1Password rolls out a $5 per month family plan
Family members don’t have to live in the same house. That means you can help the less technical people in your family manage their passwords from afar. If your family has more than five people you can add extra users for an additional $1 per month, per person.
The new 1Password family plan also offers a number of features that the straight-up single license purchase doesn’t have. Under the new family plan, users can sync passwords between devices using a built-in service from 1Password creator Agile Bits. Plain licensed users have to use a semi-DIY solution that integrates with third-party file storage providers such as Dropbox or iCloud.
The family plan also gives administrators (read: parents) the ability to reset accounts if someone forgets the password to their vault. You can also share passwords among family members in read-only fashion, meaning the 12 year-old can’t delete a shared password by accident.
While you generally wouldn’t want to share your passwords with each other there are situations where it makes sense, such as a family Netflix account.
Agile Bits is also throwing in 1GB of shared encrypted document storage with the subscription. That’s a really minor perk, however. If you really need encrypted storage, individual users can get 2GB of encrypted storage for free with SpiderOak.
Why this matters: Agile Bits is getting serious about the software subscription trend. In November 2015, the company introduced 1Password for Teams, a $5 per person, per month subscription service for enterprises that is currently free during its beta period; the company’s new family plan is based on the teams infrastructure. Agile Bits follows major tech firms such as Adobe (Creative Cloud) and Microsoft (Office 365) that have offered software packages in subscription form since 2013.
The 1Password family plan is an easy alternative to regular licenses, which are a little confusing. Agile Bits sells one-time licenses for its password manager for $50. That price allows up to six people to use 1Password on the same PC platform.
A family of four using all Macs would buy just one license to cover all their 1Password needs. Add a Windows machine to the mix, however, and now that same family needs two $50 licenses.
On top of that, Agile Bits offers Android and iOS apps for free, but keeps some features behind a one-time $10 in-app purchase. If a family of four wanted to unlock those features on all their mobile devices, and run 1Password on a mix of Windows and Mac machines the price would run $140.
The advantage of licensing is that it’s a one-time payment. By comparison, standard family plan users would blow through $140 worth of service in 28 months, or just over two years.
The family plan definitely isn’t cheaper in the long run. But for 1Password fans who want a security solution that’s as hassle-free as possible paying that extra money may be worth it.