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Password Management

1Password

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Panel rating · 6 judges · How to read the stars

Category median

Sovereignty: not determined

0–5 in half steps. 5 means the rubric's top anchor is met on the evidence.

by AgileBits Inc. · 1password.com

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1Password: AI-assisted analysis on whats-best.ai 1Password: AI-assisted analysis on whats-best.ai (dark)

Add ?theme=dark to the image address for dark backgrounds. The badge shows the category and the month of the latest evaluation, and EU-Made where that is the product’s provenance. It never shows a score.

1Password at a glance

Vendor
AgileBits Inc.
Headquarters
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026
Data hosting
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026
Free plan
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026
Panel verdict
The AI panel rates 1Password 3/5, the mean of 6 judges. 1Password, a password manager from AgileBits Inc., scored highest on sharing and access control and on audit and policy, both at a uniform 7, with identity integration close behind at 7 to 8. how scores are made
As of
Vendor pages captured 13 Oct 2026; evaluated by the panel 15 Oct 2026. all sources

1Password alternatives, European ones first →

Read this page as one judge. Each weighs the same scores by what they care about.

The SME Owner

Weighted verdict

Runs a forty-person company where the shared passwords currently live in an Excel file. Wants shared vaults the team actually uses, a way back in when someone forgets the master password, credentials handed over when someone leaves, and a per-user price with SSO not hidden two tiers up.

Same scores as the panel view — this lens weights them the way this judge cares.

Scored by The SME Owner

Panel median The SME Owner This judge’s scores over the panel median. Each label opens its reasoning below.
Scores per criterion, in stars out of 5
Criterion Panel median The SME Owner
Encryption model & independent audits 3 of 5 3 of 5
Sharing, roles & recovery 3.5 of 5 3.5 of 5
SSO, directory sync & provisioning 3.5 of 5 3.5 of 5
Audit logs, policies & reporting 3.5 of 5 3.5 of 5
Hosting choice, offline access & export 2.5 of 5 3 of 5
European sovereignty 1.5 of 5 1.5 of 5

Encryption model & independent audits

How this is scored

What the vendor can prove about its security design: end-to-end encryption with named algorithms and key derivation, which fields are encrypted on the device and which are not, independent audits and penetration tests with published results, a bug bounty, and incident history disclosed.

0 — Security described in adjectives ("bank-grade", "military encryption") with no architecture, no audit and no statement of what the vendor can read.

3 — Encryption algorithms named and "zero knowledge" claimed, but no whitepaper, no statement of which fields stay unencrypted, and audits mentioned without dates, auditors or results.

5 — A published security whitepaper naming algorithms, key derivation and the client-side encryption model, a stated list of what is and is not encrypted (including URLs and metadata), and a named independent audit or certification (ISO 27001, SOC 2) with its date.

8 — Recurring independent penetration tests or code audits with reports or summaries published, a public bug bounty or vulnerability disclosure policy, past security incidents documented with their impact, and open-source clients or cryptography that can be reviewed.

10 — The design is verifiable end to end: full source or cryptographic design public, every field encrypted client-side including metadata, audits by named firms repeated yearly with full reports, a threat model that states what a compromise of the vendor's servers would expose, and incident post-mortems published.

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The SME Owner

The security page names AES-GCM-256, PBKDF2-HMAC-SHA256 key derivation, a 128-bit Secret Key combined with the account password, and the SRP protocol, and the company publishes unaltered reports from a 2020 Independent Security Evaluators penetration test and code review plus an Onica architecture audit, with a public HackerOne bug bounty running since December 2024. We found no public information on which fields stay unencrypted, any disclosed incident history, or reviewable client source code. That sits above a bare algorithm claim but short of the recurring yearly audits a higher mark would need. 5 6

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Sharing, roles & recovery

How this is scored

How credentials are shared and governed across a company: shared vaults or collections, role-based permissions, view-only and time-limited access, admin account recovery, emergency access, and what happens to shared items when an employee leaves.

0 — Personal vaults only, or sharing by sending a password to another user with no permissions and no record.

3 — Shared folders with all-or-nothing access, no roles, and no stated process for recovering an account or reclaiming credentials from a departing employee.

5 — Shared vaults or collections with read, edit and manage permissions, groups and admin roles, an admin recovery mechanism documented with its key model, and offboarding that transfers a leaver's shared items.

8 — Granular permissions down to hiding the password while allowing autofill, time-limited and one-time sharing with external parties, emergency access with a waiting period, delegated administration per team or location, and approval workflows for sensitive items.

10 — Access is governed and provable: least-privilege defaults, recovery and emergency access designed so the vendor never holds a key and stated so, periodic access reviews supported in the product, and every grant, change and revocation attributable to a person.

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The SME Owner

This is what I need day to day: shared vaults with five granular Business permissions, a Manage Vault capability deliberately split from viewing and editing, groups, and a recovery process documented down to the keys — new Secret Key and account password, two-factor reset, recovery restricted to admins, owners, or a custom group, bulk recovery via the CLI, and a recommendation to keep at least two people able to recover. Suspension happens when the identity provider deprovisions someone, and Business client settings can block export, printing, and copy/share outside the app. We found no public information on emergency access with a waiting period or time-limited one-time sharing with outside parties, which keeps this from going higher. 7 8 10

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SSO, directory sync & provisioning

How this is scored

How the vault fits into the company's identity stack: SSO with Entra ID, Okta or Google, and the key model behind an SSO unlock; SCIM or directory sync for joiners and leavers; MFA options including hardware keys; and passkey support for users and the vault itself.

0 — Each user creates an account by email; no SSO, no directory sync and no MFA beyond an app code.

3 — SSO available only to sign in to the admin console or on the top tier with no description of how the vault is then decrypted, and users provisioned by CSV invite.

5 — SSO with named identity providers (Entra ID, Okta, Google) documented with how the vault key is derived or released, SCIM or directory sync for provisioning and deprovisioning, and MFA including FIDO2 or hardware keys.

8 — SSO unlock designed so the vendor cannot derive the vault key and stated so, group sync driving vault permissions, automated suspension on deprovisioning, conditional access or device policies, and passkeys stored and used across platforms.

10 — Identity is integrated without trust shortcuts: the SSO key model published and independently reviewed, deprovisioning that revokes vault access and shared items immediately with a log entry, passwordless vault unlock with passkeys, and support for the customer's own key-management or trusted-device approval.

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The SME Owner

Unlock with SSO runs on the Business plan over OpenID Connect with PKCE and lists Entra ID, Okta, Google and others, with the unlock described as using encrypted credentials and a device key so no account password is needed; provisioning covers named providers with automated confirmation, group access grant and revoke, and suspension on deprovisioning. We found no public information on hardware-key MFA options, and the pages do not state that the vendor cannot derive the vault key under SSO unlock. The plan gate matters for a company my size — SSO sits with Business rather than every paid seat. 1 2 9 10

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Audit logs, policies & reporting

How this is scored

What an administrator and an auditor can see and enforce: event logs of access and changes, password health and breach reports, enforceable policies (master password, MFA, sharing, export), SIEM integration, and reports an ISO 27001 or NIS2 audit can use.

0 — No audit log and no admin policies; the administrator sees a user list.

3 — A basic activity list and a password-strength score, but no exportable log, no enforceable policies, and no record of who viewed or copied a shared credential.

5 — Event logs covering logins, item access, sharing and admin changes, exportable or available through an API, enforceable policies for master password and MFA, and password health and breach-monitoring reports.

8 — Native SIEM integration with named targets (Splunk, Microsoft Sentinel, Elastic or syslog), policies for sharing, export and browser-extension behaviour, log retention stated, and compliance reports aligned to ISO 27001, NIS2 or BSI IT-Grundschutz.

10 — Auditability is complete: every view, copy, autofill and permission change logged with user and device, logs tamper-evident and retained for a configurable period, alerting on anomalous access, and an auditor role that can read logs without access to secrets.

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The SME Owner

Events Reporting feeds named SIEM targets — Splunk, Microsoft Sentinel, Elastic, Datadog and more — with sign-in attempts, item usage and audit events, configurable retention, custom alerts, and bearer tokens scoped by event type and revocable at any time; the report suite covers Watchtower health, domain breaches that notify affected users, device versions, and usage history going back twelve months. Business client settings enforce export, import, print and copy/share behaviour. We found no public information on enforceable master-password or MFA policies or reporting aligned to ISO 27001 or NIS2, and most reports are Business-only — Teams accounts get them through a trial. 7 11 12

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Hosting choice, offline access & export

How this is scored

Where and how the vault runs and how the data leaves it: cloud region choice, a self-hosted or on-premises option, offline access during a vendor outage, client coverage across operating systems and browsers, and a complete, documented export and import path.

0 — Cloud only in an unstated region, no offline access, and no export or an export that drops attachments and shared items.

3 — Cloud with a region named, apps for common platforms, and an export in CSV only that leaves out attachments, folders, TOTP seeds or custom fields.

5 — An EU region or self-hosted option, offline read access on desktop and mobile, clients for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android and the major browsers, and an export that covers all item types including attachments.

8 — Both EU cloud and self-hosted or on-premises deployment documented, a status page with incident history, encrypted full-fidelity export and import from named competitors, and vault access continuing during an outage of the vendor's service.

10 — The customer can run and leave the vault on their own terms: self-hosting with documented high availability and backup, an open or documented export format that preserves structure, permissions and history, and a stated procedure for continued access if the vendor ends the service.

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The SME Owner

Hosting is selectable between the EU, US and Canada, clients cover Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, the major browsers and a CLI, import paths are documented from a long list of named competitors, and the terms reference a status page. Export is documented as an unencrypted 1PUX or CSV — the CSV does include one-time passwords and notes — but we found no public information on offline access during a vendor outage. We found no public information on a self-hosted or on-premises option, and the export being explicitly unencrypted is what holds this at a six. 1 3 4 13 14

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European sovereignty

How this is scored

Who the contracting entity and the parent company are, where vault data and metadata are hosted, and who the subprocessors are. Independently sourced by the sovereignty pipeline; end-to-end encryption narrows what a foreign authority could compel, but metadata, logs and the update channel for the client software remain in the vendor's hands, so the chain still counts.

0 — Non-EU vendor and contracting entity, hosting unstated, and subprocessors unnamed.

3 — An EU data region offered while the contracting entity and parent are non-EU without a stated safeguard, or the subprocessor list is absent.

5 — EU hosting as standard or selectable and an EU contracting entity, but the parent company or parts of the chain (support, analytics, email, client distribution) are non-EU.

8 — EU hosting on named infrastructure, EU contracting entity, subprocessor list published with locations, a DPA covering vault metadata and logs, and a self-hosted option that removes the vendor from the data path.

10 — Sovereign end to end and evidenced: European ownership, entity, hosting and every subprocessor, certifications published (ISO 27001, BSI C5 or equivalent), and source code or builds verifiable so the client update channel is not a blind trust in the vendor.

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The SME Owner

The company is headquartered in Toronto with customer support and email services hosted in the United States and Canada, and while Secure Data can be hosted in a selectable EU region, we found no stated safeguard tied to the Canadian contracting entity. We found no public information on a subprocessor list with locations, so the chain behind the EU region is not visible in these pages. Item Sharing data being stored in the EU for as long as the item is shared is a narrow exception rather than a pattern. 2 3 4

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Pricing transparency not rated — the vendor publishes no price

How this is scored

Whether a buyer can compute the real annual cost from public pages alone: price per user and tier, which features (SSO, SCIM, SIEM, self-hosting) sit in which tier, minimum seats, add-ons, and the minimum term.

0 — No public prices at all; every tier is a sales conversation.

3 — A starting price exists, but which business features (SSO, SCIM, audit logs) sit in which tier is unclear — the invoice is unknowable.

5 — Per-user tier prices public with the main features per tier, but at least one commonly needed piece (SSO, SIEM integration, self-hosting, minimum seats) is unpriced or "on request".

8 — Every tier priced publicly with its feature set and seat minimum, add-on prices listed, self-hosted licensing stated, minimum term and VAT treatment given.

10 — Complete price computability: annual invoice derivable for a given number of users, with every add-on, self-hosting licence, support level and renewal condition published.

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The SME Owner

This is the page I care about most and it gave me nothing to compute with: we found no public price figures in any captured page — no per-user price, no seat minimum, no term or VAT treatment — even though a pricing page was captured and a free start is offered. Feature placement is only visible indirectly, from support pages: SSO unlock, provisioning, SIEM reporting, and the richer permission set all sit with Business, while Teams has three permissions and reports only through a trial. Without a single number I cannot even estimate my forty-person invoice. 2 7 9 11 12

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European sovereignty — proven facts

0 of 4 dimensions proven

Built only from facts shown on the vendor's own pages. A dimension we could not prove is left open, not scored as zero.

Ownership Not determined — uncited Report an error
Data residency Not determined ⚠ unverified — uncited Report an error
Subprocessors Not determined ⚠ unverified — uncited Report an error

Questions about 1Password

Is 1Password European?

No. whats-best.ai classifies 1Password as Rest of world.

Where does 1Password store data?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026.

Does 1Password have a free plan?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026.

What are the best alternatives to 1Password?

As of 21 Oct 2026, the panel rates Password Depot (3.5/5), Keeper (3/5) and Passbolt (3/5) highest among the other 18 Password Management products evaluated. Ratings that look equal are rounded to half stars; the order uses the unrounded rating, then the name. The highest-rated European alternative is Password Depot (EU-Made). Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: how scores are made. The full list, with European products first: 1Password alternatives.

Where this could be wrong

What we left out

A claim that does not survive our checks costs us the claim, not the page. This is what was taken off this one.

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Sources (14)

The pages every claim on this page was read from — each one checked, dated, and kept verifiable.

  1. 1 Vendor homepage 1password.com Checked 13 Oct 2026 Details →
  2. 2 Pricing page 1password.com Checked 13 Oct 2026 Details →
  3. 3 Privacy policy 1password.com Checked 13 Oct 2026 Details →
  4. 4 Terms of service 1password.com Checked 13 Oct 2026 Details →
  5. 5 Encryption model & independent audits — found from sitemap support.1password.com Checked 13 Oct 2026 Details →
  6. 6 Encryption model & independent audits — found from sitemap support.1password.com Checked 13 Oct 2026 Details →
  7. 7 Sharing, roles & recovery — found from sitemap support.1password.com Checked 13 Oct 2026 Details →
  8. 8 Sharing, roles & recovery — found from sitemap support.1password.com Checked 13 Oct 2026 Details →
  9. 9 SSO, directory sync & provisioning — found from sitemap support.1password.com Checked 13 Oct 2026 Details →
  10. 10 SSO, directory sync & provisioning — found from sitemap support.1password.com Checked 13 Oct 2026 Details →
  11. 11 Audit logs, policies & reporting — found from sitemap support.1password.com Checked 13 Oct 2026 Details →
  12. 12 Audit logs, policies & reporting — found from sitemap support.1password.com Checked 13 Oct 2026 Details →
  13. 13 Hosting choice, offline access & export — found from sitemap support.1password.com Checked 13 Oct 2026 Details →
  14. 14 Hosting choice, offline access & export — found from sitemap support.1password.com Checked 13 Oct 2026 Details →