roustem
We have a lot of 1Password customers with families and team members that require more than a single vault, need an option to recover team/family member access and often have to securely share data with other people, accountants and lawyers. Also, many of developers and admins that want to keep their SSH keys safe.
1Password 8 has greatly improved security architecture compared to the previous versions. Just one example of many: when rendering the item details, the Rust core would not send the password value to the UI layer until the user clicks "Copy" or "Reveal" password.
In addition to that, 1Password 8 has better integration with the operating system that any other version in the past — Touch ID, Windows Hello, Secure Enclave, macOS Accessibility services, etc, etc.
The licenses are also confusing — people had to purchase apps separately for every platform: macOS, Windows, iOS, Android. And then they had to purchase upgrades separately as well.
Did you check 1Password developer tools, like SSH-agent server, git commit signing, and CLI? https://developer.1password.com/
Or the new item and file sharing. https://support.1password.com/share-items/
One of the issues with Bitwarden encryption is the fact that every field is encrypted separately and that could provide more info to the attacker. For example, you could tell how many URLs in a particular login or if there is note for an item and how long it is.
1Password has been in business for 17 years, longer that any other password manager. It is very difficult to have a long term business model built completely on open source.
We quit our full-time jobs when 1Password revenues were close to $80,000/year.
> I do miss some native features (like the iOS letter column on the right that made it very fast to find something in the list), but generally get that there are tradeoffs to be made.
You are not the only who missed this feature and it is coming back soon. It wasn't available in SwiftUI and we had to go back to UIKit to implement it.
Also, I certainly understand being the long time Mac expect. However, when we tested 1Password with new customers we found a ton of usability issues and many of these problems are solved in 1Password 8. One example, most new users couldn't even figure out how to create new items right away because of the look and the location of "New Item" button in the old app.
A full rewrite takes a lot of time. We did this twice in the past and it is always painful. We had to do it again this time because the discrepancies between the platforms became ridiculous and we had to fix this. For example, the same search would produce different results on Mac and Windows and Android.
We also took time to address some of the pain points that existed in 1Password 7. For example, it was technically possible to have a different Master Password on your Mac and iPhone, etc.
The local database was rewritten and we made sure that everything that is possible is fully encrypted. For example, all rich icons are now stored encrypted. We also changed the logging system to make sure no personal information is ever logged. At the same time, we had to make sure the data format is backwards compatible with the old version so that both 1Password 8 and 1Password 7 can be used during the transition.
We ran over 100 studies with both existing users and people who never tried 1Password before to make sure the apps are more usable by everyone.
For new users we added New Item experience that made it easier to navigate through templates and understand how to use 1Password. For developers, we added CLI integration, support for SSH keys, and a built-in SSH agent that secures your ssh private keys.
Brand new Linux app, more than 100 new features and improvements overall, on top of the full rewrite.
1Password 8 has a ton of new features and it is faster than the previous version. Some of the new features like Universal Autofill and SSH Agent do not exist in any other product. It also fixes many problems that accumulated in the app over the years.
More on features here: https://1password.com/products/features/
a more visual description of what's new is here: https://1password.com/mac/
Any chance you are not using 1Password 8 today?
The problem with 1Password 7 or earlier versions is that the surrounding environment changes and the older versions do not receive updates to keep up. This certainly makes the overall experience worse with time.
At 1Password we actually did not mind developing separately for every platform. It's been done for years. We build it for ourselves and don't mind putting extra work for better experience.
However, the problem is that you end up with apps that behave differently, miss features, and have different bugs across platforms. Drives people crazy. Just one example: 1Password 7 for Windows shows different search results in a different order compared to the Mac app. Obviously it could be fixed but then a different issue pops up somewhere else.
Instead of adding new features we spent time fixing (making?) various bugs in different ways.
The new 1Password 8 still has a ton of platform-specific code but the core is the same across all desktop and mobile apps. It allows us to get the new features out faster and also spend time on platform-specific code.
However, the problem is that you end up with apps that behave differently, miss features, and have different bugs across platforms. Drives people crazy. Just one example: 1Password 7 for Windows shows different search results in a different order compared to the Mac app. Obviously it could be fixed but then a different issue pops up somewhere else.
Instead of adding new features we spent time fixing (making?) various bugs in different ways.
The new 1Password 8 still has a ton of platform-specific code but the core is the same across all desktop and mobile apps. It allows us to get the new features out faster and also spend time on platform-specific code.
Also, 1Password would have to be changed to not store any data (or at least the vault keys) locally and then retrieve it from the server after unlock. Otherwise, it is going to be vulnerable to local attacks, without even going through the app.
We were brainstorming this feature when we first were designing the service. It certainly would be an interesting option, it just requires quite a few changes on both server and client sides.
In any case, "unlocking" in 1Password is always based on encryption not authentication. The second-factor authentication can only help the server reject the clients that fail to provide it.
Roustem Founder of 1Password
2. It might look silly but we actually had an internal debate about making the preference for floating preference window. I personally do not mind the single window approach because it makes things easier for the non-experienced users. I watched my mother-in-law losing the preferences window when she tried to configure 1Password 7. I know there are certain articles claiming that all Mac apps must have a floating Preferences window but there are quite a few counter-examples as well. Anyway, that preference might still happen.
1. I certainly relate to the pain about muscle memory when it comes to the keyboard shortcuts. At the same time, having an option to easily adjust the zoom settings for an app is such a great feature. I used 1Password on a 13" laptop and on Pro Display HDR and I love the ability to change the zoom factor. I now wish I could do this in every app. Perhaps a solution could be to make all keyboard shortcuts customizable?
Did you have a chance to look at CLI 2.0 and 1Password 8 integration: https://developer.1password.com/docs/cli/use-biometric-unloc...
When it comes to generated passwords, we had this implementations since 1Passwd 1.0 and it was always a bit kludgey. I believe the redesign in 1Password 8 completely solves this problem by using a special system vault to store the generated values.
-- Roustem 1Password Founder