Local Vault

I need assurance that my software will continue to function and my data will remain accessible and under my control even if AgileBits is purchased or goes out of business.

I don't think that is a promise any software vendor can make, @jetboy, and it certainly isn't one I'm able to make. The nature of software is that in order for it to be viable long term it needs to receive updates. For starters, you’d essentially have to be “frozen in time” and not update either your operating system or your web browsers. That isn’t a practical solution in most cases. It is also a really poor option in terms of security, which is one of the core reasons to use 1Password in the first place. Otherwise it is very possible that an update from a 3rd party would be incompatible with the existing version of 1Password.

The need to release frequent updates in order to maintain compatibility was one of the motivating factors behind moving to a subscription model. As an example, we just had to update 1Password 7 and 1Password 8 because Chrome changed their signing certificate, and so earlier version of 1Password can no longer connect to it.

That said, we intentionally offer exports with open formats to ensure your data remains yours. This article (from 2013) is a little dated at this point, but the principal still holds true:

You have secrets; we don’t, why our data format is public

You can read about the 1PUX open format in 1Password 8 here:

About the 1Password Unencrypted Export format

the software must continue to function even if I'm running an old, no longer supported version or the company is consumed by another.

I don't think that's feasible. It certainly isn't something I can promise with regards to 1Password, and frankly I wouldn't recommend trying to do so. In such a scenario the best course of action would be to export your data and migrate to an actively maintained solution.

Ben