bwoodruff

1Password for iOS was just upgraded to v7 and was not a paid upgrade (anyone who had previously purchased received the upgrade free of charge). As for what the future will bring, having just recently launched v7, it is a bit early to say.

Ben Woodruff

AgileBits

Speaking strictly in terms of money... How much would you pay for a license? $65? So what does that work out to if we release an upgrade every 2 - 2.5 years? About $30 / yr, right? That is about what a subscription costs as well, but the subscription includes access to the apps on all platforms, as well as other features not available with a license. For most people, especially 1Password Families customers, the subscription option is going to be less expensive. This is a reflection of the amount of support required on average by license customers vs subscription customers.

Ben Woodruff

AgileBits

Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts. I understand your perspective, and I’m sorry to hear that ultimately 1Password did not work out for you.

One of the primary reasons we built 1Password memberships was because of difficulties faced by customers in syncing with 3rd party services, and difficulties faced by our customer service team in troubleshooting those services (often black boxes).

Ben Woodruff

AgileBits

Your Master Password is never transmitted or stored hashed in a database. Please check out our security whitepaper. http://1pw.ca/whitepaper

Ben Woodruff

AgileBits

This is accurate. In general / on average standalone vaults require more support, and the price of licensing compared to subscription pricing reflects that.

Ben Woodruff

AgileBits

This quote was posted in response to a question about the Mac App Store and is taken out of context here. We’d strongly encourage anyone looking to subscribe but use standalone vaults to do so through our website, rather than the Mac App Store. I can’t guarantee that’ll be a viable setup through the Mac App Store. When done through our website though it definitely is. It isn’t the recommended path (as you are paying for features you won’t be able to use), but it is possible.

I’m sorry for any confusion caused by the comment. Hopefully this clarifies.

Ben Woodruff

AgileBits

I’m sorry we’ve made you feel that way. What is it that causes these feelings for you? I certainly won’t deny that we feel strongly that for the vast majority of customers membership is going to provide the best experience, and so that is primarily what we talk about. But we’ve done a fair bit of work to keep standalone vaults and licensing.

Ben Woodruff

AgileBits

If you’re referring to 1Password here we’ve never advertised included upgrades forever. Licenses have always been sold per-person, per-platform, for a version of 1Password (e.x. 1Password 6).

Including perpetual upgrades for a one-time fee wouldn’t be a sustainable business model for us.

Ben Woodruff

AgileBits

> Ignore syncing

Try building a password manager that doesn’t sync and let me know how sales go. :)

> Cloud password systems are like running all your security-sensitive code in an Electron app - an impossibly large attack surface with many significant flaws in some of your most-sensitive use. It doesn't make sense if you care about security at all. At least extensions are moderately well sandboxed compared to websites (since it'd be trivial to ship new javascript from their site).

You are correct in that the web browser is a very hostile environment. We're working to minimize what tasks need a web browser, and have already got it such that the entire sign-up flow can be completed in-app at least on iOS.

Ben Woodruff

AgileBits

> If I take a laptop with a 1Password subscription, fully validated and synced, and spend 6 months with no internet access, will 1Password continue working?

Yes. Obviously it won’t sync with your other devices until you restore connectivity.

Ben Woodruff

AgileBits

> I've been using dropbox sync for years

> That said, I refuse to use cloud-stored browser-accessed password managers

There seems to be a disconnect here?

Ben Woodruff

AgileBits

If you download 1Password through our website instead of the Mac App Store you can indeed use a subscription with standalone vaults. It isn’t the recommended configuration, as you’re paying for features you can’t use, but it is possible. We intentionally don’t talk about this in marketing as in the past it has caused a lot of confusion, particularly with less technical users. HN is obviously a different audience, and we can talk about that here.

Ben Woodruff

AgileBits

This is a very good point that most people fail to understand. We get frequent demands to add 2FA to standalone vaults... the best we can do is try to explain.

Ben Woodruff

AgileBits

That is a real challenge. On one hand we love talking about 1Passsword and what we’re working on. On the other hand...

1) We often don’t even have contact details for customers (e.x. App Store purchases) 2) When we do have such contact details they may have only been given for the purpose of completing a transaction, and did not agree to receive a newsletter or ongoing communications 3) Even when none of the above is a barrier it is very time intensive to send a newsletter. Not only does it require a fair bit of time to craft but the volume of inflows to our customer support team after sending a newsletter are huge.

I understand and agree with your position that putting the onus of keeping up on what is happening at AgileBits on the customer is no solution, but we do have to balance the above considerations. We’ll continue to look for ways we can do better.

Ben Woodruff

AgileBits

1Password 7 for Windows does not have WLAN sync. If that is something you have a need for, we’re collecting feedback: https://discussions.agilebits.com/discussion/87524/on-wlan-s...

Ben Woodruff

AgileBits

The CLI and 1Password X require a subscrition and membership based vaults, correct.

Ben Woodruff

AgileBits

1Password 7 for Mac is sandboxed, regardless of where you download it from.

Ben Wooodruff

AgileBits

> From what I'm reading now, it seems like it's read-only. Only to get things from a vault onto their servers.

With 1Password 6 for Windows that is the case, but not with 1Password 7.

> I still don't understand how the revenue model (subscriptions) necessitates the technical solution (cloud storage).

It doesn't. But that is the recommended solution. You _can_ subscribe and use a standalone vault. But you're missing out on functionality that you're paying for that way.

Ben Woodruff

AgileBits

> Is it possible to pay for a subscription and use a local vault?

Yes, with 1Password 7 this is possible. It isn’t the recommended situation, and we don’t advertise it, but it is possible.

Ben Woodruff

AgileBits

When accounts are frozen (which is what happens if you stop paying) 1Password enters a read-only state. You can’t use the browser extensions, make modifications, or add new data, but you’ll have read-only access to your data.

We do have a CLI that runs on Linux (as well as Mac and Windows).

Ben Woodruff

AgileBits

While our code is not, our vault formats are open. :)

Ben Woodruff AgileBits

I don’t anticipate on-prem being available for individuals; there is simply too much infrastructure required. But for businesses this may be possible in the future. Please reach out to our business team at `business@1password.com` if you are interested. - Ben, AgileBits

Licenses are still available. It is also possible to pay the subscription and use local vaults, though this would not be recommended. - Ben, AgileBits

Data is encrypted client side with 1Password.com as well. -Ben, AgileBits

[full disclosure: I work for AgileBits]

Two reasons we don't use unix domain sockets are: 1) they are not cross platform 2) they can't be created by browser extensions