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1Password family membership cost.. Really $60 + VAT / year value?

I've just unwittingly upgraded to Safari v13 and find myself locked out of being able to use 1 Password 6 properly which is really quite irritating.

I've recommended 1Password to people for years, and while I'm not against membership / subscription models, as I know how much annual investment is required to keep a good project running... I'm honestly aghast at the 'membership' price of what really is an 'extension' to how I work, but not the main software used in my job.

As an example:

  • The cost of a Microsoft Office 365 subscription is £79.99 inc VAT in the UK for a family of up to 5.
  • The cost of 1Password for the same family of 5 inclusive of VAT is around £56.

It just doesn't compute to me. The power of Word, Excel and Powerpoint + other benefits vs an extension to how you use your computer to manage passwords? They just aren't comparable. Plus with a global market, surely you'll have wider appeal = greater revenue if you are more affordable?

For me at the moment... the pricing just pushes me away to look for other solutions, which for many people who've used your software for years, now being forced to 'upgrade' something that was already working isn't really a good business model for keeping a loyal customer base.


1Password Version: Not Provided
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Comments

  • ag_ana
    ag_ana
    1Password Alumni

    Hi @somethingrandom! Welcome to the forum!

    I don't think that 1Password and Microsoft Office can really be compared, as they are very different tools. I also don't think our companies can be compared: us versus a giant company such as Microsoft is a bit of an unfair comparison when it comes to pricing :)

    You can however continue using 1Password 6 with other browsers if you prefer, it's just Safari that won't work with it anymore after Apple removed the Safari Extensions Gallery.

  • peacekeeper
    peacekeeper
    Community Member

    What you are saying is true but to me Office 365 feels too cheap. Microsoft as a huge company prices office 365 home very aggressively. In my opinion the price is subsidized by enterprise customers and the home version is just a nice add on for Microsoft to make additional revenue.
    Also note that you are not allowed to use MS Office Home for business purposes, the business version costs >130$ per year for one user.
    Also Microsoft uses your data for marketing purposes and training of neuronal networks whereas 1Password does not do anything like that.

  • somethingrandom
    somethingrandom
    Community Member

    Yep, the comparison between companies isn't perhaps fair, but the point that they are very different pieces of software is the whole point.

    In terms of value, you can't compare the tools, 1Password just manages passwords... that's all it does.... yet it requires an annual subscription almost matching the value of a whole package of productivity software.

    I don't feel a $72 investment every year ongoing, is something that's reasonable for a password management app. It's an extension of the system not a productivity suite. As a consumer, why don't I just swap over to Apple managed passwords? It's free, it's integrated in my devices and it's easy to use. Sure on a business side, you are adding value with shared data vaults... but on the consumer side, surely the cost of the subscription is too high.

    You may not agree with me ;) but I'm just providing some customer feedback on your model vs how people may be feeling as they run into problems upgrading to the latest security update or to Catalina. It's not about when 1Password 7 was released as an update, it's about people now having to be forced to make a choice because suddenly 1Password doesn't work properly anymore. So it's either a big opportunity for 1Password, or a potential loss of customer base.

    I'm just saying that even as someone who values software, I'm thinking twice about subscribing. I wouldn't be surprised that if you make the app more affordable i.e. so that I didn't have to think about making the payment, then your business would flourish due to the increased number of subscriptions vs losing customers who now feel a bit hoodwinked into paying so much for an annual subscription just because Apple blocked the safari extensions gallery.

    But you'd have to come down to $3 a month for families to make it 'not worth blinking at'. Whereas at $5+VAT i.e. $6 / month in comparative terms, it's too much and makes me think about how to shift everything away from 1Password.

    Or maybe I'm the only one who thinks like this and everyone else has enough money sloshing around as a family and feels your app really is worth the annual cost of $72... For me, it's one subscription too many at too high a cost.

  • ag_ana
    ag_ana
    1Password Alumni

    @somethingrandom:

    Thank you again for taking the time to share your thoughts! Our pricing allows us to do the best possible job we can developing a password manager app. We also don't sell your data to advertisers, so we don't have the option to lower the price with ads.

    We obviously would love to have you as part of the 1Password family, but we understand that different people have different requirements and needs. That is why there are many password manager apps out there (some of them even free), so you can choose the one that works best for you.

    No matter what you choose, please do use a password manager anyway and stay safe online!

This discussion has been closed.