1Password helps you with that. It stores passwords very safely, creates pretty much unbreakable passwords and helps you fill out online forms. And it does it all without too much fussing. It becomes practically invisible in your daily workflow. Oh, and it integrates with many of the major browsers out there — including Safari 3.0, Firefox 2.0-3.0, Flock 1.1, Camino 1.5, OmniWeb 5.7, DEVONagent 2.3, Fluid 0.9.1, and NetNewsWire 3.1. Unfortunately, Opera is not supported, but that seems to be more Operas fault in this case.

The Interface

The interface is very Mac like. Very simple. You have a sidebar that lets you access the different categories of secure information and you have the main window that shows you a list of entries in the selected category, as well as all the stored info of the selected entry.

At the top, you have the toolbar with access to the most used functions. It allows you to create entries in four of the five categories. The fifth category — logins — gets populated from your browser.

Wallet Items

A wallet item is an item that allows you to store a wide range of information. FTP accounts, Airport data, Credit Card of Bank Accounts, iTunes Store account, Driver’s License, the list goes on as you can see in the image on the right.

Secure Notes

This is pretty much what the name suggests. You can take simple text notes inside 1Password and these are saved as encrypted data into the Keychain. Personally I don’t have much use for them. But I heard a lot of people save stuff as Secure Notes.

Identities

This one is a very nice category. It allows you to save your identity — information about you, that is normally asked when filling out forms. You can save pretty much everything about you in here. Name, address, birthday, sex, your occupation, different phone numbers, and online chat info (Skype, MSN, etc.).

You create your identity once and then you can easily fill out online forms in the future with the click of a button. This does work reasonably well. Sometimes 1Password mixes up certain fields, but that is a minor nuisance and correcting one or two mistakes is definitely way faster then filling out a whole form.

Password History

1Password saves every password you create — via the Password Generator — in this category. That means, that even if you close the generator by accident, you will not loose that password. This comes in handy, when manually filling out online forms (for example when you encounter a registration form 1Password does not work with). I have made use of the Password History a few times and I was always very thankful that Agile Web Solutions has included this feature in the application.

Password Generator

Speaking of generating passwords, the Generator is really nice. It allows you to create passwords in all kinds of ways. From pronounceable word combinations to really complex letter/number/symbol combinations. You get the whole range. Check below for a few screenshots showing the different algorithms in action.

Browser Workflow

Actually, you might not see the main window all that often. It is mostly used for data entry once and the rest of the workflow happens directly in your browser. As mentioned above, 1Password supports a whole range of browsers.

When you sign up somewhere you can have 1Password generate a secure password for you. 1Password will automatically save it and the other registration data as well. From then on, 1Password fades into the background. You navigate to a site where you have an account. You click on the 1Password icon and select the account you want to sign in with (in case you have several different ones for a site). Boom. You are signed in. No remembering. No complicated usage. That’s why I love this application so much.

In addition to this already very easy workflow, 1Password has one more to offer: 1Password Bookmarks.

Bookmarks

Every time a Login Item is created, the according URL gets saved as well. That means, that you have a way of doing 1-click logins. Either from 1Password or directly from within your browser. In the 1Password drop down there is a sub-menu called Bookmarks. In there you will find all Login Items that have a URL attached. Choose one and your browser will navigate to the page and directly log you in. Without any user intervention.

Security

This all sounds great, but doesn’t all this ease of use mean less security instead of more? Actually not. When creating your password safe, you have to create a so called Master Password. This is what will unlock the safe. Without it, no one, not even you, has access to the data. So pick one that you will not forget!

When correctly set up, 1Password will additionally lock the Keychain after a certain amount of time. For example, I have mine set to lock after I didn’t use it for 60 minutes. If I am away form the computer, the Keychain locks itself up and no one has access to it, except they know the Master Password.

There are different ways you can adjust this locking mechanism. From having it always unlocked (not recommended) to having it always locked (you get asked for your Master Password every time — also not recommended). Depending on your location (work or home) or the possibility of access from other persons, you should set this locking mechanism accordingly.

The Keychain

1Password stores its data very safely. Either in the OS X Keychain or it its new format the Agile Keychain. I would recommend every new user to use the Agile Keychain from now on. It was introduced to 1Password recently and it is on the one hand much more flexible (and will be enhanced in the future, which is not possible with the OS X Keychain) and on the other hand it is equipped with a more modern and secure encryption.

You can read more in-depth information about the two formats on the 1Password Wiki.

One very cool thing about the Agile Keychain is, that you can take it with you and use it without 1Password. A while ago 1Password had this very nice online syncing service called my.1password.com, which unfortunately got canned. It seems it didn't really go completely away. Instead you can now just upload your Keychain to any online location you have access to and then navigate inside it with your web browser. It contains an HTML file that pretty much is the my.1password service all wrapped up into a single file. Very cool.

Update: Agile Web Solutions wanted me to let you know that this HTML feature is not yet official. Use at your own risk for now.

Summary

Overall, I think I can safely say, that 1Password is the best password manager for Mac OS X I know of. The support is excellent. The program is very smooth and the price is right. I have saved at least double the amount it costs due to workflow performance improvements.
Also the license is licensed to you, not your machine. That means one license to take with you wherever you work. Very reasonable.

If I had to point out one downside, it would be that you cannot add or delete fields in the Login Items. Sure you can edit what is already there, but most of the time I don’t want to save the additional information that gets sometimes saved. I want to delete it. But I know that Agile Web Solutions is working on steadily improving 1Password and it is only a matter of time until that feature will also be possible.

1Password is available for $39,95 from Agile Web Solutions. A free trial is available and they offer a 30 day money back guarantee.

And once again, the great developers behind today's software have agreed to let me give away one license of their software. So, like the other two times, please leave a worthwhile comment below and on 24th December I will pick one of you to receive this Christmas gift.

Update: Merry Christmas Dennis K I hope you enjoy your new 1Password license.

Disclaimer

I own 1Password, but did not receive any sponsoring from Agile Web Solutions for this review, except the giveaway license.

Author: Alexander Kucera