How much for all the 1Password licenses I need?

shovavnik

Hi there,

I looked at the FAQ and the Store and even the Wizard, but couldn't figure out how much it would cost me to get 1Password for my setup. I don't understand why it's so difficult to find the bottom line. It took me too long to find the little info I did find. You really need to add a calculator because your pricing scheme is not simple at all, especially compared to what I currently use!

My wife and I have a couple Macs that use the same Apple ID, a few Windows machines that use two different Microsoft accounts, and two Android phones that use two Google accounts. I might add an Android tablet or two in the future, but they'd use the same two Google accounts. We also add/replace machines every couple of years.

I want to sync all these devices.

It looks like I need the Mac+Windows bundle, which goes for about $70. Is that right? Is that adequate?

I can't find any pricing info on the Android licenses. The apps are theoretically free, except that there's an in-app purchase which I may or may not need. And it's not very clear whether I'd need them anyway. So what do the in-app purchases give me? And how much do they cost?

Thanks!

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1Password Version: Not Provided
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: OS X 10.11.1, Windows 10, latest Android
Sync Type: not sure

AGAlumB

I looked at the FAQ and the Store and even the Wizard, but couldn't figure out how much it would cost me to get 1Password for my setup. I don't understand why it's so difficult to find the bottom line.

@shovavnik: Sorry for the confusion! There is no 'scheme'. The 'bottom line' is different for everyone. 1Password is developed and supported for each individual platform, and in many cases is only available in specific stores (such as Apple's iOS App Store and the Google Play store) so they can't be bundled. I agree it would be much simpler if we could offer a bundle for everything, but of course in the mean time we're here for you, both for licensing questions such as this, and anything else! :)

The short answer, for all your devices:

• 1Password Mac + Windows bundle
• 1Password for Android Premium upgrade

Now, regarding your specific setup, We license our software on a per-platform basis, so for example the 1Password Mac + Windows bundle license entitles you and your wife (up to 6 family members living in the same household, in fact) to use 1Password on all of your PCs.

From your description, it sounds like iCloud isn't a concern (because you'll probably be syncing with Windows and Android), but I would like to point out for anyone else reading that iCloud Sync requires the Mac App Store version of 1Password. Hopefully this will change in the future, because that's often a source of confusion as well.

1Password for Android in particular is completely free to use as a reader once the free trial has expired. The in-app purchase for Premium Features just unlocks everything permanently. And of course this purchase will be shared with any devices using that same Google Account, such as any phones or tablets you end up using. It costs roughly 10$US, but it can vary from region to region due to currencies.

Also keep in mind that you can take advantage of the free trial of 1Password for Mac and Windows as well, to 'test drive' them along with 1Password for Android. That way you can get a feel for how they work and even sync your data before you drop any money. And of course you can use them all for free indefinitely, you'll just be limited to the existing data you added during the trial. We won't lock you out of it. That would be horrible.

Hopefully that helps clarify things a bit. I'd also love to know specifically what you were looking at that confounded you and how you think we should make things clearer. Be sure to let me know if you have any other questions, and Happy Thanksgiving! :chuffed:

shovavnik

Hi @brenty,

Thanks for the detailed reply. Let me see if I can calculate the total cost for me based on the info you provided.

• 1 Mac+Windows bundle ~= 70 USD
• 2 Android in-app purchases ~= 20 USD

So the total cost of the initial purchase would be about 90 USD.

When 1Password v6 comes out, I'd have to pay the upgrade price for the Mac+Windows bundle only. The Android licenses wouldn't incur additional upgrade costs.

Is all that correct?

You asked what confounded me and how I think things could be made clearer.

The first, and I think most important, thing that comes to mind is my basic expectation for pricing. I understand that you develop each platform separately, and as a developer myself I appreciate the effort that entails and the costs that incurs. But as a consumer, none of that really makes sense to me.

I don't see your offering as a bunch of separate products, but rather as one cross-platform service. My expectation was to pay once and be able to use the software on whichever supported platforms I happen to have. I suppose this would translate to completely free apps on all platforms, and payment for your service regardless of the apps.

It makes a lot more sense to me to pay by user or for the family than for the apps. At the moment, it's just my wife and me, which is two members. I suppose I might add my two kids when they come of age, but I'd be okay with paying more to add more members. This is just my opinion, obviously, and it's likely you've already considered this and other models, but the point is that as a newcomer, your pricing model seems really weird to me.

Besides that, additional questions came to mind as I was browsing your site and trying to figure out what it would cost me. In no particular order:

• How much exactly do the mobile app in-app purchases cost?
• The wizard is useful, but why doesn't the wizard show me the bottom line?
• It didn't occur to me at all to even ask if I should get the App Store version or the download version to get iCloud Sync. I just assumed sync support was available on all your apps. That should be made clearer.
• It wasn't at all clear why you need the in-app purchase. I shouldn't have to read every document in your FAQ or support site to understand the basics. You mention the in-app purchase often enough, but not what it gives you. And the link is to the App Store, where the in-app purchase prices aren't listed or their benefits.
• Does the M+W bundle give me 6 members for Mac + 6 members for Windows (12 total), or is it the same 6 members overall?
• When I first opened the store, I didn't understand why Knox is there. It's in the middle of the list of 1Password offerings, probably because you're sorting by price in descending order, so it ends up between the paid Mac/Windows apps and the free Android/iOS apps. But it's actually more confusing because it creates an impression that there's some relationship between these products. I had to click through to figure out that it's something totally different and unrelated. I think you should separate them into sections or otherwise differentiate the product families.
• Looking forward, the upgrade pricing only indicates that the prices vary. That's a good indicator as a prospective first-time buyer, but I'd like to know the range upfront. If I assume, for example, that you release a new version once a year, I'd like to be able to approximate my upgrade costs.
• Also, regarding platforms, you say the supported platforms are Windows, Mac, Android and iOS, which means, I assume, that you have standalone apps for each of these platforms. But I'm looking for browser support too, not just OS support. We use a bunch of browsers (which isn't really typical, I know), but I can't find a list of the supported browsers. I assume you support Chrome and Firefox everywhere, Safari on Mac OS, and IE on Windows, but it would be nice to see some confirmation of that assumption. The simple login via browser extensions is actually more important to me than the standalone app. Even the "Installing browser extensions" guide only shows instructions for Safari and no link to other supported browsers.

Anyway, that's what I can recall. Maybe I'm in the minority here, but it's hard for me to make heads or tails of the prices and the offering without extensive research. The only reason I did this research to begin with and didn't give up after 30 seconds was that I was considering the Premium Mac App Bundle, which includes 1Password. Speaking of which, I couldn't figure out if there's any way to "side-grade", as it were, from the Mac version included in that bundle to the M+W bundle.

The bottom line is that I'm finding it hard to justify a 90 USD purchase (which is A LOT) for a product that isn't very clear even after much more research that should be required, especially when competitors seem to be cheaper and easier to understand. Your offering might be much better and totally worth the difference, but it's really really hard to tell. At least, for me.

I hope that helps.

AGAlumB

Thanks for the detailed reply.

@shovavnik: You're totally welcome! Likewise, thanks for taking the time to leave such extensive feedback as well:

Let me see if I can calculate the total cost for me based on the info you provided.

>

1 Mac+Windows bundle ~= 70 USD
2 Android in-app purchases ~= 20 USD
So the total cost of the initial purchase would be about 90 USD.
Is all that correct?

That sounds about right under normal circumstances. But if you have an existing 1Password for Mac license (say, from purchasing the Parallels bundle), we're happy to get you a discount to 'upgrade' to the bundle with 1Password for Windows...

When 1Password v6 comes out, I'd have to pay the upgrade price for the Mac+Windows bundle only. The Android licenses wouldn't incur additional upgrade costs.

..and I'll go into upgrades a bit later.

You asked what confounded me and how I think things could be made clearer.

Mainly I was looking for specifics, to see if there's wording on certain pages that needs updating. But I also understand that you may not recall the specifics. This is still very helpful!

The first, and I think most important, thing that comes to mind is my basic expectation for pricing. I understand that you develop each platform separately, and as a developer myself I appreciate the effort that entails and the costs that incurs. But as a consumer, none of that really makes sense to me.

I don't see your offering as a bunch of separate products, but rather as one cross-platform service. My expectation was to pay once and be able to use the software on whichever supported platforms I happen to have. I suppose this would translate to completely free apps on all platforms, and payment for your service regardless of the apps.

That's an excellent point. I think part of the confusion in regards to price comparisons is that a 1Password license is not a subscription service: you pay for the license and it's yours to use on as many devices as you want forever. It doesn't expire. Historically, we've offered free upgrades in a number of cases. For example, 1Password for Mac version 5 was a free upgrade for all version 4 customers. 1Password for Windows version 4 was a free upgrade who had purchased the previous version at any time last year. And when we do charge for an upgrade, we offer a substantial discount through the AgileBits Store.

It makes a lot more sense to me to pay by user or for the family than for the apps. At the moment, it's just my wife and me, which is two members. I suppose I might add my two kids when they come of age, but I'd be okay with paying more to add more members. This is just my opinion, obviously, and it's likely you've already considered this and other models, but the point is that as a newcomer, your pricing model seems really weird to me.

That's an interesting perspective. More interesting, in fact, because we're currently beta testing 1Password for Teams, which will probably use a similar model to what you're describing. It might not be a good fit for your situation, since Windows and Android are not yet supported natively, but you might be interested in at least checking it out to get a sense for where the direction we're heading. And it's completely free during the beta period, so there's not any risk involved.

That said, a subscription doesn't seem like it would necessarily be a better deal for you. Say we charge 5$ per month per user. After a year, that's 60$ just for you. It covers all platforms, but unless we're releasing a major update every year that ends up being free with your subscription, it quickly adds up, especially when you factor in other family members.

However, we're currently targeting 1Password for Teams at businesses, and down the road if we add options geared more toward families or even individuals. So we'd need to take a look at situations just like yours at that time to come up with something that makes good sense to everyone.

(continued)

AGAlumB

Besides that, additional questions came to mind as I was browsing your site and trying to figure out what it would cost me. In no particular order:
How much exactly do the mobile app in-app purchases cost?
The wizard is useful, but why doesn't the wizard show me the bottom line?

These kind of go hand in hand. Pricing is only shown in the store(s), since (as I mentioned earlier) it does vary by region and by currency. Everything in the AgileBits Store is in US dollars, which is simple enough, but there's also the iOS and Mac App Stores and Google Play store (and soon Windows Store as well), which price things in local currencies.

It didn't occur to me at all to even ask if I should get the App Store version or the download version to get iCloud Sync. I just assumed sync support was available on all your apps. That should be made clearer.

Indeed, a while back Apple decided to only allow apps purchased in their stores to use iCloud Sync, so this isn't 1Password specific. iCloud isn't the only sync option, and we do mention this on our site, both in the sync documentation and the AgileBits Store.

It wasn't at all clear why you need the in-app purchase. I shouldn't have to read every document in your FAQ or support site to understand the basics. You mention the in-app purchase often enough, but not what it gives you. And the link is to the App Store, where the in-app purchase prices aren't listed or their benefits.

I also linked you information specially on the Premium Features for 1Password for Android. But you're right. You shouldn't have to read the knowledgebase to understand this. Just use the app! It's pretty straightforward: when you launch 1Password for Android for the first time, it's fully-featured; and there's an entire page dedicated to this 3 taps in ("Premium Features: Add, Edit, Organize"). Then you can use them for 30 days, and only do the in-app purchase if you think it's a good value for you.

Does the M+W bundle give me 6 members for Mac + 6 members for Windows (12 total), or is it the same 6 members overall?

You purchase a license in your name. This entitles you and up to 5 other family members living in the same household to use that license on all of your devices. If it's a Mac license, your family can use it on their Macs; if it's Windows, then you can use it on all of your PCs; if it's the bundle, you can all use it on as many Macs and PCs as you own.

When I first opened the store, I didn't understand why Knox is there. It's in the middle of the list of 1Password offerings, probably because you're sorting by price in descending order, so it ends up between the paid Mac/Windows apps and the free Android/iOS apps. But it's actually more confusing because it creates an impression that there's some relationship between these products. I had to click through to figure out that it's something totally different and unrelated. I think you should separate them into sections or otherwise differentiate the product families.

Thanks for the feedback! They're related in the sense that each these are AgileBits products that we sell, either directly through our own store or through first party app stores. They're all part of the AgileBits family, but I'm sorry you found that confusing.

Looking forward, the upgrade pricing only indicates that the prices vary. That's a good indicator as a prospective first-time buyer, but I'd like to know the range upfront. If I assume, for example, that you release a new version once a year, I'd like to be able to approximate my upgrade costs.

Ultimately you don't ever need to upgrade. We've still got customers running versions of 1Password from the last decade. So it isn't a given that there will be any cost for you going forward. But I understand where you're coming from. Unfortunately it isn't possible for us to guess what we might charge for an upgrade that doesn't yet exist. And it wouldn't be good for anyone if we tried. But as I said before, we've always been generous, both with free updates over the years, and historically an upgrade license has been roughly half price.

Also, regarding platforms, you say the supported platforms are Windows, Mac, Android and iOS, which means, I assume, that you have standalone apps for each of these platforms. But I'm looking for browser support too, not just OS support. We use a bunch of browsers (which isn't really typical, I know), but I can't find a list of the supported browsers. I assume you support Chrome and Firefox everywhere, Safari on Mac OS, and IE on Windows, but it would be nice to see some confirmation of that assumption. The simple login via browser extensions is actually more important to me than the standalone app. Even the "Installing browser extensions" guide only shows instructions for Safari and no link to other supported browsers.

That's really interesting, since I haven't heard this before. Interesting, mainly because I think that way too, but I think we're in the minority. Most people don't even know which browser they use. So rather than confusing things for most people, I think the free trial is an easy way to see what 1Password has to offer — both in the way of browser support and overall. At the bottom of the website, under the 1Password heading, we have each platform as well as a link to our extensions page (which is where you end up when you're using the app), which defaults to the browser you're using but also lists other support browsers.

Anyway, that's what I can recall. Maybe I'm in the minority here, but it's hard for me to make heads or tails of the prices and the offering without extensive research. The only reason I did this research to begin with and didn't give up after 30 seconds was that I was considering the Premium Mac App Bundle, which includes 1Password. Speaking of which, I couldn't figure out if there's any way to "side-grade", as it were, from the Mac version included in that bundle to the M+W bundle.

The answer, of course, is yes! We're happy to give you the 'bundle' price to add a Windows license, regardless of where you purchased 1Password for Mac. I think at least part of the confusion is because you seem to be coming at it from a very unique angle: it sounds like you're trying to figure out if you want to purchase 1Password before you've even tried it. To be fair, I'm exactly the same way with most things. I research purchases extensively, sometimes for months and years. But this is because it's something I can't 'try before I buy', or there's no guarantee that I can get my money back. But 1Password has both in most cases: you get a 30 day free trial, and a 30 day money back guarantee on purchases through the AgileBits Store. So you've effectively got 60 days with it before having to really commit. I only wish that were the case with all of my online purchases. :lol:

The bottom line is that I'm finding it hard to justify a 90 USD purchase (which is A LOT) for a product that isn't very clear even after much more research that should be required, especially when competitors seem to be cheaper and easier to understand. Your offering might be much better and totally worth the difference, but it's really really hard to tell. At least, for me.
I hope that helps.

Yes. That makes perfect sense. Thank you! We charge sustainable prices for our products so that we can continue developing our software and supporting you and the rest of our awesome customers. Otherwise, none of us at AgileBits would be available to answer questions like this any day of the year and help troubleshoot! I am very grateful for anyone who supports AgileBits so my colleagues and I can continue to make a living doing what we love. But it's entirely up to you where you spend your hard-earned money.

1Password isn't for everyone. But the best way to know if it's a good fit for you is to try it out. That said, the Parallels bundle is a deal such that, even if you absolutely don't care for 1Password, there's probably 3 or 4 other apps included that make it worth the price of admission. And of course if you do try 1Password and have feedback about the app itself, we'd love to hear that too! :pirate: