1Password Review: A One-Stop Shop for Online Security
- Not browser-specific
- As secure as the user allows
- Slightly expensive
- Non-aesthetic design
New social networking sites, online banking utilities, even new ways to communicate, are appearing nearly every day. Most of these require accounts made, and of course with new accounts come new passwords. Usually the sites have different requirements for how many characters, what kind of letters, and so on, so one ends up with many different passwords. How is one to keep track of all of these? Enter 1Password.
1Password is an incredible application. Once installed, it automatically installs a plug-in into every browser. Any time a new password is entered, it gives you the option of saving it in 1Password. This seems similar to the password managers built in to many browsers, such as Firefox and Safari, until you realize that the passwords saved are available from any browser. Switching back and forth between multiple browsers, a common occurrence especially when testing out new websites that may not be complete, is made super easy with 1Password.
The application stores all passwords, as well as credit card information, license codes for software, pretty much anything that a user might need but would prefer to keep hidden. This is all accessible through an easy to use interface (primarily the aforementioned browser plug-ins), once a master password is entered. This password only has to be entered once per session, and then a keyboard shortcut is used after that to enter any password or login. 1Password gives you the option of creating new, super-secure passwords for any new web services that would be impossible to remember, but because of how the program works, it is not necessary to remember them.
One of the best things about 1Password is how easy it is, once a password is saved, to put it into a form. The user simply has to press a keyboard shortcut, and it automatically enters the login info into the provided boxes. This is not only easier than remembering your various usernames and passwords, it is also incredibly fast. 1Password also has the option of auto-submitting the information, so you don’t even have to click a button. This is true not only for login information, but also for billing addresses, credit card numbers, and so on.
1Password is not a perfect app. There were a few sites (although not the majority) that it didn’t notice when I was entering in a new password, and so didn’t take it up into its memory. Also, it is extremely difficult to enter a new login from the application itself, rather than from one of your browsers. Oddly, one of the reasons it is so difficult is that the program keeps reminding you that it is easier from a browser. 1Password consistently warns you about things that may compromise your security (using Apple’s built-in keychain software instead of the Agile Keychain), which is helpful, but can get annoying when it stops you from doing something you know you want to do.
The user interface of the application itself could be more aesthetic, like AllSecure’s, for example (a similar program). But, since most interaction is done through a browser, this is only a minor detail. Another issue I had, which is more an issue of usage than the actual program, is the suggested password. If a generated password, 16 random characters long, is used for an online banking site, that is fine when it is being accessed from the user’s computer, but it is impossible to get in from another computer, since the user does not actually know the password.
However, despite these flaws, 1Password is a great tool to streamline the internet—especially shopping and banking. It is available for $39.95 (with a money-back guarantee) from the Agile Web Solutions website.
Just a few comments. 1Password is coming out with a new version very soon (beta is almost out). This should clean up the Non-aesthetic design issues you were referring to (among other things). Also, it is possible to store your database on a DropBox site allowing you to span your passwords across multiple computers.
It’s also worth noting that they have an iPhone app which you can sync your passwords to so you have access to them on your phone.
1Password is a great app. After using it for awhile, I can’t imagine not having it. Otherwise, I probably would not have different passwords for all of my sites.
very nice app.
to push the price down: a) they have a good education discount! and b) enter a promo-code. you can use both together! (promo codes also works for family-licenses!)
I think version 3.0 isn’t too far away and they seem to have worked a bit on the aesthetics.
http://e1h1.simplecdn.net/agile/aws/images/newsletter/screenshots/LockedUIv3.png
Thank you for the great review!
I agree with you about the aesthetics of version 2. Dan (our lead designer) has made version 3.0 look amazing, and I can’t wait to share it with you! I’m itching to tell you the release date, but my team has forbad me from sharing it as we don’t want to jinx it
Re: creating logins from within the main application, I see what you mean, we really should remove that comment from the default login template. I’ll fix this in 3.0. One thing you can do in the meantime, however, is to manually select Save Form from the browser extension to create the new form. This has the benefit of allowing 1Password to save more information about the page as well, such as field names.
Cheers!
–Dave Teare
Co-author of 1Password
IMHO:
1Password is not only a very nice app, their company culture also play an important role to make it “nice”.
They offer excellent customer service and very often their management staff will take part in responding customer’s feed back – which I regard this is very important for how to distinguish if a company can provide excellent product.
I bought this lovely application in Oct of 08, store my Agile key chain on my iDisk for cross machine sharing and have it on my iPhone – I extol the virtues of this program to all my mac friends and put it on a “reasons to switch” list for those other folks
. One issue is that more and more financial institutions (several of mine) have two factor auth and other wonky stuff where their “userid” and “password” fields are not so identified in the html and not picked up by the plugin. For these I just make a custom form entry – a little bit of a pain because you don’t find out till after you login the first time and 1Password doesn’t catch it. Never the less this is an app I really use all day every day and would never be without.
This works great on your local mac perhaps, but what should I do when I need to acces one of my password protected sites on anther machine?
Is iPhone sync an option? So that we can read the password from the iphone?
get dropbox, place the 1password library in your dropbox folder and connect all the machines you use to your dropbox. install 1password on all machines and point to the library in the dropbox folder. done.
there is an app for the iphone but i think it only syncs up… (haven’t tried it, as i still dont have an iphone)
@James: Yes, there is an iPhone app! I don’t know much about it, not having one myself, but I know exists, to help with syncing.
I am concerned about the Dropbox user agreement. It allows them to access the dropbox folder on your computer. I don’t like that idea. I think I understand what they are trying to say, I just don’t like the wording in the agreement.
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