When they first did this it wasn’t hidden at all. The website gave you 2 options side by side.
https://web.archive.org/web/20160915083507/https://1password...
I remember noticing the announcement of subscriptions (possibly a couple weeks after it happened), being concerned it'd spell the end for dropbox sync so I checked it out ASAP, and then discovering my fears were mostly justified - it still existed (and remained around for a couple years), but it was shoved waaaay off into a corner. E.g. in the next subscription-oriented version of the apps, unless you attached a synced file FIRST, the option for dropbox syncing or standalone licenses was never available. The official instructions for fixing this were to reinstall the app from scratch and attach to the file first, before signing in.
Notice that only a few months later, the standalone license mention at the bottom of the page isn't even there any more: https://web.archive.org/web/20170215115945/https://1password...
Super hostile behavior, right out the gate. It was clear they were going all-in on subscriptions.
I am a long-time 1Password user who recently made the leap to their hosted service. 1Password remains best-in-class for me and has a terrific security record, especially compared to their peers. While I too lament the everything-is-a-subscription-now trend, I remain a strong supporter and avid fan of 1Password.
The latest integrations offered, for browsers and for e.g. Fastmail masked email address generation [1], only work with the cloud offering. I am happy to report that these latest offerings are fantastic and have tremendous UX.
Version 8 will only be subscription based.
my original license was 1password 3 (teams edition or something like that?) i believe, which i'd been upgrading all along. too bad they'll lose all this recurring revenue, even if it's not strictly as uniform and regular as subscriptions.
Previously it was one license per user per platform. I’ve bought 1Password at least 3 times and pointed them to the same vault. Can’t remember if they had paid upgrades.
If you are not inclined to host your own server, it really doesn’t seem clear to me to migrate away. Only the single and 2 user free licence and the single premium license for bitwarden is a clear winner. For families it’s not much cheaper.
I’m not even opposed to paying. I’ve bought 1P a few times. And I’d pay for another service. I think it’s the fact that they are forcing the choice that gives me a bag taste in my mouth. But this is irrational if my 2nd choice is to pay bitwarden a similar amount of money for a family subscription.
But I really want to get the family subscription. The Premium BitWarden plan is much cheaper than 1Password but the the Family plan doesn’t get you as much of a discount and my parents are on iPhones.
Edit: Dave Teare, the 1Password guy claims that when they were still offering standalone licences in 2018, people picked subscriptions over perpetual licences at more than a 30:1 ratio. Of course, they only showed the monthly price vs the perpetual price. But I’d hope people understand what subscription means.