The latest iteration of 1Password triggered a project for me to find a viable alternative for this App which I have used for many years. Unlike some, I didn’t have a visceral dislike of subscriptions, or a particularly great desire for a local database store, but I had a sense that 1Password had become a bit bloated and I worried the new business model was about being all things to all people. After 4 to 5 months on this, my thoughts, …
I discovered a heck of a lot of password makers to choose from and a dearth of really insightful independent reviews. I had a random walk through many of the better known names and unreasonable as it is I was repulsed by some of the interfaces and more than few apps were tossed aside on this fickle assesement.
I also ran into the problem that having worked with 1Passwords for many years I had a built in expectation of how things work. Consequently, no matter how superficially easy the transition to another password manager was there are subtle adjustments to workflows and time need to discover the quirks of a new app and workarounds if required.
I am trying to be objective here, but it is just my opinion, … I really doubt the overhead of transition away from 1Password merits whatever the countervailing benefits are perceived to be. In retrospect this is not surprising,. 1Password has had a long runway of development and probably greater resources applied to the challenges of App development compared to many of its competitors. For a user in the Apple orbit most password managers do not match the integration across browsers that 1Password has been able to achieve.
Notwithstanding the above, I am still dabbling with Strongbox. I think the iOS Strongbox App is terrific, on any basis, but particularly so coming from a small development team. The Mac OS App is serviceable but it needs more work. Strongbox is not in the same league as 1Password but it does offer local database storage, the open source Kee Pass format, and a once off lifetime payment if you want to avoid a subscription (also a free version). Incidentally the Kee Pass format theoretically offers great flexibility, but in practice it does not exist because there is only a couple of viable clients available on the Mac.
I would think if you are a 1Password user auto fill is an essential requirement. At this stage Strongbox on the Mac only has autofill on Safari because it uses the built in Safari extension. The workaround if you want to use other browsers and have autofill is to use KeePassXC.