben said "it's not uncommon for a new OS to coincide with a major upgrade". It's was made clear earlier that major upgrades would have a cost.
So I am reading it that there will be an update in the fall but my fear is that its main feature is to either extract 65 bucks or expedite people into subscriptions.
Really thought AgileBits were better than this.
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.
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.
You are of course welcome to continue using the version of 1Password you are currently licensed for so long as it continues to meet your needs.
Totally!
Different strokes for different folks. If storing all of your passwords and other sensitive data in Notes is working for you... great!
--
Ben Woodruff
Positive Experience Architect
AgileBits
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".
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
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.
Also, customers won't understand that this was "atypical" for v5/v6 to be free. I honestly didn't realize it was atypical; I think most customers really started joining during the v4 era, when Apple began heavily promoting 1Password. That's another reason I'd suggest you think carefully about keeping v7 free, THEN give customers plenty of notice for v8 and onwards. I think that's fair.
I don't think so. You used that point to argue against his argument.
This, however, doesn't change my view on subscriptions.
I was mostly being sarcastic in that many people's expectations for paying a 1-time fee for an app is that the app will continue to work and be updated forever (through future iOS, macOS, Windows, etc updates), which is hard to sustain from a business perspective. This phenomenon mostly applies to lower-priced apps, as you alluded to. There is a delicate balance of competitive software pricing and consumer expectations these days, and yes, I think a lot of that is due to the popularity of the App Store's popular $0.99 pricing.
I will say that our opinions of this 1-password situation are pretty much identical - I'm also happy to pay one up front cost and pay for a upgrade version at a later date (as I have done with 1Password in the past).
SaaS (software as a service or subscriptions) is a harder sell to individual consumers but is a much stronger play in business to business plays. There are numerous advantages to leasing software under the right circumstances. However, unlike business customers, individuals generally don't purchase expensive packages where the financing aspect is a big factor and aren't using so many resources that outsourcing the hardware and maintenance to the cloud is a big advantage either. If a package can be purchased under a perpetual license for less than $50 you're generally going to have a hard time making the subscription model attractive.
I don't have to think twice about this at all. I'd say 1Password is the most used app on my iPhone and I have no problem giving them ongoing support. Keep up the great work!
LOL completely agree. It's just unfortunate that AgileBit's PR is here trying to paint a different narrative and are assuming their customers are dumb enough to not see it for what it is. It leaves me with a negative impression of their company, which kind of sucks since I've been a fan of theirs for years.
There's also no mention of how to receive the bundled Windows version when you purchase from the MAS or whether you actually receive one (not that I need a Windows version).
It's likely just them realising that hardly any of their users need both the Windows and OSX versions, and that very few people would buy both. However, they can 'bundle' them together to give "perceived" added value when in the end very few really benefits from it. Everyone who doesn't need or want both versions pay more, and AgileBits gets a nearly double the income for providing the same service to those users. I mean seriously... trying to claim the reason for bundling them together was too many support emails on the topic is laughable at best. I can only imagine that number is only a small percent of the number of people who only need one version and managed to buy 1Pass without contacting support.
So yea.... It's obviously not a money grab and it had nothing to do with realising that their customers are smart enough to look at a $35 one time buy-in for a software license (for a particular version) or $3/month or $36/year for a subscription, and laugh AgileBits right out of the room. I would imagine when the price is comparable to 2 years of a subscription, people are more likely to go with the subscription.
I used to recommend 1Password to everyone I knew who bought a Mac. I would try to talk people away from Dashlane and LastPass in MR news about those password managers since it's insane to pay for a subscription when you could get a version license of 1Pass for $35. Now, I can't in-good-conscious recommend the software to anyone at nearly double the cost.
Last edited: