FYI
Just got a software update to v1.16.9 of the Strongbox app that, among other things, says that its 1Password Importer includes attachments now that they are being exported by 1Password v7.9.2.
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Still riding the beta train here and 1Password are taking their time with the mac app and listening to feedback.
Theyāve brought back categories into the left hand nav which had been removed and causing a fair amount of feedback about that particular one.
Itās becoming more polished and Iām quite happy with it now.
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I was skeptical at first as well but honestly itās been stable and theyāre polishing it nicely. The real fun will be when I setup a Linux box and get my vaults installed.
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Another great update from Strongbox, does not look like any other Keepass-based client I know of. The developer is on a killing spree! (Still very beta and crashy but itās a great preview)
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Nice! Where is this, on GitHub? I am using the production version but would like to check out this one (still using Bitwarden as my primary PW manager).
Edit: Disregard my question; I see now on the GH repo that you have to request access to betas. Thanks for bringing this beta version to our attention; very interesting.
The āNext Gen UIā can be enabled on the AppStore version via a āAdvancedā Preference.
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For the past 2 weeks I used the 1Password 8 beta on macOS. Having used it on Windows at work for 6 months or more I was pretty familiar with the look and feel of it already.
The TL;DR of this experiment is that I do not like it.
My Issues with 1Password 8
I had already thought version 7 was a bit sluggish compared to prior years, but maybe hindsight is clouded here. Keyboard shortcuts were slow to respond, autofill wouldnāt respond sometimes, Iād have to refresh pages to get it to recognize the page, the extension felt slow to respond. The spotlight like quick search keyboard shortcuts were problematic and I missed the old 1Password mini. What used to be a smooth process of logging in now has a notable hiccup every time I want to use it.
Now I realize a few things here. I am using a beta build, and this could account for my problems. While my experience on version 8 for Windows is a bit better, it is still a departure from what version 7 and earlier on macOS was. I will note though that I think version 8 on Windows is a huge improvement on that platform. The macOS version just feels like a regression on top of a regression in terms of speed and responsiveness.
My Alternative of Choice
Now after some testing of various alternatives Iām going to give Minimalist a real test. Iāve bought a 1 year subscription and imported everything from 1Password.
The look, speed, and responsiveness is is exactly what I want. Itās not perfect and there are compromises, but the important thing for me is that the application priorities are closer to my own. I also appreciate the documented road map and Iām glad most of the shortcomings are being worked on.
Trade Offs
Iām losing cross platform support, but I really donāt need this. My Windows gaming PC needs at best 10 passwords for things like Steam, Discord, and other miscellaneous game stores. This is easily solved with a local copy of Bitwarden or Keepass. These wonāt change often and are rarely used. 95% of my password manager use is on macOS. For work, I had a separate 1Password vault that didnāt sync anyway. This too is easily solved with Bitwarden or Keepass. I have less than 10 passwords to use here as well.
Iām locked into Safari on macOS as well. This is a non issue for me. Safari is great. I canāt stand Chrome, and the rare cases I need Firefox for web compatibility I donāt need auto fill anyway. I honestly didnāt even have the 1Password extension installed in Firefox to begin with. Auto fill in other browsers is also on the developers short list for anyone else considering this.
Lastly, Iām going to miss favicons but the developer listed they will address this in the road map.
Summary
Minimalist and 1Password 8 are both regressions in their own ways. Where 1Password feels bloated and sluggish, Minimalist is slim and responsive. The cost is a step back in features and a platform support that are acceptable for my use case.
In the end, I donāt know if I would switch to Minimalist for anything other than personal use right now, but Iām in a position to accept the trade offs and encourage some healthy competition in the password manager space and support native app development. Also, to very roughly and probably inaccurately quote MacSparky, āIām a sucker for small developersā. I know Iāve heard him say something along those lines before.
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I canāt believe there are people that switching from 1PW because of the beta while knowing that it is a beta and optimization is still probably yet to happen. 
Like I said in my post, I had complaints with version 7 and had used version 8 on Windows (not beta) for many months. So when version 8 beta for macOS exhibits the same annoyances as version 8 GA for Windows Iām not going to assume the macOS GA will be better. At least not when they are now/soon to be mostly the same product sans platform specifics.
The current state of the macOS version 8 beta was not my key criterion for changing. If that was the overall message left from my post, perhaps I should consider rephrasing some things.
I think you stated your reasons for changing apps quite well. Iāve been a 1PW user for 14 years, and rarely install beta software on my personal machine, so Iāll wait for the release version of v8 to make my evaluation.
Let us know what you think of Minimalist after youāve worked with it for a while.
Interesting, 1Password is searching macOS developers with experience in ā Swift, Objective-C, SwiftUI, AppKit, Xcode, XPCā.
This could mean they are building a native application long term. Would be nice.
In the meantime (or maybe longer) Bitwarden 
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All of those are already used in or to build the 1Password 8 Mac client (possible exception of Swift UI.)
Whatās wrong with just using 1Password 7?
Because unless youāre using a completely local vault, itāll stop working sooner or later - probably sooner.
Ah okay, didnāt know that. Thought development in Electron would mean using something different.
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You canāt optimize Electron to a behavior of a native app.
It is literally Chrome running in the background. Chrome has had RAM issues since it came out. You canāt change that. Electron is using 2-3 times more system resources, thus leading to more battery usage thus leading to faster battery degradation.
It is a browser window without browser buttons. It may look like a native app but it isnāt. No optimization in the world will change this fact.
Well, I had been using the 1PW8 Electron app for Mac. When I stopped doing so, the Electron app used less RAM than the native 1PW7 (I used 1PW7 to migrate my data to Bitwarden). Native is better than non-native. But a lot of Electron apps are better than Electronās ābadā reputation.
It is good to have choices. So, absolutely: if possible, I will prefer a good ānativeā app over a bad Electron app. Then again: If I like an app for whatever reason, I will use it, no matter if ānativeā or āElectronā.
And talking about nativeā¦ What does native even mean? Are Catalyst apps native? Apple thinks so. But, boy, oh boyā¦ There is a reason why many developers prevented their iPad apps to magically appear on the Mac Appstore as a ānativeā Catalyst app.
The native future apparently is Swift. But if you really want to push a new language, you have to go first: where are the powerful new MacOS apps by Apple, done with Swift? Where are they? Apple and Swift: Michael Tsai - Blog - Why Lattner Left the Swift Core Team - Michael Tsai - Blog - Abrahams on the Design of Swift. Yes, it is normal. Nothing is perfect right from the start. There is a lot to be done. The OmniGroup jumped onto the Swift train in 2020, which was quite a bet. It was only recently when they shared their relief: āwe bet on the right horseā - āApple continued to improve Swift and SwiftUI this yearā. That does not exactly sound like pure enthusiasm. How many other well-known MacOS apps have switched to Swift so far? I do not know of many. In AppKit Objective-C still seems to be the choice where most apps are being developed. But Apple envisions Swift as the future, even with potential for PC apps. And, yes, Swift still sounds like something for the future. Maybe.
But what is about today and now? There is a reason why many developers, small or big ones, choose Electron in combination with whatever they need. A well-done Electron app will not be identified that easily as an Electron app by the everyday user. There are already a lot of them and their number is increasing. As does their quality. Electron apps are interesting for developers who want or need to be on multiple platformsā¦ Password managers are the perfect example for this category of multi-platform apps.
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Weāve discussed the optimizations that are possible, how they use native code in the app, and compared our RAM usage changes (more modest than 2-3x though hard to directly measure) quite a bit in this thread.
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I expect to see native apps continue to be replaced by web based solutions. SalesForce is a successful cloud based solution, Slack is electron, MS Teams is electron but is moving to Edge Webview2 *. IMO their advantage is not just cross platform, they are insulated from most changes to operating systems.
āMicrosoft Edge WebView2 control allows you to embed web technologies (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript) in your native apps. ā
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Also worth considering that Electron itself might not be the Way Of The Future for even web apps. Itās always possible that a better framework could come along, or that they could tighten up the rendering engine and increase OS compatibility so that Electron itself doesnāt have as many of the drawbacks it currently has.
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