1Password pricing increasing up to 33% in March

Hacker News Discussion ↗

Price changes and regional consent quirks

  • Individual plan reported rising from $35.88 to $47.88/year (≈33%); family plans around +20–33%.
  • Some emails (not all) include a requirement to explicitly “approve” the new price, or the subscription will auto‑cancel at renewal in 2026.
  • That clause appears only for certain regions (e.g. some EU/European customers report seeing it, others don’t); cause is unclear, possibly regulatory but not consistent by country.

Value, justification, and inflation debate

  • Many feel 30%+ in one shot is excessive, especially when framed around minor features like “AI‑powered item naming,” which is widely mocked.
  • Others argue the price hadn’t changed in ~8 years and note that cumulative inflation over that period is roughly similar to the increase.
  • Some say $4/month is still cheap for something mission‑critical; others highlight that in lower‑income countries this is a non‑trivial cost.

Product quality and “enshittification” concerns

  • Long‑time users say 1Password 8 is worse than earlier native versions: Electron app, heavier resource use, more UI friction, browser plugin issues, and reliability problems (crashes, failed autofill, intrusive prompts).
  • Complaints that attention is going to enterprise features, marketing (e.g. F1 sponsorship), and “AI” rather than fixing long‑standing bugs.
  • A minority report the opposite: for them, the service has improved and remains highly reliable across devices.

Alternatives and migration friction

  • Common alternatives mentioned: Bitwarden (and self‑hosted Vaultwarden), KeePass/KeePassXC, Enpass, Psono, PasswordSafe, Lockstep (early alpha), Apple Passwords/iCloud Keychain, and other niche or team‑oriented tools.
  • Bitwarden is seen as cheaper/open‑source but less polished; some criticize its UI, performance, and search, yet still prefer it for openness.
  • KeePass‑based setups (with cloud or Syncthing sync) are popular among self‑hosters; others reject self‑hosting as too much hassle.
  • Apple Passwords is praised for deep integration but criticized for platform lock‑in, subdomain quirks, and weaker cross‑platform support.

Business model, VC, and subscriptions

  • Many tie the hike to VC funding, enterprise pivot, and an anticipated IPO, describing a classic “enshittification” arc.
  • Debate over subscriptions vs. one‑time licenses: some accept ongoing fees for security software; others resent perpetual rent and fear future squeezes.
  • Several plan to cancel on principle or use the remaining term as a migration window; others will “grit their teeth and pay” due to family usage and lock‑in (TOTP, passkeys, shared vaults).