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Comment by AGKyle | Hacker News Reader

Disclosure: I work for AgileBits, makers of 1Password

How are we neglecting our standalone users? I'm really curious here because we are still introducing features in our existing applications that work for our standalone users.

Certain new applications like 1Password X and our CLI are only really easily possible because of 1Password.com, but just because these are being offered doesn't mean we're neglecting our standalone users.

Just recently in 1Password 7 for iOS, we added Face ID support, a new favorites screen, and Quick Copy, among others. In 1Password 6.9 we added Drag and Drop support. None of these features are unique to 1Password.com, they work for everyone and they were free for existing users as well.

Really curious how we're neglecting you though. I'd love to understand this so I can make sure we address it better.

Kyle

AgileBits

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You don't discard them completely, but new things that can be made by reading local files vs using a cloud API are just made using a cloud API. Updates to current apps I'm guessing will still support local file users if it's easy.

Your website has no obvious way on how to buy the standalone version now. It's pretty obvious through behavior that it's a deprecated mode without stating it outright.

Most people can deduce it's an official PR position to deny the behavior that is being shown, like your doing right now.

But please, just be honest and say it's deprecated. Or start supporting the on-prem users again & ask for a software maintenance fee. None of this on the fence stuff. One guy that I have seen that has done it out right is this one: http://www.keyboard-and-mouse-sharing.com/maintenance.htm

Once deprecation enforcement starts becoming too much, those users are going to go away. A chunk of these customers don't want to do that although, because just paying the $24/year is cheaper than the time and hassle it would take to switch to something else. You could even combine it with the cloud version and just let people choose. But they are not going to chose that if they know on-prem is still deprecated.

You guys used to make features that would explicitly avoid server side decryption, like watchtower. We want that back.

> Your website has no obvious way on how to buy the standalone version now.

It is not easy. In the beginning we had a website that offered both standalone version and a subscription on the same page. It is easy for HN people to make this decision but we had hundreds of customers purchasing both, most of them having no idea what is the different between license and subscription.

Since the purchase-separate-license-for-each-platform-and-host-data-yourself requires more expertise, it made sense to make it less visible and make the subscription option to be default.

> You guys used to make features that would explicitly avoid server side decryption.

All encryption is still performed on the client side. In fact, with 1Password service we went overboard and now encrypting much more data on the client side than we used to.

We also added a separate Secret Key that makes sure the encryption strength does not depend on the master password alone (many people still use pretty weak master passwords).

Just charge an upgrade fee for the next stand-alone version and then you can get your revenue back.

But not charging for stand-alone upgrades you make it seem like the only choice for a revenue stream is cloud-hosting.

Will you charge an upgrade fee or not? (for stand-alone)

We've already announced that 1Password 7 will be a paid upgrade for both Mac and Windows.

As I stated in other threads here, those options aren't going away. However, we will be very unlikely to make standalone licenses a front and center option. If you expect them to be right there next to the 1Password.com solutions, then I'm sorry but I don't anticipate seeing that happen.

This does not mean we don't offer the standalone licenses, it just means we aren't going to make them a focal point. Those who want them can get them and we haven't stopped anyone who has wanted them from obtaining them.

Kyle

AgileBits

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