For most people, a password manager must work on all your devices to be useful. 1Password recognizes that reality and offers subscribers attractive apps to access passwords across multiple platforms. It also has excellent password organization systems, a data breach monitor, and multi-factor authentication. However, 1Password lacks a free service tier and a password inheritance system. It's a very capable password manager, but you may prefer our Editors' Choice winners Bitwarden and Dashlane. Bitwarden is free, while Dashlane's paid password management boasts top-notch features.
How Much Does 1Password Cost?
Although 1Password offers a 14-day trial, it does not have a permanently free version. The company provides a free web-based password generator and a separate username generator to create customized credentials for each login page around the web, which is not ideal.
For 1Password’s personal plan, you pay $35.88 annually (effectively $2.99 per month). This tier allows you to store an unlimited number of passwords and sync them across an unlimited number of devices. You can also share links to items in your vault with anyone. You get 1GB of encrypted storage, plus the ability to create and store notes, identities, and payment cards. You also get 1Password's Watchtower, which flags old, weak, and reused passwords so you can update them.
What Is a Password Manager, and Why Do I Need One?
1Password’s Families plan costs $59.88 per year. This tier includes five licenses. You can add users for an extra $1 per month. Businesses can set up a 1Password Business account, starting at $7.99 per user per month.
Similar Products
NordPass
Dashlane
RoboForm
Keeper Password Manager & Digital Vault
LogMeOnce
Bitwarden
Enpass Password Manager
Proton Pass
What Are 1Password's Authentication and Security Options?
Start with 1Password by creating a strong master password, which should be both easy to remember and something that nobody else would guess. The first time you open your vault, 1Password greets you with a pop-up displaying your Secret Key. Hyphens separate this massive string of 34 letters and digits into seven blocks of varying sizes. Each time you add a new device or browser extension, you need this key.
To help you manage your Secret Key, 1Password prepares a download link for your Emergency Kit, a PDF containing your account email, Secret Key, and space for you to write down your master password. Print or save the document, fill in the master password, and stick it in your fireproof lockbox, store it digitally in a secured location, or both. You can download your Emergency Kit anytime from your account page on the web.
In an update since the last review, 1Password mobile users can sign in using passkeys. A passkey is a credentialing method that has not seen widespread adoption across websites yet, but it may be the world's ticket to a passwordless future. Dashlane and LastPass also allow logins using passkeys.
1Password's Windows app supports logins using Windows Hello. The macOS app allows you to unlock your vault with your Apple Watch and FaceID. 1Password also supports app and U2F key-based multi-factor authentication. You need to set up an app-based method before 1Password lets you set up a U2F key, such as from Yubico or Google Titan. These keys can be your second factor on 1Password’s website or for the Android or iOS apps.
What Is Two-Factor Authentication?
1Password can autofill time-based one-time passwords (TOTPs) for other services that support multi-factor authentication, but you shouldn’t use it to manage your 1Password login. As 1Password says, doing so "would be like putting the key to a safe inside of the safe itself."
Data Privacy With 1Password
Before reviewing and testing a password manager, PCMag sends a list of questions to the password management company inquiring about its privacy and security practices. Check out 1Password's responses to the questions below.
Has your company ever had a security breach?
1Password has never had a security breach.
What unencrypted information does the password manager store in user vaults?
The data stored with 1Password is end-to-end, encrypted using secrets that only users have. 1Password team members do not have access to the data users store in 1Password.
What is the company's policy regarding master passwords?
1Password requires a combination of two keys–neither of which is ever seen (much less held) by 1Password:
Key #1: Your chosen account password
Key #2: The Secret Key–a 128-bit, machine-generated code that's mathematically infeasible to crack
Without both of these keys, your data is impossible to decrypt, thereby preventing criminals from making use of a copy of your vault data even if they do manage to gain access to it.
Credentials are never sent over the network. 1Password adds a unique additional layer of security known as Secure Remote Password (SRP). This allows 1Password to authenticate without sending keys over the network, mitigating that risk. It also guarantees that the 1Password app is communicating with a genuine 1Password server, not an impostor.
What is the company's policy regarding user data collection and data sales?
1Password recently rolled out a custom, optional telemetry system that will help the company build a better 1Password product without compromising its commitment to protecting user privacy. This allows 1Password to have the highest degree of control and protection around our customer usage data. All encrypted vault data remains private and only accessible by the user. For example, all passwords or URLs stored in a private or shared vault cannot be seen by 1Password or measured in our telemetry system by the nature of their security design.
The 1Password telemetry system also requires user consent to collect data and does so by including an in-app prompt that asks the user to choose whether they prefer to keep telemetry on or off. Nothing gets collected until they’ve made this choice, and users are able to change their preferences at any time. 1Password does not sell telemetry data to third parties as part of this initiative.
How does your company protect user data?
The data users save in 1Password is theirs–end-to-end encrypted with keys that only they have.
How does your company respond to requests for user information from governments and law enforcement?
A representative responded with a link to the company's policy regarding law enforcement requests. To summarize, 1Password cooperates with law enforcement when they make requests. The company cannot decrypt user's logins, passwords, or other saved items stored in their vaults. Overall, I am satisfied with 1Password's answers and policies, as well as the straightforward language the company uses throughout.
1Password's answers to the questionnaire match the company's privacy policy. We encourage you to browse the privacy policies for all apps to learn more about how companies collect, sell, or store user data. Decide how comfortable you are with data collection and how companies use your data and act accordingly.
Hands On With 1Password
You get started by downloading 1Password's desktop app, mobile apps, or browser extensions. Unlike Dashlane and NordPass, companies that beefed up their browser extensions' designs in recent years, 1Password delivers its best-looking user interfaces via its desktop and mobile apps. I love that Password's Windows desktop app interface allows users to change color themes and adjust font sizes for easier reading.
1Password also offers browser extensions for Brave, Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari. While testing the browser extension for Chrome, it performed as expected, handling my various login requests with ease. I also liked that 1Password promoted passkey adoption and education in the browser extension when I opened it for the first time.
After signing in, check out the quick and comprehensive product tutorial. It's one of the best password manager tutorials I've seen because it allows new users to practice filling in passwords and generating new ones.
If you are switching from a different password manager to 1Password, the easiest way to do it is to import your existing passwords to your new vault. 1Password can import passwords stored from other 1Password accounts, Dashlane, KeePass, KeePassX, LastPass, RoboForm, Thycotic Secret Server, and from Chrome, Firefox, and Safari browsers. You can also import your iCloud passwords. It's a short list compared to Bitwarden, which can import from more than 50 other commercial password managers.
1Password sets you up with a Private vault, as well as a Shared one if you sign up for the Families plan. Think of vaults as a way to organize your passwords and credentials at the highest level. For instance, you may want to create separate vaults for your work and personal credentials and identities.
All the expected items, such as logins, secure notes, credit cards, identities, and passwords live within a vault. If you add an item to any of those categories, that category shows up in the side menu, too. You can also add many other items, such as the details of your driver's license, passport, and social security number. 1Password imposes a 1GB storage limit on individual and family accounts for uploads. Competitors such as Keeper offer more storage for a fee, starting at $9.99 for 10GB.
Watchtower scans your logins to see if any appear in a data breach list and also tells you if you have reused or weak passwords. Unique Watchtower features include two-factor authentication monitoring and item expiration alerts. Watchtower will let you know which logins offer multi-factor authentication for the associated website and remind you to set up authentication every time you access the credential. Expiration alerts tell you if you have a credit card in the vault that is expired or expiring soon. I have not seen authentication or expiration alerts in competitors' mobile password management apps.
Credential Capture and Replay
1Password displays a circular icon in any username or password entry fields you encounter online, and it saves each entry as you create it. You can click the icon to get 1Password’s menu to appear beneath those fields if you need it.
1Password will update an existing login entry with the password if you hit the button after entering just the username. From 1Password’s browser extension menu, you can also select identities or credit cards, as well as generate a new password.
On sites for which you've saved login credentials, 1Password shows you recommended credentials once you place your cursor in the entry fields. Just click on the correct login to fill out the fields. I tested 1Password’s replay on both single- and two-page logins and did not find any problems with either adding or replaying credentials.
Another handy feature of 1Password's extension is that you can just click on an entry to navigate directly to that site's login page. RoboForm and most of the other products of this type offer this feature, too.
1Password's Password Generator
With just one click, you can create a Smart Password, which is 20 characters long, with numbers, letters, symbols, and mixed cases. If you want to make your password a little longer, choose Random Password from the dropdown menu.
I created the bizarre but memorable statement above using 1Password's web-based generator. The Memorable Password option creates a password of English words separated by hyphens. You can create passwords up to 15 words long and choose from various separators, including spaces, periods, commas, underscores, numbers, and symbols. You can also generate a PIN that is up to 12 numbers in length.
Storage and Form-Filling With 1Password
Like Dashlane, LastPass, and most other commercial password managers, 1Password lets you store personal information for use in filling out web forms. You can create any number of identities, including personal data, address information, and a variety of internet contact details. 1Password also stores credit card information separately from identities.
When you navigate to a web form, most products offer to fill in your data. I tested 1Password’s autofill capabilities using RoboForm’s identity-filling test, which lists a few dozen fields. The results were as expected. 1Password’s icon appeared with form-filling choices throughout the test.
Password Sharing With 1Password
You can share your login information with anyone, even people who don't use 1Password. To share a password or another item from your vault, click the Share button in the options menu. You can then generate a link that expires after one view, one hour, one day, seven days, 14 days, or 30 days. You choose whether the link is available to anyone with the link or if the link is only for specific people.
1Password does not include a mechanism for passing on your account to your heirs after your demise, a feature sometimes referred to as password inheritance. In the Families plan, 1Password lets you designate several family organizers, so in theory, there is someone who can always recover the account, but this isn't quite the same as an inheritance feature. Both Bitwarden and Keeper include options to give a trusted heir access to a personal vault in emergencies.
1Password Mobile Apps
I tested 1Password's capabilities with an iPhone 14 Pro running iOS 16.6.1.
Both the Android and iPhone apps offer full access to all your logins and other saved data. 1Password supports alternative login options, including TouchID or FaceID on iOS devices, as well as fingerprint authentication and PIN codes for Android devices. You can use your iOS or Android device to enable 1Password's time-based one-time password authentication feature, too.
The home screens for the mobile apps are user-friendly and allow users to customize them to their liking. You can hide or reorder your preferred credentials on the home screen and pin items from your vault for quick access. For example, if you need fast and frequent access to a credit card number that you've stored in your vault, you can press and hold the field until the option to pin the item to your home screen pops up. Once pinned, the (hashed) credit card number appears at the top of your screen, and you can copy the number to your device's clipboard with just a tap.
Is 1Password Good for Business?
1Password’s business tools make sharing credentials securely between team members a priority. Each employee has access to a vault, and they can share individual passwords with other employees or outsiders using a private link. You can control access by setting the expiration to one view, one hour, one day, seven days, 14 days, or 30 days.
Like Dashlane and Zoho Vault, 1Password supports single sign-on. Business accounts also include integrations with popular software such as Azure AD, Google Workspace, and Okta.
You can keep track of your employees’ password health by encouraging them to use the Watchtower feature. Administrators can also create individual usage reports for employees to see what credentials they are using.
Each business account includes a free Families account for every employee to encourage healthy password habits. When an employee leaves the company, they can unlink the Families account and continue the subscription at their own expense.
Other Notable Features
Masked Email: 1Password and Fastmail have teamed up to offer a smart and valuable service for 1Password subscribers. Masked emails give users the option to create unique email addresses for their logins around the web. This allows users to avoid junk and spam emails in their real inboxes. It's also helpful for figuring out which companies are leaking, selling, or sharing your contact information. You can switch masked emails on and off from within the 1Password. The feature requires a Fastmail membership (starting at $3 monthly).
Passkey Support: 1Password allows the creation and storage of passkeys in your web vault or a mobile device. To create a passkey using 1Password, visit a website that uses passkeys, such as Adobe or Google. Sign in using a username and password, then set up a passkey in your account settings menu. After completing the passkey setup, log out of the website, return to the sign-in screen, and choose "Sign in with passkey."
Right now, not all apps and websites are set up for passkey logins, so we encourage PCMag readers to continue creating and storing new and strong passwords for all websites they visit.
Easy Password Management
1Password smoothly syncs your passwords and personal data across all your Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS devices while handling all the expected tasks of a password manager. It's easy to use, has excellent apps, is very good at helping you organize your passwords, and is reasonably priced. There's a lot to be said for a password manager that's slick enough that you'll actually use it and inexpensive enough that you can afford it, too. However, with few importing options, a lack of a password inheritance system for personal accounts, and the absence of a free service tier, there's still room for improvement. Our Editors' Choice winners in the password management category are Bitwarden for free password managers and Dashlane for its wonderfully smooth user experience for paying subscribers, along with a significant collection of advanced features.
1Password is easy to use, reasonably priced, and especially good at onboarding new users. We wish it had a free tier and a password inheritance system, however.
Like What You're Reading?
Sign up for SecurityWatch newsletter for our top privacy and security stories delivered right to your inbox.
This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe from the newsletters at any time.
Thanks for signing up!
Your subscription has been confirmed. Keep an eye on your inbox!
Sign up for other newsletters
