Deeply disappointed with the switch to Electron
I've used 1Password almost since the very beginning. The fact that it was a native Mac app was one of the many reasons I've supported it and recommended it to others over the years. As more and more competitors appear with similar features, the presence of a native app differentiated 1Password and clearly demonstrated the company's commitment to a good Mac experience.
I do understand the benefits of switching to Electron for the company but there's little benefit for users. I'd even go as far as to say it's a user-hostile decision. It means people need to run yet another memory-hungry application on top of every other app that uses Electron.
I know there's little my grousing will do to change things as it's clear this decision has already been made, but it's a real disappointment. The fact that the first sentence of the beta announcement is, "Mac has always held a special place in my heart," makes this change feel even more disingenuous.
1Password Version: Not Provided
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: Not Provided
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Yes, this is very disappointing. I maintain an Electron-free system because I don't want my Mac being bogged down with all the resources those apps use. Some 'apps' (like Slack) I create with Unite so that I at least have an efficient engine behind them. I guess I'll keep using 1Password 7 for as long as it works, and then either use Keychain or look for something else. 😔
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I understand where you are coming from, I am a Mac user myself and I want to use the best apps.
I mentioned this on Twitter earlier today, we developed both Electron/ReactJS and SwiftUI frontends for 1Password internally. It the end, we found that we could provide better user experience with the ReactJS frontend and we can do that faster.
Before you become very sad about the decision, I suggest to try the new app and compare it with the "native" 1Password 7. I think you will immediately see how much better 1Password 8 is compared to the predecessor. Try item editing, and it would be enough to convince you.
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I’ve tried it. It’s just… bad. I don’t see how putting app settings in an Electron modal is somehow a better experience for Mac users. The sidebar cannot be collapsed. Resizing windows causes glitches to appear with the window background colour. And the memory usage is ridiculous.
The keyboard shortcut changes are also totally bewildering. You’ve established a standard keyboard shortcut for years and it makes no sense to change it, and it can't be edited (although I assume this will change with a future build).
If 1Password was the only app on my system that ran in Electron this wouldn't be so bad, but since many apps switched to (or launched) using web technologies this 1Password change just compounds the issue.
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I've been using 1Password for like 10 years now, and been a vocal supporter of it. But with the switch to Electron and subscription only pricing, you just lost a customer. Several actually, I'll be getting my whole family to switch as well. This is honestly a sad day, since I've genuinely loved 1Password until now, and switching to something else is going to suck.
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I think the team has completely lost their mind. And it's probably too late to change anything. I am pessimistic about the future of 1Password.
Moving to Electron + no standalone licenses basically kills all my reasons for staying with 1Password and I am not alone. I think the team needs to understand that there are many choices in the market right now. I don't want to name them, but you guys do know. You guys are not competing in a vacuum, and there is basically no barrier. The only reason I choose 1Password is it has a nice native app. Besides that, I don't see any edge compared to other password managers.Now the native app is gone. The standalone licenses are gone. It's time to leave.
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I never was a fan of the 1PW 7 design because it looked too much like it would be Electron - seeing the real thing with v8 is like my worst nightmares comes true.
Using v8 feels like using a Website and it's obvious that having something that works and looks the same cross-platform is the focus. I feels like nobody thought of even trying to be a good citizen on the platform and that's something I didn't expect from 1PW. Having an other unpatched instance of Chrome running that I didn't ask for the last thing I needed.
Examples: All menus are just horrible. Seems like nobody tried to scroll through the list of items either...
It's the least of the problems but memory usage has doubled as one might have expected...
Please reconsider what you've done here. It's probably too late for v8 but please promise us to fix this asap and keep v7 alive until there is a real native app again. And please do so fast - you're about to loose an other user otherwise.
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Before you become very sad about the decision, I suggest to try the new app and compare it with the "native" 1Password 7. I think you will immediately see how much better 1Password 8 is compared to the predecessor.
@roustem I tried it, and honestly couldn't see anything better about v8. It just doesn't look at home on macOS at all. Doesn't feel like a Mac app, doesn't look like one and doesn't work like one. Many standard macOS UI/UX features are missing, janky or just plain wrong. Memory usage is approaching double on my system. The Safari extension install is unintuitive and doesn't work on Catalina, and is vastly more memory hungry than the previous one. You've also removed or completely changed some well-loved features.
Unless the version you're using internally is vastly different to what's been released publicly, I just can't image how you think this is in any way "better".
You seem to have completely forgotten your Mac roots, what a Mac UX is and why Mac users choose to be Mac users. I'm really sad and angry about this after being a customer for 12 years. The prospect of finding an alternative isn't something I'm looking forward to but I won't continue paying for a poor web-app, no matter how good/fast the back-end. It's the front-end I see and use hundreds of times a day.
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I've tried it too. I've just cancelled my 1Password.com subscription. I'll be looking to move off of 1Password after possibly a decade or something of use.
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It really is depressing to see a company that had something so good throw it all away. Electron is resource-hungry garbage and has a long history of security problems. I guess all good things come to an end eventually, but it’s still sad.
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@roustem : I tried v8. And I disagree in "I think you will immediately see how much better 1Password 8 is compared to the predecessor."
No way!
I know you have to say something like this. It is not possible to say "Oh, we made a mistake with choosing direction"I will continue using v7 as long as possible/until the subscription ends.
v8 is a huge step to the wrong direction.
And it does not change anything or any direction if you repeat again and again that v8 is/feels/... much better.0 -
My subscription is also cancelled.
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I'm trying to be open-minded but it’s not doing it for me. Vault switching is visually glitchy and quick access doesn’t always focus the search box. Comes close, but it’s just not as slick as the Swift UI app.
It’s also far too slow to open the extension in Safari. The pop-up needs to come up instantly. This will need to be fixed, or else I will have to look at alternatives.
Final gripe: Sometimes when you open it after the vault is locked, it flashes a blank white page (as if the HTML hasn’t been loaded). This is just one example of an Electron-specific problem that wouldn’t happen on a Swift UI app.
Electron is great for some applications. But it shouldn't be used for anything serious. Sublime Text is an example of a cross-platform app that doesn't use this platform, and a reason why it stands out from its Electron-based competitors. It's also quite hard to distinguish 1Password from Bitwarden now.
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It the end, we found that we could provide better user experience with the ReactJS frontend and we can do that faster.
You may want to reconsider since pretty much EVERY USER is saying the USER experience is fundamentally worse. As I said in the thread I started, it took 3 minutes to find missing features that were integral to the way I use 1password on my Mac. And as the minutes went on more features were missing. This isn't good for the users, this is a shortcut on dev time. 1P8 is strictly worse than 1P7 for the user. Give us apps that are optimized for the platforms we use them on. We want a great app for what we use it on, not a mediocre one that works everywhere.
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“ It the end, we found that we could provide better user experience with the ReactJS frontend and we can do that faster.”
s/user/developer/ FTFY
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I'm trying to be open-minded but it’s not doing it for me. Vault switching is visually glitchy and quick access doesn’t always focus the search box. Comes close, but it’s just not as slick as the Swift UI app.
It’s also far too slow to open the extension in Safari. The pop-up needs to come up instantly. This will need to be fixed, or else I will have to look at alternatives.
Final gripe: Sometimes when you open it after the vault is locked, it flashes a blank white page (as if the HTML hasn’t been loaded). This is just one example of an Electron-specific problem that wouldn’t happen on a Swift UI app.
Electron is great for some applications. But it shouldn't be used for anything serious. Spotify and Sublime Text are examples of cross-platform apps that don't use this platform, and a reason why they stand out from their competitors. It's hard to distinguish 1Password from Bitwarden now.
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Few minutes of use and the experience is very disappointing… UI is "webbased" more than MacOS, it is visually uncomfortable compared to previous versions that were some of the most beautiful MacApps… All that can perhaps be polished until launchdate ? But if you want the same UI for Windows and MacOS then at least one app will be strange as OS UI are different.
Memory usage is a joke… even with some hard work you'll never get an Electron app that will be lighter than a native app… from 140Mb to 380Mb very quickly. For an app you keep open all the time ? really ?
I was a paying user for around 10 years, I'm seriously thinking about trying alternative tools. If you use non native MacOS and not polished design then only the features differentiate you from the competition.
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I am a satisfied, long time 1Password user. But the decision to go for Electron is consumer unfriendly; I really cannot understand Agilebits has made this decision. Especially because the Mac is the platform it started on. One should expect Agilebits to be loyal to the Mac users. It is the big money/short term thinking that hits many companies nowadays. And do you think the Agilebits employees are happy with this move?
I'm pretty sure I will go and search for a native macOS replacement and I won't be the only one...0 -
I’m just echoing the sentiment of everyone above. I’m still using a MacBook Pro from 2018. It works great with 1Password 7, but anything more memory intensive will be an issue. For me, the fact that 1Password was a native app was a huge selling point. It started as a Mac app and should stay that way. I’ll eventually upgrade to an Apple Silicon system. Is Electron running yet natively there? Seems like a step backwards if it isn’t. Keep Linux Electron based but Windows and Apple should be coded for and use standard UI elements. I’ve used 1P7 for Linux and it works but is not “pretty” looking at all. If that is Electron, I’d hate to get that on my Mac.
As much as I hate to say it, any glitchy UI or non-native look would be a huge turnoff. For the first time in over a decade I have actually started looking at competitors. If any offer as good as family vault type sharing as I get now, I’d be considering switching.
Scott
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I've been running v8 for a while now and I'm disappointed. I understand it's pre-release software and that some bugs, like not being able to open website links, will eventually be fixed before release, but the core UX won't change enough for this to be an improvement.
Awkward UI controls, preferences not opening in a new window, no rubberbanding on scroll, etc. The list of things lost because of the switch to a non-native, generic framework is long. I've been using 1Password because its UI doesn't suck, like all of its competitors, but this seems to be changing. It still looks alright and seems to be very performant, but this UI mismatch is a big deal to me.
I downgraded back to 7 for now, but time will tell for how long that will work.
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The biggest draw to 1P for a lot of users is that it’s always (even the ancient crusty Windows versions) felt native. After years of dealing with having to use other electron apps and web technologies, I can’t see too much of a reason to stay with 1P if it will feel like having to ‘deal’ with it as well.
Seems like the change might be necessary to compete in a modern tech world filled with slow, clunky web apps but that’s pretty sad…0 -
Me too, it's simply impossible to make an Electron app as snappy, lean and integrated as a native Mac app. You can put all the polish you want in the UI, it will still be Electron.
I will keep using v7 while I research for alternatives.0 -
As an IT consultant, I have long recommended 1Password, and I use it for my own family, gladly paying the subscription.
Starting today I am going to be carefully reviewing the alternatives available for Mac because I will not use an important and frequently used app like this when it is based on Electron, and so far I haven’t seen any indication as to how long v7 will be supported.
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I am using 1Password privately and have a paid account for all my company employees ... and I, too, have to say that I am deeply disappointed of the Electron move. There are apps like Trello where I can understand to use Electron but I want 1Password to be small lightweight without a big memory footprint. Is there a chance to just continue to use 1P 7 until I find a suitable alternative to switch the whole team to?
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1Password 7 is still the stable release of 1Password for Mac. v8 is an Early Access (alpha/beta) release on Mac. v7 is alive and well, and even works great on macOS Monterey.
Ben
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