1Password vs. LastPass (2023): Security, Features + Price

Eric Goldstein
Updated on: March 1, 2023

1Password and LastPass are both very easy to use, offer advanced security protections, and come with more extras than most other password managers. And both brands provide packages that are a really good value — 1Password’s family plan is one of the best on the market, and LastPass provides a decent free plan alongside very affordable premium plans.

Honestly, you can’t really go wrong with either 1Password or LastPass, especially if you’re looking for top password management features like:

• Password generation, auto-save, and auto-fill.
• Various 2FA options.
• Vault auditing tools.
• Password breach monitoring.
• Easy-to-use password sharing.

But 1Password and LastPass have some notable differences. 1Password has more extra features, its customer support is a bit more responsive, and it has never been publicly breached (while LastPass has had a few high-profile hacks and software vulnerabilities that made the news in recent years). However, LastPass has more account recovery options if you forget your master password. And even though LastPass’s free plan isn’t as good as it used to be, 1Password doesn’t offer a free plan at all (it’s one of the only LastPass alternatives to not offer a free version).

I compared the two in a head-to-head matchup in the following categories — security, basic features, extra features, plans and pricing, ease of use, and customer support. After weeks of testing and comparing both brands, I was able to select a clear winner.

1Password is my top choice for security, basic features, extra features, and customer support, while LastPass just barely wins in pricing and ease of use. LastPass is pretty good, but 1Password is the best password manager on the market in 2023 — it has a better security track record, a lot more extra features, and it’s awesome for families. You can try 1Password’s plans with a 2-week free trial.

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Comparison of 1Password & LastPass

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1Password vs. LastPass: Security

Password managers need to provide several layers of protection to ensure that your password vault is as secure as possible. That’s why both 1Password and LastPass (and all of the best password managers in 2023) provide security features like:

• End-to-end AES 256-bit encryption — Both use this unbreakable encryption algorithm to protect all of the data in your vault.
• Zero-knowledge architecture — Both are physically incapable of reading your stored data or accessing your password vault.
• Two-factor authentication — Both use temporary one-time passwords (TOTP), biometric scans, and USB tokens to enhance your master password’s security.  

1Password: Security

In addition to using a master password to encrypt and decrypt your data, 1Password also generates a unique 34-digit Secret Key which is only stored on your devices. 1Password encrypts your data using this Secret Key through a process called “hashing” — it basically means that the standard 256-bit AES encryption algorithm is multiplied by the Secret Key, so the only devices which could ever decrypt your information are the devices with your 1Password license installed on them.

All of this complex encryption is necessary because user data is stored on 1Password’s servers by default. However, 1Password also offers the option of local data storage — while most users will want to store their data on 1Password’s servers, security-oriented individuals will appreciate being able to maintain a local copy of their vault and sync it across devices over a local Wi-Fi network (instead of 1Password’s cloud). Other big-name password managers like Dashlane, LastPass, and RoboForm don’t provide this option at all.

1Password also offers 2FA compatibility with TOTP authenticator apps like Authy and Microsoft Authenticator, as well as USB tokens like YubiKey and Titan. Even if hackers steal your master password, they can’t access your vault without the TOTP authenticator app on your phone or the physical USB token plugged into your computer. 1Password also includes a built-in TOTP generator to improve login security for all of your 2FA-compatible online accounts.

In addition, 1Password offers biometric logins using face and fingerprint scanning for Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS — this is a lot simpler and easier than using a master password and 2FA to log in, and most experts agree that biometric scanners are only getting more and more secure.

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LastPass: Security

Like 1Password, LastPass encrypts user data at the device level, and it also uses a secure key — but while 1Password encrypts your information behind the 34-character Secret Key, LastPass “hashes” your information using your email and master password. The end result is fairly similar — an encrypted set of data which is only accessible to you. That said, 1Password’s Secret Key is slightly more secure.

LastPass provides a huge range of 2FA options — it works with 2FA apps like Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, and Duo, as well as USB tokens like YubiKey and RSA SecurID. LastPass is also compatible with card readers and biometric scanners. And like 1Password, LastPass has its own TOTP generator. Another cool tool is the LastPass Authenticator, which is an app for iOS and Android that supports a wide range of authentication methods. They include one-click push notifications via text message and TOTP codes.

Unfortunately, LastPass has made the news a couple of times in the last few years for bad security practices. In 2022, LastPass confirmed that hackers compromised parts of its source code and proprietary technical information was stolen in a cyberattack. It said that no vault or user data was accessed or exposed. In 2021, LastPass users were victims of a credential stuffing scheme, but LastPass blocked any suspicious login attempts. In 2019, a white-hat security researcher discovered a massive hole in LastPass’s auto-fill settings that could allow hackers to steal user data. The other (more serious) issue occurred in 2015, when a number of user logins were compromised in a hacking event.

Because of LastPass’s zero-knowledge architecture, no master passwords were breached, but these were still worrying events, especially for a password manager with no local data storage option. Although no customer data was compromised in any of these incidents, I’d still like to see LastPass take further steps to prevent them from happening again.

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1Password vs. LastPass: Basic Features

1Password and LastPass are both very good at basic password management functions. They provide apps and extensions for all of the most popular operating systems and browsers, and they include all of the essential features I expect from any premium password manager, such as:

• Secure password storage.
• Multi-device synchronization.
• One-click auto-saving and auto-filling.
• Password generator.
• Credit card storage.
• Personal information storage.
• Secure notes.

1Password: Basic Features

1Password’s desktop app is available for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Chrome OS, and it has mobile apps for Android and iOS. Its browser extensions can be added to Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Brave, and Safari, and it also has a web vault.

1Password provides unlimited password storage on multiple devices for a single user with its paid plan for individuals. But unlike LastPass, 1Password doesn’t offer a free plan.

1Password’s desktop app contains your password vault, credit cards, notes, and “Identity” (things like address, email, birthday, phone numbers, and more). However, once you set up your information in the desktop app, you’ll mostly be accessing 1Password’s browser extension for daily tasks (unless you make use of 1Password to help you auto-fill your desktop app logins).

During my tests, 1Password’s browser extension was able to easily identify my saved sites. 1Password accurately auto-filled logins, credit cards, address information, and even things like vehicle registration information and passport information (although RoboForm still provides the most detailed and accurate form-filling of any password manager on the market).

1Password’s desktop apps are really good, too. For Windows and Mac users, these apps can sync up with your device’s biometric scanners, auto-fill app passwords, and run smoothly in the background with no slowdown. 1Password 8 (the latest version of 1Password’s desktop app) also provides a sleek new interface that makes it really easy to access all of its features.

1Password’s password generator is pretty good — it automatically uses a “Smart Password” setting which detects a site’s password requirements and generates a random 20-digit password. You can also customize an 8-100 character long random password with toggles for numbers and symbols, or generate secure passphrases like “correct-horse-battery-staple”. 1Password also has a convenient “Generator History” feature which offers searchable password recall as far back as 6 months — really helpful if you accidentally forget to add a new login to your vault.

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LastPass: Basic Features

LastPass offers apps for Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS, as well as extensions for Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Opera, and Windows Explorer. It also provides a very convenient online dashboard.

LastPass Free provides unlimited password storage, but unfortunately you have to pick whether you want to sync your passwords across mobile devices or desktop devices — but not both. Upgrading to LastPass Premium unlocks data sync across all devices, as well as some other features I’ll discuss in the “Extra Features” section of this comparison.

Once your password vault is set up, LastPass provides convenient one-click auto-filling for saved logins, credit cards, and personal information. During my testing, LastPass detected every single new login that I created, saving and auto-filling information just as accurately as 1Password.

I also like LastPass’s desktop applications — they provide biometric 2FA compatibility, convenient password filling, and a pretty easy-to-use interface. However, I wish that LastPass would provide an update to its interface like 1Password — it can be a little bit clunky to look at and navigate.

LastPass’s password generator can generate random passwords up to 99 characters, with options to include numbers, letters, and symbols. LastPass can also generate passwords that are “Easy to Read” (excludes ambiguous characters like l, l, 0, and O)  or “Easy to Say” (excludes numbers and symbols). However, LastPass’s password generator doesn’t offer the option to generate passphrases like “food-paper-cable-house” — which honestly isn’t that bad, because those types of passphrases are very easy to generate with your own brain.

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1Password vs. LastPass: Extra Features

LastPass and 1Password both offer a ton of additional features to enhance user security and expand the functionality of each app. Both apps provide features like:

• Password sharing.
• Family vault management.
• Password vault auditing.
• Encrypted storage.

However, these password managers also have unique features that make them different from one another. 1Password provides a Travel Mode, local data storage, and virtual payment cards for US users, while LastPass offers tons of account recovery options.

1Password: Extra Features

1Password provides a number of extra features, including:

• Vault auditing (Watchtower).
• Virtual payment cards (US only).
• Travel Mode (hidden vaults).
• Basic account recovery.
• Password sharing & family dashboard.
• 1 GB encrypted storage.

Vault Auditing + Dark Web Monitoring

1Password provides a variety of security auditing features with its Watchtower feature. It flags reused or weak passwords in your vault, checks whether logins have been leaked in a data breach, and even notifies you if any of your logins are 2FA-compatible. Since 1Password also includes a TOTP generator, it’s very easy to set up 2FA for those sites.

Virtual Payment Cards

1Password allows US users to create virtual payment cards. A virtual payment card replaces your real credit card information with a virtual proxy card that is generated for a single use. For example, I assigned a virtual payment card to my Disney+ subscription — so Disney could no longer store my real credit card information on its servers. And you can put a spending limit on your virtual cards, so subscriptions will automatically expire after a specified amount of money has been charged. It may sound complicated, but I found it really easy to use.

Travel Mode

Travel Mode is a unique feature, which is especially useful if you travel in unsafe areas and need to protect your privacy. With Travel Mode on, specified logins are completely removed from your password vault. Because Travel Mode is triggered from 1Password’s online dashboard, there’s no way to turn it off from the 1Password mobile or desktop app. This can prevent border agents from accessing your social media or other sensitive accounts, or even prevent thieves or criminals from getting into your financial accounts.

Account Recovery

1Password’s account recovery feature isn’t very good. It’s just a printable PDF file with your Secret Key and a space to write down your master password. On the other hand, 1Password Families includes convenient account recovery options for family members under the same account.

Password Sharing

1Password makes it easy to share individual passwords with anyone. Just click the Share button on any login in your vault to send your login details in an encrypted message that expires after 7 days. I really like how these passwords can be shared with anybody (not just 1Password users). By comparison, LastPass makes it easy to send passwords to anybody, but the recipient needs a LastPass account to view them.

Family Sharing

For users that need to securely share their logins, 1Password Families provides a few different vault sharing options. For example, I made a shared vault with my Netflix, Disney+, and Steam logins so that my wife, our kids, and I could all access those passwords whenever we wanted — but my wife had edit access, while my kids were only allowed viewing access.

1Password Families also includes 5 guest invites, which allows you to share a single vault with another user — this vault could contain anywhere from 1 to 100 logins. With the 5 users on each Families plan, plus the guest vaults, it’s possible to share a large number of passwords with up to 10 users.

Encrypted Storage

1Password also offers 1 GB of encrypted storage. You can save and share images, PDFs, or any other important files through the cloud using 1Password’s secure servers.

You can read more about 1Password’s features in our full review >

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LastPass: Extra Features

LastPass provides some really useful extra features, including:

• Password and vault sharing.
• Dark web monitoring.
• Credit monitoring (US only).
• Vault auditing.
• Emergency access/account recovery.
• 1 GB encrypted storage.

Password Sharing

LastPass’s password and vault sharing tools are both really helpful and easy to use. All LastPass users can share passwords via email with just a click on the “Share Password” option in the password vault. However, as mentioned above, your shared passwords can only be viewed by somebody with a LastPass account. LastPass Families allows users to create shared folders that can sync passwords and allow for edit permission to be given or revoked depending on the user.

Credit + Dark Web Monitoring

LastPass’s dark web monitoring and credit monitoring features are also really good. You can get up-to-the-minute notifications if your email addresses pop up in dark web forums and breach databases, or, if you’re in the US, you can be alerted if there are any unusual changes to your credit score (however, I think Dashlane’s live dark web monitoring is the best data breach monitoring service on the market).

Like 1Password’s Watchtower, LastPass’s Security Dashboard flags weak or reused passwords, and notifies you if any of your saved passwords are 2FA-compatible. LastPass also includes a TOTP generator that can auto-fill one-time codes for your 2FA-compatible logins.

Emergency Access + Account Recovery

LastPass provides the best emergency access and account recovery tools on the market. For emergency access, you can designate a trusted contact who can gain access to your account after a pre-set waiting period (up to 30 days). It’s a pretty standard emergency access feature, but LastPass does it well. LastPass also has several options for account recovery, including SMS recovery and mobile account recovery with biometric logins.

Country Restrictions

LastPass’s country restriction feature lets you choose which countries you can access your LastPass vault from. By default, you can access it from anywhere in the world, but if you’d like to add another layer of security, and potentially stop hackers from other countries gaining access to your vault, you can restrict access to certain countries. You’ll need to remember to update this if you’re traveling overseas, though.

Passwordless Options

Rather than entering your master password, LastPass’s passwordless options allows you to use your LastPass Authenticator, a biometric option, or a USB security key to access your account on a specific device. I really like this customization because the other options let me access my account with just one click.

Encrypted Storage

And like 1Password, LastPass also provides 1 GB encrypted storage for its paid users.

You can read more about LastPass’s features in our full review >

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1Password vs. LastPass: Plans & Pricing

1Password and LastPass both offer paid plans for individuals and families — but unlike LastPass, 1Password doesn’t have a free plan. 1Password’s and LastPass’s paid plans have similar prices, but LastPass provides coverage for up to 6 users with its family plan, while 1Password only covers 5 users. However, with 1Password you can add additional users for a small extra fee, while LastPass limits its family plan to 6 users.

1Password: Plans & Pricing

1Password offers two pricing plans for non-business users:

1. 1Password Individual
2. 1Password Families

1Password’s plan for individuals offers all of 1Password’s key features, including:

• Unlimited password storage on unlimited devices.
• 2FA compatibility (including TOTP generator).
• Password vault auditing.
• Travel Mode.
• 1 GB secure storage.

At only $2.99 / month, 1Password is very affordable, especially for the number of features it offers, but 1Password Families is probably my favorite family plan on the market. It includes all of 1Password’s features for up to 5 users, and it adds family sharing vaults and account recovery tools between users, for just $4.99 / month.

With 1Password Families, you can add more users for a small additional fee each month, so if you have a big family you don’t need to purchase costly enterprise subscriptions. 1Password is the only password manager to offer this flexible pricing option for families, and it currently ranks at the top of the list for best family password managers in 2023.

There’s a 14-day free trial on both 1Password Individual and 1Password Families.

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LastPass: Plans & Pricing

LastPass offers three different pricing plans for non-business users:

• LastPass Free
• LastPass Premium
• LastPass Families

LastPass Free offers unlimited password storage across unlimited mobile or desktop. This makes LastPass Free a lot less useful than it used to be (but it still ranks high on our list of the best free password managers for 2023).

LastPass Free is still a great program, with features like:

• TOTP 2FA compatibility.
• Built-in TOTP generator.
• One-to-one password sharing.
• Passwordless options.

However, users that want to be able to access their passwords on both desktop and mobile devices will need to upgrade to LastPass Premium ($3.00 / month), which offers:

• Unlimited storage on unlimited devices.
• One-to-many password sharing.
• Password vault auditing tools.
• Dark web monitoring.
• Advanced 2FA options
• Emergency access.
• 1 GB cloud storage.

Users that upgrade to LastPass Families ($4.00 / month) get access to up to 6 separate LastPass accounts, plus LastPass’s convenient family dashboard. However, unlike with 1Password, there’s no option to add more accounts for a small additional fee.

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1Password vs. LastPass: Ease of Use

Password managers need to be able to import new logins, sync data across devices, and easily give access to all of their features. 1Password’s vault importing process is really good, and LastPass provides excellent auto-saving and auto-filling.

1Password: Ease of Use

1Password is very easy to use across all operating systems, devices, and browser extensions. After signing up for 1Password, I was sent to 1Password’s web vault, which provides links to download apps for Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS devices, as well as browser extensions for a variety of browsers. 1Password also provides a huge variety of detailed and clear tutorials (including video tutorials) for brand-new users.

After downloading the 1Password desktop app, you’re given the option to import passwords from your previous password manager — this process is super simple if you’re importing from another password manager like Dashlane or LastPass, or built-in password systems like Chrome, Firefox, or iCloud Keychain. For my testing, I imported a CSV file with my passwords from a less popular password manager, which is usually a major headache. However, 1Password offered me an intuitive menu with adjustable labels to ensure that I was importing my CSV file properly.

I really like 1Password’s desktop app — it’s super easy to use, it integrates well with macOS and Windows, and it provides all of 1Password’s features in a single interface. After using the desktop app for a few minutes, I found it simple to navigate and edit all of my vault entries. Once you have 1Password up and running, it’s extremely easy to use — 1Password’s logo pops up in any blank login field and offers a suggestion to auto-fill with one click. For new logins, 1Password also automatically suggests secure passwords.

When it comes to advanced features like setting up the Travel Mode, password vault sharing, or creating virtual payment cards, 1Password provides a ton of excellent tutorials on its website. Although I wish 1Password included more in-app instructions for its tools like LastPass does, I still think 1Password is intuitive and comprehensive, and it provides excellent tutorials for new users.

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LastPass: Ease of Use

LastPass offers a simple interface that’s super easy to use across all platforms. Simply log into the My LastPass dashboard, install the browser extension (LastPass is compatible with Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, and Opera), install the app to your mobile device, and LastPass will conveniently sync your data across all of your devices.

In my testing, LastPass was incredibly easy to use. I especially appreciated the in-app tutorials offered by LastPass — while 1Password offers a ton of online tutorials, LastPass offers clear, instructive drop-down menus that are embedded in its interface to ensure that new users can find their way around the app.

LastPass was able to quickly and easily identify new logins, offering to generate new passwords and save them to my vault every time I created a new account. LastPass offers a simple one-click auto-fill, as well — just click on the LastPass icon in any login field, and LastPass accurately enters the correct information. It was 100% accurate and super convenient in my testing.

Accessing and using LastPass’s advanced features is also really easy. During my tests, I found it very simple to use the Security Dashboard, dark web monitoring, credit monitoring, and 2FA. Plus, LastPass provides the same helpful drop-down tutorials for all of these features.

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1Password vs. LastPass: Customer Support

1Password and LastPass provide the same customer support options, but I found 1Password’s knowledge base and forum a bit better and easier to use.

1Password: Customer Support

1Password provides email support in English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, and Japanese, and it also has an extensive knowledge base. There’s also a pretty responsive Twitter support channel, but you can’t access it without your own Twitter login.

I contacted 1Password’s email support and I got a reply to my email inquiry in just 6 hours, which is pretty good. The 1Password agent that I corresponded with was friendly, helpful, and professional, which is better than I can say for most tech support staff.

1Password’s online knowledge base is excellent — there are dozens of useful articles on its website, and they’re actually informative and helpful (and 1Password has a ton of tutorial videos on its YouTube channel, as well). 1Password’s user forum was fairly active in my testing, with a searchable database of thousands of inquiries and helpful replies. I actually had a hard time finding answers to some of my questions because there were so many active forum threads on related subjects!

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LastPass: Customer Support

LastPass provides priority email support for Premium and Families users, with support offered in English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese.

I received an email reply to my support question from LastPass within 24 hours of sending it, but it wasn’t very helpful. I followed up with another email, and the second reply from LastPass was pretty helpful, but a lot of the text was simply copied from the LastPass website. Another complaint I have with the email support is there is no direct or immediate option to email LastPass. Instead, you have to first click on an article in the knowledge base, and then at the bottom of the article it will ask you if you want to email customer support — 1Password allows you to instantly send it an email.

LastPass also provides a pretty good online knowledge base — with dozens of informative articles about basic password manager setup, 2FA, LastPass Authenticator, vault auditing tools, and tons of information for enterprise users. However, LastPass doesn’t offer as wide a range of video tutorials as 1Password does.

LastPass has a fairly active support forum, but it’s not as easily searchable or well-organized as 1Password’s, so I had a hard time finding up-to-date information through the user forums.

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1Password vs. LastPass: Overall Winner

1Password is a pretty clear winner, but that doesn’t mean LastPass is a bad program! I would recommend both 1Password and LastPass to anybody — they’re both very secure, work really well, make it easy to share and audit passwords, and they’re also both pretty cheap.

1Password’s got excellent security protections, provides a lot of advanced features that LastPass doesn’t include, and it’s never been the subject of a security breach. 1Password lets you store your data locally and it also offers a secure Travel Mode if you want to keep specific logins hidden while you’re abroad.

Plus, for US users, 1Password’s built-in Privacy integration is a really cool feature — being able to hide your credit card information from online merchants, set spending limits for specific subscriptions and sites, and easily track your online purchases is especially useful if you do a lot of online shopping.

1Password Families also contains one of the best family sharing dashboards — with super easy password sharing between users, as well as the ability to quickly change permissions for each user.

However, LastPass provides most of the same features as 1Password in a user-friendly interface. And while LastPass recently made its free version a little less useful, it’s still convenient if you’re only looking for password management on either your desktop or your mobile devices. LastPass also has the most user-friendly in-app tutorials of any password manager — it displays big, clear explanations for every part of the app, from saving passwords, to auto-filling, to password vault management and advanced 2FA settings.

Overall Winner: 1Password

Rank

Provider

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1

9.3

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2

9.3

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