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Comment by kspacewalk2 | Hacker News Reader

>best password managers in existence right now

I am using 1Password with a standalone licence (sunk cost, so 'free' doesn't matter much. Also, C$70 is essentially free when it comes to securing my digital life). I sync a vault with a few co-workers via Dropbox and this is sufficient for us, no need for 1Password.com 'cloud' yet.

We like the UI, and to our knowledge 1Password has the best track record for security, with extensive and continuous testing and no major fuck-ups yet.

What advantages to switching to KeePassXC or Bitwarden are there for us?

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Source code access, and being free of charge seems to be the main things you would get compared to 1Password. Also, great Linux support (from what I've heard 1Password only recently even added a Linux-compatible client).

But to me it sounds like you have a solution you are very happy with, and you don't mind paying for that solution, so my recommendation would be to stick with it.

Although, as a happy user of KeePassXC, I'm tempted to ask the counter-question: why would I want to pay for 1Password when KeePassXC gives me a great solution for free (and also gives me source code access)?

Good question. I can't think of compelling reasons why a standalone user, or a small team, would switch to 1Password if they're already happy with KeePassXC.

I did that switch after using Keepass(XC) for about 10 years. For me it was for the seamless sync across devices, and nicer polish of the various apps/addons (iOS, Firefox, etc).

> (from what I've heard 1Password only recently even added a Linux-compatible client).

Just plugins for Firefox and Chrome, AFAIK, actually. And a command line client that's just a wrapper for the website. No full-featured client available. KeePassXC can be a better option for interop with 1pass than 1pass is, on Linux, depending on what you need.

There is also a hybrid client[1][2] now, written in Rust, and Electron. Although the command-line client will always be my favourite, as I always have a terminal window open anyway, at least those who dislike the command-line or prefer a GUI client have another option now.

[1] https://discussions.agilebits.com/discussion/114964/1passwor...

[2] Read-only for now, as it is a development preview.

No, they have a client now. https://discussions.agilebits.com/discussion/114964/1passwor...

HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24054112

Guess that hasn't made it to their "download for linux" page on the main site yet. It still offers the plugins, with an alternate option for the command line tools.

They are also very responsive on Github for logged issues and questions. They responded within the hour to an update to an existing issue that I logged.

1Password seems to have a better reputation for security among commercial providers.

But KeePassXC is based on the KeePass file format, and to my knowledge that has a better security story than commercial platforms--though it is harder to use.

For example, a couple of years ago Tavis Ormandy at Google Project Zero went through password managers and had unkind things to say (and reported vulnerabilities) about LastPass, 1Password, and Dashlane. He said KeePass looks "sane" or something like that.

The advantage is higher security, zero cost and control over data.

1password is closed source and there is no way to verify that it actually encrypts the passwords.

I wouldn’t give someone my passwords to encrypt and store them for me. It’s a simple task and I can just encrypt and store my passwords. I don’t need a shinier UI.

No idea if 1Password does it, but KeePassXC has really good SSH support where it integrates with your SSH agent for storing private keys (and/or the relevant passphrase).

If I remember correctly 1Password stopped updating browser extensions for the non-subscription versions.

I had to switch to keychain because the safari extension stopped working.

You can upgrade from 1Password 6 to 7 (standalone) to get the Safari extension to work. It's not great, but I don't use Safari so it doesn't affect me.

Frankly, the new 1Password mini app is a strong step in the wrong direction since 6. It's huge, it tries to do too much. I've never been happy with it. I switched to Bitwarden and generally it serves the purposes better. A few things are worse but the stuff I interact with regularly is better.

Such tools should be open source.

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