When was the last time you had to go through the laborious process of resetting a password? Yesterday? Last week? It’s not fun, is it?
Now, I appreciate I’m in a tech-related job, but it seems like a day doesn’t go by without me having to click that dreaded ‘Forgot password’ button. I hate to think where all my forgotten passwords have gone. Maybe there’s a place they all get dumped just in case they’re needed again.
Thankfully, there’s a better way, and it’s called 1Password. In the past, I’ve used Google Password Manager, Apple Password Manager, and even LastPass, but every so often, I like to check out the competition and see if there’s anything I’m missing out on. The grass is greener on the other side, right?
Homescreen heroes
This is part of a regular series of articles exploring the apps that we couldn’t live without. Read them all here.
It was with that question before me that I downloaded 1Password to my phone, signed up for the free 14-day trial, and proceeded to put it through its paces.
A one stop shop for secure data
At its core, 1Password is perfectly suited to storing passwords, and they’re as easy to create as they are to retrieve. There are two ways to store data. The first is to let 1Password store a username and password the moment that you sign up for a website. This is unbelievably easy, and 1Password will even spot if an existing password needs updating because you’ve changed it.
The second way is to add a new ‘login’ item within the app itself. This is a manual process, but still easy. All you have to do is enter a username, password, and the website that it belongs to. That’s it. You can even ask 1Password to generate a secure password that includes a range of characters, numbers, and symbols. You won’t be able to remember what is generated, but that’s the whole point of the app, right?
Retrieving login data is equally as simple. 1Password will not only automatically recognize when you’re trying to enter login details, but it’ll also autofill the fields for you. You don’t even have to look at the password if you don’t want to. And if you’ve got multiple accounts for the same website, no problem; just pick the one you want from the list that 1Password provides.
So much more than just passwords
1Password also lets you save a range of data types, including credit cards, identity info, secure notes, and sensitive documents. This is far from a complete list, though. I was amazed to see that you can also add passport data, medical record information, and even software licenses. Pretty much anything that you could think you’d like to keep securely stored, 1Password has you covered. Think of it more like a vault for your digital data.
In terms of usefulness, storing credit card data saves me a lot of time. I’m not a huge fan of handing my payment information over to an app like this, but it certainly makes any checkout process unbelievably quick and straightforward. 1Password will do all the heavy lifting by autofilling any form with your chosen card information.
I also love the ability to securely save documents. I know that it’s possible to store these securely in Google Drive or similar, but what about those extra-special documents that you don’t want stored with everything else? 1Password keeps them all together, stored safely behind your Face ID.
While we’re on the subject of security, 1Password provides a feature called Watchtower, which gives you a security score based on the data you have stored in the database. It also flags up items that are not as secure as they could be. This makes it easy to address less secure data without manually going through all your passwords.
Secure data at an affordable price
1Password offers two subscriptions. The first is a package designed for individuals, which costs $3.99/£3 per month. It offers all the features I’ve mentioned above and can be trialled for 14 days. If you’d like your whole family to be covered, then the ‘Families’ package, for $6.95/£5.20 per month, is what you need. This includes everything you get as an individual, but for five family members.
You can download 1Password on iOS or Android and try it for 14 days.
