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1password - A Mac OS X Password Manager

Written by Marco Conti Wednesday, 19 August 2009 13:51

1Password is a very well designed password manager for Mac OS X and if you have a Mac you owe it to yourself to run and get a copy. Why?

I have been using Roboform on my PC side for many years now. I cannot even remember what I used to do before I started using Roboform to manage my passwords, identities and secure notes.

When I made the leap and added a Mac Mini to my computer set up, one of the first concerns I had was how to manage my passwords on the Mac side. I have come to rely on Roboform so completely that not having a password manger of some sort was not even a consideration.

After a bit of research 1Password was clearly the program with the most positive reviews. What's more, most of the reviews were from former or current Roboform users moving or adding a Mac to their stable, just like I did.

If you are not familiar with Password Managers like Roboform, they are similar to the browser's built in password manager as you can find in Firefox or Internet Explorer. When you visit a site with a username and password requirement, the manager will prompt you to save the login information so that from that point on you'll be able to login without re-entering the information.

Beside the obvious advantage of not having to search for the login information all over your computer, or worse on post-it notes around your desk, a password manager will also increase your information's security considerably, since one of the ways hackers have to steal passwords is by logging keystrokes. If you don't type your password in, that peril is greatly reduced.

Why not use the built in manager?

While some browsers have quite advanced password/data managers, they don't even compare with a stand alone program like 1Password. Browsers usually have pretty clunky interfaces for editing your data. While many have a "Master Password" just like 1Password does, when it comes to editing a mistyped password or changing a username, browsers give you limited options.

Programs like Roboform and 1Password on the other hand, while working in a similar way add several benefits to the management of sensitive information.

For one thing, each discreet chunk of data is an actual encrypted file on your computer. That allows you to backup your entire set, send a login or a "Secure Note" (what Roboform calls a "safenote") as an attachment to an associate. A much more secure way to exchange data via email. 1Password support for advanced user profiles is much more complete, so that very rarely a user will need to ever fill out a form by hand again.

1Password provides a very different interface from Roboform, but in essence it offers many of the same features:

Password Manager
Identities (with form filler)
Secure Notes (encrypted text files)
Password Generator

In addition, 1Password seamlessly interfaces with the mac OS "Wallet" and it offers a feature called "Password History", an area where 1password saves passwords the user might have forgotten to save in the past few sessions. A nice feature, for those sessions where time is at a premium, that allows the user to go back and properly save and organize the passwords at a later time.

Using 1Password is similar to using any password manager, meaning that by their very nature Password Managers tend to be a bit intrusive at first. 1Password, if anything, is the most "transparent" PM I have ever used (I pretty much tried them all at one time or another) especially when compared to Roboform, which if not set properly can be downright annoying. For instance, 1Password never takes over the focus of your browser forcing you to either save or cancel, like Roboform does.

I have to say that after a slightly confusing adjustment period I have grown to like 1Password even more than Roboform for certain tasks. I am still missing a couple of features that RF has, such as the ability to navigate saved logins from the browser toolbar, but it could be I am simply not using it to its maximum power. I have to confess I have never really liked the Mac OS "Wallet" too much, so I am probably not using 1Password integration with it very effectively.

Roboform can be easily used as a bookmark manager as well as a Password manager. 1Password in that regard limits your choices based on the domain you are in.

On the other hand, 1Password integration with Mac OS based browser is much more complete than Roboform's on teh PC side. Roboform only works with IE, Firefox and Flock, while 1Password will work with Firefox, Safari, Camino and at least another 6 or 7 Mac browsers.

For web developers and web site owners, programs like 1Password come in very handy not only for keeping client information or web site logins, but they can greatly speed up the testing process by allowing one to enter multiple "test identities" to use when testing a web site or troubleshooting a form. We have all painstakingly entered fake ID info in a form to test its functionality. No more. With 1Password it's as simple as choosing an identity from a drop down menu. That alone is worth the $40 these programs cost.

Conclusion

1Password is a very powerful, easy to use and at $39.95 fairly inexpensive solution for password management on the Mac OS. In this era of social web sites and spam protections, not using a password manager means wasting a lot of time looking for passwords elsewhere or reducing your online security. If you are a web developer or a web site owner, a password manager can be as important as owning Photoshop or your favorite HTML editor.

If you are a Mac OS user you owe it to yourself to give 1Password a try.

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Mitto

I have just signed in with Mitto and so far it looks interesting. I am not sure it would be as useful as either 1password or Roboform for a web developer. It seems more geared toward regular web users (as it should be).

But it's too early to tell. Until I put it through its paces I'll reserve my final conclusions.

Good news about the Mac Safari version of Roboform. While I like 1Password a lot I am more familiar with Roboform and certainly I'd prefer to use one program across platforms than 2. Especially if they could sync.

If I can make a suggestion, a Mac/Firefox version would also be a very nice addition. Most web professionals use Firefox over Safari. Both should really be added to round up Roboform as a cross platform tool.

Until then, it would be nice to have some way to sync 1password with Roboform. That's the only annoying thing about using the two platforms.

Marco Conti , August 21, 2009 | url