We have to pay to be beta testers?

Ind3X

Hi everyone

Consider me confused...but do we have to PAY to beta test 1Password version 7?

I decided to download the beta at version 7. When prompted to pay for the full software immediately after installation, I assumed this was perhaps a bug in the beta. I've just installed beta 8 and I still cannot use 1password 7 with full functionality unless I pay up front? Is this correct?

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1Password Version: Not Provided
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Stephen_C

See this AgileBits' blog post. If you have a stand alone licence (as I do) there is a significant discount (over the probable final price) for the licence. Of course, nobody is compelling anyone to be a beta tester. :)

By the way, I'm merely an ordinary user like you—but am happy to take advantage of the cheaper licence with the ability to test drive 1Password 7 and give feedback that may help to shape the final product.

Stephen

Ben

1Password 7 is included for folks who are using 1Password memberships. For license customers 1Password 7 is a separate purchase. A 1Password 7 license or a 1Password membership is required to use the 1Password 7 beta. Of course if you purchase a license now it will also work for the final release.

I hope that helps!

Ben

Ind3X

I understand that we get the discount for beta testing, but I've beta tested software for some pretty high profile companies and I've never paid for software that is still in beta, ever!

Usually beta testing is free (private or public) and beta testers still get some form of perk for being on the beta team, such as a discounted licence when the full release is available, or at the very least, a full preview of the software prior to release, with full functionality, and it comes with the condition that you are using beta software (obviously) and that things might not work as expected, whether minor or major, that's the price you pay for using beta software, not money up front.

I know nobody is forcing me to be on the beta, but I would like to get the discount and contribute to the beta testing phase. So I am being forced to pay for potentially buggy beta software (which is home to some of my most private personal information), or put up and shut up with paying full price on release, which, as a long standing customer, I don't want to do.

Honestly, I thought the beta would be fully unlocked for testing (during the beta phase), with the option to purchase a discounted licence before the end of the beta. In my experience, this is usually how beta testing is handled. I'm disappointed that you are charging for beta software.

Ben

The best thing I could offer in response would be that 1Password membership would allow you to use the latest (including beta) versions of all of our apps without any separate expense. In v7 one of the big components that is changing is licensing, and so for folks who want to license the app(s) instead of using a membership we need beta testers for the new in-app purchase workflow.

We will also be having a sale on licenses after v7 launches, however I don’t have any details on that at this point.

I know nobody is forcing me to be on the beta

Correct. But we would appreciate the help, and that is what the currently available discount is to incentivize. That said we certainly wouldn’t want folks to download the beta just because “it’s free” and have “buggy software” be their impression of 1Password. We want folks to understand what they are getting into and having some investment in it is one way to do that... people generally won’t spend money without having some concept of what they are getting.

Thanks for the feedback.

Ben

Ind3X

I’m not interested in a subscription, it’s not cost effective for my use case, it’s more expensive - unless you start releasing major versions every year, then I may switch. I’m not sure what major improvements you could add to a password manager, annually, to warrant a major version increase though. For me, I’m not even sure this version adds anything significant over v6, from what I can see from the beta at present, I’m going to have to use more mouse clicks to get to functionality I regularly use, that I used to be able to get to in 1 click on v6.

If I purchase the beta upgrade, will the refund policy be extended to 30 days after the final version release date? This way, I can check out the new functionality properly, as well as getting on the beta testing phase.

It is highly unlikely that I would want a refund and to rollback to version 6 (unless there is absolutely zero functionality added, that is of any value to me in version 7, or in the highly unlikely event there are major bugs still to be found in v7 after release).

Thanks

Ben

Thanks for the feedback. I’m not aware of any change to our refund policy in this regard but it wouldn’t hurt to reach out to our sales team at sales@1password.com and see what they have to say. :)

Ben

Ind3X

Will the beta releases be marked as RC as the official release approaches?

Ben

We do not typically change the release version from “beta” to “release candidate,” but the release notes may make mention of it.

Ben