Been curious about it - how does it compare to 1Password ?
Sorry, I am not able to answer that since I have never used 1Password. I sued keychain until I got my gaming pc, and then I did some reading and Bitwarden got positive feedback and I try it and it work for my needs. I am no power user or anything near just in case 
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I actually used Bitwarden during my hiatus from 1Password.
It’s a reasonable app but doesn’t have the right integration and seamless use of 1P. I don’t think it really has any benefits I cared about compared to using Keychain except bring cross-platform.
1P, on the other hand is so well integrated that I have disabled key chain
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I’ve haven’t gone that far, but I only use keychain on casual sites that don’t offer 2FA.
Pay for 1Password. It is fabulous software, actively developed and quick to support new Mac and iOS technologies. Why would you not want to support software of this quality, and ensure a sustainable future for its developers? Sheesh.
I played with bitwarden a little bit and found that it’s not as polished. It crashed a few times on open and saving a password. I didn’t play with the integration with a browser.
I find the value of $5/month for the family membership worth it. The integration and cross-platform is well done. The shared vaults are very useful
Keychain is great for an individual.
Shared a deal for 10 months of 1password family free at December 2020 Sales and Hardware/Software Deals
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Maybe don’t be so quick to judge. 
I am all for supporting developers, but if there’s software you like better and works better elsewhere, there’s no reason to keep paying for a given product, isn’t it?
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Opening Statement: Look, hey, do whatever you like, however you like. Life is too short for me to try to change your mind. If you want to explore other options, go for it. Maybe you’ll find something you like better.
That being said…
I’m really glad I’m not a software developer.
Reading this thread and thinking back to 99% of the conversations that I hear about when people are talking about software subscriptions… I can’t help but think of it in the following way:
Customers: “We don’t like subscriptions! Give us the option to buy your app! Subscriptions are awful! User hostile! Money-grab! We hate them! If you switch to subscription-only, you’re going to lose me as a customer! I want a stand-alone purchase option!”
1Password: offers exactly what you have asked for
Customers: “Well, sure, maybe they offer what I want now but will my preferred option exist forever?!? Maybe not, so I’m not going to buy this. I’ll just use another option, even though:
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I have used this app for years
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It has worked so well that I wanted to keep using it
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They gave me the non-subscription option that I wanted
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Version 7 will most likely continue to work for a long time even if a future version isn’t sold as stand-alone.
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The other option I’m using way fewer options. Still, I’d rather a worse option today rather than possibly not having a better option at some point in the future. After all, this is free.”
Result: Low sales of stand-alone version, which still carries an additional burden of development and support, but without any customers actually using it.
Developers: “Ok, so people said they hate subscriptions, but they didn’t buy the stand-alone version, so for the next version we aren’t going to offer a stand-alone version.”
Customers: “SEE!?! I KNEW IT! Developers are greedy bastards!! Subscriptions suck! I hate you!”
Yes, what I’m describing is a caricature, no doubt… but how much of an exaggeration is it really? I’ll grant that this thread might not been as fervently anti-subscription as what I’ve described, but we’ve all heard those things – and worse – said about apps that switch to subscription.
Someone on a podcast (not MPU) recently said something like: “I think a lot of people who bought a piece of software once and then used it for a really, really long time knew that they were kind of getting away with something, and mostly they’re mad because they can’t keep doing that, even if it hurts the developers of the apps they claim to love.”
There were people still using 1Password 3 from 2009 on iOS devices in 2017, and people using 1Password 4 for Mac (released 2013) when 1Password 7 came out in 2018.
Now, I get it… why spend money if you don’t have to, or why replace something that works? 100% no argument from me. But sometimes these discussions make me wonder how people would handle these sorts of things when physical items break down.
“Honey, the hot water tank gave out!”
“Oh no!”
“Yeah. The guy said it’s like 40 years old! He said the new ones only last for about 10-12 years.”
“It’s terrible the way they make things these days. No one has any pride in their work.”
“Meh. Let’s just stop using hot water.”
“We would save a lot of money that way.”
Anyway… it’s not my intention to offend anyone. As I said, at the end of the day, you should do what you think is the best choice for you, regardless of what some random guy on the Internet thinks about it.
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I just think that 1Password is a bit expensive yearly for just really using it for 2FA autofill.
I’ll keep doing this because it’s handy (I could use Keychain and Authy otherwise) and there definitely is value now that I’ve switched from Safari to Brave.
But if I hadn’t, like Fantastical, it would be a luxury. A savvy software developer will also be aware of this and think about adding more value for retain customers, like Agile Tortoise does.
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Your analysis doesn’t work because Apple forced the old software business model to change. In the old days, you could buy a piece of software and use it for a really long time, but if you wanted the new version, you’d eventually have to pay an upgrade price. So people who were happy with the old features and didn’t want to pay for the new version could continue to do that. People who wanted the new and shiny version paid the upgrade price and this model seemed to work well for a long time. But Apple forbids this upgrade price model and subscriptions seem to be the way to introduce a similar model, but instead of paying an upgrade price once every couple of years, you pay more frequently. Was Apple right to kill the old upgrade model? I don’t know, but I do know most people hate change in general. I myself am fine with paying for subscriptions, but I am more merciless with killing subscriptions. In the old days, it was easier to give in to an upgrade price because it wasn’t a recurring expense on your credit card.
I don’t mind paying for a subscription if I believe it is worth it. I have many subscriptions and I reevaluate them from time to time to make sure I’m still getting the value out of it that I want. And this is one of those times, I’m transferring data and apps to a new computer and so it is time to make sure the software I install is still worth my money and attention.
To my way of thinking a password manager is something that is naturally provided by the OS. It has always been that way on the Mac, but iOS was lacking at the beginning and 1Password filled the void. But over the years Apple has improved the iOS password manager to the point where I don’t think it is worth paying the extra premium for 1Password. I know they have features that go beyond what Apple offers and that’s fine, just not worth it to me.
Another issue I have is that I have a number of passwords in Keychain, mostly stuff I don’t care that much about like News subscriptions, etc. I then have another set of passwords in 1Password. I’ve had an issue of these two systems competing with each other. 1Password and Safari are both trying to offer to login or provide a strong password. I know this is my own laziness and not doing the work to consolidate. I have to commit to one or the other, so that is what I’m doing now. I could’ve gone with 1Password, but I made the assessment above and don’t consider the price worth it. All my passwords will go into keychain. The few secure notes I have in 1Password will end up as a locked note in Apple Notes.
I make a living as a software developer, so I certainly sympathize with your sentiment of supporting good software. But I also don’t consider my purchase of software or paying of subscriptions as charity either.
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I plan to continue paying $0.10/day for 1password. Keychain while good, isn’t Apple’s primary focus and it’s reassuring that companies like IBM and Apple have chosen to roll out 1PW to their employees.
Subscriptions aren’t going away. And I suspect we’ll be seeing a lot fewer standalone applications for sale from single developers and smaller companies. Part of my software selection process is insuring I have a way to export my data from any program I use. That’s more important than ever, IMO, because we are likely to see more volatility in pricing and turnover of developers in the future.
Hi TJ, I know what you mean, but I think you misplaced the comment because I don’t think it really applies in this particular thread and the OP stated some good reasons for the switch that were not related to your caricature.
Personally, I switched to 1P, deciding its subscription was worthwhile.
At about the same time, I switched from Overcast to the Podcasts app, deciding that subscription was not worthwhile for me. In both cases, I am paying software developers for their hard work, either through a direct payment or through hardware purchases.
The OP has purchased a lovely new computer and hence paid Apple for a new version of Big Sur that comes with great software, which includes a pretty nice password management app that even checks vulnerabilities now IIRC. There’s no need to feel bad about it.
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The problem I have with Apple’s keychain: It offers no local export whatsoever for the Local Items keychain - which is where new passwords are stored.
If my Mac (or merely its system installation) were to develop a fault, I would be unable to recover my saved passwords.
The only supported way is transferring them by syncing all my passwords through iCloud keychain - something I’m simply not going to do.
You’re right. My response was judgy and dismissive, and I apologize for that. What I read is that 1Password solves all my problems, Mac keychain solves many of those, but leaves some gaps. I’d rather not pay for software if there is a solution that sorta works for me, and it’s free. I have no problem with voting with your dollars, and paying (or not paying) for the product that works best for you. But, if you acknowledge that a product provides the best solution for you, and sneeze only at the relatively modest cost, I think you’re doing a disservice to yourself, to the Mac/iOS community and to the developer. For me, the highest cost I incur is the time and energy I invest in learning a program and making it part of my workflow.
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BTW, the Mac and iOS Safari teams are doing remarkable work. They’ve created a genuinely great password management function that makes it possible for the vast majority of users who never think about password management to be safer on the internet. 1Password is just better for me, and adds functions that the built-in tools do not provide. I’m very happy to be able to pay the developer a fair price for those efforts.
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I purchased the V7 1Password and that worked great, syncing with Dropbox. However, when I changed firms and couldn’t install the Windows version, I switched to the subscription software, to use the online 1Password X plugin and that works well. The Apple Watch app for 2FA was also dead handy (less so now that the auto fill seems to work).
The cross platform aspect is something that I have to consider.
I have to disagree there. Keychain’s been somewhat of a mess for years - and it still is. And I’m not even talking about the hot mess that Smart Cards have been recently.
Apple’s Keychain Access fails at the most basic things:
For instance, I So I’m browsing the web and I’m saving a web password in Safari. It gets saved in the “Local Items” keychain (I don’t have a choice to save it elsewhere).
It can not be exported from that keychain again - or be backed up either.
Unless… unless I manually look it up by opening the entry in keychain, typing my Mac user password and copying the saved password or noting it down. And yes, I’d have to repeat that for Every. Single. Password.
A password manager that’s unable to bulk export passwords and doesn’t provide a simple, user-friendly way of backing up the password database? That is missing basic functionality.
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You had a subscription to Overcast? I thought the “premium” tier was just a one-time purchase.
Anyways, I’ve been using the free version of Overcast and it’s way better IMO than Apple podcasts. Love me the smart speed feature!
It’s an annual subscription for Overcast Premium (which basically removes in-app ads and allows you to upload files).