Originally published at: 1Password 8.10.36 - TidBITS
Adds support for generating QR codes for Wi-Fi networks. ($35.88 annual subscription, free update, 4.8 MB, macOS 10.15+)
If you live in the Apple-verse, is 1Password still relevant?
The Apple password manager can be pulled up automatically on webpages using Safari and in apps on iOS/iPadOS. It handles 2FA via an authentication app and passkeys. It can check for security issues including hacks, weak passwords, duplicate passwords, and where 2FA and passkeys are offered, but aren’t setup.
There are still gaps. For example, if you use a browser other than Safari (although this might change when Apple Passwords becomes its own app next year) or if you’re using Windows or Android. But, if I use nothing but Apple products, exactly what does 1Password offer me above and beyond Apple’s system?
Which leads to two questions:
- You have a user who currently isn’t using a password manager, would you recommend a subscription to 1Password if they only use Apple devices?
- If you know someone who uses 1Password, would you recommend moving to use Apple’s system?
For me I still like 1Password because it’s protected with a separate passphrase from my iCloud account. If I get locked out of my iCloud account, I’ll still have access to my passwords.
I haven’t tried the iOS 18 or Sequoia betas yet but I also include a lot of other non-password items in my 1Password store, including secure notes (I guess you could do this with the Notes app instead), passport info (including scanned copies - again, these could be secure notes I suppose), and I have separate password vaults for my consulting customer’s accounts and for the board of trustees I serve on. I also do 2FA in a different app from 1P but that’s probably just me being overly-paranoid.
But, for most people - yes, I think Apple’s iCloud Keychain passwords are great for everyone who uses iCloud syncing systems (and I believe that includes Windows) and better than trying to create memorable and memorizable passwords for sure.
It is still plenty relevant…it provides many additional capabilities beyond Apple’s system and for that reason I would only recommend Apple’s system if none of those extra capabilities matter to you. As far as choosing another paid option…I looked at all of the alternatives and none of them met my conditions…fully featured comparable to 1PW, DropBox or whatever storage/sync for the encrypted blob, and ability to perform your own offline backups. I don’t like the no DropBox rule the6 have with v8…but that’s the only remaining issue I have with it at this point. I have a subscription but that’s part of my password backup scheme and am sticking with v7 because of DropBox sync until it quits working.
I wrote about these issues in:
My feeling is that Apple’s Passwords is fine for someone who isn’t already using 1Password, and if someone didn’t want to keep paying for 1Password, it’s a legitimate alternative, but it is not as full-featured.