My problem with the 1Password subscription model

https://medium.com/@guisebule/to-catch-a-liar-1password-edition-4bfa30fbd7e4

by BuleBule • 9 years ago

21 25 9 years ago

tw04• 9 years ago

They can say they support both until they're blue in the face. Version 6 for Windows doesn't support local passwords and they keep kicking the can further and further down the road with no actual roadmap for it. The bullshit that it's a difficult feature to implement is infuriating. There's absolutely no way it's a massive effort to enable writing new passwords on a local safe when you can open and read existing safe's just fine, and create new passwords in a local cache if I'm tied to a "cloud database".

You want to push everyone to subscription and you know it. Don't be "that guy" - right now they're 100% "that guy".

deedubaya• 9 years ago

Seems like they're going to keep things as they are, if that's what you'd like.

https://twitter.com/1Password/status/884791799138615296

Torkgin5• 9 years ago

For now but who knows what will happen next year? Once they make enough money with subscription they will stop caring.

BlackjackCF• 9 years ago

I'm still using 1Password on my Macbook, but since I've gone full time Linux at home, I had to migrate off. Keepass + SyncThing is more than enough to keep everything synced for me.

omnimus• 9 years ago

Exactly same here.

Macpass for osx with browser plugin works awesome for me.

reiichiroh2• 9 years ago

So Windows users have to use the crappy EOL v4 client?

nvr219• 9 years ago

That's what I'm using now. What's crappy about it? Works great for me.

reiichiroh2• 9 years ago

it's abandoned feature-wise and ui-wise it's inconsistent with the rest of the product offerings while they are clearly putting their time in the v6 with its cloud focus.

valuearb6• 9 years ago

Software companies absolutely need recurring revenues to survive, new users are hard and expensive to get, and you need to keep an active development team. Historically it was upgrades, you gave customers new features in trade for upgrade revenue, which was usually a great deal for all.

But nowadays that's lots harder, upgrades don't exist on iOS at all. And when their key features are already in the product, lots of users won't see the point of upgrading.

But what they and the author miss is that keeping software operating is a great deal of work. In 1Password's case just compatibility and bug fixing on 4 or 5 operating systems is likely a substantial ongoing effort. On iOS alone my guess is they have to support 3 different major OS versions at a time.

The disconnect is users who bought a version that worked on iOS 7 or Windows 7 and never paid a dime since expecting a free Windows 10 and iOS 11 update.

Torkgin5• 9 years ago

Companies managed to survive a few last decades without having subscriptions and suddenly they need it to survive? Upgrades exist on iOS, you just release a new app. It is not different from times before App Store.

Stop tolerating this subscription model or you will regret it one day once everyone switches to it and you will be paying 200 bucks each month to use your software and if you stop you will have nothing.

valuearb6• 9 years ago

An upgrade means you can charge 30-40% of the retail price of the new version to existing users. That doesn't exist on iOS, Apple doesn't even let developers know who your customers are.

evgen2• 9 years ago

Then charge for the upgrade by doing the standard major version bump (Foo2, just like Foo but now with more Bar!) and don't try to bullshit us. Companies don't need recurring revenue to survive, they need to sell product to survive. If their biz model consists of trying to bleed their current customer base one drop at a time I will look elsewhere.

-current 1password user and evangelist who will drop it in a heartbeat if forced into a subscription

BuleBule• 9 years ago

This is the correct answer. Every time I hear that a software vendor needs recurring revenue to survive, I think back to the entire history of the software industry where this was clearly not the case until every recently. Its gotten to the point now where anyone who makes some sort of software believes that are a service that must be paid for by subscription.

Don't be those guys, have a good long hard think about why you deserve that recurring revenue and if its not immediately obvious, chances are you are just chasing the dollar rather than trying to solve a problem.

valuearb6• 9 years ago

iOS doesn't allow you to charge existing users for a version bump.

socalnate1• 9 years ago

I had the exact opposite reaction. I have been long hoping that they would move to a recurring revenue model.

I WANT my password manager to be backed by a financially stable, healthy company who invests in updates and maintenance. This is an area I am happy to pay a premium for and I am thrilled that 1Password is moving this direction.

Torkgin5• 9 years ago

Having a recurring revenue model does not mean you have a stable company. You might love it but many others don't and if they don't have enough customers on subscription it will be worse for you because you depend on their servers to operate and if they shut down your software stops working.

krishna2• 9 years ago

Why can't one of those big cloud/disk providers (Dropbox or Amazon or Microsoft or Google or Apple) come up with such a Password Manager? In fact, they can integrate it really well too.

rjohnk• 9 years ago

I think that those that think the upgrade model will suffice are missing a few things: The increase in free/customer-as-the-product solutions that undercut existing software and by extension, the race to the bottom when it comes to app prices.

Back in the 90's, you bought a thick box with a thick manual and physical media for $25 dollars. You didn't have to worry about some App Store selling just as good software for $0.99

norea-armozel• 9 years ago

It's definitely worrying to me that everyone is going to SaaS on everything since it removes the basic purpose of having a PC or even a smart phone: to do the computing as close to myself as possible. Some things fit SaaS as a natural consequence of their implementation but password managers and image editors aren't good fits for that and they're clearly a cash grab. Eventually, I plan to ditch 1Password when I have the time to find a roughly analogous application (which I've seen a couple but not good enough IMO) since they can't provide local storage for my existing vaults.

My problem with the 1Password subscription model

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