Disclaimer: I work for AgileBits, makers of 1Password.
I'm sorry, we can't really provide evidence because it's sales statistics. But our sales are overwhelmingly in favor of the subscription service now. It provides a great deal of benefits and clearly users are seeing these benefits and purchasing as a result.
I will happily admit that these benefits may not be as big for some users as it is for others, but for a vast majority of our users this simplifies things dramatically.
I realize this is a "well, you'll just have to believe me" response, but I'm afraid that's the best I can do since AgileBits is a private company and doesn't publish sales numbers, and even then I am not privy to the details myself. I've seen the graphs from our sales channels though and subscriptions are way up and licenses are way down.
We do continue to offer licenses for users, though we have de-emphasized them quite a bit as subscription's have taken over as a leading choice with our customers. The Mac App Store version, while free, and offers subscriptions in app, will continue to let users purchase a standalone license. It may be slightly more difficult to find but it is there.
If you are leaving, I am sad to see you go. You're one of the few users around here that I recall interacting with from time to time and it's never fun seeing users go but we realize that users have to make the best choice for them and we aren't crazy enough to think we're the best choice for everyone.
That said, realize that with the release of 1Password 6.6 for Mac on the Mac App Store doesn't necessarily change anything, it just offers subscriptions and is now free instead of paid. We were running into users who were subscribing to the service, and then bought the app from the Mac App Store and were confused why their subscription went frozen after they paid. By making the app free on the Mac App Store we hope to reduce this issue.
For licenses, see above, it's still possible to get a standalone license for the Mac App Store version (and our AgileBits Store version, which has a built in store to purchase). The Mac App Store version may be slightly harder to locate but it is there and depends on how you set the application up from the beginning for how you see that option.
I see this expensive word a lot but I look at it differently I guess. I use 1Password all day long for work, but after work is done I still use it numerous times a day for my own personal use. Signing into my bank, my social media accounts, paying bills, media sites like Netflix, shopping sites like Amazon. All of these uses, if you add them up, probably equate stop pennies per use over the course of a year. If you take the lowest priced subscription option ($35.88) and divide by 365, it comes out to about 10 cents a day. For family accounts, it might cost a little more, but then if you divide that by each person it comes out to be even cheaper per person.
That's how I look at it anyway, and I pay full price for the application, just like our users do. I could give the application to myself for free as I work here, but I prefer to experience things the same way our users do. If I find myself thinking "this isn't worth the money" then clearly we're doing something wrong but I wouldn't potentially see that if I weren't paying for it myself. My first year of renewal is up soon and I will continue to pay for my family subscription, it has just proven to be too useful for me and will only get better this year.
We do have to keep the lights on and the race to the bottom pricing hurts everyone. 1Password is fully self funded. We have never taken any VC money or outside investment. Other companies have and that's how they can drop their prices to near nothing. Of course, at that point you also become the product being sold, for instance another popular password manager monitors what type of sites you're accessing and a year or so ago published a report of how many of their users had purchased on black Friday.
We never receive that type of information from our users. We are selling 1Password, a product that helps you stay secure. You aren't the product, you're the customer and we designed 1Password so that we can never know what you're using it for or that you're shopping more on black Friday.
Just a couple ways I like to believe we separate ourselves from the others out there.
Sorry to hear that. There has certainly been a lot of pushback over the last year or so towards subscription pricing but we certainly do have a lot of users who are preferring the subscription option. We sell more subscriptions now than we do licenses. As I said above, I realize this is a "well, you'll just have to believe me" type of response and I know that may not help everyone here but it is the truth.
That said, also as I said above, individual licenses are still available in the Mac App Store, it just depends on how you set the application up during the first run setup. If you sync to a Dropbox vault or create a new standalone vault, you'll gain the ability to purchase a standalone license.
This update makes the application free and presents the appropriate payment option based on how the user sets the application up.
Thank you for being a long time customer. You're right, we haven't charged users who bought version 4 for iOS or Mac. That would be 2012 and 2013 respectively. I think we're pretty darn generous in how we charge for our updates. That said, there are a ton of reasons why this also hurts you as users.
Keep in mind the above comments I've made, we aren't removing license options at this time. They are still available in the Mac App Store.
We have some incredibly fun features planned and have had them planned for awhile but we always have to hold features back so that when upgrade time comes we can entice users to pay for the upgrade. The subscription option means we no longer have to do that and can simply provide features as we can since we don't have to convince you to upgrade. We just have to convince you to stay.
As for the look of the app, I'm sorry you feel that way. We're really trying to keep with the macOS look and feel. The last couple macOS updates have changed the design paradigm quite a bit and it's taking developers awhile to find a good mix of design. I've seen some designs we have coming down the pipeline and I suspect you'll like seeing those when it becomes available
Can I ask why a web based solution is out of the question for you? I suspect if you understood how our service works you might actually find it goes well above and beyond what any of the others out there do. I'm happy to discuss if you'd like.
Your standalone license will continue to work. This release does not change that at all. It simply helps bring more options to the table for our users.
[doublepost=1488207023][/doublepost]Trying to answer this but the quote system here is making it complicated... hopefully I don't miss something, but if I do please let me know and I'll get you the answer.
Offline/folder based syncing solutions, say iCloud or Dropbox or Folder sync. These do not get backed up online. You are solely responsible for backing them up yourself. We do create local backups (see File > Backup) but it's not quite as flexible as our online backup solution.
For instance, our backups as part of a 1Password.com membership allow you to restore individual items to any previous version. The backups of standalone vaults only allow restoring to snapshots in time, when the backups were made, and requires restoring the entire backup, not just an individual item. You can of course restore, get the data you need, then restore back to the newest backup. It's just more work.
Thanks for the kind comments. We realize that 1Password's pricing may not meet the needs for everyone but we also have to keep the health of the company in mind and that means charing a fair price. We're not a VC backed company and depend on our users paying to keep the company alive and well.
We have no intention to sell out to another company and we are only beholden to our users, not investment bankers or shareholders.
I sometimes get the feeling that users think we're just trying to sell the company for a big sum in a few years like some of the others have done. But for the last 10 years AgileBits has been entirely funded by the users and we intend to keep it that way. To do that, we do have to charge enough to pay all the bills and I hope we've hit a spot where it's both good for us and good for our users.