Originally published at: Should 1Password’s Price Hike Push You to Apple’s Passwords? - TidBITS
1Password has announced that prices for its popular password manager will increase for renewals made on or after 27 March 2026. In an email to users, the company said that 1Password Individual will increase from $35.88 per year ($2.99 per month, paid annually) to $47.88 per year ($3.99 per month), and that 1Password Families would increase from $59.88 per year ($5.99 per month) to $71.88 per year ($6.99 per month). 1Password also offers more expensive month-to-month subscriptions, but apart from an initial trial or someone who needs a little more time to transition, I can’t see any reason to pay more for them.
(Annoyingly, 1Password referred to the price increase as an “update,” as in “We’re updating the cost of your subscription,” and “we’re updating pricing for Family plans.” My editorial advice for 1Password—call a spade a spade instead of trying to pussyfoot around the facts.)
Although the new prices represent significant percentage increases—33% for the Individual plan and 20% for the Families plan—the previous prices hadn’t changed in a decade, when 1Password first offered a subscription option (see “1Password Introduces Individual Subscriptions,” 4 August 2016, for our coverage of that event, complete with responses from 1Password founder Dave Teare). Adjusted for cumulative inflation of about 35% since 2016, the Individual plan costs almost exactly the same in real terms, and the Families plan has actually gotten cheaper. And yes, 1Password used to offer perpetual licenses; those haven’t been available since 1Password 8 shipped in 2022.
Another reason the price hike may seem steep is that, in the intervening years, Apple’s Passwords has become a viable alternative for many people, free of charge. The question arises: Is now the time to consider switching to Passwords? (Or to another password manager, but I leave that analysis as an exercise for the reader.)
Comparing 1Password and Passwords
At a core level, 1Password and Passwords offer similar capabilities:
- Password generation: Both help you create strong, random passwords when you set up new accounts.
- Autofill: Both securely store usernames and passwords and automatically fill them in on websites and in apps.
- Cloud sync: Both sync your data across all your Apple devices via the cloud—1Password through its own servers, Passwords through iCloud.
- Browser extensions: Both offer extensions for autofilling beyond Safari (see “Using Apple’s iCloud Passwords Outside Safari,” 1 April 2024).
- Two-factor authentication: Both store and automatically enter 2FA codes, eliminating the need for a separate authenticator app.
- Passkey support: Both support passkeys, the newer authentication technology that promises to replace passwords someday.
- Security monitoring: Both alert you to weak, reused, or compromised passwords.
- Password history: Both maintain a history of changes, letting you view and recover previous versions—a lifesaver when you accidentally overwrite a password or a site’s password-update process misfires.
- Organization and sharing: Both let you organize passwords into separate containers—vaults in 1Password, groups in Passwords—each with optional sharing controls for family members and colleagues.
We can debate how well the two apps implement those features, but neither is seriously problematic. 1Password justifies its price with its significantly larger compatibility matrix and feature set, including:
- Cross-platform support: For anyone not living entirely in the Apple world, 1Password offers native apps for Windows, Android, Linux, and ChromeOS. It also offers a full-featured web app at 1Password.com that lets you access your vault from any computer’s browser.
- Additional item types: Beyond passwords, 1Password can store credit cards, secure notes, bank accounts, software licenses, identity documents (passports, driver’s licenses, Social Security numbers), medical records, SSH keys, API credentials, and more. You can also attach files to any item, which we use for storing photos of important documents alongside their metadata. Users of Passwords can store non-password data in Apple’s Notes app, which offers separate options to lock notes with encryption or share them with others—though you can’t do both at once.
- Watchtower: 1Password’s Watchtower offers a far more comprehensive security dashboard than Passwords. It integrates with Have I Been Pwned to alert you when your email appears in data breaches, flags items that are expiring soon (like credit cards or passports), and proactively identifies sites where you could enable passkeys or two-factor authentication but haven’t yet.
- Travel Mode: 1Password’s Travel Mode lets you temporarily remove sensitive vaults from all your devices before crossing international borders. If a border agent demands access to your device, they’ll see only the vaults you’ve marked as safe for travel. Once you’re through, you can restore your other vaults with a click.
- Custom fields: You can add custom fields to any 1Password entry, which is invaluable for storing security question answers (particularly when you treat them as additional random passwords), PINs, membership numbers, or other site-specific data that doesn’t fit neatly into the standard fields.
- Tags: 1Password’s tagging system lets you organize items across vaults with whatever taxonomy makes sense to you.
- Command-line interface: For developers and power users, 1Password provides a command-line interface that lets you script password access and integrate with automation tools. 1Password can also act as an SSH agent, storing your SSH keys and automatically providing them for remote server connections.
- More granular sharing: 1Password offers more granular sharing controls than Passwords. You can share individual items or entire vaults with specific people, granting either read-only or editing permissions. You can even securely share a password with someone who doesn’t use 1Password via a link that expires after a set time or a set number of views.
I’ll admit to a knee-jerk negative reaction to the 1Password price hike. Is 1Password really delivering $72 worth of value for our family when Passwords has become so competitive? However, taking the time to go through the additional features 1Password provides has convinced me that it does. Although we don’t need the cross-platform capabilities that make 1Password a no-brainer, I do use and appreciate the additional item types, custom fields, tags, SSH agent, and time-expiring password shares.
After all that, 1Password sent another email today, apologizing for the first one because we had signed up for the Families Launch Special Plan, a legacy pricing tier that is apparently locked in for life. I hadn’t remembered that, but presumably someone did. So I’m happy—I get to keep using all the 1Password features without paying more.
That said, if you and your family only use Apple devices and don’t take advantage of 1Password’s extra features, switching might be worth the effort. You can export your 1Password vault to a CSV file using File > Export > vaultname > CSV, and Passwords on the Mac can import it using File > Import Passwords from File. The process is straightforward for passwords, though you’ll lose any attached files and custom fields—you’ll need to move that information manually or store it elsewhere.
To 1Password’s credit, your data is never held hostage. Even if you let your subscription lapse before exporting, your account will be frozen, but you can still view and export everything.