1Password 7 vs 1Password 8

Andrew42

I have been a 1P user for many years. I have always had the standalone version. It is clear to me that eventually I will either have to adopt the new Agilebits business model and pay an annual fee or I will need to change my password manager because my current version will be either hopelessly outdated or no longer supported or both.. What I am looking for and have not been able to find is an unbiased appreciation of the benefits and disadvantages of changing. Can anyone help? Thank you.

Jack.P_1P

Hi @Andrew42:

This is a great question. While it would make sense for me to be a bit biased, I used both 1Password 7 for Windows and 1Password 8 for Windows before working here, so hopefully you can trust that I'm sharing my thoughts here as just a user of 1Password, rather than an employee. 😀

• Quick Access. Out of everything we've released in 1Password 8, Quick Access is probably my single favorite feature. I rarely used 1Password mini in 1Password 7 for Windows, but I use Quick Access on a daily basis, at least multiple times a day. Whether it's quickly copying account and routing numbers into a webpage (because I have my bank account details stored as a bank account item), or copying a root password into my terminal to sudo, just pressing Ctrl+Shift+Space and starting to type has improved the way I use 1Password, and what I want to store in 1Password. Up until Quick Access, I would have never even thought of splitting out my bank account details into a second item, but the ability for Quick Access to change what you're copying based on the type of item immediately made me want to spend the few minutes it took to copy the details into a new item, add it as a related item to my bank Login item, and be able to access it when needed.
• Enhanced Windows Hello: I've always been jealous of 1Password on Mac being able to use Touch ID after a reboot or quitting, and with recent changes, and supported devices (devices with TPM 2.0 support), this is possible to do.
• Family: If a family member asks me for the Netflix password, or the admin code for our door locks, I can just point them at our Shared vault, rather than having to share it in an insecure format.
• Only a single account: It's a subtle difference, but I find it very nice to not have to sign into a third party syncing service, without having my passwords, but the only place I have my passwords is stored in that sync service. With a 1Password account, I only need to use my Emergency Kit details to add my 1Password account to a new device, then I can sign into everything from there. Similarly, with my Secret Key and sign-in details automatically stored in iCloud Keychain, adding my 1Password account to a new iPhone or iPad I've purchased just requires opening the 1Password app, tapping 1Password.com account, and then 1Password detects my existing accounts, and I just type in my account password.
• Travel Mode: Because we control the sync service, this enables features like Travel Mode. With Travel Mode, there's absolutely zero indication in the 1Password apps that Travel Mode is enabled. We simply don't send the vault to your devices when it's enabled. If we didn't control the syncing service, those vaults would make it to your device, then the 1Password apps would hide them.

Because we control the sync service, we get a bunch of benefits we wouldn't have if we used a third party service:

• Our API provides a single overview endpoint that the clients can use to check if there's any updates that they need to catch up to. Because it's a single endpoint, we can optimize it greatly on the server side.
• 1Password.com becomes the single source of truth. For example, what should 1Password do if your data folder disappears from Dropbox? Did you mean to do this, or was this a cleanup gone badly. Should 1Password rebuild the files on disk, or assume that it was intended and delete the vault inside the app? This question existed with single items too. Using our specialized protocol solves these problems with a robust and performant solution.
• We can offer item history. Because 1Password.com is the source of truth, it can keep track of all the encrypted blobs each item had, so you can always go back and view what it was and restore an item to a previous time.
• A more modern encryption design incorporating the Secret Key combined with the account password. In the event that data was ever captured from our server, it would be massively harder to attempt to bruteforce compared to a standalone vault.

Additionally, I'm not sure if you're aware, but we do have a trade-in offer for license customers like yourself, where you can get 50% off a 1Password membership for 3 years. If you'd like to get the ball rolling on that, you can email in to us directly at [email protected].

Jack

Andrew42

@Jack.P_1P . Thank you for your lengthy and thoughtful analysis. I am creeping slowly towards change and would be grateful for two pieces of advice.
I. If I convert my current standalone to a membership and take advantage of the offer you mentioned and then find that i would like to extend that membership to other members of the family, probably 4 in all with some here in Switzerland and some in China, will I be able to extend the 50% offer to all family members?
2. Where are your servers? The EU have been making noises recently to enforce companies like 1P for have European servers for European customers. Where does 1P stand on that point? I believe China is also making noises. I also have questions about 1P relationship with the Chinese authorities. If there is any suggestion of a back door I would not advise my son and daughter-in-law who are in Beijing to sign up.
3. Where can I find a step by step primer that outlines clearly the sequence a person has to go through to convert a stand alone membership to the new 1P.com.
With Easter coming up I have time to work through the info you send me. Thanks

Jack.P_1P

Hey @Andrew42:

Great questions!

1. Definitely! If you migrate to a 1Password Families membership, you'll get up to 5 people (with room to grow later if you'd like to pay for additional people), with each person getting their own Private vault that only they have access to, as well as a Shared vault for your entire family.
2. Depending on which region (1Password.com, 1Password.ca, or 1Password.eu) you sign up on, your data will be stored in the United States, Canada, or Germany, respectively. 1Password doesn't contain any backdoors. We can't provide access to something we don't have (your encrypted data, only decryptable by you with your account password and Secret Key). We have a page detailing what it would be possible to share with law enforcement based on a valid legal instrument like a court order here: https://1password.com/legal/law-enforcement/
3. We have a guide on the steps you'd take to migrate from a standalone vault to your new 1Password account: Migrate your existing 1Password data from standalone vaults to a 1Password account

Let me know if that all makes sense, or if you'd like me to dig in further with you.

Jack

Andrew42

Thank you again. Final questions. If I sign up for family membership living in Switzerland, which I do, I presume my server will be in Germany. If my son signs on as a family member and lives in Beijing, which he does, will he be on the same server as me or on which server. IE is the server determined by the founding member or by the individual location?

Jack.P_1P

Hey @Andrew42:

Great follow up question. A 1Password account will always exist in a single region (.com, .ca, .eu) and can't be changed after the fact. Once you've created your account, any additional people you add would be in the same region (as you're all in the same account). Given this, your son after being invited to your 1Password account, would also use 1Password.eu.

To be clear, your physical location doesn't control what region your account is made in, only the specific URL you sign up from does. For example, I'm an American, with my 1Password account on 1Password.com, but if I wanted I could choose to make an account on 1Password.eu and have my data stored in the EU instead, and be billed in Euros, rather than US Dollars.

Let me know if there's anything else you'd like me to dig into!

Jack

Guidome

Is 1Password 7 still being maintained?
I did not see an update since November 2021 and 1Password 8 is still lacking a feature I use on 1Password 7 (unlocking with secure desktop)...

Jack.P_1P

Hi @Guidome:

Thanks for asking. At this point, we'd recommend 1Password 8. We're still putting some finishing touches on Secure Desktop unlock for 1Password 8, so if this is a feature you'd absolutely need, it's available on the beta channel of 1Password 8 for Windows, but not the stable releases.

Jack