Don't Cancel 1Password After the Price Hike — This Trick Saved Me 25%

I’ve been subscribed to 1Password since 2019, and I’ve used it ever since. On February 25, 2026, I received the official price increase notice:

• Personal plan: $35.88/year → $47.88/year (up about 33%)
• Family plan: $59.88/year → $71.88/year (up about 20%)

My honest experience as a long-term user

As a long-time user, I’m happy with 1Password overall — that’s why I’ve kept paying. It’s deeply woven into my daily routine:

• Autofilling credentials
• Passkey passwordless sign-in
• TOTP two-factor codes
• SSH Agent (incredibly practical for developers)

To me it stopped being just a “password manager” long ago — it’s infrastructure.

Shopping for a replacement: I tried Bitwarden

While deciding whether to renew, I also looked at the alternatives: Bitwarden, KeePass, and so on. I actually tried Bitwarden, and its strengths are obvious:

• Open source (auditable by the whole world)
• Zero-knowledge architecture
• End-to-end encryption
• There’s even a free tier

On security model alone, it loses nothing to 1Password.

Why I still lean toward 1Password

What really kept me on 1Password is its “two-key design”: the Master Password plus the Secret Key (generated on your device).

Both are required to decrypt your data. The benefits:

• Even if your master password is stolen by a keylogger, it can’t decrypt anything alone
• Even if the server data leaks, the attacker still needs your local Secret Key

Compared to the alternatives, that’s a very practical, very real security upgrade.

The critical problem: Passkeys can’t be exported

When I tried exporting my data from 1Password and importing it into Bitwarden, I hit a critical wall: Passkeys cannot be exported!

That means once you rely heavily on 1Password’s Passkeys, you’re effectively locked into its ecosystem.

That got me rethinking my strategy.

Hardware keys: YubiKey (Yubico)

To reduce my dependence on any software ecosystem, I decided to move my Passkeys onto hardware devices.

I bought Yubico’s — Yubico makes YubiKey. For ordinary users, the Security Key NFC by Yubico is enough. Professional developers who want to tinker with more advanced cryptographic authentication can get the YubiKey 5C NFC, which supports many extra features — check their site for details, I won’t repeat them here, but it’s also pricier.

I’ve used YubiKeys for a long time, so I currently hold three: a YubiKey 4, a YubiKey 5C NFC, and a Security Key NFC by Yubico.

If you plan to use hardware keys like I do, I strongly recommend buying at least two: one to carry, one kept at home as backup. Then disable all other authentication methods — email, SMS, TOTP — and keep only the hardware key. That’s top-tier security. But you MUST have a backup, or the moment the key is damaged or lost, you’re locked out of your own accounts!

The 1Password 25% discount

I emailed 1Password support, said I love the product, mentioned I’ve been a customer since 2019, said I was considering moving to Bitwarden, and asked whether a loyal customer could get a discount for one more year — and that I’d happily stay if so. A week later, I got a 25% discount from customer support.

My email was titled “Subscription renewal question”:

Hi 1Password Support,

I've been using 1Password since 2019 and it has been an essential part of my daily workflow. I really appreciate the reliability and overall experience your product provides.

I recently noticed the upcoming price increase, and to be honest, it feels a bit steep for me at the moment. I completely understand that pricing changes happen, but this has made me reconsider my options, and I've been looking into alternatives like Bitwarden.

Before making a final decision, I wanted to check if there's any possibility to renew my subscription at the previous price for another year, or if there are any loyalty discounts available for long-time users like myself.

I'd genuinely prefer to stay with 1Password if possible.

Thanks for your time and support.

Best regards,
RenFei

Then I waited about a week. I suspect the price hike sent a flood of users begging for discounts and blew up their support queue — you may need to wait a few days for a reply — but they’ll hand you a 25% discount, which basically means renewing a year at the pre-hike price. On my bill, US$47.88 with 25% off came to US$35.91:

In the end I’m staying with 1Password — and if you want to keep using it too, go ask their support for a one-year discount.